FARM and DAIRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 July 1924, Page 12

FARM and DAIRY

NOTES BY THE WAY. A farmer at Matapu lias an ingenious device for bran-feeding to his cows so as to prevent loss of food. He has in a race in the shed a sack spread across the opening, and attached to a receptacle which, by means of a slide at the bcittom, he can open and shut to let down as much as he '.hinks is a. feed for one cow. The other side of the sack is attached by a ccrd a sliding stick, by pulling which vhen the cow has finished he can let down tne sack and allow the cow to ga out through the door.

The Show Week and that previous have been very valuable for Hawera I and South Taranaki. The meeting first j of the Jersey and then the Friesian breeders of the Dominion and the holding of the national shows are a tribute to the town and district. Certainly Hawera is one of the most appropriate localities, the centre of one of the two most important dairying districts, and therefore it was "only fitting that it should he chosen. But it is only now apparent that this is recognised outside. The cordial approval of all delegates at the N.D.A. conference on the selection of Hawera for next year was very welcome, and wjll do a lot to make the town and district better known. Combined with the Winter Show, which is now established as one of the premier, shows, if not the leader, in the Dominion, the result must be very good and useful. It is not- often that the farmers get such good advice from an outsider as, was given them by his Worship the Mayor (Mr L. A. Bone) at the Friesian Breeders’ smoko last week. It is said that the looker-on sees most of the game, but Mr Bone certainly struck a very right note in his references to building up herds, intensive farming, cutting out speculation in farm lands, education by establishing more agricultural colleges, herd ■ testing and proper common-sense feeding, inducements to the young men -to become farmers, co-operation of town and country, and generally the combination ot all that science can do to help the farmer in his practical work. His remarks were very cordially received. A very common-sense suggestion was made at the N.D.A. annual meeting, when one of the districts sent in a remit urging that on all butter boxes and i cheese crates the fact that all the produce, in whatever factory it may be .manufactured, is from New Zealand and therefore the name of the Dominion, and, if possible, a map, should be prominent. A correspondent in the June Dairyman stresses the same point when she says, “We must beat in the New Zealand ; the Maori • names of factories do not to many even signify New Zealand to the outside world. “The’ world is A r evy ignorant about us, and England is little better than some foreign countries. A. big, bold, predominating- mark should shout ‘New Zealand’ to the world. It would become a standard of excellence, and in time ‘New Zealand finest quality’ will become synohymo.us terms in the markets of .the world. Considerable value is placed upon the exhibits of Australian produce at Wembley as an advertisement for the Commonwealth. AY hen it was arranged that Australian butter was to be used by the exhibition caterers, producers’ representatives expressed the opinion that it would serve the purpose of very useful propaganda. A cable message from London has been received by the GippsJand and. Northern Co-operative Company, Limited, stating that the sole use of Australian butter at' Lyons’s restaurants at the Empire Exhibition is proving of value. Menu advertisements and the Australian buttojr pavilion displays are creating wide interest, and trade has received a- strong impetus. While visitors are disinclined to buy and carry butter with them, sales are satisfactory, and inquiries are made to ascertain where Australian butter can be purchased near their homes. Representatives are oroviding this information, and interest in Australian butter is greatly stimulated.

In the top-dressing of pastures experiments conducted under the auspices of the Chamber of Agriculture very strong growth in the cold, wet weather of August was noticed at Kyneton by Mr T. Garlick. The land was black 2rt deep on a rotten rock subsoil, and the pasture was mainly ryegrass and strawberry clover. During September the growth on the manured pasture was very definite, and during a dry October the' grasses on the manured portion still developed strongly. The cop-diressed section cut a mucli heavier crop, and cows fed oai this hav gave a heavier yield of milk than they did from the untreated pasture. They also showed a great predilection for the fertilised pasture. ~A. cat:;le S^] P from Darwin (N.T.) 100 bullocks for Hong Kong. This is a trial shipment by Vestys to test that market. The "vessel" also carries 15 aged and indigent Chinese, who are being repatriated to Hong Kong at the expense of the Federal Government.

)Vhat is probably an index of the Ministry’s idea of the improved marketing of Dominion produce in lieu of preference was furnished at a meeting of the Commonwealth Labour group, at which the Postmaster-General of Australia (Mr Gibson) was vigorously questioned. Many Labour members pointed out the' success which had attended the pooling of wheat and Bawra’s handling of wool, and asked, “why not do the same with all your produce?’’ This, read in conjunction with the speech in the House of Commons of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (M.r Snowden), is believed to foreshadow proposals to be submitted to the Dominions. Mr Gibson pointed out that the Commowenlth had already largely abandoned interference with commerce.

