VARIETY IN FARM STOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 20

VARIETY IN FARM STOCK.

they could turn out a better article than they were doing, but why should they worry when they got no more for doing 80. The Northern Wairoa held the record in the North for the lowest amount of second grade butter. For six years their average had only been .22 per cent. The more second-grade butter Bent to the London market the more the reputation of the country was likely to suffer, and farmers must remember this when forwarding their cream to the factory. There are undoubtedly faults in the cream grading system, and suppliers usually grieve because they think the grader incompetent. Generally speaking this is not so, the grader being a man of high integrity and capable of good work. Contamination causing second-grade butter, comes from the farm, the milk from a healtby cow-on good food, milked under clean conditions, being sterile, and if the cream arrives at the factory bad it must have been exposed to contamination —generally through dirt. Once contaminated, it gets worse as it goes along. Do not put the responsibility on the factory as the defect is always on the farm.

When the farmer gets a second-grade ticket, it is up to him to find out the cause and apply a remedy, and if he is Unable to do this the instructor will help him. Quality of cream usually goes down when machines arp installed, Usually through not keeping up a proper degree of cleanliness. One dirty tube is enoush, even if the rest of the machine is a model of cleanliness, and it is just as important to keep clean the air pipes as that through which the milk is actually conveyed. If the surroundings are at all dirty, bad air is pumped through tlie milk from the air inlet, and the same at the releaser. Washing should be done with cold water first, then with hot water and soda, and finally with scalding water. Hard brushes are bad for rubber tubes, but it _ does them good to be periodically boiled in a solution of caustic soda which tends to preserve them. The same applies to inflations. Ropy cream is caused by a bad water supply. Once in the machine it must be got rid of before

interesting things, such as poor constitution, sloping rump, bad-shaped udder, etc., and still have papers ; After all, everything has a pedigree. The old cat that hangs around the stable and drinks the milk from the pail, although possibly not purebred, has a pedigree. But no one bothers about it. In the game way, a bull from a purebred dairy cow that produces only 40001b milk and 1501b fat, if she is from purebred ancestry, can be registered, and have a printed pedigree, but there is not much chance that he will greatly improve the herd in which he is placed. A pedigree is only as good as the amount of selection that has been carried out in the animals that make up that pedigree. "Yes/" says the buyer of the bull with papers, "but my bull traces back directly to Princess Lady Countess, who produced over 7001b butter-fat as a two-year-old." This may be perfectly true, also. No doubt Princess Lady Countess was an excellent cow, and her sons were also no doubt good, but how far back was she in the pedigree—was it four generations? Professor Galton formulated what he called the law of ancestral inheritance, which, briefly stated, says that the two parents between them contribute on the average one-half of each inherited faculty. Each parent therefore contributes one-quarter. The four grandparents contribute between them onequarter, and so on. Put in tabular form, therefore, we get an interesting result: Influence Influence Generation Number of gene- pf each back. of an- ration .individual ward, cestors. per cent. per cent. 1 2 50.00 23.00 2 4 25.00 6.23 3 S 12.05 1.50 4 16 C.25 .39 We therefore find that our hope (Princess Lady Countess) doe 3 not have a very large influence on our bull—to be exact, only .39 per cent., while his dam, who has only made 40001b milk, has 25 per cent. The lesson we learn from this table is the importance of studying the pedigree, and before anybody buys a pure-

bred bull he should ask the following questions: (1) Is he a good individual, and of the type wanted? (2) Is his sire a good individual, and of the correct type? (3) Is his dam a good individual, and what was her record for milk and butterfat? (4) Were all his four grandparents good Individuals, and did the females make good records?

Of course, the farther we can go back and be assured the pedigree contains only good individuals the better, and the more likely it is that ho will throw good calves. It is, however, essential that before we chose our herd sire we should be sure that he is a good individual, and that his three nearest dams had good records. To-day, with no such record of performance, and low testing work, it needs a pretty good excuse to tako the place of records.

PROTEIN. Protein is a term used to name a : large number of compounds, all : of which contain nitrogen. These nitrogen compounds arc not found in large quantities in most plants. They are more plentiful in the growing parts of plants, such as the leaves, rather than the >' stem. They are also plentiful in certain parts of the seed—the germ and outer coatings generally carry a higher percentage of the protein than the rest of the seed. The legume plants —lucerne, all the clovers, peas, beans—are all rich in protein. These plants, through the bacteria which grow on their roots have the peculiar ability to take nitrogen from the air and, using it directly, thrive upon it and 'build up stores of protein within themselves. All othei plants require protein in order that they may grow and mature into Teal crops, but this supply of nitrogen must be supplied through some form of fertiliser. Consequently, the legume should bo grown extensively on every farm because, instead of requiring fertilisation of the soil with protein material, they will grow on a poorer soil and enrich it; they produce large quantities of protein, rich feeding materials, and they carry in generous quantities those desirable mineral products essential for bone building. The proteins are complex structures carrying thousands of atoms to the molecule; the exact' forms of only a few are known. The proteins of the food in the process of digestion are broken down into simple structures called ammo acids, and then are rebuilt in the body of "the animal into animal proteins, which are more complex than are the vegetable proteins. At least J eighteen of these ammo acids are re- i quired in the building of animal pro- ' teins in the body. Carbohydrates are so named because they are composed of the three elements.

carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in certain proportions. They are abundant in all plants and form the bulk of all crops grown on the farm. There are different groups of carbohydrates, the chief of -which are the starches, the sugars and fibre. While these three great carbohydrate groups constitute the very large part of all our farm crops and must form the greater part of all animal food, yet they scarcely exist in the animal body. There is no fibre in tho animal body. There is a small amount of animal starch called plycogen in the liver and throughout the muscular tissue. Though this modified starch performs an important function in the body, yet in amount it is insignificant. The legumes carry the greatest amount and most valuable part of their protein material in thp leaves and more tender stems. In making them into hay and in feeding them every effort should be made to prevent any waste of the leaves.

Protein forms a larger proportion of tho animal body than it does of plants Lean meat or muscular material is essentially protein material. The vital organs, likewise, arc chiefly proteid material. The white of egg and milk both carry a large proportion of differing proteid compounds. Greater quantities of protein are needed by young and growing animals, by breeding , females and by making stock of all kinds, than is needed by working, mature or fattening stock. The protein in tho food performs peculiar and specially important functions. It is essential for body growth in all young animals. It is an important constituent of milk. It must be supplied to repair tissue which through work is constantly wearing out. It is essential to the activity of every cell of the body. A sufficient supply" of it cannot be overlooked without serious consequences.

It is generally recognised that tho chief physical properties of a soil affecting plant growth are moisture, aeration, temperature, texture, and tilth. The moisture content is affected by drainage ill wet soils and by keeping a loose surface free from weeds in the dry season. Since the free air space in a soil is that space not occupied by water, it follows that aeration is dependent on moisture control. The factor most under control is tilth.

The secret of feeding pigs is to know how to feed enough without feeding too much. This subject has been talked about by the best pig-breeders, but the main points cannot be worn out or diecussed toe nWh.