LAND, STOCK, & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10384, 1 May 1925, Page 2

LAND, STOCK, & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By "The Tramp.")

During recent years the value of seeds exported from this Dominion runs from £350,000 to £400,000 per annum. According to the latest available statistics there are upwards of 38,000 dairy herdb in this Dominion.

This is a suitable time for liming ( operations, it being a great advantage to get the carting done before the land is too wet. Lime is best applied to the ploughed surface, as it quickly works downwards.

There is no particular seasons when it is specially advisable that chain harrowing should be carried out. Whenever there is a noticeable sprinkling of animal droppings throughout a pasture, it should be harrowed.

The importance of using a dip possessing undoubted lasting properties cannot be too strongly emphasised. A dip which kills only the live ticks, and does not last long enough in the wool to kill also the young ticks, which hatch out after dipping, cannot possibly yield effective results.

Seeing how much the profit depends upon effective dipping, it is regrettable that careless methods are all too common, even among sheep-farmers of some experience; and it is frequently forgotten that a satisfactory dipping ■promotes the chances of yielding one of the very best profits in sheep-farm-ing activities.

A series of experiments conducted on the Research Farm, Werribee, Victoria, have again demonstrated the fact that superphosphate is the predominant fertiliser for cereal crops. An application of lcwt per acre gave a yield of 56.5 bushels, 2cwt gave 62 bushels, whilst the unmanured plot gave 44.6 bushels per acre.

A farmer at Alton, Hants, has been successful in his claim for damages from a taxi-driver who struck one of his cows with his car on the highway; judgment being given for £3O and costs. The Judge commented on the extreme difficulty of deciding the case. The cow was not knocked down nor did it stumble or slip, but it died the next morning from peritonitis following a blow on the flank.

In Ireland a considerable number of small farmers engage in the breeding of pedigree dairy Shorthorns, and as such men cannot afford to pay a high price for a superior stock bull, the Government arranges to give the use of such bulls on lease at a nominal fee. This arrangement ensures that the purebred cows will be served by bulls having milk records on both sides of their ancestry. Prior to this arrangement being made some of the best recorded cows were being mated with beef bulls, and naturally this did not tend towards improvement in milk yields.

The first thing that determines the value of an artificial manure is the percentage of the different mammal ingredients which it contains, but it must be remembered that nitrogen, phosphates and potash may each exist in different forms, which may vary in efficiency and rapidity of action, and consequently in value 5 . Thus it is quite possible for a manure to' contain fairly high percentages of the three substances and yet be worth very little, owing to the extreme slowness with which the ingredients will become available for the use of the plant.

As a usual thing, as sheep increase in any particular territory, parasites keep pace with them, and but for the safeguard of dipping, sheep-farming would in most localities become an unprofitable occupation. The advantages of good pasturage and of high-bred flocks ould be nullified by the depredations of parasites, for the fleeces of sheep afford ideal protection to insect pests. Then, again, wool is an extremely sensitive product, and responds to its environment as a barometer does to the atmosphere. Tick stain is only one item in the havoc done by parasites.

There are two forms of false economy in the use of fertilisers: One is abstaining from applying a manure which, if propertl usyed, might bring back its cost many times over, and the other is the application of a manure which is not required, or which is employed with needless excess. Of the two, much more money undoubtedly is lost to the farmer every year through omitting to use a fertiliser than through using too much. There is such a mass of information available to>-day on the requirements of all crops that there is no difficulty in ascertaining what should be present in any particular case.

It is interesting to note tho_ rapid advance in popularity of Corriedales in all countries where they are known. For some years past this dual-purpose breed has provided the largest classes at the great sheep shows in New Zealand, and at the stud sheep fair held at Christchurch in. March Corriedales outnumbered any other breed, and again realised the highest prices. There is an unsatisfied demand for New Zealand and Australian Corriedale sheep from America, Japan, and South Africa, while throughout Australia the many inquiries for pure ewes cannot be met. At the Christchurch wool sales in November a Corriedale clip, branded Pahua Pastures, realised 1 42Jd per lb. As Corriedale sheep cut large, bulky fleeces, the returns per head from wool are trulv wonderful, while as carcase sheen thev at least hold their own with any breed.