LAND STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 252, 3 August 1928, Page 6

LAND STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By the "Trainp.") Interest in the Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Club movement in Southland grows from week to week. Already clubs have been formed, whilst inquiries regarding some others are being made. The committee have already decided that the crop to be grown this year will be potatoes ana efforts are being made to secure a good line of Arran Chief seed.

Most students of pure botany, both in schools and colleges, have it dinned into their ears that weed seeds are spread by wind, by animals, by birds, and by water, but in the majority oi cases no mention is made of the enormous distribution of weed seeds which annually occurs through the medium of agricultural seeds of all sorts. Yet of* all the agencies which are at work spreading weed seeds, it is probably that none is so efficient as man himself.

Considering its many advantages; it is remarkable how little silage is made by most farmers. Possibly the first cost of constructing a silo is the factor that militates most against the more general adoption of the system Assuredly, the cost of an overhead silo may appear large, but if consideration is given to average stock losses in dry seasons through, the absence of any conserved fodder this expenditure will not seem unreasonable. Money spent in this direction is undoubtedly a real economy, and those who have not already made their preparations could not do better than give the subject earnest consideration now.

The Potehefsoom (South Africa) School of Agriculture last season increased the yield of apples 41 per cent by an application of phosphates and farm manure, and by over oO per cent, by using artificial fertilisers containing nitrogen, potash, and phosphates. There was a slight increase in the citrus yield at White River, where trees were similarly treated, and those which received phosphates gave a much sweeter fruit.

As the demand for bird guano is always greater than the supply, none of this fertiliser is exported from South Africa, but exports in whale guano are of increasing importance. During last year 5242 tons were exported, an increase of 3645 tons; over the 1926 figures. The biggest percentacre of this is taken by the . United States, but much is also sold in Great Britain, Germany and Ceylon lhe valuable chemical contents of this guano make it of special value to fertiliser manufacturers.

The experience if men who have fed silage to horses is that they seem to get along well enough on it for a few weeks, even for one or two months, but that eventually they sicken ot it, and if the feed be not changed, and that quickly, they will die. There is a hint in this for dairy farmers, who are beginning, very wisely, to store silaae. They must not look upon it as an all-round feed for farm animals. It is quite unsuited to pigs. For dairy cows there is no better foundation for the rations than 301 b or 40lb of silage ner day. But the horse needs something different. Its system calls for good hay and grain, and the man who has good horses, from which he expects to get good work, should see that they get the fuel to keen their boilers going efficiently, with the least wear and tear.

Davenport, hi "Principles of Breeding" %«:-"H an old and proven s?re can be had that is thes*re to buv • but ordinarily sires of this kind am'not obtainable, for if they are really tested sires they are usually field in the herd that tested them until their period of usefulness is over. H, however, one is available it is a treasure that should not go begging as it often does. If would make it a rule to buy only tested" res he would do better than many another with long experience behind him who is constantly accumulating excellence, and is constantly dissipatfng it by the use of untested sires The writer has found that the most unfversal practice is to buy a young bull, probacy a yearling, and put him at once into service on the entire herd. This is a business suicide, for it constitutes a bar to any, very high degree of success, and is, besides, extremely dangerous."

West Australia considers that its ambition of becoming the granary of the Commonwealth is being rapidly advanced by the developments of recent mouths. The Director of Agriculture Mr G. L. Sutton, has made as his objective a wheat harvest exceed ing thi present record, held by New South Wales, which State produced 66,000,000 bushels in 1916. H> w estimated there will be . 4 >%°°° -.J" 6 * under crop for gram m 1929 with * 50 000,000-bushel crop, or an average of m bushels to the .acre Negotiation are proceeding with the British and Commonwealth Governments under which these areas will be served with railways, roads and water supply. There is a feeling of optimism prevailing in West Australia as a result of the recent excellent harvests. lhe export value of wheat has. nunped from nil in 1903 to well over £5,000,000 this year.

In keeping farm costs down to a minimum no item of expenditure should be overlooked, and in this connection the care of farming machinery should receive the attention that it deserves. Repair bills could be cut to a considerable degree if adequate care were exercised in this direction, ioi the neglect of equipment is only too apparent on a considerable proportion or farms. One noticeable feature oi neglect is the leaving.of implements out in the field for considerable periods when not in use. Iron and steel are subject to rust, paint work peels ott, wood work warps and cracks under continual exposure to alternate changes in the weather. If every implement was placed under cover and protected when not in use, repair bills would not be so heavy, and the life of the implement itself would be Moreover, its resale value would be higher.

Bach year many foals die at an early ntre from the disease known as pint ill* or navel distease, which is commonly supposed to be due to a germ being "picked up" and gaining entrance to tie blood system through the navel.

The following extract from a booklet, "lodine for Stock," by Frank Ewart Come, B.Sc., may prove helpful in minimising the trouble: "Joint ill, a malady all too common amongst newborn foals, is also known as 'navel ill,' because it was supposed that the causative germ entered the organism from outside via the navel. It would seem, however, that joint ill is due not to the invasion of any external germ, but to 'bacillus coli,' which exists harmlessly in the intestines of all healthy animals, but which, when intestinal conditions allow it to trespass into the blood-stream, is the origin of many diseases, in all probability including 'white scour' in calves and dysentery in lambs. In Canada, where the mortality from joint ill appears to be particularly heavy, it is now being totally prevented by adding to the drinking water of the mare, once every fortnight during the gestation period, half a tea&poonful of potassium iodide. Tested in Scotland, this) method of prophylaxis reduced the losses occasioned by joint ill from 50 per cent, to 3 per cent."