LAND STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 85, 20 January 1928, Page 6

LAND STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS. (By "The Tramp.") It is understood that the Empire Marketing Board proposes to grant a capital sum of £7OOO and an annual maintenance grant of £2OOO for wool research. A new laboratory will be established at Leeds at a cost of £SOOO. .Equipment will bo installed at a cost of £2OOO.

Last year 29 bankruptcies were recorded in the Hamilton Court district, which covers a very wide area, including Mercer-, Rotorua, and Taumarunui. The principal failures are those of farmers. Of assets estimated to produce £24,797, only £6558 was realised. The Official Assignee, Mr Robertson,, considered the farmers' failures were the result of the aftermath of the slump, while many small, traders' failures were due to their neglect to keep proper books.

In a list of prices of home-grown agricultural produce issued by the National Farmers' Union of Scotland, seed of Arran Banner, one of the vaneties of potatoes in the third year's test for registration by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, is quoted at £SOO a ton; £3OO a half-ton; £SO a cwt.; £S a stone. This seedling, Arran Banner, which was awarded the Lord Derby medal in Ormskirk in October, is one of three that remained of 3000 seedlings planted out in 1922 by Mr Donald McKelvie, Lamlash, Arran, who is one of the leading and most successful potato raisers in the world. Another of his seedlings, Arran Consul, was the first potato to be registered by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland.

A well-known Taranaki coastal farmer is quite enthusiastic, from his personal experience, as to the* value of judicious top-dressing not only on the open lands near the coast, but also on the higher levels nearer the mountain (states the Taranaki "News"). In fact, he holds, that on the latter class of country, which it is impossible to plough, top-dressing is invaluable. During the last three years he has' just' doubled the output of butter-fat on his own bush section, and does not consider that he has by any means reached the limit of its producing capacity. He has expended an average of. £7O per annum on fertilisers, and has received in increased butter-fat returns at least £2OO per annum.

"Texture," "structure," and "consistency" are terms used in the scientific analysis of the soil. Texture is that qualitv of soil material resulting from its proportionate composition or sand, silt and clay. When some soi material is rubbed in the hand, the feel of it designates its texture as light or sandy, heavy or clayey, silty, loamy, clay loam, silty clay loam, etc. Structure is the arrangement of the constituent particles in soils which, for example, may be described as granular, crummy, columnar, single grained, etc. Consistency means the firmness of soil or its resistance to deformation when moist, as compact, tough, tenacious, plastic, friable, etc. Consistency is affected by soil structure and mechanical composition.

Mr James Deck, general manager of Leibig's ranches in the Argentine, has been inspecting flocks of Ryeland sheep in Herefordshire and adjoining counties with the object of testing the utility of crossing Ryeland rams with Romney Marsh ewes to improve the commercial carcase, especially over the back and a quality wool over the breech, states an. English exchange. This particularcross has been successful in the SouthEastern counties of England, and most notably in New Zealand, for the production oi Canterbury lamb and mutton. Mr Deck is also thinking seriously of exporting Ryeland ewes as well as Ryeland rams to found a Ryeland flock Lei bigs own 3,000,000 acres of land and control 250,000 head of cattle and 200,000 head of sheep.

The result of top-dressing pasture laid down some 25 years ago with perphosphate is shown on Mr L>. truce's farm, Otama. Up till August last (says the Wairarapa "Age ) the land had never been treated, and the growth of grass was almost negligible, but with the application of 200 cwt. of superphosphate what was once considered land of poor quality is now covered with a fine growth. Where clover and cowgrass were believed to have died out, there is now to be seen a phenomenally luxuriant growth, touch has been the effect of applying superphosphate to various parts of the property that I find I am • able to carry nearly double the number of stock I carried formerly, and there is still room for improvement. Weather conditions are ideal, and if they continue there is little doubt that the season will be good," said Mr Bruce.

A striking example of the way in which members of the farming community flock to the assistance of one of their number who happens to bo in trouble was given at Men nee, Hawke s Bay, the other day, when a haystack became ignited, seriously endangering the owner's house', and five other stacks surrounding it (states an exchange). Within a short time after the outbreak was discovered many farmers/ and workers from surrounding properties had assembled and were fighting the'flames. The fact that ihe house and the other stacks were saved was/ gratly due to the bright idea of one farmer, who brought his tractor. The' fire-fighters placed &- chain round the blazing stack and connected it with the tractor. After many efforts .half of the blazing mass was removed to a safer quarter and another like procedure suceeded in placing the fire at a siafe- dis?tance from the danger zone.

There is sometimes some hesitation in keeping a heifer's first calf, on the grounds that it is unlikely to be strong and to make a good cow. It is true that the first calf is often small at birth; but it will generally pick up rapidly under good treatment and make a cow of normal size* in the end. A more doubtful point, of course, is the milking value of the youngster, for her dam has still to show her qualities in this respect. Provided that the dam comes of good milking stock, however, that she is fairly mature, and that a suitable bull has been used, there is always an excellent chance that the calf will turn out well. The milking pedigree of the heifer well may decide whether her first calf shall be reared or no. There is not much object in risking it if the heifer's dam was not a thoroughly good milker. In the case of a bull calf it is a different matter. While there is no reason why he should not be reared for beef, a heifer's first calf should not, as a rule, be kept- to make a bull,