THE COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 48, 25 February 1910, Page 9

THE COUNTRY.

CROP STATISTICS. DISAPPOINTING YIKLDS. (Bj Telegraph.-—l'ress Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Amended crop returns are published | n to-night's "Gazette." Instead of wheat averaging 34 bushels, it is considered now- that :>0 bushels -will be the approximate yield. '1 he oats yield is reduced from 4C to 3S bushels per acre, and baney from 37 to 35 bushels. The train crops in most districts have ripened with extreme rapidity, and the bulk i 3 now in t/lie stook or stack, ■while a large quantity is already threshed. The yields arc in general very disappointing, considering the early promise of an unusually abundant harvest.. The hot winds in December not only caused prema-ure ripening, but also injured much of the straw, so that the rain at the beginning of January did pot benefit the crops nearly aa much as was hoped. Caterpillars did damage in several districts, and the small birds levied their usual toil. Hessian fly appeared in several localities, but it was not serious. The continued absence of rain in Southland is calculated to have diminished foe yield oi oats by IS per cent, and in Central Otago from the same cause the crops are a failure. On the other hand there are in all the principal districts many excellent crops. The wet weather at the end of .Tannery caused little loss in yield, and tho discoloration of i-he grain and seeds is much less than was feared. There is, however, a largn proportion of small and shrivelled grain. The yields have now to be set down at much lower estimate than those formrd from the appearance of the crops at the dates of the December and January reports. Threshing i 3 not sufficiently advanced to enable the actual yields to be computed, but the present estimates may be confidently expected to be realised. The rains in January were of incalculable benefit to the pastures and fodder and root crops, aiid the prospects for autumn and winter feed are highly satisfactory. Oats gown for wintor and spring feeding have made good progress. Potato disease has reappeared, but only in the earlier districts is the damage so far of much magnknde. The various pests and diseases of the turnip have not yot manifested themselves to any alarming extent, but, in some localities rape 4as been badly blighted.

DEHORNING.

More dehorning is being done in the JTaranaki, 'Manawatu, and Wairarapa districts than has been the case for some years (writes our travelling representative). All cattle in milking herds should Ibe dehorned. The operation of dehorning is painful, but the pain suffered is not bo great as that undergone by cattle which are being horned and knocked about every cay. The bruises and the hurts received by cattle which are daily mustered for milking are inevitable while the beasts hive horns to assail one another with. Therefore dehorning should be resorted to. Notice how quietly a dehorned herd stands in the yard while the cows are awaiting their turns in the sheds. On the other hand, in a herd which has not been subjected to dehorning the nervous cows can hardly be got into the yard through their fear of being knocked about by the other cattle. Those nervous cows do not enter the bails in a fit state to be milked, and do not give their Bnilk well. So it is payable to dehorn dairy herds, and, although it is painful at the time, at is kind- You have to be cruel to bo tind. ' RIPE MAIZE FOR STOCK. It seems a risky as well as an extravagant plan to turn live stock into a field of ripe maize and let them, consume it ad libitum. Yet this plan is pursued to Borne extent in the United States, and b. writer in the "Twentieth Century Farmer" states that he has visited farms where it is carried out and obtained records of its profitableness. The manager of a number of farms has ■weighed the animals when turned into a maize field, and again when they had finished st, thus ascertaining the increase in live weight, and, by notim* also the selling Jirice of the animals, the return per acre paid for the maize. In one case pigs turned into a 40-acre crop of thirty-five bushels per acre gave an increase of 14.000 lb. in weight, worth 6 cents per pound, paying GO cents per bushel for the maizn -when its farm price was only 38 cents, besides saving all the expenses of harvesting and husking and manuring the land. In another instance a crop of about the earae estimated yield on forty acres made 9,905 lb. of beef and 4,015 Ib. of pork, pn>sunia.bly live weight, and the money return was again satisfactory. There were forty-eight cattle in the field for a. month, with 230 pigs for part of the time. Nothing is said about hurdling off the maize in pieces, and such, a plan is nol common, if ever, followed, in! the United States. By .this means the daily con-sumption could be limited. Without it the objection would seem to be that the animals would be surfeited at the 'beginning of the period of feeding, \ and insufficiently fed towards the end.

