AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3175, 9 December 1927, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

The influence of good sires goes on for ever. • # # » Feed is wasted by not supplying the right kind of feed to make a balanced ration with the roughage fed. ♦ * * High-producing cows do not come by accident, but are the result of careful breeding, judicious feeding, and intelligent handling. * # » * Exercise, fresh air, comfortable, sanitary housing, sane feeding, with reasonable care, will take most herds through the year with few mishaps. ' * * * Over-feeding will tend to impair the digestion and to produce a feeling of discomfort, which may be highly prejudicial to the progress of fattening.

It is true with dairy sires, as with all other classes of live stock, that the weaknesses of the sires' are visited upon his sons, even to the third and fourth generations. * # * ft Pure-bred bulls from tested cows which breeders are prepared to sell at reasonable prices, can generally be relied upon to recoup the purchaser in the first crop of heifers. i ■ * # * I Have you ever figured out what position your herd or flock will occupy, five years from now? A good deal will depend upon the sire used, selection of females, and proper feeding. * * * Perhaps the wild white cattle of Chillingham Park, in England, are the best illustration of incestuous breeding. These cattle have been preserved in this park for more than 700 years with no infusion of other blood.

* * # In reply to a suggestion that cows should be milked by men and women wearing gloves, a farmer writes to state that he has tried it, and the time taken was twice as long, the cows on their part objecting to the gloves. * * * Potassium, or potash, is necessary for the formation of earbonhydrates, which make up the starch of potatoes, '• the sugar of fruits, and the fibrous or 1 woody matter, of grain, straw, and other plants. * * * Grooming not only cleans the skin, but also opens the pores of the body, which enables much of the poisons in the body to escape by way of the skin, Tather than throwing an extra strain on the kidneys. # • » If the general appearance of the bull is satisfactory, then Ms pedigree for at least six generations should be studied. If the females in his ancestry have good production records for this number of generations, it is likely that his daughters will inherit this trait. • * • "Boiling" is an operation seldom carried out, but it does much good on light land in the early spring. It. strengthens any grasses or clovers that may have been lifted by the frost or I loosened by stock, and it is also very beneficial where the grass grub has been prevalent. * * ♦ "If once we get this compulsory registration of bulls, and the improvement of our stock that would follow, the cry among farmers would be —as it has been over the Daylight Saving Bill —what fools we were to oppose such a measure."—Correspondent in the English Farmer and Stockbreeder.

Internal parasites in lambs and pigs cause unthriftiness, and in some instances death. Young stock running on old pastures are most subject to infection. Our farm animals to-day are merely machines to convert vegetable matter into food that can be used by man, and they must use all the food fed them if they are to make you the most profit for the money you have invested in them and the food. * * * In rearing calves, an important point is to feed the young animals regularly. Food consisting of separated milk, to which cream substitute has been added, should not be cold when given to the calf. Regulate the food to about 90 degrees F. for twelve hours and then see that utensils used for feeding are kept scrupulously clean. • * •. It it is suspected that milk bought for cheesemaking has been preserved, a sample of it should be kept at a temperature of 90deg. F. for 12 hours, then examined. Unpreserved milk thus treated will turn quite sour, but if preserved, will be sweet, or very slightly sour, without the flavour being sharply acid.

• * m Ringworm is a parasitical disease, and, as it is very contagious, it spreads rapidly. Soften the scales with sweet oil, then apply iodine or an ointment of lard and sulphur. • * # • Continual experience shows that sheep can be wintered on as little as 61b. or 81b. of roots a day, provided hay and straw chaff and a small quantity of suitable concentrates are fed in addition. • * • • Young calves should not have their houses too frequently /disturbed by the muck cart; certainly not in cold weather, as they miss the warmth of the heating manure, an essential almost equal to the milk pail. • • * « It pays to study pedigrees in horse breeding, says a contemporary, but it pays infinitely more to study the little details, strength and weaknesses of the I mare and the horse with which it is proposed to mate her. • * * # 1 I Grain or concentrates should be fed in the proportion of lib. to each 31b. of milk produced, except in the case of cows giving over four gallons, in which case lib. of grain should be given for each 41b. of milk.