FARMS AND FARMERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 April 1925, Page 8

FARMS AND FARMERS

ITEMS OF INTEREST,

(By

“Rouseabout”).

A peculiar coinpia-nit unecting tiic lambs of a number of settlers’of‘the Poverty Bay fiats has been reported recently, and the settlers find they are losing an appreciable portion iof their stock. The complaint only'affects the lambs, wluch gradually get poorer and poorer in condition and then die (states a correspondent in an exchange). Veterinary surgeons who, have been consulted have been unable to find out the pause of the disease, but isome farmers have lost 20 to 30 lambs through the trouble. One farmer who has a stud flock, said that some of his best lambs had become affected and died. The lambs had been on the best teed all the time, and those who had been on* rape had been taken out and put on'.the red clover pasture. Post-mor-tem examinations made by veterinary surgeons failed to reveal any cause for the deaths, and some of the lambs

which, had died, had all their organs perfectly developed. In all his experience •he had never seen a complaint, ' similar to that from which the lambs ■ were now suffering, and he hoped it ; was not a case of finding a new > disease. ' < 'i The turnip and rape crops in most i parts of the Oamaru district have gone . off badly, and farmers are hurrying . their fat stock to the freezing works. Several farmers in the OamaruAlis. trict have already notified their employees that if the demands for' an ' eight-hour day, preference to unionists ’ and increased pay are conceded, they will'be compelled to cease agricultural pursuits, dismiss their employees, and put their land down into grass. It is. a curious fact that cows always yield in" their milk more fat than can be extracted from the food they eat. T’llri TYIIII on•> 1 rn »1 vviilL

Ihe mineral matter of milk coiisists of soda, calcium (lime), potash, and magnesium. In addition to the above there is some phosphorus and a trace of iron. The presence of iron in a diet is very important, as it is this which gives the ri<?h colour to the blood, and secures, in combination with that fluid, the oxygen so necessary to the body. The minuteness of the amount of iron present in cow’s milk constitutes a real reason why milk fails as “a perfect food.” This deficiency has received much consideration from sciehtists and: some years ago attempts were made, in Germany, to increase the iron content of milk through the feed. After many experiments, however, the quest was abandoned as'fruitless. “Enough to eat, kindly treatment, and a dry place to lie down on, are all that a cow asks for, and it is little enough to give her,’’ said Mr Watson at a recent Jersey demonstration. The speaker continued : “If ydtir car needs oil, you put more in, but the greatest

e oi all machines, the dairy cow, is often h ' sadly neglected.” e , The udder seems to be a deciding'* e feature in any dairy cow. Length and ; width of hind-quarter is necessary for . the best classes of udder. This is fre. j/ quently lacking in all types of dairy . cow., A pendulous didder is not a good j sign of milk production. In fact it is usually bad.for the cow. It is apt to. » get knocked about while the cow is ' being driven to and from the byre, and ; if the cow is feeding in long grass, it is apt to get wet, which results in all : kinds of milk diseases. Further, the, 1

larger udders are aft to sag away as the cow grows older, with the result that such diseases become more pronounced. Ife is undoubtedly good practice to skim-plough the lea land, pulverise this thin furrow, and then cross-plough to a quarter depth, for, by doing so, the land is- more thorons'll] v worked

3 throughout the entire depth and a . better connection with the subsoil is . obtained. This means that there will i be less loss of water from percolation • and also from evaporation. If, hlow- . ever, it is found impracticable, either [ from stress of work, or if the land is too hard on the surface to make a sat- , isfactory job, and it is found that deep ' ploughing may have io be resorted to, , great care must be taken with the lea ploughing. The work calls for a deal of skill and experience on the part of the ploughman, for it is not merely necessary to plough a straight line, but he must be able to adjust the plough to suit the varied.work it is called upon to. perform. On flat land, free of stones or other obstacles, the plough should be set so that it will hold into the line, and turn the furrow line properly from end to end with guidance. Failing this, unless there is great variability in the condition and nature of the soil, the plough is not properly set. At last week’s meeting of Produce Control Board, arrangements were made that New Zealand butter

n would be used exclusively by the w Aerated Bread Company at their cafes, c - clubs and counter lunches ii? the Wem’ y bley Exhibition, and would be adver>t tised on the menu. It is estimated >f that this company will control about e half the catering at the Exhibition this ,o year.; 2.500 IJlb cheeses are being s shipped in monthly quantities for sale t at the Dairy exhibit in the New Zea- , land court. The Board decided to , leave the shipping arrangements at Auckland and New Plymouth in the , hands of the National Dairy Association for next season, and to the South ' Island Dairy Association at all the ’ shipping ports in the South Island. ' The work of shipning will be central--7 ised in the Board’s office in Wellingf ton, and the A ssociations will simply 3 be carrying out the routine work at 1 the ports mentioned. As provided in - the Dairy Produce Export Control Act, 1 a ballot was taken to ascertain which 5 members of the Board woyld retire in i June next. The result was that Messrs 5 W. Grounds and W. C. Motion retire • for the North Island, and Mr J. ™ j Hamilton for the South Island. The ■ election will be carried out bv the Department of Agriculture, and Mr H. Gerard, of that Department has been appointed returning officer.

A reinforced concrete butter is to be erected at Te Kaha, in .the Bay of Plenty. The suppliers will be mainly natives. The factory should be a 1 material factor in promoting the pros. ' -perity of the. Te Kaha district.. . Two potatoes, which are claimed to be the champions of Otago for 1925/ have been forwarded to the “Otago Daily Times” office, and they are cer/‘tainly of remarkable growth. The potatoes were grown by Mr A. , Jensen, of Stirling, and each of the two forwarded weighed nearly 41b. They came out of a field which yielded about : 18 tons to the acre. The samples sub- : y mitted for inspection are .Arran Chiefs, . and one of the two tubers weighed 31b ; '•<i4oz'when taken out of the ground. T ] ;. ’J As a result of an experiment, Cap- , tain Taylor, of Kaiapoi,'has piicduced ] the largest Savoy cabbage ever grown f in that district. It iS perfectly shap- j ed; and measures 4ft 6in at its widest. f part, and has a very' firfi heart, which ; at its thickest is 18111'across.- The cabbage weighs 311 b. ' x' '.J ' . 1 A nnniilinv nnmnlflinl- *• ffopTl nfr f.nfl »