THE COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 170, 17 July 1908, Page 7

THE COUNTRY.

JUABKETING THE WOOL.

JL question of considerable importance »o sheep-farmers is raised in Dalgetv's ■ Eeview. namely, the advisability j of extending the celling season. The' ; writer points out that during the rush ' ' of the sei?on large offerings arc at times I submitted simultaneously in Sydney,!' Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, New Zea- '■ land and London. "Local influences are go great that to hope that selling at any o f the centres now established will cease, i js probably to expect the impossible; but ! ivhat can be Hone and must be done if the Austraksmn -nips are to continue to prosper as they have in the past is to ■ bo regulate supplies that at no period of the year will buyers be asked to take ,jnore' wno ' than they can coniiortably deal with. It is surely only the plainest .expression of business sense to say in regard to the disposal of nny commodity , which is not perishable that, as far na • possible, a market should ho fed ■ just' jn proportion to its power to assimilate. ! Yet even in a Reason like the pn-st, when the whole financial atmosphere of the! ■world was temporarily upset, no con-i certod Australian action was taken to re- \ 'gulate supplied. Certainly the Sydney and Victorian brokers have adopted systems of limitations of offerings, and in the largest of the colonial selling centres the Christmas vacation was longer than usual during the past season. Admittedly a step in the right direction (which helped to steady the market) ; but buyers had been overfed with wool in Xo-! vember and December, at a time w'len ■ the financial crisis resulted in the total ] cancellation of many orders—so much so that during one week in December 120,- j 000 bales were thrust upon the market, : and when the sales were temporarily suspended at Christmas time buyers were literally "sick of the sight of wool." Yet when the auctions weiv resumed in .T.inuary in London as well as in Australasia, the buyers were, asked to sit down and consume another huge wool meal, and it is Bafe to say that values would not have gone nearly so low as they mere forced in February, March, and April had wool both before and after Christmas been marketed in a more judicious manner.

PREPARING LINSEED.

LinoPPd is a favourite food in sick- | ness, and is often badly pr epared. It is i frequently a constituent of the bran ! mash, especially in catarrhal or respi- | ratory affections, while it is also used j in cases of poverty, hidebound, and de- | •bility. As a laxative in cases where uni- | nials have been long on hard corn, and as a. demulcent in eoug'hs and respiratory affections generally, linseed is most use- j iul. Generally it is prepared by boiling until the send capsuk-s have burst and j o. jelly or mucilage is formed. .Someimes, ; too, it is burned in the boiling, and this is particularly distasteful to the dainty or capricious feeder. Generally, too much linseed is added to too little water, and the product becomes \ too thick wiieii the capsules have burst, or stirring 15 neglected, and the stuff burns on the bottom of the worn-out pot generally considered good enough for equiue cookrry. There is really no necessity for boiling unless wanted in a iiurry, for the jelly may be formed by soaking the flax seed in cold water. This a≤ called creed linseed. The proportions needed are about a pound of linseed to a gallon of water, and after standing for about twelve hours and being stirred occasionally, the seeds v>'ll have burst. lAbout half a pint of this ailicilage is sufficient to give at once. The quantity made should be sufficient to last not longer than two days, as there is a great tendency for it to ferment, and sour linseed mucilage is even more effensive than sour bran mash. Where boiled linseed is preferred, burning may be avoided by throwing the flax seed into boiling water a small quantity at a time. Where linseed is wanted in a hurry, as in cases of sore throat, etc., in which its demulcent properties are very useful in protecting the mucous membranes from irritation, boiling water may be poured on the seeds in the proportion of one pint to an ounce. Griiel may also be prepared from linseed, and EOme prefer it to oatmeal or flour. Suitable proportions are half a pound of lin6eed to a gallon of water. The product ehould be strained when intended for drinking purposes, and the residuum may be utilised by mixing it with bran mash, or, if not required for this purpose, it may be given to other horses. linseed gruel is sometimes prepared from oilcake, boiling water being poured on the broken-up cake and allowed to cool. This contains all the nutrient properties of the linseed less the oil abstracted by the seed-crusher. Cake gruel ■ is more frequently employed on the farm than in the light-horse stable for the obvious reason that it is more readily available. Sick animals receiving linseed or linseed and bran should be sponged about the muzzle after feeding. Nothing looks so negligent or so uncomfortable for the sick horse as to see the month, no3e, and face stuck all over with flax seeds and particles of bran.—"Farm and Home Year-book."

STTBSOIXING.

