AGRICULTURAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 114, 10 November 1917, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL

GENERAL FORAGE CROPS. Mr. Primrose M'Connell, Director o£ the Qilworth School of Agriculture, writes aa^ follows■ in .the 'New Zealand Farmer: —November is a good month for sowing maize, and when liberally treated ia the matter of cultivation and manure it is a crop which yields an oodrmous bulk of fodder. It assists in maintaining the flow of milk. for the dairy herd during dry weather, but undoubtedly gives still better results when, made into ensilage. The preparatory cultivation, for this crop must be deep and thorough, but beiore sowing the seed the land should be consolidated I by the Cambridge roller. Some corn drills are now made to sow maize, and when sown through e-very other coulter, the quantity of seed should be about libushels per acre. It may alio be broadcasted by hand and disced or liriitlv ploughed under. If sown on the flat the plants, when about six .inches high, are invigorated by a stroke of the tine harro>vs, and many weeds destroyed by the same operation. The novice may be somewhat aJarmed by the appearance or rather disappearance, of the plants after harrowing, but their recovery will be rapid, and the ultimate results satisfactory. Of all forage plants lucerne still takes the lead. Whether the farmer is breeding horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, or poultry, or all five combined, he will find that a considerable area devoted to this great plant will yield a greater profit per acre than any other ■part of his farm. I would strongly advise every intending grower to sow in spring or early summer in.preference to autumn, except the land is dry and free from weeds. Last autumn the writer sow ed ten acres about the' end of March under the very best conditions as to'tilth, but the' land being,heavy and the winter abnormally wet, the stand was more or less of a. failure. The soil was completely waterlogged for. fire successive' months. .

I claim has .been made, all along by practical city express companies that they could not do their, work without Horses: The situation has ■ not changed(says the Breeders' Gazette). The-long hauls take the motor-trucks,; the ehort heavy, hauls require horcras. There seems to be no way ot getting around it. Horses are so much more efficient in starting an overload, handling a load in soft alleys and around railway trucks and freight platforms and docks, that they retain ugh esteem.. Figures and facts have been gathered by the Percheron Society of America from dealers and truckmen in big cities of tho East and Contra! -West and they agree on tho necessity of keeping horses. A new feature of the business is tho longer life of big horses in cities now sinoa they are relieved of the long trips and take the shorter routes with more stopping time. Instead of lasting four or live years they are now remaining serviceable to ten years or more. Of course, it. is only big horses that are demanded for this heavy short-distance work. They must bo able to heave immense loads into motion. The work is not very exhaustive. ' That very fact ;makes the horse's position secure. Lengthening the period of life because of easier work nowadays, cheapens the cost of : horse labour,' and makes tho investment : in horses' even bettor than- it was before ■trucks began to compete. Farmers can regard this phase of the business as measurably permanent. It will furnish a reliable market for the best' and largest horses they can produce: The fact is, this sort never has been cheap. Especially for fifteen years, the best drafters have been comparatively scarce. Even in dull times they have sold readily and have brought, prices muolV above horses a little smaller or plainer.. Therein lies the incentive and the financial reward for the capable horse breeder.

_ The University of Nebraska, Lincoln (U.b.A.), maintains an Ayrshire herd of t(™ annnals. Pour of those are cows in milk. Bonne Jean and Lady Lincoln have ?r£?L } teark records which average 13,9211b of milk, and 545.61b of fat. Bonne Jean nas six consecutive 'yearly records 7i«t h t avera e° 96151b of milk and 415!b. of fat. • Lady Lincoln -has six consecutive yearly records which averaf V. 12J, 781b of milk ' and 4351b ot tat. The other two cows are first-class heifers, and' are now under test. At the' head of the herd is the imported bull Beuchan Oliver Twist, by Bargenoch Oliver .Twist, and out of Beuehan Dorothy

Commenting on the Ayrshire classes at the -recent Royal Show of Melbourne, the Australasian says this of a bull bred by' the Cowans, of Haydowns, Oamaru:—"A.' .Buchanan s winner in heifers three years old (m milk) was Agatha of Gleneira by Kia Ora, of Haydowns, a New Zealand bull, tho reserve champion of 1914 ex Agnes of Gleneira, the dam of Triumph ot Uleneira. She is a lengthy, even, richly coloured heifer, with a good top line, sweet head and eye, and showing quality all over Her'udder'is well fitted, and carried nicely forward without any indication of sagging u-l. a's ProSer>7, of which several were exhibited, all show up to advantage, and it is evident that he will make a name as a •Slr?.-' T W- p- Brisbane ran a good second with Leila of Gowrie Park, by Wallace of Gowne Park, and these two heifers occupied the same position in the Ayrshire Derby sweepstakes."

a T!^ enoe ot the esteem in which the Aberdeen Angus breed of .cattle is held in the Argentine is provided by the fact that there is' now a strong -society advancing tho breed ■in that country, the Argentina Aberdeen Angus Association, and that to celebrate tho society's existence the council, numbering many of the wealthiest .and most important men in Argentina, has decided to hold an International Aberdeen Angus Show and sale annually. At the show, which was to have been held from 20th to 23rd August, twenty-sis classes were provided with four .premiums in each. In addition to a gold and stiver medal.-eleven silver cups were to be competed for. It may be mentioned that, one of the leading figures in the society is a- breeder with a distinctly English name, Mr. Albert Brown. Mr. Brown paid.the sum of £1193 15s for the bull Idart of Maisemere,- the record price given !■ for an Angus in the Argentine. The Argentine Association has just issued the-first numt»r of the annals of the society, which contains, we are told by tho Live Stock Journal, many excellent photographs illustrating the best typos of the Aberdeen Angus breed in the Republic, as well as pictures of notable breeders. Obviously ithe Aberdeen is io be boomed in the great beef-producing State of South America.

There has been another wonderful sale of Shorthorns in tho Argentine, i.e. the dispersal of . the late Mr. Benjamin Gimenoz Pax's herd, at San Bias, Argentina. The five stock bulls used in the herd averaged over £2300 each, the head or the herd, Stirling Benedict, fetching £62C0 bought by Mr. Charles Brown, of La Marion, Vplta, F.C.O. Fifty-two cow? between three and five years old, each with a calf, averaged with tho calf over £400 each, and thirty-one older cows with calf at foot averaged nearly £360. Twenty-one cows, served, but without calves, averaged over £250 each, and ten old cows believed in 'calf averaged over £60. Sixty-seven heifers averaged nearly £230. Tho sale realised a total of £66,833, the general average for the 268 sold being £249.

An important announcement comes from London to. the effect that a Home firm, ■Messrs. ■Skeeps, Ltd., has been able to secure the necessary raw material for the manufacture of butter and cheese colouring, that is. acid and light-proof, a work that Has hitherto not been accomplished in Britain. " In the past Germany has been entirely depended upon for the necessary raw material, biit the London linn lias now an actual supply of the material of their own manufacture, and hopes shortly to bo in a position to supply all reasonable demands. This' (says an exchange) will be exceptionally good news to the New Zealand dairymen who are patriotic enough to refuse to use material of enemy.origin where it can bo secured within the Empire or from our Allies.