BASIC SLAG AS A TURNIP MANURE. Every new preparation which comes into the field having a claim for attention as an auxiliary to the farmer luid its difficulties before it can establish itself. So far as my experience has gone, I do not think basic slag should lie used quite alone, as it is not of a sufficiently complete nature to answer the full purpose artificial manures are intended to eiJect. In my experience with plots embracing a representation of aTI the mixtures or preparations used, 1 found that the slag turnip manure, which we always used alongside the special turnip manure preparation, did not produce tho same woig-ht as did the other, and that it did not approach the average of the other preparations. But there was one thing which 1 always notieefl, and that was that the bulbs were of good quality. The plants seemc-d to fall behind at the brairding or early stage of development, but they matured early, and they also had a nice small head. The mixture contained much nitrogen and potash, along with insoluble phosphate. 1 believe that the brairding being slow did not affect the quality of tho plants adversely, and that the insoluble phosphates were so constituted along with the farmyard manure and fche other things to produce good quality, but without a certain proportion of weight of crop. I have tried alongside this a plot containing a small proportion of superphosphate or soluble phosphate, with the result that it added considerably to the weight of the crop by this change, so that a small quantity of supcrphosrih-.T to is an advantage. Superphosphate., although good at sending up braird, probably at the expense of quality, can only, if at all. be judiciously used alone under exceptional circumstances, having the reputation of introducing trouble in t'hfl bulbs of various sorts, while basic slag is credited with preventing trouble. 1 believe that the reuson for this is that the action is slow, and it meets the needs of the plants at the later stages of its development, so that the plants make a substantial RtaTt, and continire to have natural support on to the maturing stage.—W. Wilson, in the "Stockbreeder."

LUCERNE AND I.IME. In the Eastern States of America the cultivation of varieties of lucerne that will withstand severe winter weather is extending, but some difficulty appears to be experienced in getting a good stand on land on which it has never before been grown. To obviate this trouble studies have been made in regard to preparing the soil for that crop, and the methods favoured by the stations seem to be inoculation with bacteria by sowing soil from land which hs.d borne that crop at the rate of about 2001b to the acre and the application of the lime at the rate of about 15001b to the acre. A New York station bulletin says that "Briefly summarising the result, it is found that without either lime or inoculation the chance of a successful crop is not more .than 20 per cent, or one chance in five; with lime the chance of success is raised to 40 per cent, or two in five: with inoculation it is raised to about 60 per cent, or three chances out of five; while both lime and inoculation used together indicate a successful crop about four times out of every five trials." SAI.T. On general principles, every farmer is ready to admit that cattle need saltBut from a real, practical standpoint,, going far enough to institute a regular system for supplying it, a large proportion of farmers pay only irregular attention to it. The Wisconsin Experiment Station went into this matter deeply and thoroughly to find the real necessity for salt. The resu.lt was that it was found that when salt was kept a way from caws for a long time, say, several ■months, a condition of low vitality ensued w.hich if oomtinued too far re-suited in a complete breakdown. When sa.lt was supplied the cows recovered at once. The time of breakdown comes generally right after calving, and the best cows showed t.his tendency the most.—Hoard's Dairyman. PASSING OUT THE UNSOUND. The result of the first season's inspection of stallions by the Government in South Australia was that 20 shows were visited by the veterinary officers, 244 stallions examined, and 62 rejected, the percentage of rejects being 25.4. The percentage of heavy horses rejected was 37.8, and of lights 16.2. The principal unsoundness in draughts was ringbone and sidebone, and in lights ringbone and bone spavin. The Agricultural Department, for the first year, refrained from introducing stringent measures enforcing compulsory examination, but made it conditonal for etallions competing for prizes at any show subsidised by the State to hold the Government certificate of soundness. The chief inspector of stock reports that "though the percentage of rejections for unsoundness has been high (caused no doubt by the influx of rejected horses from Victoria), no appeal against the refusal to give certificates has been lodged, and owners of horses have given the staff every assistance. The large number of horses rejected shows how urgently the work was required."