2072. Where do you reside?—At Cardigan, near Ballarat. I have brought a sample of maize.

2073. Is that ensilage?—No; I have ensilage, but that is not ensilage. I stacked it and put a lot of poles upon the top.

2074. Is this the ordinary Indian corn?—Yes.

2075. Did you put anything into that?—Yes, salt.

2076. Do the cattle eat this?—Yes, greedily.

2077. How do you stack it?—Green from the paddock, just carted it from the paddock, stacked it, and there was a telegraph line along our road, and that was done away with, and I bought the old poles, and we put them upon the top and weighted it.

2078. What quantity have you in the stack?—I suppose it is about 12 feet by about 25 feet.

2079. Was this built upon the ground?—Yes.

2080. You grew this maize?—Yes.

2081. And after it attained a fair height you cut it?—Yes.

2082. And stacked it?—Yes.

2083. And this that you produce is the product, after how long?—About four months.

2084. Is it a fair sample?—It is a fair sample.

2085. How much did you get?—I suppose about 20 tons.

2086. What induced you to stack it?—An article that appeared in one of the papers.

2087. You stacked it up what height?—About ten feet high.

2088. And you weighted it with telegraph poles?—Yes.

2089. How many tons weight did you put upon it?—I suppose ten to twelve tons. I was surprised when it came out.

2090. Had it sunk very much?—Yes.

2092. And what weight do you think there is in the stack now?—I think there would be fully fifteen tons.

2093. Have you fed your cattle upon it?—Yes.

2094. Have you much of it left?—Yes.

2095. What quantity do you give your cattle?—I suppose we use about five or six hundredweight per day.

2096. For horses and cattle?—For cattle only.

2097. Are they milking cattle?—Milking cattle only.

2098. Do you find it improve the milk or otherwise?—We have not tested that.

2099. Does it increase the quantity of milk?—Yes.

2100. Do the cattle eat it?—Readily. I may say that we had a heifer that would not take hand feed of any kind, would not take clean hay chaff, and we put some of this before her and she ate it at once.

2101. Do yon intend to grow more of it?—Yes.

2102. And treat it the same?—Exactly the same. I may mention that three years ago we grew some maize and preserved it in the ensilage.

2103. Did you chaff it at all?—Yes.

2104. Was this cut up—in what lengths?—In about inch lengths.

2105. Was this stacked stuff cut up?—No, stacked as it came out of the paddock.

2106. Has the outside of the stack that appearance too?—No, the outside of the stack has turned rusty and withered looking.

2107. How far in is it so—a foot?—No, about eight inches—seven or eight.

2108. Do you pull that off and throw it away?—No, they eat it all quite readily.

2109. From what area did you obtain this ten or fifteen tons?—I suppose there would be about six acres; we cut some when it was growing green, and threw it to the cattle then.

2110. And you stacked this in order to preserve it from going to waste?—Yes.

2111. And put salt with it?—Yes.

2112. Much salt?—Yes, we salted it very freely, for we found salt a benefit to the cattle.

2113. Don you know what weight of salt you put to fifteen tons—roughly?—I think about three hundredweight.

2114. In what month did you sow the maize?—Fart of this was sown in December, very late this season; but in the early part of November we like to get the crop in.

2115. This maize grew freely with you?—Yes, but of course it must be well manured,

2116. But without the artificial water, is the natural rainfall sufficient to grow it?—Yes.

2117. Are you clear in your mind that this stuff did not injure the milk in any way?—We have not tested it.

2119. You have had no complaints about the milk?—No, but in our case the cattle only get a small quantity of this; they get other feed besides in the natural pasture.

2120. You feed them, I suppose, once a day?—We feed them twice a day. We also feed them largely on roots in the winter. It is not like a cow being stalled and fed upon this. I do not know what the effect of that would be.

2121. It is a most useful adjunct to the other food?—It is.

2122. The cattle eat it eagerly?—Yes. I was remarking that we had a heifer that we could not get to take any food, and she took that at once.

2123. What quantity of it at a time do you give to them?—An ordinary milking bucket full.

2124. If there was any other kind of food before them, chaff and bran and hay; have you ever tried your cattle with two or three kinds of food in front of them; would they take that in preference to any other?—If we put food before a cow that it will not take, we always remove that before we give her the other.

2125. But being a new food, comparatively speaking, I thought you might have tried your stock in that way. Of course, it is a good proof that the heifer took this in preference to other kinds of food; but, very often, when you place two or three kinds of food before an animal, they will take what they like best; have you tried it in that way?—No, we have not.

2126. At any rate, they eat up every portion you put before them?—Yes.

2127. Have you many cows?—We milk, at the present time, about 70.

2128. Upon what area of land do you keep them?—About 430 acres.

2129. How many acres do you estimate it requires for one cow?—I think to keep, taking a cow in good condition all the year round—where we are it is not rich land—it would take about eight acres.

2130. With the food, or without it?—Without it.

2131. With the food—how much then?—I think two acres would be ample.

2132. Have you tried any of the improved methods of dairying that one of the witnesses (Mr. Wilson) referred to this morning?—I unfortunately was not here this morning.

2133. Have you tried the cream separator?—I have not. We send our milk into Ballarat and sell it.

2134. You do not make butter or cheese to any great extent?—No.

2135. But you find it a very remunerative industry?—Yes.

2136. Is it more profitable to sell the milk than to make it into butter or cheese?—Yes.

2137. And what is the result of your ensilage?—We have not opened it this season.

2138. Have you tried it before?—Yes, about three years since.

2140. What do you use for stacking your silo?—We have a brick tank in the ground for the silo.

2141. What do you put in?—All maize—chaffed maize.

2142. You do not use grass?—No, we have no grass or any thing, but I should not be afraid to try it.