THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 24, 28 January 1921, Page 9

THE LAND.

By AGRICOL__.

CATCH CROPS. These may possibly be better ilct-cvilu-d as stubble crops, as it is on the land from which the grain lias been harvested that the earliest forage for spring is grown. H is uul'orrttiiiate that the practice of the immediate use of the stubble land is not more general, for a provision of green food at the end of t l,e winter, nr In-fore makes growth in spring, cannot be too highly appreciated.

It is fully recognised that in the host iarm practice the stubble lands are dealt with immediately after harvest. It is n ot quite to those conditions, or to those fanners wl, i are in : , position to put teams ou the stubble at the right moment that this is addressed, they know the value of the early fodder for the spring, or the land may be fallowed in the winter as a part of the farm system, but there arc those without that full equipment: they cannot deal quickly with stubble, it appears that the fact is overlooked, that on the greater part of the land that lias grown grain, the ploughing, all desirable, as we know it is. may be dispensed with and the stubble prop sown after the use of the disc and the spring-tooth cultivator. This, of course, witli some limitations, provides a reasonably fair seed bed. and the firm soil that is suitable to the plants that are usually associated with tlie catch crop. The most serious limitation is that weeds arc not greatly mocked by this surface cultivation. The crops that are suitable for the stubble are fairly varied: the most generally availed of i-: probably Italian rye, others are rape, winter vetches, ordinary rye, oats, sometimes barley. There are certain varieties of turnip that -do well, as Early Six Weeks. Stubble, and the Derbyshire Greystoue. In writing of tbe turnip, this if sown on the early lifted potato land, gives a good crop in most years. The stubble cultivated as mentioned is well suited to crimson clover. Trifolum incarnatum. The dairy farmer is strongly recommended to make a trial of this crop: it is one of the earliest of the plants to grow in spring. The yield on good soil in a favourable season is often enormous. In many districts iv the South of England crimson clover on the cultivated stubble and fed out as a soiling is the great reliance of the farmers who supply milk to tlie towns. It is a crop that weil merits the attention of our own dairy farmers. Tbe suggestion in this note is. the farmer should make a greater use of the stubble lands. A seed bed may be quickly prepared by the disc harrow and the spring-tQpth cultivator, and the green fodder is valuable in early spring time. TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTI-E. The Pasteurian Institute in France,, so well known throughout the world as the source of many discoveries in curative and preventive methods, and means of dealing with disease in men and animals, announces that the sub-director. Professor Calmette, and a colleague have prepared a serum, that they are satisfied is curative for tuberculosis in cattle, and that it is also possible that it may be proved to be effective in a still larger field. The greater number of farmers are aware that tuberculin is used as a test in the determination of the presence or otherwise of the disease in an animal. It was also used as a curative agent: for that purpose it is now seldom availed of. Tuberculin is a vaccine, not a serum. This is entirely different. As the terms vaccine and serum have become comparatively familiar to the farmer and stock owner, it may interest them to be advised of their different nature. A vaccine is the result of broken down or emulsified organisms in a saline solution. A serum is the watery portion of the blood of an animal, and when used as a curative or preventive agent, it is that part of tbe blood of an animal that has been previously infected or inoculated with the virulent living organisms of a disease and has become immune. There is the instance of this serum, of which we often hear in the antitoxin for diphtheria. A treatment, curative or preventive, for tuberculosis in cattle would afford an immense relief to the grazing, and particularly to the dairy industries. In tiie announcement that is quoted we may indulge in at least well-founded hope, for the institute of the late M. Pasteur is purely scientific, it has nothing to gain in the monetary aspect. There will be still no doubt a considerable amount of experimental work to be undertaken before a serum treatment for tubercle in cuttle can be permitted to come into veterinary practice, and we may be assured that whenever it is offered for service it will be effective, or if it fails to respond to expectations it will not be offered at all, unless all the conditions of efficiency combined with safety are fulfilled. THE LIFE OF A COW. A contributor to the English "'Live Stock Journal" says:—The average actual life of a cow is eight years. The possible productive life of a cow is 20 years. The writers best cow is the thirteenth calf of her dam. An Ayrshire cow.once gave in the writer's presence 13 quarts of milk in one day, with her fifteenth calf, and, at the same time she was too old for age to be indicated by her horns. A Jersey cow dropped her best calf, now a cow, when she was 10 years old. Xow what a loss there is in wearing out cows at 10 years old. A cow properly cared for is then in her prime and may compare with a man 40 3'ears old. At such an age a man lias 20 years of vigorous, useful life at least before him, and by husbanding his powers 10 years more may be added. A cow may just as well add six years more to her eight, and will, beyond a doubt, if she is well used, and still yield a better profit to her owner than a four-year-old cow. Thus the productive life or a cow may be euttua-U) doubled by good, laare aai'd usage. But how is this lengthened period of usefulness to be gained? In the first place, longevity is a hereditary characteristic, and careful selection and- breeding are required to secure it. Then constitutional vigour xavours it. This is secured through breeding and ea-rly training. The sound healthy calf must be well cared for, well fed, and care must he continued, and the cow's vital forces well nourished and husbanded. Exposure and irregular feeding, not to mention actual semi-starvation during the bare season, which is far too common, tends greatly to shorten the useful and productive life of a cow. It pays better to preserve a good cow than to rear a second-class one; and if one lives 1!> years and has 12 productive years, she uill have been worth more to her owner in the -y,l than three cows --iurht years old would have been. . For there will be 10 fully-productive years in the old cow's life against 10 partially-produc-tive years in that of the young ones.

PIGS. Sck-ct the breeding sows from early spring litters, when they are somethin--over six months old. An opinion can then be formed of which are more likely to prove lengthy, well shaped, of quiet disposition, good feeders and with a tendency to grow frame and size rather than to put on an excess of fat. The time of mating pigs deserves special oonsTvic-nition;, as young) sows that bred at too early an age, almost invariably produce smaller and weaker litters than those which are not allowed to do so until they are twelve months old. It is but reasonable that when the sow has to build up her own frame and complete her own maturity, that she should not bear the additional strain of a litter or it will prove detrimental to both the sow and the pro"env.