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296 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1901. 
He will not always regard the matter of hauling as of no consequence—as 
something which he can do without cost. If the best disposition of cotton 
seed is finally demonstrated to be to extract the oil for human food and other 
commercial purposes, and let the meal and hulls go back to the farms to serye 
both as feed and fertiliser, then, most likely, there will be a small oil mill at 
each ginnery, and oil and lint will be the only products of the cotton crop sent 
to the market. : 
The southern farmer, however, need not wait for oil mills. He may get 
the full value of his cotton seed by a judicious system of feeding, accompanied 
by the most careful saving and proper use of the manure.— Florida 
Agriculturist. ; 
DECORTICATED COTTON-SEED CAKE FOR STOCK. 
Mr. G. Middlemiss writes :—In your highly interest:ng and instructive 
report of the recent Bundaberg Conference, I observe an illustration used by 
Dr. Maxwell when dealing with sorghum poisoning, which reminds me of an 
experience with decorticated cotton cake, in the North of England, on the 
Greenwich Hospital Estate. 
-I think the matter important enough to find a place in your journal. 
Prime fat cattle, at the time I write of, were selling at 1s. per lb. by the 
carcass, consequently stores were high-priced, and every farmer was anxious 
to raise calves, even though most of his land might be under tillage; this 
necessitating stppplementary feed for the rearing of the young stock, and, amongst 
other things, decorticated cotton cake was tried. 
Owing to the presence of an acrid poison, it was found to be hurtful to 
very young stock, and after some loss during the experimental stage, its use 
was discontinued with these, though it proved to be a most valuable food 
adjunct for older cattle, liable at first to set up scour, but afterwards, having 
rather an astringent tendency. 
T well remember testing the effects of a porridge of crushed decorticated 
cotton cake ona number of hungry young ducks, and the way in which it 
knocked these over, with a contingent of sparrows also, which came unbidden 
to the feast, and which shared the same fate, was enough to convince me that 
cotton-seed meal or cake was unsuitable for young stock. 
[Mr. Middlemiss’ communication would give rise to the supposition that 
if decorticated cotton-seed cake will kill sparrows in England, it might be 
equally effective on their Australian descendants. At all events it would be 
easy to make the experiment.—Ed. Q.4.J.] 
KEEPING ONIONS. 
In an article on this subject published in the Révue Générale Agronomique, 
mention is made of an observation of great importance which deserves the 
attention of farmers, gardeners, and amateurs. After some experiments made 
on ten plots manured with chemical fertilisers, the resulting crops of onions 
were put away.in bags and carefully numbered with a view to planting them 
out in the following spring to obtain seed from them. When the time for 
planting had arrived, it was found, to the astonishment of all concerned, that, 
under identical conditions of temperature and light, certain lots had sprouted 
and were exhausted by young, premature shoots, whilst the other lots still 
remained hard and solid without a trace of a shoot. The collections having been 
carefully ticketed, it was easy to prove that the produce from plots deprived 
of sulphate of potash were exhausted by a too hurried vegetation, whilst that 
which had received the potash manure was perfectly preserved. 
Such experiments are well worth repeating, and it would be to the 
advantage of the agricultural world if those few advanced farmers who make 
such trials of fertilisers would publish the results of their experience. 
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