ON THE..-LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13048, 13 December 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

ON THE..-LAND.

; A REMEDY FOR POTATO BLIGHT. I .We have received from, Mr. W. G. Bunting, Mount Roskilli Roiid, Auckland, the following remedy for potato blight, which we are assured has been very effective dur'ing'the present season.:-- parts crude sulphur or one part sublimed sulphur, two ■ ! parts'' charcoal , powder (very fine), four parts hydraulic lime (six parts of lime should ;be used for the first dressing). This mixture to-be first applied when the potatoes are about ;four inches : high, and afterwards as required. .;;' The > mixture should" be " well dusted on the • plants t when they i are wet with rain or dew. This, dressing is a very inexpensive one. '■':« Its ingredients are good ."fungicides, and' it has the merit of being beneficial to the soil. It can be easily applied, either by hand or by means of the ordinary dust' .bellows, which • are sold at from two to three shillings. It should be remembered that the application of lime and sulphur in 'a dry state is now common in America as a fungicide, and there, are some who believe that it is better to.' use such remedies in their dry state rather than mixed with water as a spray. There is no reason why, if this mixture of Mr. Bunting's is not considered strong enough, powdered bluestone should not bo added in small, quantities, .although the addition of this,; substance adds to the risk of burning the i foliage,''while Mr. Bunting's remedy could be applied at almost any time without danger to the foliage.

" THE WORLD'S SHEEP. Statistics show that practically in'every country in the world* there are far fewer sheep than there were a few years ago. In 1891 there were 124 millions of sheep, in Australia, whereas at the end of last year there were but 74 millions. In Tasmania there has '■ also been a slight decrease. ;: In the United States there were 44,336,000 sheep in ,1890,-against 40,121,000 in 1904. The falling off in Canada was from 3,048,000 in 1881 to 2,511,000 in 1901. In Argentina the shrinkage was from 80,000,000 in 1900 to 78,000,000 in 1904, in Brazil from 500,000 in 1895 to 375,000 in 1904, in Chili from 1,470,000 in;; 1901 to 1,335,000 in 1904. In practically, every country in Europe there has also been a falling off. The French flocks' : declined from 21,277,000 in 1898 to 17,954,000 in ;■■■ 1903, the German from 28,016,000 in 1860 to 9,692,000 in 1900, the British from 30,313,000. in 1874 to 25,207,000 in i 1904, those of Russia in Europe from 51,822,000 in 1877 to 4'9,224,'f,'00 in 1903, those of Spain from 16,v69,060 ~in 1895 to 13,359,000 in 1903. A 'shrinkage is also noticeable in .Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Cyprus, Roumania; Ireland, -,i the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, and Austria. , In India the falling off was from 20,659,000 in 1892 to 17,751,000 in 1903, in the Cape Colony from 16,706,000 in 1891 to 11,818,000 in 1904, in the Orange River Colony from 6,619,000 in 1890 to 1,437,000 in 1903. ' Very few countries exhibited any increase whatsoever, Algeria being the most noteworthy exception. The flocks of that country stood at 6,723,000 iu 1900, and they increased to 8,958,000 in 1903.

FROZEN LAMB TRADE. Mr. Algernon Borthwick, of Thos Borthwick and Sons, who has recently arrived from London with the intention of staying some time in Australia, in reply to an interviewer, stated: —I estimate this season's output of lambs from Australia will be 1,100,000, which will show an increase of over.-400,000 compared with last season. The quality of the lambs has never been so good as this season. The one fault to be found.is that the lambs on an average are too heavy weight, especially in New South Wales and South Australia. Now Zealand made the same mistake last season, and it is partly due to that fact that New Zealand lambs met such a poor demand at Home., The lamb most salable at Home is that weighing from 301b to 351b frozen' weight. The growers > need have no fear. - If they' willproduce 301b to 351b .lambs there will be plenty of buyers. During the last few years some of the English houses have opened buying branches in Australia, and the competition for meat on the station, or at the sales, is now fully as keen as that for wool. : I think growers may look to this competition increasing rather than diminishing as years go by. Shipments of mutton from Australia are steadily increasing, and New South Wales alone is now shipping about 60,000 carcases per, month. , The .reports to hand from London describe the sheep just-arrived as being particularly good, and giving every satisfaction. Given good seasons, the prospects are for immense exports of mutton and lamb, and later beef. I think the increase in exports will be more rapid than is anticipated. New Zealand prospered greatly during your drought, and now good seasons have come big reductions in prices in New Zealand may be looked for.

