AGRICULTURAL

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 18, 20 July 1918, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL

STIMULATING PRODUCTION.

ENCOURAGING THE BOYS,

Tho United States is fully alive to the importance of the fact that the boy of to-day is the fanner of tho future, and it therefore is putting forth big efforts to fit him for the work which is ahead of ham. Ono direction in which activity is being displayed, with highly gratifying results, is the formation of boys' clubs, the members of which competitively engage in the production of various crops and the rearing and fattening of live stock. Tho Superintendent of Agriculture in Victoria (Mr._ A. E. V. Richardson), who is now visiting tho land under tho Stars and Stripes, is greatly impressed with the value of these.organisations. "They have done excellent work in California," he writes in Xho Victorian Journal of Agriculture. "Last year 1920 boys in the State wore organised in high schools and elementary schools. Tho work was begun only two years ago, but it is expected that the number of boys taking part in club work will rapidly increase. The crops usually selected, are potatoes, grain, sorghum, beans, vegetables, and sugar beets. Wheat is not used for crop competitions. The animals usually employed are pigs and poultry. Graduates of Berkley aro generally chosen as club leaders, but in many cases teachers of high schools aro selected for tho task.. In the latter case the University pays tho teachers a sum to cover travelling-expenses and provide a email bonus. Dean Hunt says he does not bolievo in volunteer work; he believes in payment for all services rendered by tho teachers. The clubs ,aro tho' moans by which the boys make money in the practice of farming. The usual sizes of tho plots are:—Potatoes, i acre; grain sorgnum, 1 acre; corn, 1 acre; beans (xepary, Mexican, red or pink), \ aore; vegetables, i acre. These boys' clubs have attained a. very high pitch of development in Utah, where in a total population of some 400,000 people thoro aro 15,000 boys engaged in I arming crops anti raising stock. The pig clubs are usually worked as -follows:—j.bo boys select two pigs eight to ten woeks old, and keep them, tour months. They are then six months old, and should weigh between IYS and 200 ib. The boys keep records every day of tne total quantities of feed used, and i-his is vaiued at cost. The totai time and i<Sed costs aro oaretully checked out, and the profit on raising tiie pigs, after cnargmg all expenses, is determined. Xhe boy cnen writes an essay on 'How 1 raised my pigs. It may be mentioned that tho banks will lend money at 6 per cent, to anyoody in a pig club lor tne purchase or pigs on the boy's note of hand. Experience lias snown tnat tne success of the ooys' club depends ia.Tgeiy upon, supervision. It is essential to the success ol the club that the work of eacn ■individual member should bo inspected at least once a month during the progress of tho operations." BREEDING MILKERS. Breeders at dairy cattle aro interested in tho question ol the proportion each parent contributes to tne composite heritage that makes up a dairy cow. It is one oi tho traditional beliets ot breedors thai the bull is more potent than the cow. it is wen known tnat a weli-brect animai is more potent than an animal not so wen orcd, and on this is based tne conclusion mat one ammal is prepotent over anotiier m proportion as it is better bred. Moreover, it is understood tnat if two annuals are equally well bred neitner will snow prepotency over the otner. This, says an oincer of the Texas Agricultural JSxpenuient (Station, U.S.A., is actually the case, and prepotency of sex, in tho literal sense, does not exist.

The most common form of improving a herd is by grading up with a pure-bred sire. A better bred sire, rather than a. better breci dam, is the general rule, for a bull can inaueneo tho breeding of many more animals than a cow. honce, for purely economical reasons the bulls are usually better bred than the cows, and should therofore be more prepotent. . The diiference is due, however, to tho breeding and not to the sex.

Investigations have been conducted at the Texas station to ascertain the relative value of the bull and the cow in the transmission of butter-fat production. The leco.rds of 126 grano-dams, each with averages of 1.27 sons, and 1.27 daughters, with records of 160 sons and 160- daughters, were studied. The daughters again each averaged 2.125 daughters, or a total of 230 grand-daughters, with records where the inheritance was through maternal lines, and a similar number where the inheritance was through paternal lines. The investigation seemed to indicate (according to tho authority quoted) that one sex is no more prepotent than the othor in transmitting inheritable traits. It was tentatively concluded, therefore, that the sexes aro equi-potent, and the phrase 'prepotoncy of sex" is meaningless. Bulls are not more prepotent than cows. From oxen to motor-tractors is a far cry; but in England, owing to war exigencies, both means of traction are now employed. An English newspaper notices that in Glamorganshire farmers are resorting to tho use of oxen for ploughing land for barley and turnips. They do their work well; but, of course, more slowly than horses or motor-ploughs. In ancient times Glamorgan oxen did mo6t of tho ploughing, an old eong, "Can yr Ychon" (song of tho oxen) having the power, according to legend, of soothing their wildness. Mr. S. L. Allan, the inventor of Planet, Jnr., implements, is dead. Ho was a farmer, who was not content with the implements furnished to him by the trade, at a time when planting was done by hand and cultivation with a hand hoe. He found a village blacksmith who could put his ideas into concrete shape, and his neighbours soon began to demand similar labour-saving implements. From this small beginning grew the machinery plant which now covers many, acres. At the Sydney stud sheep sales last week Mr. J. C. Stanford, of. Powers, Rutherford and Company, Melbourne, „ after attempting to sell over 1400 sheep of British breeds, said:—"Buyors of sheep for crossing purposes seem paralysed by this fixing of prices. There has undoubtedly been a great slump as compared with the prices that obtained last year. For a sheep that brought ten guineas last year three guineas is bid to-day. Savo for a fevy extra choice stud animals the demand is very poor, at a reduction in price of quite two-thirds." Mr. Harry H. Peck, of Melbourne, a well-known specialist in British breeds, said, after the 6heep sales:—"The fat.tener is in 'Queer-street' altogether, while the man who grows wool has tho whole of the Imperial purse behind him. Merinoes are thiis_ to go ahead at tho expense of the British breeds, which it must not be forgotten aro a necessity in Australia. It is yory sad to see bear'ifully bred sheep going for a mere song. j. ully half the sheep sold at the -sales on Thursday have been bought by speculators."