FARM AND DAIRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 13 November 1926, Page 16

FARM AND DAIRY

NOTES BY THE WAY. The spread of lupins in the district was referred to at the ordinary meeting of the Patea County Council on Tuesday. A councillor said there was really a grave danger because when the lupin got established it spread so fast. And he instanced a ease at Maautahi where a plant or two spread in a year to a great number, and offer a burn there were millions of seedlings. Unless draining where necessary js done the land cannot produce full crops. Water lying near the surface in undraincd land prevents plants sending down their roots deeply in the soil. Business farming is the only kind 'f farming that makes it possible for a man to know just where he stands at any time with regard to any crop or any line ■of work. Do not be content to grow the same cr< ps year after year, and to feed in the same old way, without trying out new ideas to see if modern methods of cropping and feeding are superior to the old.

The season is evidently jsuiting a number of the heavy milking eow,s in the purebred herds. Dr the Bolobek Friesian stud of Mr 0. J. Syme, at Macedon, the second-calf heifer, Bainfield Nether,land Sylvia 2nd gave 91 lb of milk on October 8, when the official weights were taken. Last year, on her first lactation, she gave up to olilbsi in the dav, and 401 b on the* last day was her lowest for the nine months. She gave 1245 gallons of milk in a 3.69 test and 4951 b of butter-fat in 273 days, and 1181 gallons of milk in the 12 months. Another heavy producer in the Bolobek herd is Burnside Korndvke Riversdale, which last year gave 2280 tuitions of milk and 588\b of but-ter-fat'in 365 days. She had given 533 ib of butter-fat in 273 days, and was then givino" 5651 b of milk, so it was thought worth while to make a year s test of her production. She freshened again within three weeks’ after the venr’s test finished, and a fortnight biter her first official test for the current vear was taken, when she gave 8i lb of milk in the 24 hours. On the next month’s test she gave 1061 b in the dh” and 1041 bin 24 hours month following, or an average of 991 b of mPk nor day over each of her three monthly tests. THE PIG INDUSTRY. In view of the fact that there is a good demand in Great Britain for New Zealand pork, it is probable that the pig industry will receive considerable attention in North Otago in the near future. It is worthy of mention that as far back as ISB3 there were five bacon-curing factories in Oamarul which cured 1500 carcases during the year.

FARMING IN BRITAIN. UP-TO-DATE METHODS. MORE FERTILISER. USED. It has been the custom of the Rothamsted Experimental Station to invite agriculturists to inspect the experimental plots and laboratories during the summer season, and a representative gathering spent a most interesting day at the station recently. in the morning a tour of the field plots was made, while during the afternoon explanations were given in the laboratories of the research work now in progress: Sir John Russell, director of the station, in a subsequent speech, mentioned the fact that additional glasshouse accommodation was required for the conduct of plant research. For these further investigations it was estimated that a sum of £3OOO would he needed. Towards this amount the Rockefeller Institute has promised to give £2OOO, while the Ministry of Agriculture would grant £SOO on the condition that the remaining £SOO should be raised by private subscription.

It was pointed out that the main object of the research work done at Rothamsted was to provide guidance to farmers as to the means whereby it might be possible to produce larger crops at less expense. Towards this end trials with fertilisers, especially new fertilisers, were carried out .and reports were issued from time to time. It was estimated that the annual expenditure by British farmers on artificial fertiliser's amounted to about £7,000,000, and the value of farmyard manure used in a year to £14,000,000. If research could demonstrated how a portion of this large expenditure could be saved work of the greatest national importance would be accomplished. Soil physics was a subject now receiving considerable attention at Rothamsted. Hitherto the importance of this branch of agricultural science had not been realised. Sir John Russell, in alluding to the preparation of artificial farmyard manure, mentioned that the supply and demand relating to this material steadily increased, and this manure was evidently appreciated by market gardeners and farmers who did not keen live stock. Visitors .showed keen interest in the plots to be seen on the famous- “Broadbalk” field, where wheat had been continuouslv grown for over 80 years. One of the chief practical difficulties experienced during this long period of continuous cropping has naturally been the growth of weeds. Tn an attempt to rid the land of weeds a new departure is being made this season, .when one end of the field is being bare-fallowed. Tt is nroposed to bare-f allow tbe other end of the field next season, while one central strip, representing about onefifth of the field, will be bare-f allowed in both seasons. The extent to which this treatment will prove successful m these classic experiments will he watched with the greatest interest. A REMEDY. A correspondent sends the following of interest: — “For destroying ragwort and La,,uornian thLtle in a small wav. cut the plants off and place a lump of on each, and leave for a few weeks. J lie cows Rek the salt, which destroys the weeds.”

ROMANCE OF THE SEA. CALLED EIVEN FROM THE FAR UPLAND FARMS. The farmers’ sons that were bred under the shadow of the old forests or the moors that followed them (says a correspondent in a Home paper) could not feel at rest in the meadows thenancestors had tilled for ages, when the sen that brought them hither was m their blood, and as they rose higher on the uplands called them to venture put. into the strange world that lay bevend the horizon; and as they drove their cattle down t o Plymouth or Kingsbridgc or Dartmouth or brought r.hcir crops to exchange for goods newbrought from beyond the sea, there was no denying the call, especially when they saw some captured galleon brought in with its glittering freight, or listened to the romances of struggle and treasure told by the returned sailors in the taverns.

