TUSSOCK AND FURROW.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14327, 12 April 1912, Page 10

TUSSOCK AND FURROW.

("AVeekly Press and Referee.")

Since writing last we have had a regular '•Indian-, summer," as tho Americans call .tliat period in tho autumn when a wonderful return to summer ' weather is experienced. A glance at'the trees in parks and gardens, though, tells pretty plainly that winter i.s just in the wings, and his entrance onto the. stage is only a matter of a few weeks now. Farmers have ac last got all their grain crops into the stack, nnd whilo they are waiting for them to mature and get into condition, they aro pushing on well with the multifarious duties of the autumn season.

All present appearances point to a reasonably good time for stock during lho winter, so far as uatural feed is "concerned. There is a wealth of grass in most of the paddocks yet, and growth is by no means over. Alany a man has uot a really good second and third cut of hay off his grass land, and the probability is that these subsequent crops will bo saved in'better condition than the first, for the protracted rainy weather did a good denl of damage to that. Anyway, the .situation presents considerable, difference to this timo 'hist year, when feed was so scarce.

The over to bo condemned grassgrub is getting in its lino work, and on quite a number of lawns about tho suburbs the ominous brown patches are beginniug to show up, while in the country I hear that signs of its work are also appearing. So fur as lawns are concerned, one must make the best of a had job. Otic can rake over the brown patches, scrapo away tbo dead grass, and re-sow the patch with seed, and then wait till the spring, when the lawn should look fairly respectable. I am going to try a scheme as follows:— Cut tho turf from off the affected patch, aud it will be seen that whereas somo of tho grass is quite dead, yet a fair proportion lias roots and would probably livo if it was not oaten further. Examine the underside of the turf that has been cut, and pull out and kill, any visible grubs. Then loosen tho soil of the patch from where the turf was taken, kill all grubs that are seen, and. then pour a good dose of absolutely boiling water carefully over the patch. With the recent warm weather nnd plentiful feed tho grubs should he near tho surface, and the boiling water-should slay.any you missed in the digging over. When the place had cooletl off, the cut turf could lie replaced, and, in the absence of the grubs, tho roots of the grass would have a chance to grow again, and the moistness of the soil would be an additional help.

At the last Cheviot Show there was one of the finest lot; of light horses I have seen at a district show this season. A fine team was sent from Stonyhurst that annexed a fair . proliortion of the prizes, and another, enthusiastic exhibitor wa.s Mr T. Gee, the secretary of "thc. Association, who •brought out his cobs and ponies iv the pink of condition. I' hc'nrd that Mr Gee had been taking.a tremendous lot of trouble over his strini; —sort of sitting up of nights with them—-and they looked like it. aud were a credit to his management. Taking it all round, the Cheviot Show was a most satisfactory display, and the Association were remarkably fortunate as regards the weather. . --',-' . .- There is.every likelihood of tlie Cheviot Show being" held on a dfferent

ground next year. The idea that a show-ground near the railway station at Mina'would be more desirable is fairly general, and it seems that there will bo ho trouble in getting the necessary space from the Government. At present, tho distance from railway to ground is a good mile,.-and',three-quar-ters,-nnd-this- necessitates a lot of carting of visitors'-to .-and fro. The officiah do not mind the driving of the show patrons, but as most of them havo more or less important duties to perform at tho grounds, it means that affairs are delayed, which state of things is not desirable.at a show. .

.Some, unfortiinato English farmer ba3 been in trouble about the question: "When docs a heifer become a cow?" Ho says:—"l have fallen between two stools." I showed a beast three years old off. She wa« not eligible for the heifer class, as she had a full mouth, so I entered her in the cow class. She was placed first there, but objected to as a cow becauso she had not had a calf. T's it customary in fat classes for beasts to be disqualified as cows until they have had a calf? l e - it, not a fact that many of our high-class show cattle are kept barren that they may retain the llesli, etc., about, the shoulder that they .otherwise • would not do had they had a rah?": ..'...'

Tlie paper in which tho plaintive query appeared rej.lied to tho effect that though not unanimous, the balance of opinion of breeders and judges was that a female of the bovine race was a heifer when not over three years old, and a cow afterwards, quite independent of whether she had a calf or not, and when she may have had such calf. In show catalogues,, however, " three-year-olds are sometimes-described as heifers. The same question arises with mares and fillies, and no one would contend that a ten-year-old that had never bred was still a filly. It Is customary, however, at fat stock shows, that cows have had calves. A heifer .s defined in dictionaries as a young cow, and is, therefore, a cow. Committees should frame their rules so that there can he no doubt thoir meaning.. If they expect the '.-'cows" to have had calves, aid to be over three years old, let them say so. A rather good yarn, which is said to have the merit, of beinu true, comes from a district less- than a dozen miles from Timaru. On a certain farm there is a certain cow which has always refused to allow a woman to milk it. But in this "catchy" weather time is precious, and a day or so ago the man who owns and has always milked the cow in question, w.lk out in the fields getting in his crops. His wife, a resourceful woman and a helpmate in the best sense of tho word, decided that she would milk thc cows that 'night, including tho one that showed such an aversion to women. But it was no good, the cow would not allow the woman to get near her. It suddenly dawned on the woman thnt she might work a little trick on tho cow, and" going to the house she dressed up in one of her husband's suits, and strolling back to tho stockyard with all the dignity of "a lord of creation," she had not the slightest

difficulty in approaching and milking the beast, which was quite content when it thought it ivai being milked by a man.

