Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 177, 29 July 1909, Page 3

Farm and Garden

WHAT INBREEDING MEANS. The meaning of inbreeding is breeding an animal to another when there is blood relation. There seems to be a great fear in the minds of many as to the danger of inbreeding. They forget that left to itself that is Nature's way of reproducing. Mating animals with their kind tends to produce progeny of equal vigor so there is no deterioration but rather an intensification of peculiar characteristics generation after generation. . All our different kinds of pure-bred live stock have been the result of inbreeding, and the different families of such, of pronounced excellence, have been made what they are by judicious mating of animals more or less closely related. When I have animals with desirable qualities which I desire to perpetuate, unaccompanied by equally prominent defects, I believe that it is a wise thing to mate such, even though they are closely related. For instance, in breeding grades always using a purebred sire—where I aim to obtain the charahcteristics and form of the purebreds, I always breed the daughters back to their sire, providing the latter are such that I care to perpetuate. In this I have not only 75 per cent of the pure blood, but also the same amount of that particular strain on which I am working. Therefore I fix the pure blood characteristics more surely and rapidly than where I have a sire of the same breed but not the same strain. I have followed this with cattle and sheep, and it would be a very difficult matter for a stranger in most cases to distinguish in the third generation between grades and pure-breds. How far would I carry this? In the next generation I believe it is wiser to secure a sire of the same type, with a preponderance of the particular strain of blood I am using, than to breed to the grandsire. There may be defects in the ancestry of which I know nothing which undue or too close mat ing will bring out. Breeding to the son is to be commended. In such cases one must always stand ready to discard any progeny tbat show defects or fail to come up to the standard. — W. H. Underwood in the Farmer's Voice. __________ A COLIC REMEDY. Gin was considered the most efficacious remedy for colic by some old horse masters; burnt cork or the seed of burdocks are very good, but a quart of gin is the most effectual. Richard Parkinson says be once had a horse seized with colic while be was absent, and bis men sent for a vet., who administered some dose. When I returned the horse was blown up like a bladder and stretched out at full length, dying as 1 thought. A gentleman who was with me asked my men if they had administered gin; and, bearing that they had not, sent for a bottle, and gave it while the horse lay apparently dying, with scarcely any life left in him; indeed, I, thought he might as well have given it to a dead horse. But the result was before we had eaten a beef steak which was cooking for us. the horse w-is upon bis feet again eating his food. FRUIT TREE SPRAYING. The householder whose backyard contains one or two fruit trees is not generally aware tbat under the Act he is compelled to take certain precautions in keeping those trees immune