In Perth on June 21, after 14 years’ experience in Northern Australia, Bishop Trower, whose headquarters are at Broome, declares that the north will never be properly developed by white labour. He advocates State indenturing of Asiatic and other coloured labour, to be confined to special areas. He would bring in labour in family groups, with the proviso that children boirn should follow the nationality of their parents, and he repatriated with them at the expiry of the indentures. Bishop Trower would not confine immigration to any particular race. His personal experience of the natives af Southern Tndia, he says, has shown that they are good workers. There is in Northern Australia, a huge area simply ] waiting for properly directed labour to furnish immense production, which, however, would never come if the Territory were left to white labour. The number of cows in the Dominion systematically tested on the Herd Testing Association principle in 1923-24 shows an increase of 73 per cent, over 1922-23. The aggregate at date has reached 146,837 cows, as against 84.825 for the previous year. Of the gross total Dairv Division officers have controlled the testing of 37,378 cows. It is disappointing to note that Taranaki has almost the lowest percentage

tested 8.83, being 17,807 out of a total of 201,758. Auckland is by far the highest, 24.25 per cent, or 70,934 out of a total of 292,520. Every effort should be made by all the breed associations to foster the movement towards an universal testing, for, as is stressed by all the leading men in the dairy world, it is the only infallible guide to enable the farmer to know whether his cows, and which of them, are profitable. The Friesian Association have taken a distinctly forward step in deciding to pay the first half of the minimum fee charged by the Association, and to urge on the Department the advisability of remitting the other half. They are on the right lines, and their policy might well be followed by other associations. The latest figures of the Cheltenham Herd Testing Association (says a Southern exchange) show a very wide margin between the highest and the lowest butter-fat production of the 1651 cows tested during the thirty days ended on Mav 15. The average quantity of milk per cow was 4041 b; the average test 5.0, and the average butter-fat yield was 65.52 and the lowest 1.531 b. Obviously there is at least one .very flagrant “robber” among those l<j>sl cows.

-■ FIELD NOTES FOE JULY. FIELDS DIVISION. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. If the land is dry enough push along ploughing far spring sowing of wheat and oats. Sowing may he done from the middle of August onwards. If the season is wet and backward the end of August will be quite early enough. Marquis, Major and John Browh continue to give good results. All these wheats are'*’quick maturing, and may be sown as late as the first week in, October. Spring sowing requires a heavier seeding than autumn, 24 bushels being about right. Work the seed bed deeply, and for this purpose the cultivator gives better results than the disc. It works the fine material down and leaves the clods on the surface, which is ideal for spring-sown cereals. The clods afford shelter far the young plants, and are later broken down by the roller. Care should be taken to dress both wheat and barley for smut. The ordinary 40 per cent, formalin, as supplied by chemists, is very satisfactory. Use this at the rate of 1 pint to 40 gallons of water. The wheat should be spread out on a floor - and thoroughly wetted with a spray pump or watering can. Use a shovel for turning it. over. It should be left on the floor all night and bagged in the morning. Any grain left over after sowing is quite safe for fowl feeding. Suitable manures are 1-Jo 2cwts of super or special grain manure. Early sown fields of oats or wheat that showing much growth should be fed down. Choose dry weather for this pujrqDose. If the land is dry enough the feeding should be followed by a, stroke or two of the. tine harrows.

To-p-dressing.:—This i? a good month to apply fertilizers, particularly basic slag, basic super and mixtures of super and Nauru. Kainia may also be applied this month. Superphosphates should be applied from the middle of July onwards. Suitable mixtures were dealt with in May and June. Select on© or, more top-dressed paddocks, give them a harrowing, and shut them up for early calving cows or early lambing ewes'; There is nothing better for a freshly calved cow or lambed ewe than a nice clean pasture. Roots.—The swede crop lias rotted badly, and in the majority of cases will have been fed off. Carrots are also showing a great deal of rot. . Where swedes, carrots and mangolds are provided, the feeding of the swedes and carrots should be pushed along and the mangolds retained for later feeding. If more than one variety of mangold is grown, feed the Yellow Globe first, as they are not keeping as well as Sugar. Golden Tankard, Jersey Queen and Long Red. If the latter varieties ar© carefully pulled, the tops removed and rarefully stacked, they will keep well into November, and in some cases to Christmas. Any mangolds stih in the ground should he pulled or harrowed out at once, so as to give them time to mature'further; if they are left in the ground much longer the tops mil start to shoot. In some, districts Thousand-headed Kale cud Chou Moullier is grown for .July-August feeding. Care has to he taken not to feed these too liberally to newly-calved cows, otherwise there is danger of redwater. If this class of crop is cut and allowed to wilt for a day or two before feeding, there is not much danger. * THIS DEFINES A SILO. A silo is a hole entirely surrounded by a wall for storin’ cow feed. Sometimes the hole is in the ground; sometimes it is up in the air. To build a silo, first select a nice spot for the hole, then build a wall outside of the hole if you build up, or inside of the hole if you put a pit silo. Either kind is good, but you got to go about itdifferent. If you cari # t put up a silo, put one down, but don’t put it off. All kinds of material is good for silo building excepting hot air. Good ones is made outen cement, concrete, cement staves, or slabs, holler tile, bricks, stone, wooden staves, steel or two-by-fours. We has 2000 silos in Colorado made of them above materials and about 20,000 outen hot air. Most of the farmers has got the spot fur the hole picked out, but they ain’t never begun to commence to build yet, fur some treasons or others. Some hain’t got the money, so cain’t decide on the kind of silo, some sez too much work to haul the crop in and cut it up, some sez silage makes the cow’s teeth fall out, some sez it gives ’em holler horn and holler tail, some sez it makes milk turn green, some sez the butter from silage milk won’t churn, some sez it makes steers scour, hawgs howl and lambs limp. Anything to put «ff silo building.—Colorado News Notes.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. It is a healthy sign that there should be continued requests for more pro-

