AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3182, 6 January 1928, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

The animal system uses salt in the body to make hydrochloric acid, which is used to digest the food, and as the digestion of food is a continuous process, it is necessary that animals must have a small amount of salt every day. ! • » » • It is certainly true that all of the inherent good or evil in the make-up of an animal is the result of heredity, and the bull contributes 50 per cent, of the hereditary characteristics of every animal, young or old, in the herd. Feeding and. *are in management can only influence size and capacity, and these only within the limits prescribed by the hereditary characters of the individual. ■ ♦ * * Sterilised milk has a cooked or slightly burned, flavour, which is noticeable to most, users of this commodity. Other changes which take place are: The fat emulsion is modified, the proteids of the milk are rendered less digestible, and the enzymes, which assist to digest the milk, are considerably weakened, if not destroyed. * * *

The presence of too much acidity in the milk for cheese usually results in the finished product being hard, dry and sour in flavour. Cheese made from clean milk of normal acidity should be nicely mellow when ripe. The mellowness of a ripened cheese depends upon the quality of the milk employed, and also the skill with which the cheese is made. In badly-made cheese, there usually is a deficiency of fat. ■ ■ # # • The fertiliser industry got its start" from a few men who ground up animal bones and applied them to the soil. Today the amount of acid phosphate used is far in excess of the amount of bone meal, but ground animal bones are still an important raw material in the fertiliser industry. A large supply of bones comes from abattoirs and butchers' shops. The bones are steamed to remove grease, and are then ground and sold for fertilisers. Raw crushed bones contain from 3 to 4 per cent, nitrogen and from 18 to 24 per cent, phosphoric acid. The availability of I the phosphoric acid depends on the i fineness of grinding. * # # "Farmers whose names have been household words in agriculture are giving up their tenancies because they cannot continue under existing conditions, '' said Mr E. G. Prettyman, in a lecture before the Economic League in Britain. '' Notice has been given in every direction," said Mr Prettyman, '' partly because the farmers are ' broke' and partly because it is impossible to carry on at a profit. The nation does not realise the disastrous position. The Government is playing with the situation, and it will be a sin, a shame and a scandal if it refuses to face its responsibilities, which are worse than those caused by the bad harvest of 1879." * * *

Heifers fed on scanty rations and bred too early are usually stunted and generally finer in bone than those not bred until more mature. From the time the heifer is bred until calving she should receive considerable attention in order to assure her success as a dairy cow. Kindly treatment, frequent handling and abundant feed is necessary. The feed should be nutritious, and at the same time bulky in nature. Some meal should be added during the last few months. The heifer should come into milk in good flesh and with udder large and full. As parturition approaches the feeding of the heifer should be plain without stimulating or [ heating feed. I * # *

The beginner may try experiments, and if he is a keen observer he may learn the quicker from them; but an experienced breeder, if he tries at all, tries them very eautionsly, and on a

limited scale. The bull should be of a thoroughly robust constitution, to which no exception should be allowed. The weakling, the bad thriver, and nar-row-chested beast should never be allowed to sire any? offspring. Food supplied in excess of a maintenance ration ;is necessary with animals which are productive, such, for instance, as the dairy cow. In fact, there are two kinds tenance and productive. * # * .V Three main factors operate between the farmer and the butchers, auctioneers, and other dealers to whom he sells his stock—quality, live weight, and carcase weight (states a writer in the Field). The first and last of these are, of necessity, more qr less indefinite, but the second can and should be known to both the buyer and the seller if a fair deal is to be made. * • • •

The milk cow gets the milk she gives from the feed she eats. The hog gets the fat he puts on from the feed he eats. If the milk cow gets no feed, she gives no milk. It the hog gets no feed he lays on no fat. Once in a while, however, there is a man who ex pects to get milk and fat without feed, ! but nobody ever will do anything more than get these animal products in proportion as these products are "fed for." One can '"feed for milk," and one can '' feed for work,'' as ~ well. Given an animal capable of responding to feed, the owner will get plenty of milk and fat. * •■ •

In an address by Mr Lindsay Eobb (late principal of the Cumberland Farm Institute) on nitrogenous manuring of grass land, the speaker stated that a new method of manuring grass land, and which, had been tried ,very successfully in Germany, was to give the land a very heavy dressing of slag and potash, and then apply in the spring sulphate of ammonia in fairly large dressings. To do it successfully they needed small fields or paddocks up to five or six acres in extent, and they should be grazed heavily, but only for four or five days, after which the sheep and bullocks should be put on to another small field. Throughout,the summer fields under this system of management would get up to four or five cwt. of sulphate of ammonia in successive dressings.