fro::; posts. Where codlin moth exists I amongst apple trees, for instance, it is just as necessary for a man with only one or two trees to take activeprecautions as it is for the man with a large orchard, and this season it is intended by the Government Biologic:ai \ Department to adopt strict measure? ■ in seeing that the law is complied i with The officers of the Department ! suggest that in the endeavour to cope with the codlin moth pest, a prepara- | tion of arsenate' of lead, at the rate of j 1 1-2 lbs to 50 gallons of water, should I be used in spraying the trees. Where apple and pear scab is prevalent, 1 1-2 | lbs of arsenate of lead should be used j to 50 gallons of Bordeaux mixture, for ! the first two sprayings, and then a : composition of arsenate of lead and i water alone. I ■ . j MILK FEVER IN COWS. An experienced Jersey breeder in Victoria speaks of tincture of aconite j as a simple, perfectly harmless and j infallible cure for milk fever in cows. I I have yet to hear, he siys, of a single case where it has been administered \ that it did not prove effectual. A « week ago my man went after the cows i in the morning, and found a cow that j had a calf two days before, and could j not get up. We rolled her on to a 1 stone sledge, and drew her .under shel- ] ter. She did not appear very sick, I but at 2 p.m. the same day she grew | worse, showing all the signs of a severe j case of puerperal I sent for I two ounces of tincture of aconite, \ gave her a dose of threequarters of an ounce, and in five minutes by the ] watch she sat up naturally, and show- ] ed she was better. Six hours later, j which was nine p.m. we gave her one half as much as the first dose. At 4 ] o'clock the next morning she appeared ! better, had a passage through the ! night, and we then gave her a third ! dose, which was about the quantity of j the second dose, and at 7 a.m. found | her on her feet, and disposed to eat a J Httl2 hay. We stopped giving her I medicine and turned her out with the other cows. The same thing has been tried about here several times, with like results. (t is one of the most powerful stimulants known, and that is what is needed in such cases. The best way to do is to get the aconite from the chemist ready made up in the j specified doses, and have it always at hand. ITALIAN RYE CROPS, In the matter of sowing a field out with rape and Italian, the farmer should be fairly generous with the manure to the rape, as he will more than get it back in the extra grazing the j Italian will give him. The Italian, ; however, must not be sown too thickl ly, or it will choke the rape. Again, I if the Italian is taken for seed, it is no ! use letting it lie down for another year j for grazing. If the land be good ! enough and the climate suitable for i growing Italian, and anything like I what we have here, it will pay hand- ! somely to lift the paddocks frequently ; and use manure with the forages sowi ing Italian for two or three years I down as the case might be. On our | lighter lands about 181b of Italian or • less is sown sometimes as little as 101b with a gciod dressing of cocksfoot,to give the bulk of feed in the first year, until the cocksfoot gets established. THE OLD CLYDESDALE AND THE NEW. Time works changes in most things, and so it has in the realms of Clydesdale breeding, the idea of many breeders now being to produce a horse perfectly suited to the requirements of modern agriculture, says a writer in the "Oamaru Mail." Under the old system, with implements that are nowconsidered antiquated, weight was the element required and aimed at in preference to speed. Modern agricultural implements are more adapted to speed, and thus it is that the heavier type of horse is being superseded by one of a lighter frame, although just as heavy in body—an animal of more deilcate appearance. The change was first made in Scotland; in England the old type is still generally adopted as the standard. It was demonstrated that the old type of Cydesdale was too cumbersome for present-ay farm work, although eminently suited for pulling a two or three ton load. One advantage the new type has over the old is that it is much superior in pastern and feet. This is owing to the ab sence of the long hair. The absence of hair ensures greater cleanliness, and at the same time saves much of the labour required in grooming. In north Otago the change is best exemplified in the animals bred by Mr Wiliam Gardiner, of Papakaio, of whose stud it may be said that it marks the dividing line between the old order and the new. The new type is much better adapted as before stated, to presentday farm work, and as an instance we have only to make a comparison of the motive power necessary to work the old swing plough with that necessary to maniuplate the more modern double furrow implement. With the swing plough weight was required more than anything alse; and hence two of the heavier Clydesdale type eminently suited its requirements. The double furrow plough is more adapted to speed, and so with four horses of the newer type this particular form of agricultural work is more economically accomplished. Then take the modern reaper and binder, which does not necessitate great strength. Three medium sized horses do much more economical work in the harvest field than do the heavier and more slow moving type. But there are still many breeders who still retain the old type as a standard. Not that the change in type has had any detrimental effect ont breed; only that the new order has failed to satisfy everybody's fancy. Whether the change has been altogether justifiable is still open to conjecture; certain it is that it has come to stay, for thore are at present many imported horses of the clean boned type in the Dominion, and if they serve no other purpose they will always stand as a fitting comparison between one breeder's fancy and another's. After all, the question resolves itself into one of utility, which is really the crucial test of a "r.-.rsc. The new type has the advantage of durability, and quickness, against which has to be placed the somewhat

stronger but more plodding nature of the clumsier type. One of the greatest disadvantages yet to he coped with is the difkeuity of ju-girg- wherp the rough-legged hs£ to complete witri would be to separate.;.' e.ass t..0- tv."o types, lut it wo'ul•.; he much '■ otter if one type were adented. for oreer.ers would then know v.-hat class of an; ma: was expected in the ring.