1 Ocr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 377 
beyond the reach of the wire-worm. By the addition of the phosphate, the 
full effect of the nitrate dressing is secured, the straw strengthened, and the 
crop assisted throughout the entire period of growth. 
Early-sown wheat, at a critical period of growth, when the plant is just 
beginning to form an independent existence by throwing out roots, is peculiarly 
open to injury by the attack of the wire-worm. ‘The injury done to the crop is 
often so serious as to necessitate the ploughing up and re-seeding of the field. 
On our fertile soils much good may be effected without the use of a fertiliser, by 
merely harrowing and rolling. These operations will conduce largely to the 
destruction of the wire-worm. 
Nitrate of soda is worth 15s. per ewt., superphosphate 5s. per ewt. Thus 
the cost of applying the above top-dressing would, including labour, amount to 
about 27s. per acre. Unless, therefore, a 20-bushel crop can by its use be 
increased to 30 bushels, it is questionable whether the extra cost would justify 
its application, except, of course, for the purpose of saving the crop by the 
destruction of the wire-worm. 
LUCERNE ENSILAGE. 
A late Colorado bulletin gives some tests made of alfalfa or lucerne as an 
ensilage plant. One test, says the bulletin, was made with the alfalfa put in 
whole as cut in the field; the other with alfalfa cut to quarter-inch pieces, as 
we cut our corn for ensilage. The whole alfalfa showed a spoiled layer 3 
inches thick on the top and 1 inch layer round the side nearly all the way 
down. The ensilage of the bottom and middle was excellent, and was greedily 
eaten by the cows and calves. Its loss in the total weight was 10°7 per cent. ; 
but its loss in feeding value was probably a little Jarger. 
The other silo was filled with cut alfalfa. The next day the silo was 
covered with two thicknesses of building paper and one of boards, and weighted 
with stone to about 55 lb. per square foot. When covered, the ensilage was 
hotter than the hand could bear. Two days later the temperature had fallen 
to 83 degrees Fah., and in two days more it had fallen to that of the air. The 
ensilage shrank and settled a good deal. When put in, it contained 3 per cent. 
of dry matter. On opening, the silo showed 2 inches of spoiled ensilage on top 
and 4 inch on the sides. The spoiled ensilage was 7°3 per cent. of the total 
weight. The loss in dry matter was approximately 10 per cent, 
Tt is fair to presume that with a good tight silo well-made ensilage 
from cut alfalfa should not make a larger loss than was here given in our 
experimental silo, or about 10 per cent. of its feeding value. To make good 
ensilage from whole alfalfa is a much harder proposition. It requires that the 
alfalfa be quite green ; that the silo be both tight and deep; that the alfalfa 
be thrown into the silo in small forkfuls and carefully tramped, and that it be 
weighted, by from 4 to 6 feet of some heavy, tight-packing material, like cut corn 
fodder. If the alfalfa is put up in the middle of summer, in clear bright 
weather, it must be raked and loaded just as fast as cut. One lot we tried was 
too dry for ensilage two hours after it was cut. 
Comparing the three methods of handling alfalfa—in the stack, in the 
barn, and in the form of ensilage—the bulletin says that, under the best of 
ordinary conditions, for every 100 Ib. of feeding value as it exists in the green 
alfalfa at the time it is cut by the mower, 75 lb. will be saved if the hay is well 
cured and put in a stack under good conditions ; 86 1b. will be saved if put in 
the barn, and 90 Ib. can be expected if made into first-class ensilage. In the 
comparison of the ensilage and the stacked hay, the principal advantage of the 
ensilage must lie in the fact that the alfalfa can be put in the silo, even under 
bad conditions of weather.at time of cutting, and that once siloed it is safe 
from the worst weather. 
