THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1922, Page 9

THE LAND.

XT Aamieo&av. THE SUMMER SOWN FORAGE CROP. A PROVISION, FOR LATE SUMMER AXD ACTUirX. There is always something hazardous in the sowing of a crop in summer; it H then the season of dry weather, the germination of the seed may be so imperfect that the crop may be unprofitable, or even though there may bt> a sufficiency of plants, the protracted ab;enee of rain may seriously militate against the vigoi us' growth that is essential for \ha production of succulent and palatable forage. Still, when an ample provision for late summer, autumn, and wintertime has not been made, there are crops that commend themselves to the stock owner for this purpose; among them arc [soft turnips, maize, millet, Italian rye grass, Cape barley, etc. THE SOFT TURNIP. This is a safe crop, unless there may come the exceptional season. The main turnip crop, the swede, in some districts is often sown in the first ten days of January, and with very general success; therefore the soft turnip may be fairly relied upon; it is recognised that the turnip, when once it is established, will without great harm withstand a considerable length of time with but a modicum of rain.

It is fully accepted tliat tlie turnip is iar from being the ideal food for the cow in milk; if it in made use of for the cow at that time there is the probability of imparting to the milk the undesirable flavour that is associated I with not only the turnip, but with all members of the cabbage family. This objection may be almost, if not entirely, overcome if reasonable precautions are observed to avoid the contamination of the milk; the chief precaution is that I the animals should not be allowed to consume turnips when the time for milking is near. The time to allow the cows on turnips is so soon as the morning milking is finished; as well a* this, the time during which the cows are allowed to remain on the crop should be limited to a few hours, or, if the roots are carted out to the milking stook, the quantity should be restricted to what may be consumed during the hours of the' morning; but with these precautions: It may never be forgotten that roots of any kind, if they are to be used to the best advantage, require the supplementation of some other food; this may take the form of a run-off to a pasture of rough grass, or the provision of c, liberal supply of fodder or forage. Roots should never be allowed to form the sole food of stook, least of all may this be permitted to apply to the cow in milk. Dry stock may be permitted to consume a practically unlimited quantity of roots, but even such animals make by far the better use of roots in their food, when they have access to some other source of nutrition; thia may be rough pasturage, or 'something carted out to them, for dry material of some description is a marked craving for all stock confined to roots,; fern, manuka, or scrub of any kind 'will be sought for and eaten greedily; this may be easily understood, for roots alone form Wit inadequate material for the process, all necessary to sheep and cattle, that of rumination.

MAIZE AXO 'MILLET. These may be sown with very good prospects of at least a fair crop. The special value of malse and millet will be apparent in the not unusual season of a moist early summer, followed with a protracted period without rain; a time such as that has been experienced far into the autumn, even into winter. The limitation to the value of usefulness of these two crops is that of susceptibility to the damaging effect of early frost: however, in ordinary conditions, both crops will have been consumed before the advent of that colder season, and there is always the great recourse »f the silage stack; this may also be taken advantage of in seasons when the forage i-rops are not greatly required, as in moist years, when the pasture provide * for the stock without the assistance of the supplementary supply. There is with the silage stack the very great satisfaction that these crops may be secured irrespective of weather conditions; also that it i* a reserve {or the winter, and even for the summer to follow. LATE SOWN CEREAI-β. There is a greater uncertainty attending a cereal, a» Cape barley, that is sown at this season; the germination may lie all that is satisfactory, the plants may grow well for a time, but with the firSt dry weather there is the check to the plants; with that comes the natural inclination to form the seed head; there is then no further growth, the weight of the crop if lessened, and utility for forage is seriously impaired. It may not be overlooked that although there is an uncertainty with Cape barley sown now. it is not a costly crop, it provides a valuable food for all farm stock, one of the most acceptable, and that there are districts in Xew Zealand where Cape barley sown in January is relied upon for feeding-off and even for cutting for forage in early autumn. Both sheepmen and dairymen should sow at least a small plot of Cape barley, if even only for the purpose of making a test. ITALIAN" RYE GRASS. This plant is considered to provide a I more reliable crop than a cereal, vritn the possible exception of Cape barley. It may be sown at almost all times of the vea'r, with the assurance that something I will come of it; sown now, it may suffer *rom want of rain, it may be ready later than expected; even if it is not available for autumn feeding, it will be useful in the winter. With Italian rye-grass there is also the satisfaction that with reasonable management it will last more than the season in which it has been sown. In this reference to Italian rye grass it will be understood that the morclately introduced "Western Woltag" is included; it is probable that the chief i difference is that the latter yields eomn>vhat the heavier crop, and that it is more truly an annual than the former; still, under ordinary conditions, the Italian rye-grass is* an exceedingly useful forage crop. LUCERNE. TUo other crop, the one that is the greatest of the summer resources of the farm, is lucerne. It could be sown now. but it is late, and if the stockowner — very certainly if he be a dairy farmer— iia» not already a few acres of lucerne

