EDITORIAL FARM NOTES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8544, 26 July 1893, Page 2

EDITORIAL FARM NOTES.

Weekly Press. THE DIRECTORSHIP OF LINCOLN SCHOOL We learn with very great regret that Mr J. I! Thompson, Principal of Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales, to whom the directorship of the above institution was offered, has declined to accept it. Mr Thompson ie perhaps one of the most able agriculturists in the whole of the Australian Colonies. He was chosen director of the Victorian Agricultural College at Dookie, where he proved himself a most successful disciplinarian, and Dookie soon became, under his management, a flourishing institution. It now remains for the commission which has been appointed in England, consisting of the Agent General, the Earl of On alow, Mr J. Tosswill and Mr Peter Cunningham, to make the best selection they can out of the English applicants. No doubt they will get a good man ; but it will be a verJ great piece of good fortune if they get a Thompson.

THE SETTLERS' GUIDE TO NBW ZEALAND. This is the title of a little manual published by the New Zealand Shipping Company, and, as its name indicates, it is designed to meet the wants of intending, emigrants. Every item of interest to new eettlers is dealt with in a concise manner. The method of obtaining land for settlement Is fully explained. The whole of the products, including agricultural, pastoral, mining and manufacturing, are fully explained. The passage money to this colony for certain classes of emigrants has been materially reduced, the conditions under which passages at reduced rates will be granted are, first, the applicant must be prepared to take with him to the colony an amount of capital equal to £100 for himself and £50 for each member of his family over twelve years; and in order that theee conditions may nob be evaded, the applicant must produce to our AgentGeneral before the contract ticket is Issued a bank draft payable in New Zealand. The Agent-General is true to bis expressed convictiqns, viz., that New Zealand wants an influx of population, provided that they can bring some means with them as well as a knowledge of farming. The little handbook is edited by Mr Bentley, and will be found useful even as a reference manual.

SKIM MILK FOB CALVES. At the lowa Experimental Station some interesting and carefully-conducted experiments have been recently carried out, the result being that the calves fed on skim milk (hand skimmed) with the addition of a little linseed meal, calculated by analysis to contain a corresponding amount of fatty matter to that remove! , in the cream, have been found :to thrive equally well with those which have been fed on whole milk, and at less cost. The trial cannot be said to have been a satisfactory one; the skim milk should have been separated. Mr R. Withell, Brookside, who is an intensely practical man in matters of the dairy, runs a separator, and his testing is, that calves and pigs thrive Infinitely better on separated skim milk than they evea did on hand skimmed, and the calves do not scour.

NEW BUTTJBB AND CHXKSB FACTORIES FOB THE NORTH ISLAND. Aa showing the rapid development of the above industries in the North Island, it may be mentioned that three batter factories are being built at Feilding, and will be ready for work by September Ist; At Halcombe there is a cheese factory; a large central factory is being arranged for to deal with the produce of several creameries; at Palmerston North a similar factory is to be erected; at Patea the largest cheese factory on the Coast is arranged for; at Lupperton a co-opera-tive factory has been erected, and another at Cheltenham. At Colyton and at Ashurst factories are to be built; at Makereta a factory is being built. Ie is estimated that the additional output of butter in the coming season will be 600 tons and of cheese 230 tons.

THE VALUE OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES. Mr Fleming, farming in the Waikaka Valley, Gore, Otago, baa this last season made aome Interesting experiments with seven different kinds of manures. MrFleming is a large grower of turnips—in one paddock, of uniform quality, he applied the same money's-worth, 14s 6d per acre, to a crop of turnips. Four practical men were appointed to examine and report on the crop, placing the manures in their order of merit as indicated by the crops produced by each, the following is the finding:—