GREEN -.MANURING. •- For enriching the soil, Mr. F. Ti. Guthrie writes in Department of Agriculture-Jour-' nal of New South Wales:—The most effective class of crops for the purpose are leguminous plants, such as clover, cow pea, lupins, etc., since these are specially, valuable on account of their power of* obtaining their nitrogen from Hid air. They are, therefore, especially suitable for soils poor in nitrogen, and are of high value in enriching the soil with this ingredient. There are, however, many other crops which are suitable- for the purpose, and frequently used, such as mustard, buckwheat, vetches, or tares, etc. These are all rapid growers, and can bo grown as catch crop— is to say, after the main crop has been harvested and before the succeeding one is sown. For instance, the practice of growing a crop of tares or vetches after the wheat crop has been harvested is very common in Europe, and can be followed successfully here in districts.where the autumn rainfall is sufficient. Such a catch crop occupies the ground only at a time when it would be otherwise unoccupied, and, during its growth, is collecting plant food from air and soil, which is utilised for manuring the succeeding crop. With regard to the actual amount of material supplied to the land by ploughing under a green crop, some experiments were carried out at the suggestion of Mr. Allen, of the Department. The produce of one square yard of crops of vetches at Wagga, ; Bathurst, and Hawkesbury College was harvested carefully, tops and roots, andfforr r warded for analysis. In the ease of the Wagga sample the roots were obtained by washing away the soil, and Mr. McKeown calculates that he succeeded in obtaining"9s per cent, of the total weight of roots in the soil. The produce of tops ' from "one square yard was 41b 14j,0z, or 10 tons 12cwt per acre; and of roots lib 9oz per,square yard, or 3 tons 7cwt per acre. Analysis showed that the tops contained 87 per cent, water (13 per cent, dry matter) and .506 per cent, nitrogen; the roots contained ,83 per cent, water (17 per cent, dry matter), and .213 per cent, nitrogen. When, therefore, this crop is ploughed under it will add to each acre of the soil, in the shape of dry matter, 1 ton 7cwt tops and llicwt roots," including 1201b nitrogen from tho tops and 161b nitrogen from tho roots; a total of 1361b nitrogen per acre. Assuming that conditions are favourable for nitrification, this will be equivalent to a dressing of nearly 7cwfc sulphate of ammonia per acre, or over llcwt dried blood, an enormous dressing.".. , . ;.i . i ~■'.■■ ; The soil in which this crop was grown was a light loam, with about, 25 per cent. clay. The clay is of a tenacious character, and has a tendency to cake hard on drying. The soil is low in humus, containing only about 4- per cent, of this ingredient. It is fairly rich in potash and satisfactorily supplied I with lime, but rather low in nitrogen and phosphates. It is, consequently, just the type of soil in which green manuring should be effective, as the effect of ploughing under the crop will be to break it up and render i it more friable, and to supply the ; deficien- ! cies in humus and nitrogen. Its efficacy is, j of course, dependent upon conditions as to i rainfall being favourable to its decomposi- • tion in the soil. The climate of Wagga is . not very favourable to the growth of these crops. * ' r. , ! • At Bathurst, and at the Hawkesbury. Col- ' lege) where conditions are more favourable, 1 the benefits of green manuring are even '"more striking. Mr. Allen obtained similar samples of tops and roots,'representing tho produce; of one. square yard «from crops grown at these places, arid they gave the ! following figures:—At. Bathurst the tops

weighed 171b and the roots 21b ' sos per "quire yard, or 36 tons 14cwt tops and 5 tons roots per-acre, : giving a' total of dry matter to be ploughed under of 4:tons;lscwt. from the tops and; 16cwt * from -) the ; roots. Assuming the same nitrogen content in tops and roots as was-:found in-,the Wagga plants, this will * give, when: plotted* under, A 4!Ulb ; ] -nitrogen per acre from the tops and £«» i nitrogen from the roots. At Hawkesbury the produce was 21 4 tons 12cwt tops mi A tons 14cwt roots per acre. .When ploughed under this ; would » yield 2;■ tons : ; 16cwt dry matter from the tops and 16cwt ; dry matter.-from the :'roots*''. 1 '; With .5.f per cent, nitrogen in the tops' and; .2 pCjr' cent.' in the roots, the soil will be "enriched* .in : 'nltro(?en by 2421b. per acre - from the tops and 221b from;' the roots. . ,- : ;.'*/:. .''■•'" ■'"' ''■■. , ' ;•.. ,':./ brevities. ;-. ■ .. .;.; '••-'. To become a, good '*;ploughman requires: not only practice but; close observation as well: "If weeds are only partially buried by the plough one-half of the benefit of the ploughing is lost. ": ~,_ .: ; _ - The entries .at ':. the recent London ; Dairy Show numbered 7677, and the amount dis- \ tributed in prize money exceeded, £2500.-V

A movement to provide elementary instruction in agriculture in State schools of JTew South Wales has been started at Wagga. '/'

The fact that the vairte of milk depends largely on the amount of butter-fat it contains, is not- sufficiently ( remembered, otherwise a dash of Jersey blood in the herds would be more frequently seen. ;

( i The biggest clips since the break un of the great drought 'have been obtained in the central division of Queensland this year. At each of a couple of stations no fewer than 100,000 sheep were shorn. ,• • :< . \ , ■v"

1 The "number, of sheep in . the United States-is only a million more than it was 20 years ago. Then. there were about 50 millions; now there are 51 millions. The present number, it is said,. is insufficient. "

Silage can he made jto L take the place of a considerable portion of the dairy cow's grain ration. ; It is believed by experts that by growing some of the feeds rich in protein, such as clover, soy beans, cowpeas, vetches, etc., placing these in the silo, or feeding them in connection with hay, it will be easily possible to greatly reduce : the amount of grain fed in- the dairy.