' Periodical subsoilings while the orchard is young is a cheap and effective ■ method of 'improving the fertility of the .Eoil. Though orcharding can be profitably carried on without recourse to this method of cultivation, the areas occupied by fruit trees are generally so small that the additional expense of preparing the land is a comparatively small matter in comparison with the benefits to be derived from it. The time when this work can bu safely carried on is limited, for when once the trees have commenced to spread their root 3 through the land between the rows, the likelihood of damaging these is so gTeat that more harm than good would be likely to result. II is. " therefore, advisable thai where subsoiling is resorted to, it shouk be done during the early years of a tree's .raistenc-e. Subsoiling breaks up the thii parts of iiard earth formed by continuous ploughing, and enables the trees to senc their roots down deeper into the soil thus making them better able to re.sis droughts and high winds, besides afford ing additional opportunities to the roo system for collecting food and nourish ment. Moreover, one or two subsoiling considerably increase the effectiveness o underground drains, for when the soi :. is in a nice, loose condition, the particle of carLh an> quick to absorb the mois ) ture, and to allow the superfluous wate to run through to the drains below.- ---\ . Sy ,- P.enang" in the "Australasian." •J3W

THE HEALTH OF OUR STOCK. l

During the course of a lecture at ahiatua, Mr J. R. Gilruth, our chief ?terinarian, gave some very good advice : ■ the fanners assembled. Jn the course his remarks, Mr Gilruth made a rong point of the necessity for rugging iws in the winter months. With ordiary care in this direction there would 5 no more fear of infection by parates than there was in the custom of earing clothes by human beings. It is * ell known, said Mr Gilruth, that cow as cheap when one compared the value f her production to her cost. But it 'as necessary to keep a good herd withut recourse to the saleyards. No far- £ ier knew the misfortune which might ttend his herd by purchasing unknown iws from public saieyards, and thus it as wise to look after one's animals so hat they could be permitted to afford lie greatest adequate return during lieir years of life. Thon there was the matter of culling he herd. It should be culled at the nd of the milking season. Yet. it was common practice in some localities to till in the spring. Last October, said he speaker, he had been asked to exmine a herd of sixty cows. Their eonition was not good; a few were in calf, nd numbers were so old (teeth right I own to the gums) that it was difficult 0 understand how they had come hrough the winter. These old cows hould have been slaughtered at the nd of the milking season, before they iad eaten winter feed, which would have >een better in the stomachs of their •ounger progeny. He had noticed this season that the vool on the backs of young sheep was lot showing its accustomed lustre, and hat a number of them showed signs of ;eourint;. He anticipated considerable uortality among young stock on this iccount. The speaker detailed the manlor in which parasites attacked sheep in the head and the intestines, and in | 1 rpference to hydatids stated that dogs, which were the intermodinry agent?, should never be fed upon raw offal. Some sixteen years ago there was an ?xtensive mortality among sheep in New Zealand, and dead sheep were seen all over the country. Nothing like that j was seen now, and the principal reason i was that stock were now brought up i under considerably improved conditions. The land was better cultivated, there were fewer swamps and marshes, less drinking of bad water, more population, and. in fact, more all-round intelligent farming. All farmers should grow win- | ter feed for their stock. There was no- j thing better than chaffed hay or oats for j winter feed for sheep. He had never believed in drenching hoggets, and he had seen thousands of i cases treated. Drenches usually did j more harni than good. They did the parasites no harm, and the sheep no good. He once bought some culls at 1/- j per head, and put them into lots and i tried several sorts of drenches upon j them. In one case, in which the mixture , included ''turps' , and olive oil, four sheep died, and the fifth had to be; slaughtered. In the instance in which \ the animals were dosed with an arsenical liquid, three died. In the third case, in which the mixture was just "turps" and oil, four died. The fourth batch were simply fed up on rape and dry oats. None died, and ultimately they were sold as fnts at 0/ or 10/ per bend. The speaker devoted a considerable portion of his speech to tuberculosis, the germ of which, he said, when dry, was quite inoffensive. This statement, said Mr Gilruth, was not in accord with public opinion, which held that the dried expectorations of human beings, principally men, were a danger. Nearly all cattle were prone to tuberculosis. A cow whose udder showed no signs of tuberculosis might still be affected. It frequently happened that calves would be reared from tuberculous mothers, and so became affected with the disease. It was a serious matter, and showed the necessity for the sterilisation of skimmed milk, which he had advocated for years. Mr Gilruth then gave the following startling instance of how tuberculosis had practically ruined nearly the whole stock of a dairy farmer: "It was in August last," said Mr. Gilruth, "that I examined a certain dairy farmers' herd of 40 cows. There were 21 suffering from tuberculosis. About the same time I examined bO pigs belonging to the same farmer, and found that 39 were affected. Two or three days later I examined another 100 pigs of the same man, and 60 of them were tuberculous. None of the pigs were over nine months old. A few months later I again went to the farm, and found another 50 pigs had become affected." All this served to show that there should be a iaw, as in Denmark, enforcing the sterilisation of skimmed milk. PAHM GATE FASTENER. The device shown in the accompanying illustrations (reproduced from The Prairie Fanner) for fastening a gate

•| Fig. 1. Gate closed. 3 J through a wire fence is too simple t< i require any detailed description. Figur 5 1 1 shows the gate closed and fastened 21 and Figure 2 indicates how the level i l i l simply turned back to release the hali 1 inch iron rod which is attached to th a| end of the gate. The level, which i J