AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 83, 9 April 1910, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

THE CHEMIST AND THE LAND. "After all tho chcmi«t has done for tho community it is astonishing that the value of his work should be so livtlo realised by the public in general." Thus tho Westminster Gazette, in an article deploring the luck of assistance given by tho British Government to the causo of agricultural research. As a great German has denned it, tho Gazette says, research is tho greatest financial asset a nation can poa-ess. The community benefits infinitely more than the individual by the work of research, and tho same i& true in the long run of any industrial development. "Year by year tho areas of virgin soil aro diminishing. Soil that once repaid a hundredfold, if it were but scratched and planted, now has to call to its aid the chemical manures of which little or nothing was heard half a century ago. The standard of comfort is everywhere rising, and with it 1 * rise the cost of cultivation must inevitably increase. Wo can realise what the unobtrusive work of the chemist can do for the farmer who insists in having at his rommand tho resources of the State. Every year American farms produce wealth of the valuo of six and a half thousand million dollars. 'Every sunset during the past live years has registered an increase of 3,400,000 dollars in the value of the farms of this country' is the sobor dictum of an American Secretary for Agriculture, . . But the nation that sees results such as these is not content with meagre doles from its treasury. The wealth produced on farms in 1905 exceeded that for 1899 by 36 per cent. Where these gains can be eecured tho farmer has at his back a weather bureau, a bureau of animal industry, with a dairy division, a bureau of plant industry, a bureau of soils, another of entomology, another of chemistry, and yet others de\otcd to biological survey, to statistics, to foreign markets, to forests, to the construction and maintenance of roads, to experimental stations, to publications, and the like. . . . But, then, tho men who aro responsible for tho creation of this vast department of tho State did not wait until 'there were many demands.' Even now the Secretary has to report that the educational work that has led to such grand results has only been extended n& yet to a portion of tho agricultural population. . . Three-quarters of a million per annum is* allotted at present to the Department of Agriculture, and this leaves out of account the three or four thousand a year available in each of the States under tho Hatch and Adams Acts. Among tho larger European States, Germany is, of course, to the fore. It possesses nineteen experimental stations of the first rank." The Gazette goes on to say that experiments in Holland, instead of showing nn improvement in crops to tho extent of some 17 to 26 per cent., fcho\\ed an increaso of 100 per cent. It saye that it is not necessary to dwell on "tho benefit*! that would accrue to the community in general by turning on a email army of chemists to investigate the multitudinous array of questions, in which it in so difficult and so necessary to come to a definite conclusion." A butter-box made of crab-apple timber, which grows plentifully in the Dorrig* brushes, was recently exhibited at the Bellinger Show (says the Sydney Mail). It was -made at Dorrigp, and possessed afi the qualities of the receptacle turned out from the New Zealand timber, which waa supposed to bo tho only wood that wouH auoiver the purpose. In colour the crabapple is much like tho Xew Zealand j timber, and is of much the same weight, j in Lu'lding up a Shorthorn herd great discrimination should be shown in selecting stud animalo. The object should be to j avoid loose handling, soft flabby flesh, and delicate constitutions, end go for compactness and uniformity of type, oblique ! shoulder and deep neck veins, great depth and width of floor of chest and foro ribs, and full well-packed chine ; strong, wide even loins ; deep flanks and heavy flesh, possessing richness and mellowness and plenty of furry hair. Every cow in the stud ehould rustle for herself summer and j winter and rear her own calf. If these I pointß aro observed, a robust type, with hardincFS of constitution, will be the result. Pampering and coddling have serioug ■■ and evil effects. Cleanliness in the dairy should be observed from the moment tho milk leaves the cow, and throughout all its subsequent treatment whether manufactured into butter or cheete or retailed. Cows should never bo fed during milking, says an expert. The milk should never be left in the air of tho byre, but removed immediately after milking to tho dairy. All dairy utensils should be made preferably of metal tinned over, for these can be thoroughly cleansed. The best method of keeping them clean is to first wash with warm water, using a brush to remove all traces of milk from the joints, crevices, etc., afterwards scalding them with boiling water, or, better still, with steam. Thej should bo left upside down, but the air allowed to circulate round, them freely. A rack is the best thing to hold buckets, etc. Mobt of the taints and objectionable odours and flavours in butter are due to lack of cleanlines>j in the prepaiation of the cream and dairy utensils. The udders of the cows should bo rubbed with a clean dry cloth beforo milking, and the milkers should ha\e clean dry hands and clean overalls. An interesting controversy is taking place in Riverina ac to the amount of seed that should bo sown to seciu - e tho best yields. There are still some farmers who stick to tho old method of broadcast seeding, and using about a bushel of grain to the acre. But tho average used with the drills is ncarei to half a bushel, and thero are now farmers^ who assert that the very beEt results will bo obtained by using Ices than 251b to the acre, where superphosphates aro need and the seed drilled in. A Victorian farmer who has been vifiting the wheat belt in the Temora district expresses the opinion (sayp an Australian paper) that farmers are using too much seed, thereby preventing the spears ha\ing sufficient room to stool properly. In that district, 361b and over wasused, and, although the yield was good, it is thought that even hrtter results will bo obtained with less. It is htatod that the best crop grown in the Swan Hill district last season was obtained with 201b of seed. Tho manager of -the Edendale Estate writes to the Melbourne Leader as follows: — "Lime seems to kill out and keep clown not only the Forrel, but other weede as well, and foster the grasses which wt» want to grow. Lime is the best couch uradicator we have yet found Without the lime the sown grasses would run out in a couple of years ; but the limed land lasts longpr. We have proved in practice <hat turnips and clovers require lime for their growth, and rape also thrives eplendiclly after lime. From a 180-acre paddock sown with rapr, turnips, arid Italian ryegrass, 90 acres fattened 3000 lambs after weaning besides carrying 2000 stores for six weeks. The other 90 acres carried 350 bullocks for six weeks and 160 dry cows for longer. The weather was wet n^arlv all the time, which wasted a lot of feed. The stock ate the rypgrass nr«l, then the rape, and finished with the turnips. Tho ryegrass was sown with a virw of keeping the ground clean for the tombs grazing, but it afforded a lot of excellent feed besides serving the purpose it was Fown for. The fir=t year's gra^s of a 240-acre paddock fattened 250 hoad of heifers from stores, and a second 250 a little better than stores worn put on, and it finished off the bulk of thr-m. Before liming it would havo been rlpar enough at 6i per ncre ront. Oats that we have had on limed land have thvi'diofi out 75 bushels, which before only ffave 25 "