FARM TOPICS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9993, 24 March 1898, Page 2

FARM TOPICS.

Cosvertiko Thistles into Ensilage. On land that was bant last year a Kapanga (Taranaki) settler had a tremendous crop of thistles, and hearing a good deal about ensilage he thought of giving it a trial with what hitherto, at least in that district, had been considered a perfect nuisance. So he carted in about forty tons of the thistles into a stack and weighted it, and he is of the opinion that the affair will be a success. If such fodder comes out all right it will (says the Hawera Star , * correspondent) take another care off the settler's shoulders, as the thistle has been a trifle too prolific in the past, and every year each settler can collect a good-size stack, which will go a long way to obviate the usual shortness of feed in the winter. PoTtfTO-GROWIXG ESPKRTMEKTS. An extensive system of field experiments in manuring the potato crop was planned and carried oat last year in Fifeshire under the direction of Professor Wright, of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. When the plots under observation came to be tested, however, it was found that the abnormal meteorological conditions

ing influence upon the crops as to nullify the practical value of the results obtained. The individual yields derived were puzzling and contradictory to a degree. For instance, from the unmanured plot on one farm a yield of 6 tons was gathered, against an average of 5 tons 18cwt from the plots dressed with 15 tons per acre farm yard manure, and 5 tons 12cwt for the plots which received 4cwt superphosphate in addition to the dung. The average for the unmanured plots, however, was 3 tons 12cwt 3qrs per acre, which showed a good return for the farm yard manure, although the artificial dressings were all economic failures. The results are not altogether devoid of significance, however, for they bring out very clearly the vital extent to which the success or failure of farm crops is dependent upon the climatic forces irrespective of the methods of tillage and manuring adopted. The notorious uncertainty and changefulness of the atmospheric conditions form one of the greatest obstacles with which British farmers have to contend, and the Fife potato growers had the truth of their helplessness brought home to them in telling fashion hwt year. It may be mentioned that the tuber crop was an exceptionally light one in that county, the yield, as the figures quoted indicate, having been less than half an average in some parts.

Purchasing Artificial Manures

The Tyneside manures merchants have issued the following warning to purchasers of superphosphate : —The commercial/ alue of a superphosphate entirely depends upon its guaranteed minimum percentage of soluble phosphate, though all superphosphate of whatever strength contains at the very least 2 per cent, of insoluble phosphate. Some unscrupulous, dealers, however,, by adding the soluble and insoluble phosphates together, convey an entirely false impression of the strength of the manure, and secure for themselves thereby at least an extra 2s 6d per ton profit. A superphosphate, for example, of 28 to 30 per cent, soluble phosphate and two or three ditto insoluble phosphate, contains a total of 30 to 33 per cent, phosphate lime, but is only sold by the manufacturers as a 28 per cenc. manure. Farmers are consequently warned against accepting invoices of this character, which are usually intended not only to make the superphosphate appear of higher analysis and commercial value than they really are, but to handicap the honest dealer who strictly retails the same strength as he himself purchases wholesale. This warning, however, does not invariably apply to bone manures. Inspection of Imported Horses Advocated. The importation of 50,000 horses annually into Great Britain is anything but an unmixed blessing, says the Live Stock Journal. It was discovered that when live cattle were imported we at the same time imported cattle diseases. The foreign horse importation is regularly accompanied by diseases. It is not publicly recognised, because the majority of the diseases they bring us are not necessarily fatal, and because the class of buyers who purchase them is not organised and has no corporate voice to let its grievance be known and impress it on the public and the authorities. Influenza, strangles, septic pneumonia—not to mention glanders—are continually introduced into this country by foreign horses, and the loss therefrom is enormous. Large private buyers know this too well, and they feel that the time has arrived when a system of efficient inspection of foreign horses at the port of landing is urgently needed. The inspection jieed not be so strict as would stop importation, but it should be sufficiently so to protect our own stock from continual recrudescence of contagious disease due to the dispersion of infected" foreign horses throughout this country. The fact of inspection being enforced at our ports would make importers careful to avoid purchasing infected horses.