The fact cannot be • too strongly or f-oo frequently insisted upon that the milk yield of cows is increased by careful and kindly treatment r'vat 'milking. Not "only i should there be kindness but intelligence, for » all know that the suckling of young is a function on the part of the dam that brings forth the kindliest of feelings/Therefore the part of the? milker is to got the cow into that montal sp.ue.as nearly as possible.

On the motion of Sh Edwin Strachey, the following resolution ;was carried unanimously at a meeting of the British Dairyfarmers' Association, held in October:— "It is to be deeply,regretted that for the fourth year the Government failed to pass the Sale of t Butter Bill, thereby neglecting to prevent the sale of - waterlogged butter, the sale of which : has been declared by the President of the Board of Agriculture to be an absolute fraud on farmers and the public." ' : '- ..-"-;'■ .<.'":/ v /t '.: ; ;' " '':"."■

According to the August report of the Ontario Bureau of Industries, horses" and cattle are on the increase in that province, while sheep, as in most "countries of the world, have fallen off in', number. There has also been a great decline in pigs. The numbers are 672,781 agricultural horses, against 655,554 in 1904 ; '2,889.503 cattle, against 2,776,304; 1,324,153 sheep, against 1,445,482 . and 1,896,460 jags, against 2,018,984. Ten years ago there were over two million sheep in Ontario.-'

The following shows the comparative results in the butter test by the first prizewinners ':'■ in , the different clasps nt ' : .tlie' London dairy show:—Shorthorns, 561b 14oz of milk, yielding 21b 13oz of butter; Jersey, 431b soz of milk, yielding 21b 5|oz"ol butter; j crossbreds, 521b loz of milk, yielding 21b 4ioz of butter'; Guernsey, 371b soz Of- milk, yielding' lib 12ioz of butter; Red-polled, 331b" 15oz of milk, yielding lib 121oz of butter Kerry,, 251b soz :of milk, yielding lib of butter. | -

: It is now believed that if milk is 'heated ; for pasteurisation in the ordinary way "its condition; becomes so much altered tlTatyiistcad of being an article of nourishment it '.' may become a source of danger.;,,|A German authority declares., that he do* ' not believe there exists at the present tirne '■! any expert who will recommend ■. a general obligation ' for the ; heating of all < milk M forod - for*; sale; on 7 ; the contrary, efforts ; are" now \ generally ( directed "to i producing , the milk under--such ■_ conditions that it may, without , fear be consumed . raw even by infants. % < - *

}'j Among poultrymen the idea is steadily 'gaining ground that success in doctoring fowls for . disease is a very serious misfortune, because it prompts the pbultrymah to adopt a wrong basis and a bad footing to work upon. Having once succeeded he acquires the habit of fussing and drugging, with the inevitable result that the birds contract the habit of getting sick. In general the measure/ of success in this direction will be the exact measure of misfortune; for it means increased numbers of sick fowls. Oh the other hand, leading poultrymen everywhere agree with the prominent "physicians that-prevention is the one- universal, pract"cal - ; ' basis.' They therefore strive to ke'-p their birds in perfect health by every reasonable and practical precaution with respect to sanitation, ventilation, : -exerciser-light, shade, food, Water, etc., and to management in general. They reason that healthy hens are ; happy .lens" and only such are profitable to keep. \ '.■'■■

;-Someone tells the following interesting story about some chickens hatched by a onelegged hen: —"l've got a brood of young chickens that certainly take the cake. Their ridiculous factions smash the theory that young chickens learn how; to take care of themselves altogether through instinct. The mother of this brood is an old hen that last winter got run over and lost her right leg. She. got perfectly well, and by the .time mild weather came was able to hop around as lively as any of the chickens with two legs. The only difference was that she couldn't scratch for food standing up. ; At such times she would: give a flap of her wings, lie down on \her right; - side, and scratch like a \threshing machine. Well, that hen hatched, out a brood of 15 chickens, and she proved 0 better provider for her family than any other hen on the farm. For a while the clncks\acted naturally, and then we began to notice a change. - They would fall on their sides and flutter and kick, and we: thought they Were stricken with some strange disease. Then light dawned on us. They had learned one-legged scratching from their mother. It beats a circus to sec that brood of chickens simultaneously scratching for food." ' "\