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Dunstan Times, Issue 3139, 16 October 1922, Page 7

The loss between the weight of green fodder, as it is cut and put into a silo, and the weight of the cured ensliage that will ultimately be obtained is very much greater than is commonly realised. It varies, in fact, from 20 per cent, to as high as 50 per cent., devpetiding on the kind of material used. That is to say, it requires from 120 to 150 tons of green fodder, weighed as cut ,to fill a 100 ton silo. At the Highland Society's show held recently at Dufmries the Clydesdale section has rarely witnessed a, class of aged stallions in which so many horses appeared over ten years old, and so large a preecntage of horses which had already won the highest possible honors. Tbo female Cl5 T desdales were a magnificent display. Nothing to surpass the ring which competed for the female championships has ever been seen. The Mark Lane Express says fat cattle arc now being ripened rapidly, and the supplies coming to hand are fully up to the average generally till over the chief markets. Big well-fleshed bullocks in grand conditions are not quite so ready of sale, but they make from Is to Is O.UI per lb., while younger two-year-old heifers make Is 2d per lb. Big bullocks, fully three years old. full of flesh, make I'!() to £42 10s per head, while well-bred, good-condition heifers make £2l to £24 per head, still Australian frozen beef is practically given away. The French wheat harvest has been estimated at T0.000.000 quintals. This will necessitate the importation of from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 quintals. The vino crops are exceptionally good, except in Burgundy and tbo East. The sugar beef crop is very heavy. There will bo a large surplus available for export. Owing to the poor wheat crop the Government has forbidden the use of anything but whole meal in bread-mak-ing throughout France. Like others in Queesland engaged in the cattle industry, the Government l* feeling the effect of the present slump, and no doubt- there are many Government supporters who realise' that the purchase of the State stations was a mistake. On the the State stations at present there are thousands of head of cattle fit to kill. If they are held they will deteriorate, and to sell them means-a loss. It does not pay the Government to sell the cattle under £7 a head, so that their disposal at the meat works at £4 means a big loss. In America, it is common practice to milk high test cows three or four times a day. The Jersey cow. Majesty's Fair .Maid, owned by Beeehwood Farm. New Jersey, recently completed a record of 17.i72!b milk, 871.41b fat. making her the champion of New Jersey by a wide margin, the highest imported Jersey milk producer and the second highest imported fat producer. At present she is also the third highest Class AA Jersey in milk production on three mil lyings a day. She carried a living calf 202 days of her record period and qualified for Ihe American Jersey Cattle Club gold medal of merit. Engineers have the greatest possible regard for the simple, indicator which has been used for so many, many years to reveal what is happening inside 1 the cylinder of a steam engine. The indicator diagram of an engine is the recognised certificate l of character. This standard instrument, however, is not exempt from the law of progress, and at a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Great Britain an instrument was shown which quite puts the oldfashioned indicator in the shade. This instrument will, within half a minute and almost automatically, produce ten successive permanent records of the performance of ai high speed engine. It traces these records on a card which is ready either for immediate inspection and measurement in a very simple microscope, or for photographic enlargement. The vailue' of such records taken at such ramid intervals is that they draw the attention of the designer or manufacturer to uususpelcted or obscure defects which would not be revealed by the ordinary indicator. The new indicator can foe used on motor cars and on flying machines when track tests or trial flights am being conducted, and where there is neither space or time for elaborate instruments or methods of testing. The l records are mechanical, not optical or photographic, and the operator need not leave his seat in order to take them. It is now recognised that the health of those who go down to the .sea in ships depends upon the efficient fumigation of the living quarters. Certain Governments insist upon the regular fumigation of first and second-class passenger accommodation. One method of carrying tins out is by means of prussic acid, but this has the grave disadvantage that elaborate precautions have to be taken in order to prevent fatal accidents, while in addition there is no satisfactory respirator for the use of those ongogad on the work of fumigation. Another method is to burn sulphur throughout the vessel, but this has the drawback that the sulphur fumes tarnish many forms of decoration. The British Ministry of Health has therefore set on foot an investigation with a view to discovering some gas which will act efficiently as a disinfectant and yet be free from the deletvviuus, and dangerous proporeits of the other gases at present in use. Some time ago the British Air Ministry offered a valuable prize for tell successful invention of aircraft capable of rising vertically from the ground and of hovering oyer any point. Rumors are afoot that this difficult problem has been solved by the same British engineer who invented the gyroscopic monorail, in which a vehicle riming on a single wubcel track maintained itself upright by means of a gyroscope. Particulars of the new development are not yet available, but there is every hope that it will provide a satisfactory solution. Tt may be recalled that several years ago another British inventor suggested a design by which an airship heavier than air could be made to raise itself by means of electric power. The lifting action proposed was provided by a series of wings, each operated in a particular way by means of a small electric motor, all the motors receiving their power from a central electric generator. The action of each wing was similar to the peculiar movement of a bird's wing; and the inventor claimed that a craft built on these lines would bo able to rise almost directly from the ground and maintain itself steadily at any reasonable height. France is worrying over a newl American invasion, this time threatening to work havoc in the potato fields about Bordeaux. It is only a most unprecedented arrival of millions of doryliores and chrysomild'ae varieties of potato bugs—-which presumably eam< in a few uninspected sacks from the United States last spring. Potato bugs of course, are known here, hut th< French variety apparently have no sucl appetite as the newcomers. As a re suit the farmers have sent a delegatio to Brussels to take up the matter wit the. International Research Council an arc dispatching cables to America agricultural schools for the latest it formation on how to exterminate tl pests. It is feared, however, that thai will bo a 40 pel rent, deficit in th year's crop unless the invaders can 1 stamped out immediately.