1. Lane's Turnip Manure 2. Sydney Bones 3. DunedinTurnipFertiliser 4. Indian Bones (Ward) 5. Dunedin Bough Bones 6. Maiden Island Guano 7. Common Salt The rest of the crop was treated with lfcwt of bones and Coral Queen Guano, half and, half, which showed results little, if at all, inferior to the beat of the above. Wβ are not surprised at the above recorded results. No, 1 preparation being immediately soluble, No. 2, we presume, being steamed and finely ground. It would be interesting to continue the experiment by sowing corn in the various plots, and recording the results which might be expected to place Nos. 4 and 5 in a favourable position. Howeyer modern practice looks for prevent results, each crop being supplied with its own requirements, and no more. MILK FEVER. As the season is now advancing when cows will be calving, it may be advisable to direct attention to this matter, In order that dairy farmers may have some decided mode of action, in ease of need. At a recent meeting of the members of. the Waikato Farmers' Club, Captain Ranciman gave his experience of milk fever. He eaid ihat for forty years he had lost on an average a cow each year from the disease, but he was pleased to say that owing to a remedy which he would now place before them, he had not had any loss for some time past. First: Put the cow in the bale, if she can walk, and give her twenty drops of the strongest aconite in about one pint of cold water. Second: Bleed her; to effect this, take a small rope and make a loop on it, so as to draw it tight round the cow's neck, pretty low down, which will at once rise the blood vein. Then use your fleam, and take ten to twelve pounds of blood from either side of the neck most convenient to get at. When you have taken the above quantity of blood slacken the rope and the bleeding will stop. Third: Get an old rug or blanket and wring it out of cold water, and double it up so as merely to cover the back, body and loins of the cow. On the top of the wet rufr put two or three sacks, and keep turning the rug and wringing it out of cold water at each alternate turning, say every quarter of an hour. Directly you have laid on the rug and sacks commence to inject in behind, from a half-inch pipe, fourteen to fifteen inches long, with a bladder attached to it, about two gallons" of dean, cold water, and keep on injecting about one gallon every hour till the inflammation goes down, which will take five or six ours. Fourth: About an hoar after you have given her the twenty drops of aconite give her one plot of raw linseed oil and half a pound of Kpscm salts, and keep on giving her five drops of aconite in one pint of cold water about every hour until you get the inflammation fairly under. It is easy to know when the inflammation is gone, as the rug ceases to heat as it did when first applied. The cow will then get up, shake off the rug, and walk away.

THE PORE INBTTSTBY. * Jast as the dairy industry has obtained a firm footing in New Zealand, Mr Yecht, the representative of the largest mess pork curing companies in the world; makes his appearance in New Zealand in:search of Dew fields of operation. After careful enquiry and experimenting he has come to tbe conclusion that thia country offers a fair field for establishing a flourishing business. A manager and an engineer and other experts have bees appointed, and will soon arrive in the colony, when active operations in the way of building factories will be commenced. We are pleased to learn that a factory is to be built In tbe vicinity of ChrietcJaurcb, where it is contemplated that WOO pigs. per week will be required throughout the year. Tbls number may not be forthcoming at once, but there can be little doubt but that the number will rapidly increase as farmers

begin to realise the profitableness of «■%- will be paid for all pigs of 1401b and ovS*

WILL THREEPENCE PER POUsfl> PAY| Some farmers may aay that thU nrie* WIL no l paT « but we venture to Zm£ with them on this head for 1& following reasons:-Ist, because S! animal* only require to be gnu* fed tt£n about three weeks prior to killing wkS they should be fed on peas and boITS? 2nd, because they will b? *£$**{& factory throughout th* year durine th« hottest a* well as the coolest weafhSS 3rd, because the separated milk wffi hi available for feeding purposes. TV Danes, who may be described as iateni. economists, make pig feeding the leading feature on every dairy farm, and kseponf sow for each cow, from which they rt**i,l a return averaging £8 per sow! HShZ Danish dairy farmer can do thie why not the New Zealand dairy farmer, who hamiS immense advantage in the matter <3 climate &c. w w

HOW PIGS MAY BE RAISED. To succeed in pig raisins some UtUe trouble and expanse must be incurred In commencing the business. In the tint place a certain amount of the best land on the farm should be set apart for the bail ness and divided into paddock* noi ex ceediag cay fire acres each; these should be securely divided by pig-proof fences. Vigorous crops of red clover and cow grass should always be coming forward There should also be & paddock of lacerai thoroughly cultivated for soiling purpose*. A paddock of prairie erase would probSb be found a most valuable auxiliary to* winter and early spring feeding. A U» acres ct mangolds and peas mass be grow*. the former for carrying the young on tiS they are ready for topping up with fc&a peas. An acre or two of intermediate carrots would be found very serviceable— indeed indispensable. The grazing peddocks should be connected by gates, the object being to change the pigs frequently a matter of considerable importance. A plentiful supply of water should be provided. It will also be necessary to provide shelter from the weather and shade from the sun. SHELTER. SHKDS. These can easily be constructed by ilafc. ing any kind of rough posts in the ground projecting four or five feet over the surface. The wall plates,, and rafters may be of the roughest material and the whole covered with iroa or, what would be still better, a tkiek coab of thatch, which would be found much cooler and a little cheaper. It U absolutely necessary that shelter shed* should be provided, as heat is equal to half feed during winter. DOUBTS. There may be some excuse for fanssn being a little sceptical about this neir phase of the pig industry, seeing that to much money has been lost in ventures having for their object the curing of baooa: but a little investigation wQI ataplj demonstrate that there are no grounds Sr doubts as to the feasibility of the raw scheme. In the firat place, farmers are not asked to contribute one penay towards the cost of erecting the factories. All that will be required of them wQI be to study their own interests by supplying the demand as rapidly as thaj can. We believe that we are correct Iα stating that Mr Vecht is prepared to guarantee a minimum price of 3d per IJ> for all that can be produced for some years to come. The expenditure of £20.000 on each factory erected ia New Zealand trill, we presume, be sufficient guarantee of his bona fides. We have now placed the matter fairly before our readers, believing tost the industry worked in conjunction with the dairy industry is capable of eaenaoaj expansion. And we see no reason to dettbi but that it will make a very good teeond compared with the frozen meac trade. It is an industry particularly adapted to small holdings. Quick returns with little outlay.