for tic forage of this season, let him look around and observe the plant on some of the surrounding properties. He will assuredly have lucerne next year.

It is undoubtedly a gratification to the advocates of this plant to learn that it is in use, and in the high appreciation of many very progressive owners of live stock; included among them are foremost stud breeders of sheep and cattle.

Lucerne is becoming the true security of the dairy-farmer; it is ready for tlie cows early in spring, and it does not fpil them in summer. We may be still some way distant from the- time when en the farm, where animals of any description may be found, that the field of lucerne is as constant a feature as the pastures of grass. U ia difficult of comprehension that lucerne with some is still looked upon as something apart from tin- usual farm crop; this should not be so. II is a plant that has been in cultivation for ages, and it. is the reliance of the stockkeeper in the driest of seasons in mainlands. In countries where vegetation of every kind is withered and wasted from tlie want of moisture, the luxuriance and the vrvid green of the folia>r<; is the constant evidence and the full testimony of the esteem of lucerne in those lands where Xature is far from so Kindly as in Xcw Zealand. COLOUR OF BUTTER. An interested rcajer aeks: What is •he origin of the golden colour of butter; is cream which gives white butter de'cicnt in any necessary quality and is there a harmless colouring" matter which may be added?

Tt is accepted that the colour is due to the presence of a substance known as laetoehromo: it is believed that it ■is correlated with the chlorophyll of plants. This is deduced from -the <irthat the yellow—actually yellow with a faint tiiige of green- is directly influenced by the dietary of tlio animal. Fresh grass, legumes, and some other plants intensify (he colouring-, while roots, and especially potatoes, with certain cereals, exercise an opposite effect. It may not, however, he overlooked that certain breeds of cattle, as Jerseys and Guernseys, do nrodiue milk that provides a more highlycoloured butter than the cows of Shorthorn, Friesian. Ayrshire and some other breeds. It is claimed that the Jersey and the Guernsey are endowed with the power of a grpater assimilation of this substance from the food that is consumed than is possible to other rattle. This is <by no means actually substantiated: it would be extremely debatable, for the whole question of animal nutrition would be involved. It will be realised that it H difficult to accept the fact that the breeds in question possess to an extreme extent the power of extracting this substance from the food and of storing it in their tissues to enable them to produce a highly-coloured butter from their milk, although their dietary may have been deliberately deprived of the materials that arc believed to be rich in the materials that supply the colouring. Another term for the colouring substance is that of carotin; it is possibly not actually correct to aay another term, but it conveye the meaning. In reality the colouring substance is contained in the chlorophyll of the plants that the animal consumes, aad chlorophyll is the name of the substance or substances that give the plant its green colour. The colour of butter is not of itself an indication of quality; there is no deficiency of an essential element, but a highly-coloured 'butter ha* a commercial value and it ie popularly appreciated. The deep yellow colour is obtained •by the addition of * harmless preparation extracted from a tree; it ie known as aniratto. This at one time wae almost exclusivelj- an export from Spain. It is now said that the vegetable colouring ie provided by the use of an aniline preparation.