ON THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13006, 25 October 1905, Page 7

ON THE LAND.

THE LAND JOBBER. • A whiter under the 110 m do plume of " Co-operator" deals .with a subject which has an immense influence on the agricultural industry of this country, namely, the tendency of that class known as the small producer to look for his profits rather to the selling of his farm than to the working of it. No doubt the great advance in land values anil the love of the average colonial for change, very largely account for the tact that the bulk ot our small farms are nearly < always in the market; hut no thoughtful man can fail to reeognso that this state of things. is highly undesirable. When a large proportion of settlers in any district look to the buying and selling of land as a means of making money, it is very bad for those who depend for their living on the raising and selling of farm produce. If the whole of the settlers in any district definitely knew that they Had to depend for their living on the sale of farm produce they would certainly begin right away to provide for themselves some permanent and satisfactory method of marketing this produce. They would also see that it was worth their while to exert themselves, or even to spend money in providing decent roads or other methods of communication with their markets. The'man who buys a farm simply with the idea that some day someone will come along and offer him more than' he gave for it 1:3 not going to trouble himself much about markets or production, and he certainly will strongly object. to any increase of rating in order to give advantages only to those who produce or carry.produce, it is somewhat strange, that we should call this class of people settlers, for they are. decidedly unsettled in their habits, and do almost as much harm to a district as the man who makes bad butter or sows weedy grass seed. The success of agriculture depends upon those people who look upon agriculture as a life occupation, who use land in order to make it yield its increase, who realise that the very methods of proper 'farming depend upon permanency of objective. The huckster in land, the petty pedlar in land will not spend money or Inborn - in undertakings except for immediate profit: he looks upon land as ho looks upon mining scrip, or a line of drapery—just as something to sell whim it will put money into his pockets. The legitimate farmer is just as much interested in putting down the profits of these land jobbers as lie is in lowering the profits of the middleman who ■ distributes his produce. And the sooner the farmer realises this the sooner lie is likely to settle down to those practical and permanent undertakings which alone can vn.ri.ko farming steadily profitable.

INCREASING FAT IN MILK. ' Numerous efforts have been made to ascertain whether the fat content of milk can be increased by liberal feeding. Most results have tended to show that liyTe or 110 variation in the quality of the product. can be made. The Into dairy cow responds quickly in the quantity of milk produced when large rations of suitable food are given, and thus an increased amount of butter-fat is gained. It is, however, no use forcing any cow that has not a strong milking tendency, as such an animal will put on flesh quickly, and the dairy returns will probably bo very little increased. Science Sittings states: — "In the most recent attempt to increase tho fat of milk by liberal feeding of the cows the test- covered a period of four years with a herd of about 20 animals. The first year test was coilducted on the farm of the owner. Then the herd was divided, half of them taken to an experiment station and put on liberal feed of 121b to 141b of grain per day. The third year the , grain was reduced to about 81!) per day,, and tho fourth year the cows were returned to tho original owner and kept as they had been. The result showed a considerable variation in the percentage of fat in the various periods. Under liberal feeding the cows. showed a gain in butterfat the second year of 0.25 per cent. Five cows showed practically no gain, while five others made nearly all tho increase, the highest being 0.62 per cent., and the'lowest 0.02 per cent,, while oik? gave poorer -milk than before. The most noticeable result of tho test was to show that liberal feeding, while having little influence on the quality of the milk, gave a marked increase in quantity. The- average weekly production showed a gain of about 50 per cent, in milk and gome butter-fat. ..This test showed, that the quantity of milk can be largely increased by intelligent and, liberal feeding, and also that the butter- content may be slightly improved. From this the value of keeping only the best cows and feeding them wt'.l is made apparent.

NITROGEN INOCULATION. An American paper Bays:—The only direction in which toil inoculation lifts been rendered more or less practical, according to Professors Yoorhees and Liproan, is the inoculation with culture of various tubercle bacteria. Such inoculation can therefore bo applied to legumes, and legumes only. By so doing we may make possible the formation of tubercles, and therefore the fixation of nitrogen by leguminous crops in such soils where the proper bacteria are naturally absent. But it should also be remembered that in most soils the failure of leguminous crops to grow satisfactory is due, not to the absence of the proper soil bacteria, but to the general unfavourable, soil conditions, to absence of a sufficient- amount of lime, of iv sufficient amount of humus, or of sufficient aeration. The inoculation of such soils without previous improvement would be a waste of effort and money. There is ample justification, therefore, to utter hero a warning against misconception "and unjustifiable expectation. Ignorance in this direction will lie exploited, as ignorance in other directions has been exploited, by attempts to soli to farmers improperly informed cultures of .soil bacteria, advertised as the panacea for all soil ills. Let the man who wishes to inoculate his soil remember that it is ndt yet practicable to inoculate it for wheat or potatoes or melons, and, while it is practical to inoculate it for alfalfa or soy beans or other legumes, he should inform himself as to the real facts before proceeding with his inoculation.

NEW .METHOD OF TESTING COWS.

A new system of testing the milk-yield of purebred dairy cows has been in operation in Wisconsin since 1894 in connection with several breeding societies, who offer prizes for the best records made, and place the animals whoso milk reaches a certain standard on a special register. These tests (says the Wisconsin Journal of Agriculture) have, •become a material factor in the purchase and sale of dairy cattle, and prices paid for purebred cattle at auction sales have in recent years been determined primarily by their records in these tests, the build and type of the animals being given a second place. The tests are carried out by a representative of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, who sees the cow milked, weighs the milk, samples and tests it in duplicate. The length of the tests varies according to the requirements of the societies, but they may extend over seven days or 30 days, or they may be made on one day each month. The requirements for admission to the register in the case of the llolstein Frit-sip, Association are that cows shall produce in the course of seven days at two years "old 7.21b of butter-fat; at three years old, 8.8ll); at four years old, 10.41b; and at five years old or above, 121b. I'"or every day above two, three, or four years the requirements are increased bv .001-3911). In the e.iso of the American Guernsey Cattle Oh'b cows are required to yield 1011) of butter-fat in seven days at four years old, and this figure is increased by .001551b per day for older cows until five years of age, when the required amount will have reached 151b. BREVITIES. A vine removes a largo quantity of lime from the. soil —more than twice as much us of potash. Denmark— most progressive dairying country in the world—imports yearly cattle food to the value of between three and four million pounds. As indicating the upward tendency of Victorian farming land, 260 acres at NY-wry, North Gippsland, were told recently for £27 15s per acre. The total quantity of fruit exported from Hobart since the beginning of the year was 1,150,967 cases, of which approximately 1,045,471 eases were apples. The production of wine in West Australia iri 1895 was 50,000 gallons, and that of 1905 186,000 gallons, there being nearly a four-fold increase in 10 years. The acreage under potatoes in Ireland de-creased from 618,540 in 1904 to 616,623 in 1905. The a ere ago in 1901 was 635,321, in 1902 629,304, in 1903 620,393. It. will, therefore, be seen that a decrease has to bo recorded for each scparato annual period, reaching the considerable total of nearly 19,000 acres since 1901. *"• The grading of all produce, whether butter, chaff, or potatoes, or any other line, is the modern corrective for improper trade practices, and the greatest of all stimulants to the production of the best article possible, and to straight trade. The day is not ■ far distant when on every civilised market in ilte world all produce will be sold on •reliable grade certificates.