A large majority of those venturous seamen were born far inland. There is proceeding in the Western Morning News and other local pa,pers a discussion as to the birthplace of Francis Drake. Most agree that he was brought up on a farm in the neighbourhood of Tavistock, but they disagree as to the farm on which he was born; one faction holds that it was on Great Crown Pond, on the right bank of the Tamar; the other that it was on Little Crownland on the left bank. Farmers his father and all his ancestry were, and farmer he was brought up. But to dispose of his products he had to make for the nearest port on the coast, or the nearest market place at the head of the tidal waters of an estuary. The striking thing about this southern slope of Devonshire is that it interweaves a web of farming and seafaring life. The boys had the constitution and the healthy mind that country life tends to give, and yet the perpetual "movie” of the coastal life they came in contact with every week, almost every day of their life, stirred their imaginations and planted deep in their hearts a longing for adventure. That new world which lay out beyond the horizon was bound to call them, some day, and every new generation of adventurers on .their return sowed by the curios and treasures they brought back and the wonderful tales they could tell another and even finer crop of adventurers.

NOTES BY THE WAY. IN VICTORIA. That the Friesian breed is spreading vapidly throughout the irrigation, districts is a tribute to their all-round utility quality. Nearly all the settlers keep pigs as a sideline, and they can get a good return from tho skim milk over and above the heavy butter-fat return that these big cows give. Mr Len Russell, of the Daireuth Friesion stud, at Tongala, reports having sold 24 heifers during the past month, a’l the progeny of a Bolobek Friesian bull, nn.d in calf to another of the same’ line of breeding. All these are on the ir rigation country, within a few miles of Tongala. Mr Russel has, sold a very well-bred bull to Mr Williams, of Ton-y-ala, baring heavy butter-fat records right throughout its pedigree. The sire of its dam is Dominion Oakwood, which is the sire of the two highest producing cows of all breeds in the past year’s Government test. The dam herself is a daughter of that remarkable old Friesian cow, Dinah, which, although 23 years old. gave in last veer’s Government test 1065 gallons of milk, of 3:50 test, an,& 3721 b of butterfat fov the nine months. The sire of Mr WiTiams’is voung hull is a son of Mr Russell’s show cow. Springfield 9th, which put up a record 6171 b of butterfat in +he Tongala district herd test this Past cen,=<iri .

SHEEP HISTORY. ORIGIN 10,000 YEARS AGO. MODERN REPRESENTATIVES OF ANCIENT BREEDERS. According to authorities such as Professor J. Crossan' •,Ewart, Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh, there is evidence of the existence of a breed of sheep prior to the Ice Age, hut this ' became extinct, and the earliest records we now have of domesticated .sheep point to a breed established in tho south of Turkestan and Thibet, about 8090 B.C. These sheep, known as urials, were apparently crossed—during the Bronze Age—with the mouflon sheep, which was also domesticated, and these breeds were ultimately so intercrossed as to form practically an entirely new breed, which can now be seen, in an almost unchanged state, in the sheep of Soay. These are described as hearing a fleece of short, fine wool of sudi density that thev can withstand the. coldest weather. Soav is said to have been stocked with sheen about- 2000 8.0.. . "pel during the Roman tenancy of Britain Soay wool was esteemed so fine that it was used exclusively for the Tm-perial State Robes. It is of interest to know that i the Merino is said to*have been the proi genv of the Soav crossed with a sheep, imported from North Africa. _On these the various breeds in the British Isles were founded.

LUCERNE GROWING

Writing of a large sheep station in Victoria, cue Australasian says:— “The ratio a. J there is about lain in normal years, and, aithougn the portion under natural grasses nas not such a goou. carrying capacity as the homestead. area, tiUv acres or lucerne produce a wealth of feed lor a period when green growth is hard to get. Run in couj unction with the two mil estates is Kalabity, comprising 9/1 square miles of salt bush country about tip miles west of Broken Hill. Tne whole of this area is surrounded by dog-proof ieucea- ,aiid the provision ox adequate water has entailed a big additional expenditure. During the past five years Kalabity, in common witn other holdings in the eastern part or the State, has undergone an excessively dry period, and only Sin oi rainfall has been recorded up to the middle of last February. This quantity is estimated us about the average annual supply. Notwithstanding the feed shortage, rendered inevitable in such adverse circumstances, it is the practice to-send there all the reserve rams to winter, so that the An am a sheep are thoroughly acclimatised to different conditions, rind the progeny fitted to do; good service on the dry country. There is also an additional stud of - 1400 ewes at Kalabity, and the young tarns reared from this line are sent down to Anama or Booberowie for the .summer. Good lambings are the rule in the saltbush country, and the following figures speak for themselves: —Of 14,760 ewes mustered. 13,914 lambs were marked, the percentage running at 94.2; and 1500 of the breeders Were maidens; one line of 1118 gave 100 per cent.; anothei paddock running 1384 ewes produced 1478 lambs, averaging 106.7 per cent., and another mob of 549 lambed 600 alive at marking time. There is naturally a great deal of difference in the wool grown on the saltbush country land that produced at. Anama, _ for I whereas the former is well conditioned I but carrying a fair amount of dirt in the tip, the Anama clip is distinguished by its' high percentage, of clean scoured yield. The approximate yield is 52 per cent., and up to 66 per cent, was recorded two years ago. Here also high averages are achieved at lamb marking time, and it is no uncommon thing to handle round about 90 per cent. The months of May and June are selected as most .suitable for lambing, but April is satisfactory. This, however, is the earliest- period permitted. The prevalence of foxes this year was responsible for a decided' drop in th number of lambs marked, and it is evident from the experience of .sheepbreeders in many parts of the district that the pests are becoming more troublesome and audacious each year. The ewes which lost their lambs were picked out and again mated, hut the practice is not generally allowed. The Anama Pastoral Co.. Ltd., was incorporated in 1923, when the Anama stud was taken over from Mr Walter TTinvi'-r who still exercises his control in its management.