THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 103, 30 April 1920, Page 9

THE LAND.

I" ' Br AGKIUOLA.

PEAS. > ,J&»tW«l i> the Hold pea. It would ,j !" Hir ,„ ..v. I hat. «ith few on.-options, I known nuUMe of the ; «»rtborough di-triet. I'ho dairy tanner k5 f or jjn-en fee,) »"J hay oi lii?l>»S "":-"' j=^ Ldd appreciate ar, onrly ,-rop for .cod- * |jj» in spring :nr laii'K- tor marketing. The field P«< « "" t '"^f 1 t0 for " ither r f these purpose!!. It docs not appear be renojmisoil that of oil 1)10 ißSiimes- f , " , tio ' (l I >ca '* lh(, most easily i-rown. I' docs " ot demand the preJisration of the soil of lucerne, and, unlike rod closer, it may hi- frown again aDd on the same soil. It njav bo sown nt two .-ca-on~—in spring and in autumn. If pea- arc rown in M»v. on warm mellonr -oil. the crop can ll fed off about dvtober in averajTP soa--one It Joumle unusual to us, hut .jHWp and lambs thrive pxrpllentlr. The crop should, of course, be feni-ed in breaks, a f for feeding off roots. The j iifas TiH come again for a sex-ond time if the first lccdinc down has been | earrr. This should be at about the | time that the pods are iorminv'. The I »econd (rrowtli i« not usually of gront , bulk. It ,-omos quickly in a favourable | -cason and, if not made u*e of for cutting or feeding, it is one of the most valuable of hII of the plant.- of the farm tor ploughing in for green manure. There is an objection that id heard to the use of the field peu. thnt it is difficult to cat and harvest. Ho far as the tirst consideration (the cuttingl i- concerned, it will be found that the horse raJke the peat; are fully ripe they will easily pull out by the roots. Tile haulm can be raked directly into heaps. The pea requires a considerable time to weather before it should be stacked. This is ' probably the only special treatment | that is required. The usual practice fe j to thresh out, and stack the haulm tor later use. The unthreshed haulm prorides a most valuable ration for all stock. The precaution should be ' adopted of restricting the quantity that j any one animal may consume, or the | effect may be serious. The peas that may be shed on the ground in the harvesting will not tie wasted, if sheep or pigs are permitted to run over the pea field. Peas for hay or for soiling are often sown with oats. The proportion of this cereal and the legume is about R bushel of oats to one and a half of peas. It must be remembered that the oats would offer too great a resistence to the method of the. horse rake for harvesting; it would be necessary to use the , mowing machine. It must be realised that a crop to be cut green for soiling is to some extent expensive in the handling. Still this is the better means of securing the greater feeding. The grazing is the least costly, hut it is more wasteful of the crop. The harvesting and stacking as a provision for winter will be probably the more general use of the field pea. Farmers will do well to make more use of this valuable leguminous plant, especially a? it is a great soil improver.

RECONSTRUCTION OF BRITISH FARMING. ' There are difficult problems confronting the agricultural interests of the farmer of Great Britain. The national interests are paramount. There ie legislation that defines the conditions under which crops and stock are to be raised: he may not farm as lie may desire, and the wages and the hours of labour are laid down by Statute. The farmer dope not ask for favour, but if he may not farm by the methods that appeal to him as the most profitable, it is at least clenr that there must be at least some guarantee against loss. The problem therefore arises: Can there be evolved a guarantee that will be fair to the farmer, and not ruinous to the nation. Legislators are filling the oars of the farmers with platitude*, but in their minds the latter remain unconvinced. WHAT CROPS TAKE FROM THE SOIL. According to W. R. Liston. in the English Agricultural Gazette,'" a crop of 30 bu?hels of wheat removes from the acre on which it is grown 331b of nitro.Mn, 141b of phosphoric acid, and 3ilb of potash, whilst a orop of 22 ton* of mangolds removes S7lb of nitrogen. :J4lb ot phosphoric acid, and 2231b of potash. If then, mangolds were sold, what a. hive lose in fertility the farm in general would sustain. Potatoes, again, are a frop that arc invariably sold off the rami. Xow. fi tons of" potatoes. an ■range yield of an acre, remove 47ih of !!'?S™' 21Jlb of phospliorie acid, ana -ojlb o, potash. The,«e examples show plainly enough that a crop is exhaustive or not. according as it i= or i= not fold ofl the farm. TELEGONY. Them is a widespread belief among breeders that the male with which a female rs first mated lias an influence differ the - pro £ Pnv of the females by a 11 this belief more strongly held than among breeders of dogs, and h purebred v bltch which has been mated with a dog ot another breed is usually regarded as quite,worthless for the purpose of breedin? purebred Mock- at am- subsequent PcnoJ. When sifted, however, the evilonce offered in support of this theory as '0 the infiuene :■ of thp first sire srenefally proves to be unreliable. The doctrine of 7 "» fe 'tion of the germ, now known as Mlegonj-, was more or loss firralv he'eve.l in by n, Pn of scions, as well as l>reeder=uptoil,eem] n! the nineteenth century. Beeoher. writing at Hie close o f "ii , wvcnteenlli century. says:—"When a mare has had a mule bv'an ass. and j afterwards a foal by a horse there arc I ev:dently marl;s on the foal of the i "'other having retained some ideas of her.former paramour the a-s." Agassiz "ejd that the ovary wns so Diodißed by in? flr?t a-rt of feriimlation that " later Improiruations do not effnw the first impressions." , I