FARM AND GARDEN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 315, 26 November 1910, Page 6

FARM AND GARDEN.

CLOVER FOR BROOD MARES. There is a widespread belief in parts of England that much clover is prejudicial to conception, and on this point a stud breeder writes to the, "Live Stock Journal" as follows: —-"I keep a stalilon and several brood mares, but, though we have no difficulty in getting outsiders' mares to hold, we have been very unlucky with our own, nearly all of them breaking, and so presumably remaining barrep. The mares have all been out at grass and have nothing but what they get grazing. Also, we have been very careful to keep the mares well away from the geldings. The one thing, perhaps, in which my pasture differs from my neighbours is that I use a good deal of basic slag, and consequently my grass has a large proportion of clover. Now, I had -never heard that clover was prejudicial to mares holding until I came on a statement to that effect in Baron von Oetingen's book on horse breeding, and I should be very glad to know if clover is generally recognised as acting in this way, and if it is not known, to point to it as a possible cause of trouble."

CLASSING LAMBS' WOOL. The classifying of lambs' wool is the real hard work as far as a woolclasser is concerned. The first duty is to see that the tables are covered with a cloth, clean bags or, packs, so as to prevent any of the small grown wools from falling through on to the floor. This class of wool is brought on to the tables much mingled or intermingled so that the table hands? are fully employed in looking over and taking out all belly wool, stained, inferior, and dirty ends, so as to leave the rest as presentable as possible. Much of the classer's hard work can be obviated if he will only give certain instructions and insist upon them being carried out. In reality there are only two sorts of body wool, the longest and bigger grown lamb's wool, and the smaller or shorter grown wool. Usually a picker-up has two boards with which to gather up the wool, being mostly so short that it will not hold together as a full-grown fleece. In picking up with these boards, however carefully the work is done, a great amount of trimmings, 'stained an'l fatty ends come up to the table, where the table hands do their work by taking out all faulty, dirty ends and objectionable parts. At this stage of picking up, a classer can make his own and the table hands work much easier by insisting that only one fleece of wool that comes off a lamb is brought up at one time, and never allow more under any pretext, so that the longer lamb's wool is kept separate from the shorter. • There are really only two sorts to be made after the trimmings have been taken out of the body wool, viz.: First, if of good quality, nice length, bright, and light, when it may be branded super. In classing lambs, length and bulk are the first consideration, length being the only difference between the better sorts. The next sort may be equally fine, as good in general appearance, but of shorter or smaller growth, being from the younger lambs, and if the best sort is called super, then this way may be branded lsts. The skirtings or trimmings of both the bigger and smaller lambs, after the stained has been removed, may be called 2nds. Bellies are usually kept by themselves if of fair growth and holding together, but if anyway bitty they may be put into the lower sort. A classer should handle and pass all the body wool through his own hands to be certain that all the inferior and dirty pieces have been taken out. If there are more than six table hands doing this kind of work, a couple of good-sized baskets would be useful, in which to put one of the best sorts, so as to keep the classing table for one sort at a time. —"Sheep and Wool."