196 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Maz., 1900. 1 
easier to cultivate. On soils of medium fertility and with ordinary care a eld 
of from 50 to 75 bushels per acre may reasonably be expected, and as the hos | 
do the harvesting the expense of making the crop is much less than for secwtll3 | 
an equal amount of food from most other crops. Some recent work at 
Alabama Experiment Station shows the high feeding value of peanuts in 4 Vf 
striking manner. Six pigs, with a total weight of 184°3 1b., were used m 
test, which lasted six weeks. The peanuts were grown on about one-sixth of af 
acre, and during the test 378 Ib. or a little more than 63 bushels of corn were if 
fed. At the close of the feeding the pigs had more than doubled in weigh ia 
having made a gain of 196-4 1b. Valuing the corn at 40 cents per bushel | 
the pork at 3 cents per lb., the peanuts, when harvested by the hogs, wel 
worth 18°34 dollars per acre. 
The expense of cultivating the peanuts was much less than for cultivatiNe 
an equal area in cotton, and the thin, sandy soil on which the nuts were 8? | 
would not have made more than 200 Ib. of lint per acre, while the yield ° 
peanuts was 62°6 bushels per acre. In another test at the same station, pear”. 
alone,/peanuts and cornmeal, and cornmeal alone, were fed to determine the i 
relative pork-producing value. At the close of the sixth week it was touNe 
that 2°8 Ib. of peanuts alone, or 3°7 lb. of equal weights of peanuts and cone 
meal had been consumed for each pound of grain, while 10°7 1b. of cornm@ — 
alone had been needed to make the same growth. On butchering the hogs ua 
in the tests it was found that the peanuts had greatly softened the pork ™) 
lowered the melting point of the lard, and that this was not wholly correct 
even when the hogs were fed on corn exclusively for a month be F , 
slaughtering. Like other feeds rich in protein, peanuts are more valuable i | 
growing animals than for those intended for immediate killing. The Bulle! 
says further: It is highly desirable to arrange a succession of peanut als 
rather than to have large areas ripen at the same time, for, in wet weather 
Spanish peanuts will not remain long in the ground after maturity wit WW 
sprouting. 
OUGHT COWS TO BE FED WHILE BEING MILKED? 
Tuts is a question worth thinking about. ‘The quantity of milk is greatly unt 
the control of the cow. There is reason to believe that even within limits * 
percentage of butter fat is under the same control, and hence it is a Yé 
important question how to persuade the cow to give down the quantity of mY” 
and of the richest possible to her. We say “persuade,” for there is 10 
possible of forcing her. The point is to concentrate her attention on the oat 
all-important matter of giving a full flow, with the full percentage of butter 
The above we believe to be a correct statement of the known facts in the ce 
but there is room for a wide difference of opinion between men and men De 
cows and cows as to the best method of persuasion. ino 
It is agreed that there is no persuasion in the bootheel or the milksty 
applied on the back, nor is there any benefit in using cuss words, although ‘A 
have heard it said that whistling and the “merry heart that doeth good like a 
medicine” are potent with the cow while milking is going on Having wil | 
gotten how to whistle, we don’t know how that is. The point to decide 18, a 
the cow give her mind to the business of giving down when she has a fine me 
of feed before her, or is the attitude of impatient waiting and expectancy ! d 
best persuader? We can see at once that if the cow is expecting foo s, 
does not get it, she is not likely to keep her mind on the subject of giving down 
If, however, she has been accustomed to have an elegant feed as BO ast 
milking is over we would expect her to give due attention and give down as ; dol 
as possible. The main thing, it seems to us, is how to get the cow’s undivi Ik 
attention to the supreme work of the moment—that of giving down rich 
and lots of it. 
