1 Ava., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 245: 
The production of rain is thus shortly explained. Whatever tends to 
lower the temperature of the air below the dew-point is a cause of rain.. 
Simple expansion of the air reduces the temperature, and copious downfalls of 
rain follow such expansion. When rain or aqueous vapour is cooled down in 
the atmosphere to the freezing point of water it is frozen, and falls to the earth 
as hailor snow. The formation of hail is not yet well understood. The dis- 
charge of the mortar is productive of air waves, which are driven upwards in. 
the form of a parabola. Do these air waves carry with them sufficient heat to: 
melt the hail and cause it to fall inocuously as rain ? On this point we should 
be glad to have the explanation of Mr. Wragge, who visited the Styrian 
shooting stations some months ago, but as yet no report of his investigation 
has been made public. 
ANALYSES OF QUEENSLAND GRASSES. 
By J. GC. BRUNNICH, F.C.S., 
Chemist to the Department of Agriculture. 
Considering the great number of valuable indigenous grasses Queensland 
possesses, it is to be regretted that we have so far no direct proofs with regard 
to their value, as nothing has been done to get at their actual feeding value 
with the help of analysis. ; 
Work of this kind involves a considerable amount of time, and only just 
now have I succeeded in carrying out a few such analyses, with the view of 
comparing the well-known Paspalum dilatatum with some of the common 
grasses of our pastures. , 
The following samples of grasses were taken on the 22nd April, 1901 :— 
I. Paspalum dilatatum.—This grass was cut rather over-ripe, as some of the 
seeds were perfectly ripe and dropping off freely. The crop, which was grown 
on good cultivated land on the creck flats of the Agricultural College, was a 
fairly heavy one, principally considering the preceding exceptionally dry 
summer. ‘The analysis of the sample compares rather unfayourably with an 
analysis of the same grass made by Mr. F. B. Guthrie, the Agricultural 
Chemist of New South Wales, published in Volume VII. of the Agricultural 
Gazette of New South Wales, May, 1896. I attribute the difference to the 
fact of the grass being cut over-ripe, and having being grown in exceptionally 
dry weather and on a larger scale. As all the crop has just been cut recently, 
another sample will be taken from the same ground in spring, and the analysis 
published in due course. Particularly striking is the great difference in the 
amounts of total nitrogen and amide nitrogen, which in the sample from the 
Wollongbar Experiment Farm were 2°66 and 1:01 respectively, whereas our 
own sample gave ‘882 and ‘112 respectively. 
Il. Ordinary Pasture, composed chiefly of Andropegon intermedius, 
Ohrysopogon parviflorus, and Andropogon .pertusus, and also . containing 
specimens of the following varieties of grasses:—Ohloris truncata, Chloris 
divaricata, LEriochloa punctata, Eragrostis Brownii, Eragrostis: pilosa, 
Anthistiria ciliata (Kangaroo grass), Sporobolus indicus (Rat’s-tail grass), &e. 
These grasses were grown on rather poor uncultivated soil on the College Hill, 
and the crop represents a growth of about ten weeks. 
IIL. Cynodon dactylon (Common Couch Grass)—This grass was growing 
close to the preceding sample on the poor soil on the College Hill. 
IV. Andropogon intermedius.—Vhis grass—a large, tufted grass—was 
grown near Samples IT. and III. on poor uncultivated land. It forms with 
Chrysopogon parviflorus, another tall rough grass, the principal varieties growing 
on the hill round the College buildings. 