The value ol cow-testint: in shelving which cows were profitable ones and. as such, whoso progeny is worth keeping, is exemplified hv a communication to "The Dairyman." by Air W. .1. Byrne, the testing officer of the Thames Valley Cow-test ing Association. MiByrne says that a certain grade Jersey cow. one fit the best in the Association, averaged G1.721b of butter-fat for fivo monthly periods of tnirty days eachTho owner of this cow, before he joined the testing association, apparently did not think 'much of th? cow, for he sold a heiter calf to a neighbour for halt-a-crowii. Says .Mr Byrne: "The owner was not a member of the association when he soid tin's calf, and when he discovered bis loss he tried to buy it back again. The present owner declined to put a price on it. The incident impressed mc so much that I interviewed the owner and asked him if he would mind my sending these particulars to the "Dairyman" for publication, mv idea being that a lesson of that kind might'have a .salutary effect on other careless, dairymen."'

About the above transaction, the editor of tlie -Dairyman pertinently remarks: —"One of 'the most extraordinary sales of dairy stock ever known in the world was perhaps that sale a few wont lis ago near Paeroa. when a heifer calf from a cow making over 000 pounds of butter a year was sold for half-a-crovvn. Of course, the seller had not, the remotest idea in the world what he was selliii'_, but equally the buyer had no more knowledge, cither. If ever there was an "awful example" of "blind groping among cows." surely this is one. It seems that in the farmers' interests compulsory testing of 'dairy'cows should now lie "insisted on. and if. the yearly yield of butter-fat were firo-branded on each cow. then she would always realise her true, value."

A very queer case of alopecia in a. maro is related' by a correspondent of the "North British Agriculturist." Ho says that a neighbour of his had a mare six years old which lost all tho hair from*tail, mane, and body, with the exception ot the inside of tho ears. It began by falling away at ihe root of the tail by a small scab, and in tbo matter of two months was baro all over. The vet. who attended her said he never saw anything similar in all his experience. There wero no signs of tho hair starting to grow, and she eats and works as well■• as ever she did. The vet. also said that tiie maro was quite clear of mango.

Letting plants do tho work of tho jjlough seems a cheap and easy wa.v ot cultivation. About twenty years ago Air R. H. Elliot, or Clifton Park, Kelso, Scotland, put into practice on his estate a means of cheaply pulverising and enriching ihe soil by an effective process he had learnt in India. ancl which meant the disintegration of the sub-soil in tho manner in which the Scotch thistle acts on the surface, and his example has been followed with success in many counties in England and Scotland. An interesting lecture on the system was recently given to tho Agricultural Society of the University of AVales. The lecturer stated that the work has long since passed from tho early experimental stage, and is ripo for serious consideration in relation to its adoption as an underlying principle in farming. Tho system is extremely simple atul consists in doing by plants what is ordinarily dolio with the aid of implements and manures and consists in including in grass mixtures small quantities of strong rooting plants, such ns chicory, burnett, and kidney vetch. Tbo root development of these is so powerful as to penetrate deeply into tho hard subsoil, 'with tho result that tho ground is broken up and the rooting area for far less powerful plants extended, and spreading made easier. But the land is enriched as well as loosened by the cultivation of ■ plants 'with strong rooting qualities. Alany soils yield indifferently becauso" of a leficioiiey of humus or vegetablo matter with prolonged cultivation of crops. Tho inclusion Of seeds of deep-rooting plants in grass improves the pasture as well as-the land. Their largo root development makes them able to resist xlrought, and it has been shown at Clifton that rainless- seasons have littlo terror for tho stock-owner who has laid down his pasture according to Air Elliot's prescription.

A well-known Scottish breeder of Clydesdale horses, who acknowledeges he had hitherto had a contempt for tho Percheron horse, visited tho' recent great Chicago Show, and tho immense display of Percheron horses there affected him in a manner that he would have deemed .impossible.before crossing the Atlantic. Itemarking on the subject to the representative of a provincial Scotch newspaper, he said the display of Percherons was an eye-opener for him. Ho stilted that ho was as much convinced as before visiting tho show that tho conformation r f the Percheron was. on wrong lines; but tho remarkable sameness of typo, tho short hacks, ftill rounded quarters, ample heart space, and general appearance of the hundreds ot" thoso shown at Chicago, impressed him with the idea that the typo must havo been evolved with some special object in view for which his ideal of a horse was not suited, and henceforth, although lie could never bring himself to breed a Percheron, he would ceaso to decry the breed as he had been accustomed to do.

The following are name, of cows taken from various herds belonging to a New Zealand cow-testing association, and they prove that the cow-spanker does not lack in humour and originality:—All Fours, Happy, Fury, Up, Down. Pingtail; Screw-face, Flighty, Two Quid, Fidget, Softy, Puncn, Jenny .links. Croucher, Slicker. Twopence, Springholt, Flirt, Easy Ileddy, Llard llcddy, "Wildey, Hard Poany. Charmer, Annihilator, Friendship, Crawler, Long Legs, Stockings, .Fleetfoot, Sweep, Frisky, .Stumpy. Goat, Misery, Snuffler, Hob-tail, Grave v, Mangel Jaws, Lamey, Hurdler, Squincy, Ugly, Piggie, Limpy. Big Head, Bald-face, Madcap, Big Teats, Bottle Teats, Two Teats, Late Bird, Puffy Tent*, Blind .Eye, Milk Easy, Toughie. Holy Poly, Greyhound. Leather Teats, Loony, Smiler, Micky Doolan. Toddles, Buffalo, Jumper. Waster, Sticks. Circus. Sleepy, Gawk, Streaks, Barb Wire, Spark, Tuppeny, Hatty, Beeffie, Carpenter, Switcher, Snake, Halterer, Sulky, Sweet Nell of Old Drury. ■ ,