INTERCOLONIAL PLOUGHING MATCH, TASMANIA. It has been arranged that a great latercolonial Ploughing Match shall be held la the Clarence district in September next in the South of Tasmania. Competitors are invited from all the colonies. Hones wfß be found for the strangers. There are four classes: The Champion Cl&is for Single Furrow Ploughs, first: prize dSS, second .£ls, third £1C Second Class, for those who have never wou a prize Iα any class. A Champion Class for DiSubSs Furrow Ploughs, first prize £25, second £15, third £10. Wβ understand that New Zealand manufactures will be represented by the firms of Messrs Beid and Grey and P. and D. Dancao. Special arrangements are to be made with the Union STS. Company regarding passengers, &c. Wa wttfc the little colony every success in its under* taking. There is one thing we rasj guarantee, which is, that sfaonld any New Zealand ploughmen venture across to try conclusion* with Tasmania, flwjf* will not have a walk over. Tasmania wit once famous for ploughing matches fcftl the excellence of the work done.

A PASTOKAMSTS' CONVEBSAZIOSrE, We gather from our Sydney ales t» hand that the manager of the Loan aai Mercantile Agency Company, in conjunction with Mr Harden Harry GresTM r . entertained a large and represaatwte gathering of pastoralistt in the €bfi«te of Commerce. Amongst the guests we?s Messrs Tanner, D. M'Caoghley, W. Gray, A. S. Patterson, P. C. Threlkeld, H. o*«r ton, T. C Sfcudholme, and E. Meskfi, New Zealand Sheep breeders. The cmception was a happy one, the object belwrfcs bring the strangers into contact witls tosfr brethren of Australia. Daring the ermim discussions took place regarding sheep. Mr H. Overton spoke on tfas subjw-t «f cross-breeding as carried oa ia New Zealand, pointing out the rnscy *drsnta|fi secured to this colony by Us climate » Gray also descanted on ths climatic eoaditlons of Otago, referring afc some ksftfrto the Border Leicester breed of «**§ which, he stated, ia now the mositt*K» for crossbreeding in Ofcago. Mr P. C. Threlkeld read an interesting paper oa WβEnglish Leicester. Kis authority So *jws« on the subject may fairly be based sa«® : fact that he is the winner of over<SQOfpwr at agricultural shows ia New • 25* aw- » E. Tanner spoke of the Llccolf sa| Romney Marsh sheep from a Eottb Ba* point of view. Mr Menlove aI&Q gate »4 experience in breeding crossbred *SW$ from Lincoln and Border Leicester ra«S» Mr A. S. Patterson (Donedia) reviewed tee frozen meat trade from its commencement, pointing out that it had been the me*|!j* bringing in £7,000 000 to the people of It** Zealand, and that it had not only KHe||E| colony oufe of debt but h&d &&&m .£25,000,000 to pastoral values. Wei«• pleased to learn that, although the «•* Zealand sheep did not command t»* %W prices as might reasonably bave bHe.ej* pscted. stiU the market has and it is more than probable, from ell«» we can learn, that our sheep wiil favour as they become better kaowa, es* ultimately a good demand will gw*:*fc Wβ notice that Tasmania baa repgpF sent for the Sydney sales a couple of tsar ments of atud sheep, numbering l£®t* half of which were long-wools, ta* W mainder being merinos.

THI EELATION OF CaPrXAI. TO. AGKCiS* TTJIUE AND IABOUB IN SSW 2*AliJ»'''

This is the title of a little tUrq«*g page pamphlet published (b/ m*"%c[ Mr G. D. Hamilton, president of P* Woodville Farmers' Olab. The porgf* ¥- the pamphlet, as its name icatcaisM* to show how the progress of the colo&T*** been hindered by the high rate ef charged on loans for e»a pastoral purposes. Mr Hftmilimjj* * strong advocate for "state al<J te and thinks that Government sfeoaMSNJSe*" pared to advance money at 5%, to settlers to clear bash land. Helsatog' favour of the small farm * averse to indiscriminate lnxmlgra«o» *** the sake of cheapening labour, J!, not wanted, ba£ the use of money i* *Jr rates for those already here te »s»S land productive, and so make the ,®f f of taxation easier. to show what can be done by in breeding valuable stock, &c, &c. importation of stock and genersi «| management are all dealt with s£ rr. Hamilton who explains the system proving stock by the French Go irera fS which is to have small State fans* *B»3 pedigree sires are kept for the ««• farmers. The pamphlet asder «n«*** tion deals with a large variety pt and although we may not o® &W rfffl follow the author in ail his tbeerfefc •» there is a very larjre anaouct of j l * 6 formation contained therein, aoa ** compliment him upon Ms work,