1 Ocr., 1902.} QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 291 
Answers to Correspondents. 
POISONING OPOSSUMS. 
PHALANGER, Geham— 
Question —Can you tell me how to poison opossums? Several persons 
here have tried to do so, but have always failed. 
Answer.—Try cyanide of potash mixed in pollard, and as a “decoy” add 
a little oil of aniseed or oil of rhodium. 
CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD PLANTS. 
J. F. Cory, Kolan River South.—In reply to the request of yourself and 
others for an up-to-date table of the composition_of food plants, we 
purpose shortly publishing such a table. Meanwhile we refer you 
to Dr. W. Maxwell’s letter on the subject in this issue :-— 
: Brisbane, 30th August, 1902. 
Str,—I have the honour to receive your letter of 30th August, asking me 
concerning tables of the constituents of fodder plants. 
I very fully appreciate your inquiry, and its relation to the present pressing 
needs of our agriculturists, and I may say to you at this time, or rather since 
the chemist of the Department (Mr. J. C. Briinnich) came under my direction, 
a thoroughly systematic examination of all food stuffs and agricultural products 
has been commenced. So far this work has included the examination of the 
better known leguminous plants, beans, peas, &c., other forage plants such as 
mustards, rapes, roots and bulbous varieties : likewise the examination of varie- 
ties of maize and maize cobs, &e. The object of this work being to actually 
determine on the one hand the food value, and likewise the manure value of 
all these several kinds of plants. I expect to publish the results obtained so 
far very shortly, which will cover the request which you have made. 
In the meantime, however, our agriculturists can make use of every sort 
of available plant growth or manufactured product within their reach. Just 
now the first question is not “ What will fatten an animal the quickest at the 
least cost, but really what will keep our animals alive?” and food stuffs are 
being advised which, under normal conditions, would not be thought of. One 
thing I notice, and in very many districts, farmers are burning the corn cob, 
which is a very nutritious food stuff. The analyses of the corn cobs, which 
will be published before very long, will show how valuable the corn cob is, and 
especially in periods of drought such as the present. 
In the sugar districts—North—some of the mills are buying up all the 
corn cobs available, and grinding those into a meal and mixing the meal with 
equal quantities of molasses, to which a little lime is being added in order to 
consolidate the whole into a dry and portable cake. This is a good food stuff in 
present emergencies. 
Speaking of molasses and of low-grade sugars, these have not only a very 
considerable direct feed value, but coarse food stuffs such as coarse grasses, 
&e., &e., which animals would rather starve than look at if fed alone, are made 
highly palatable by the admixture of portions of molasses or melted low-grade 
sugars. I have already advised such use of these products of the sugar house 
on a considerable scale, as, it has already been said, just now, we have to devise 
means of converting the coarsest kinds of plant material into edible forms such 
as our starving stock will look at. 
As soon as the analytical data referred to above are ready for publication, 
J shall have something more to say upon the subject of food stuffs. 
T have, &e., 
W. MAXWELL. 
Editor, Queensland Agricultural Journal. 
