THE FARMER.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 12 October 1894, Page 7

THE FARMER.

THB RUSSIAN WHEAT CROP. The Sb. Petersburg correspondent of the • Daily Telegraph' gives some extraordinary particulara as to the wheat harvest; in Russia, and the despair of the Russian farmers and landowners gt the prospect of an abundant crop. Fot some time past the Russian prenß has been devoting its leaiHog articles to a discussion of tbe measures best calculated to centralise the effcets of the ooming plentiful harvest, and now, curiously enough, the question haa reduced itself to this simple iasue : Shonld tfae corn be reaped and garnered in, or would it not ba wieer to turn ■heep dnd cattle into the corn fields and thus lessen the quantity of the produce ? Ifc now' appears that many- landowners refused last year to gather in the harvee , and ate determined cot to re. move it this- yew either. - One landlord, for instance, who owns a larg*Estate near Odessa, and whose facilities fortteporb *re therefore exceptionally numerous, foreseeing tbe fall ot prices, purchased 1000 sheep and unhesitaingly turned them into his fields of wheat. He is said to be so satisfied witb the result that he means to do likewise vow that a fall in prices is probable. - The Odessa 'Novosti,' a journal which is usually well informed opon agrioultual qutVtionp, ha* published a •cries of articles to show tbat to gather in the harvest this year would be tantamount to throwing good money aftei* bad, f^r" it can only be done at a heavy loss to farmers. Tbe ' Russkaia Bhi& ' sayi the crisis is due to the mistaken agricultural policy of the Government, wbioh made ie possible to. .forward corn from the furthest coniew of Russia to Germany, Eogla id, aod Belgium of nominal freights, while It waa practically impossible to distribute it in neighbouring Ruseian distric* s where people were dying of hunger. Thus on the one band it was scarce at home, where sore' y needed, and plentiful •broad, where it was not really wanted. The article concludes thuß : ( Is it not Stratige, in trnth, c that at the very moment that our peasants are admittedly suffering from lack of food, our landowner; ate, turning sheep into their om^LW^i: and hava . come to the conclosi# iftt it is not worth while to gather in the coming harvest.'. MILK BUPPIVING TO A FACTOEY. The following estraot is from a paper read by Mr W. Scurge-v ab the last meeting of the Waikato Farmers' Club, •nd waa published in thb ' Waikato Times :'— 'Tfie Advantages of the Creamery. The creamery has . more advantages I think than •cbee*e fac! ory, by the return to the supplier of the bkirn milk. This ia a great factor, as it enables you to rear a calf from each cow, besides a pig to two cows, but with the supplement of otber food, euoh as roots and maize, one pig per cow can be fitted for topping off for bacon. I come now to the question 4 Doeß it p*y ?' That de. pends upon the management. You have three products — first, tbe milk, which should be high in butter fat ; seoond, the calf, well reared ; third, the pig fitted for • baconer, Tbe results hinge upon what standard of perfection you have brought them to ; as you •Ufcnowthe value of these commodities, I will leave you to make the calculation, If you meet a fellow farmer and you talk milk, as certain a-i tbe urn shines he Fill finish up by giving you hi. opinion that it may piy all right enough When the labor is done within one. •wn family, but tfert it won't pay tc milk and hire labor, I think if the multiplication table is to be relied on, it will bear out the faot that it doei pay. Ton oan manage, say 20 cows, within; your ewo family, and 70c

