NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 May 1914, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Silage may be carried over from one year to the next without any apparent Joss.

Some writers have said: "Too many spend too much time farming, and not enough time living."

"When your neighbors' hens steal across the way, do not let your angry passions rise, but fix a place for them to Iky.

,As a supplement to the Rural "Workers Log ensuring a mininmm wage to farm laborers, we shall want {says the Dominion) an act of Parliament living a minimum profit to farmers.

The losses in ensiling maize should not exceed 10 per cent, that is, the eilage when cured should have within 10 Tier cent as much dry .matter and ieedin"- value as when the maize was put into the silo. The losses from field cured maize vary from 10 percent to 3.00 nor cent.

Get the feeding pigs outside. Nature never intended that they should he kept closely confined in small illifcspt pens generating foul odors and -alive with flies. Pure air, green fields. with Protection from sun and rain, and a. large plot to exercise in, are great Aids in the .production of pork at a profit.

Briefly stated, the advantages of «[airy farming are —increasing productivity of. the soil, a regular monthly income putting the business on a cash basis, a better distribution of the labor of the farm than is possible under a «ingle-crop system supplying a product for the market, all of which should l)e of the highest Tade; and for which there is always a ready sale.

A "Wisconsin (U.S.A.) banker says "that to his knowledge, in fifty years' «xperience, a failure has been seldom, if ever, recorded where- the farmer attended strictly to his business of 'dairy-farming-, using good sires, weeding out the poor cows, . savins heifer calves' from .th 6 best cows,, crossing these with other good sires, thus increasing his herd and improving it.

Nothing tickles the appetites of sheen more than, a change of pasture. As the, year advances and the grasses composing the pasture dry, wither, And become stale, it is a good plan to change the shec> from one paddock to another from time to time. If they are .kept* off a uaddock for a few weeks the. grass cets a new lease t of life, and is a good deal fresher than "when they are continually tramping and Backing over it. ■

Lucerne i» one. of the best forage crops for all classes of live stock. It is^ excellent for feeding in connection •with silage or starchy grains^ and is » fine weed destroyer. It gets its nitrogen supply from the air, and its mineral food from far below where ordinary crops feed. It harbors bacteria which, work 24 hours a day, l)oard themselves and pay the farmer handsomely for the privilege.

It is a well-known fact that when manure is permitted to ferment nitrogen passes off in the form of amxnonia. If it is left exposed to the elements, the potash and phosphoric ■arid will leach away; therefore, in carin~ for manure, it is well to prevent it from fermenting, and this can lie' accomplished by keeping it moist. All ma.nure, however^ will ferment a little, and through the use of calcium *ulphate— gypsum—:the ammonia is picked up and saved.

Navel-ill takes some colts, even "though great care has been taken to put an antiseptic on the umbilical cord for a few days after the colt is foaled, and to keep the 6tables very dean, but the man who knows that an antiseptic such as carbolic acid in, ten ncr cent solution is generally effective in preventing the disease if promptly and regularly applied until

the cord dries up. has himself to blame , if he neglects to prepare a little of the aolution and the colt falls a victim to the most dreaded foal ailment.

The Pacific Coast Condensed Milk

CJompany, U.S.A., with condenseries in Oregon and Washington, has ceased its long fight against the silo, «ays* a correspondent of Hoard's Dairyman. "About three-fourths of the milk 2r<?duced in Washington county, the leading dairy county of this State, £oes io this company's plants, and , dyer since their beginning here, eleven years ago, they have held that milk from silage-fed cows cannot \>& condensed. It is a source of great satisfaction to the dairyman to learnr that the company has recently reversed its ruling, and it is now glad to receive all tie silage-fed milk available."

Referring to recent Addington sales '* Canterbury writer says: There was a, large .yarding of fat lambs, the largest of the season, but the iughest totals do not come up to those •of past years. The reason is that lambs .have been fattening slowly, and more are now sold at country saleyards or Are bought on the farms. Fat sheep were in- fair supply, as were also fat cattle. The fat lamb sale was the i>est of the season so far as actual values were concerned. This was particularly the case with the light-weight lambs, vvhioh. in some cases sold as high as 6sd per 1b over all.. The firmer -tone in the Home market, and the fact that supplies of fat ; lambs are not expected to hold out much longer, are eiven as the reasons for the advance. At country sales during the week «qually high rates were ruling. Fat sheep also sold at improved rates, and it is now likely that prices will steadily advance during; the next few months. The main business in store sheep i* now over for the season, and although] prices are still high, they have receded from the level they reached a few ireeks ago. The only class of store «attle that are selling at' all freely just now are well grown steers, arid ad'-the last two weeks there has been Wk good line of these on offer in the yards.