ia 
1 AvG., 1901. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 187 
THE VALUE OF BARLEY AND PUMPKINS AS HORSE FEED. 
Some time ago attention was called to the value of barley as a horse feed, 
and the advisability of horse-owners availing themselves of the low market 
values ruling for it to economise on their feed bills. 
Another most valuable food for horses, and with us mostly always to be 
had at low values, is the pumpkin. In many lands much labour is bestowed 
on growing carrots for horses. In the pumpkin I believe we have a superior 
food, which grows with little expense or outlay on labour. 
I have owned horses on several occasions, so ruined by ‘“ old man asthma” 
from chaff feeding that they could not be longer worked on chaff and corn— 
sent to me by their owners—and have worked them for years afterwards so long 
as I could provide them with a pumpkin ration in lieu of corn and chaff. They 
had wind sufficient to do a fair amount of work, while on corn and chaff they 
had not wind to pull 50 yards without stopping to get their breath. 
Perhaps one reason for the pumpkin not catching on amongst horse pro- 
prietors in our cities is the fact that horses heavily fed with maize and chaff 
do not readily take to pumpkins; but this could no doubt be met by having 
a cutter or even a pulper, and mixing the pumpkin with the usual ration.—A 
Farmer. 
DRESSING SEED BARLEY WITH BLUESTONE FOUND 
SUCCESSFUL. 
In our issue for June, p. 415, we quoted the experience of an English 
farmer in the matter of dressing seed barley with bluestone. He maintained 
that a dressing of 1 lb. of bluestone in 6 gallons of boiling water, as a dressing 
for 448 lb. of seed, ensures a better start and prevents the appearance of smut. 
In confirmation of this, we have just received a letter from Mr. J. R. 
Martin, Hobart House, Cawdor, near Toowoomba, who says :— 
I wish to substantiate the statement of the correspondent of the London 
Agricultural Gazette re dressing seed barley with bluestone. I have made 
experiments on wheat, oats, barley, and rye dressed and not dressed, and 
sowed the seed at the same time. The results were as follow: The seed 
treated with bluestone was free from smut and yielded a fair sample of grain. 
The other, not dressed, was full of smut and blighted grain, and very much 
pinched. I have always preferred using a pickle for preparing seed to 
sprinkling, as by doing so each grain will be affected by the liquid. I always 
used +-lb. of bluestone to one bushel of grain; steep it for two or three hours, 
and then sow at once. I have never found any ill effect from this treatment. 
Tf the seed, after being removed from the pickle, is not required for present 
use, spread it on a barn floor, and it will dry off and be ready for sowing when 
required, without any further trouble. I advise any farmer, who wishes to 
have clean grain or first-class hay, to pickle the seed before sowing, and he 
will find the benefit of it. 
PEAS IN AMERICA. 
Most intelligent readers of agricultural literature know that farming, 
fruit culture, horticulture, &c., are carried on on a vast scale in the United 
States. In this State the man who harvests a crop of 1,000 acres of wheat and. 
_ barley is considered a large farmer. In the States such farmers can be found 
by the thousand. The planting of 5 acres of peas would be a remarkable feat 
for Queensland ; but in America—in the State of Wisconsin—one farmer has 
2,400 acres of peas alone, whilst another in Maryland has 600 acres under the 
same crop in one field. Each row of peas is 2 miles long, and twice a week the 
cultivators are sent through the whole field. It required 1,800 bushels of 
seed-peas to sow the ground. fertilisers were used to the extent of 120 tons, 