would like to increase your herd to 40. No more time or outlay of capital is required to deliver the milk of 40 cows than of 20, bnt it requires two extra milkers. I have made calculations from several seasons. The milk yield of a cow through the milkiog period will average half of what she gives for tbe first month alter calving, namely — if the first month's yield is three gallons per day, she will average one and a-half through the season ; if four £ftllon_r per day, tbe average will be two gallons. Now, one and a-half gallons p*ir day from 40 cows, at 3d per gallon, total 15s ; at two gal ona per day it will be 20s, not including Sundays. Tbat allows 30s per week to pay for the labor by bringing up the herd to average four gallon?, I feel ! quite sute, had proper foresight and , care been exercieed by any one of us who has been engaged more or less in ! the dairy industry for many years, cows , of the highest average would have been i the rule instead of the exception. I . have before stated the method required , to give you th/se results. There are , too mauy cows of the lower yield ) milked. They don't pay j weed them | ont for the butoher, acd replace them , with others better adapted for milk proi duction. TRUE, PERHAPS. There are probably no more skilful drovers in the world than some of the men who drive large numbers of sheep and cattle over long distances in the interior of Australia. Often, in traversing that great thirst land, the , stock have to be taken for considerable distances with scam ly any feed and \ still less water, and notwithstanding these great disadvantages, such is the \ skill and judgment of the leading drovers that they lose very few beasts. A noteworthy feat in drov'ng was ; lately mentioned by the * Cloncurry Advocate,' in which Mr W. B. Dixon started from Cania station, near E idevold, Queensland, with 017 head i of cattle, and delivered them at th*ir destination, 40 miles below Perbrs, j N.S.W. an estimated distance of 1000 \ milts. During this long journey so ; </reat was the care exercised in driving the cattle that only four head were los-\ The who'e diet nee was traversed at an average of eight miles per day, and the total cost of the trip was only 4s 3_rd per day, COULD THE NEW ZEALAND BOYS NOT DO IT? Testimony regarding the efficacy of bird lime made by boiling linseed oil to the proper degree of thickne.sa was given by a visitor to the Staiißbury branch bureau, South Australia. He said that his boys <aight a number of sparrows with linseed oil boiled tbick and sme ired on sticks. SCALDING PIGS. The proper and best temperature of water for scalding pigs is 160 deg. If the heat is muoh greater it will eet the hair fast, and if much lower the pigs will not be scalded at all. As low as 140deg. will Ecald a fine-haired pig, provided about 75 to 100 gallons of water was uaed ; but where a tub is used the heat must be at least 150deg. In the open air and in cold Weather this will not be high enough, and .160 degi is the point for pigs over 751 b. THE CHAIRMAN OI? GOLDSBOROUGH CO. ON THE SITUATION. At presrnt there was no buying and selling value to be placed on station?, and it was very difficult to soy what > was the real value of the secutiiy. The view be took was lhat the real value was what the security would return in the shape of intt rest after providing for working expense?. That was a valuation that depended on value?, and the value of statiou propertiea had reached one of the lowest points ever reached in the tistory of the Australian pastoral industry. THE JERSEY BREED OF CATTLE, The Jersey cow has long boen cele* brated for her wonderful buiter produc* ing capacity. Both quantity and quality have io. ber been brought to the highest pei fection,. and when ws gtudy the history of the breed, the reasoa is obvious. There is no doubt that originally the Normandy and Jersey aod Alderney cattle srere tbe same, and wero always renowned as buiter producers, but in Jf rßey the islanders soon sa w tbe advantage of pe.fecly pure blood, and their insular position gave them thtir opportunity of taking such action as would effectually stop auy crose-breeding ; fo in 1763 tbey passed an act forbidding the importation of cattle from Prance, lv 1780 a still more stringent act was passed, and in 1826 an aot was pawd absolutely prohibiting aDy cattle being landed on tbe island. The Jersey farmers have always bred with one primary object, vis?., the development of the butter* producing qualities of the breed, i * Hence ie bas for ages been the invariable custom,' says Mr Johnlthan Smi b, of Jersey, ' never to übc a bull before seeing hia dam and beiog satisfied of ' her yield of butter. Unless this proved 1 satisfactory no other point iv the bull himself op his (Jaw availed anything, no one would use him. The siuglo end • aod aim of our tfl'orts has hitherto been butter, and it is tbis concentration of the energies of all our breeders in ' one direction for so long a period 1 which has doubtless been the chief agent in improving the breed and making it • what it fa — the beajb Qf butt*-? cowp,' ; A HINT FOR TAB SHOW YARD : JIOW TO ! THROW A SHEEI'. i I was much surprised, while watching tbe judging at the late A.K, B.A. show, to notice lhe c'umsy manner in which the atteudants ' turn d up ' the cheep for inspection of tbe judges, i With or o exception thry followed tbe i old plan of main streuglb »nd stupidity, i thoqgh many qf them have gyowo gr^y i in working aniong *hef p. It was quite i di tressing at times to see a beyvy, aged > merino ram, or, worse still, a mountain ' of a longwool, seiz d round the neck i with one arip and. the f'-fe legs lifted 9 off the grouhc 1 , while with » the other , band the sheep was grasped by tbe i j flank, aud, a* be oould not be plesrly

lifted off the ground, he was dragged over. Many of the heavy rams, I feel satisfied, must have suffered severely from the usage to wbich tbey were subjected. The exception to the rule was the young fellow in charge of Mr. S. M'Oaughey'a sheep, and he was tbe cleverest at turning up a heavy ram I ever saw. The following is his mode of proceeding, which differs slightly from the Vermont plan. He grasped the off horn with tbe left hand, and lifted tbe near hind foot with the right band. By a slight motion the ram's head was turned to the right, and be sank gently down on his near hind quirter, and was vory easily turned round so as to present hia under-surface to the judges. By adopting this plan a ewe heavy in lamb may ba turned up for any purpose without causing her even the slightest inconvience. I would reoommend all who are engaged among sheep to practise this mode of ' throwing ' sheep, as they will find it not only eaeiet to themselves than tbe present awkward plan, but very much better for the cheep. — • Bruni.'