vision for agricultural education and training for tne youth of the country, and for the lads of the city, too. This is voiced at almost every conference of representative rural organisations. The special demand is for moire rural schools and agricultural high-schools in. country centres; in fact there appears to. be competition and rivalry between the larger towns for this added recognition of their importance. Years ago the popular fancy used to ’.run on gaols, and a number of towns were honoured by ; the building of penitentiaries that were never occupied. Then came the experimental farm era, in which every district aspired to having a Government farm in its midst. Those that got them were slow to make use of them. Now it is a school where the minds of the young can be directed to of opportunities to gam mtormation, it was proposed to state a definite time the life on the land. The evolution through the three stages certainly has the merit of indicating mental elevation. The State, as a matter of fact, is doing quite a lot in agricultural* edur cation from the primary stage right up to the University. Also it is doing it cheaply, so much so that -the general taxpayer is footing the bill for a great deal of the special education. At- the agricultural high school, the experiment farm school, and the agricultural college, the fees are not sufficient to defray the board of the students, much less the, housing and education of them. But the State is creating a trained humsjn. asset that it is hoped will compensate it in the future in useful revenue-producing settlers. So no on© grumbles at the expenditure. The fact remains, however, that while there are requests for more such facilities, all the accommodation already provided is not availed of. This applies particularly to Hawkesbury Agricultural College and the Wagga Farm School.

SHOW JUDGING. Innovations which it is proposed to introduce in connection with the judging of various sections at the annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria will meet with general approval. At the last, meeting of the society the view was expressed that exhibitors would welcome the practice of meeting 'the judges to discuss with them the reasons for making the awards in classes where the njprits of the exhibits might not be evident to competitors. Discussing this matter, Mr Henry Schwieger, secretary to the Royal Agricultural Society, said that it was desired that the annual exhibition should prove an educational factor as well as a display at which the best stock and varied agricultural resources o£ the State should be arranged for inspection. At recent exhibitions it had been made evidenUTh some of the classes that those actually engaged in production had failed to appreciate the finer points (often with a distinct commercial value) which had actuated judges in arriving at their decisions. Mentioning several classes, Mr Schweiger said that competitors might at times feel dissatisfied with decisions given, though when these came to be reviewed by experts who had officiated as judges, the exhibitors freely admitted the soundness of the given. Since it was obviously the duty of the society to make these displays as instructive as possible, it was intended at the forthcoming show to ask judges to

meet competitors desirous of obtaining information and, if necessary, explain th© reasons for placing the exhibits in the order allotted them. It was thought that this object would be best attained by inviting the judges of the different sections to be present on the morning following the judging of the exhibits at the appointed time. Eethibitors who cared to attend at a stated time would then have the opportunity of discussing the merits of the different placed exhibits, and so ascertaining in what respects the winning displays were preferable to those which were placed in a lower order of merit.

It is fully realised by th© society that the number of instances in which exhibitors might disagree with the verdict of the judges are likely to.be insignificant. Nevertheless, in order that the exhibitors might avail themselves when the judges would be in attendance. While it is recognised that in many instances there would be no question asked, yet it is felt that the show will have a far greater effective influence if facilities such as those suggested are afforded. In deciding upon this course of action, and it is one that might with advantage be followed by many a smaller association, the Royal Agricultuarl Society is affording farther evidence of the progressive policy which has characterised its work of recent years. Numerous improvements are contemplated, and, in addition, there are to be included in 'the schedule a number of new classes which i will add considerably to the attractiveness of the displays which already so fully reflect the immense agricultural and pastoral resources of th© State. '

IN CHARITY WITH ALL MEN. " (Waikato Times.) The value of good roads is not only economic, it has also an ethical quality. It will commonly be found that the less we know of other people the less we think of them. The- good haters of the community are. commonly found amongst the ignorant. Good roads mean greater knowledge of our neighbours, including those over the frontier, and such knowledge will lead to more charitable thoughts. There is, of course, opposition to any such process, which takes various shapes. Some people dislike to pay for roads, and in the old* days of turnpikes would travel maiiy miles round to avoid paying sixpence. It has even been suggetsed that the Government looks with an unfriendly eye on roads, as competing with railways, but then the opposition of vested interests to any improvement whatever must always be expected. Then again there are the people who would rule out foreigners of all kinds, being satisfied that they must necessarily be inferior; and still another variety of opposition comes from those who would refuse to buy from other people, though they do not mind selling to them. Such opposition delays the advent of greater knowledge, though it does not prevent it. The necessities of mankind urge them to increased communication, and the efforts of the reactionaries are only temporarily successful. Roads mean more .than; railways, for they take one to the heart of the country, and motor transport will do much to check the swollen growth of the cities. We shall do well to remember that the roads make for friendship for life. Conflict is but the inevita7??& reaction from the right rule.