ON THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15073, 16 August 1912, Page 10

ON THE LAND.

'AUSTRALASIAN FLOCKS.

Dax.gex's: and Co., in their nowly-issued report, say: The flocks in Australia and New Zealand now total 117,011,654, having increased sinco last year's returns werepublished by the comparatively small number of 977,481 head. Sheep numbers have remained practically stationary during the past three years, but tho figures are higher than during any period of tho past 18 years, the previous record having been in 1891, when tho total reached 124,991,920 head. Tho smallness of tho increase in recent years is largely attributable to the very largo numbers which have been slaughtered for export and local consumption, and it is significant that the opinon is generally held that sheep numbers were, prior to the drought, quite as high as could with safety bo carried in normal seasons. There has been a general all-round improvement in tho larger flocks, and a very high standard lias been reached, especially in respect to merinos, a fact which will be appreciated when it is remembered that though therewero many more, sheep to shear, say 20 years ago, the clip shorn during tho past season eclipses all previous records, while tho weight cut per head is greater than in any country in the world without any deterioration in tho wool, which comes an easy first, though it may not be so fine in quality as formerly. 1 FERTILISERS IX AMERICA. In the course of an article on " Sulphate of Ammonia in the United States," contributed by William J. Dwycr, of New York, to the Chemical Trade Journal, ho says that there is probably no American industry allied with the chemical trade that has expanded so much as tho fertiliser business during the past decide. According to the 1909 census report just issued, (here has been an increase of 33 per cent, in the I number of works, an increase of 70 per ! cent, in the capitalisation, and an increase of 105 per cent, in number of employees. The capital invested in the industry in 1909 was 69,522,000 dollars (£13,905,000), and the value of the products produced was 103,960.000 dollars. Deducting the cost of raw materials the value added to the products by manufacture was 34,438,000 dollars, an increase of .90 per cent, for five years. .More modern and scientific methods of plant-operating are responsible for this notable increase. FARMYARD MANURE. The most valuable part of the manure heap is the rich dark liquid that drains off it. Wo cannot too .often remember that every pint of drainage represents a waste of money, and after heavy rain on an unprotected heap the loss is serious. As has been pointed out, if a child loses a halfpenny it is scolded; if it should lose a shilling quite a fuss is made; and yet many farmers do not bother their heads about tho large amounts that are yearly lost by careless management of the manure heap.

SURFEIT IN YOUNG ANIMALS. Young animals often suffer from surfeit, and it is strange that their owners so frequently overlook tho mistake that is made when they are given too much of a good thing. A very large number of calves are killed every year by receiving too much milk, while many that survive suffer severely, and only recover to find themselves stunted and unsatisfactory. This occurs when a calf'lias stood a long day in the market without food, and its new owner sympathetically gives it a real good meal as soon as it. arrives home, forgetting that it is unnaturally hungry at the time and will take more than is good for it. and that its digestive energy has been weakened by long abstention. Next morning the cowman reports that tho calf seems pretty bad, and it gradually becomes worse and dies. The cowman safely says that the milk did not agree with it, and that ho expects it curdled. To prove his opinion, he opens it and it is curdled, so that ho proudly "tolls his master that "he knew ho was right." But as mill: must curdle as a process in digestion, .it would bo stranger if it had not. The fact was the calf had received mora than it could digest in its lowered condition, and gastritis had been set up. Now, the milk is practically always all right, and had the calf been given a, little fairly often for a few days it would have regained its energy and would have shown littlo sign of its privation. There is another way in which that best of all foods, milk, is the cause of much loss of young animals, but this is with skim milk, which is not so wellbalanced a food as whole-milk. Because some milk is good, it is argued that more, must bo better; consequently, little pigs are given unlimited quantities during tho latter part of the time they arc with their mothers, and directly after weaning. Unless this is counter-balanced by some starchy food, such as middlings or barley meal, the blood becomes surcharged with nitrogenous matter, and the pigs have apoplexy and die, or they become thoroughly unhealthy. By far tho greater portion of pig ailments arise from this, and where one goes wrong from shortness of food scores are ruined by this form of injudicious feeding.

AUTUMN AND SPRING MANURING. An interesting article has been contributed by the principal of a French Agricultural University to an agricultural paper. The soil, ho says, may bo regarded as tho house of the plants, in which there should be an adequate supply of suitable nourishment, and as the fertility in the soil depends on the quantities of plant-food there warehoused, it is necessary to keep up the supplies by the periodical application of fertilisers.

j This takes place in the autumn or spring, \ and the reasons why the application should bo made either in tho fall of the year or when winter has passed aro worth consideration. It may bo said to arise from the different character of the fertilisers applied; they may be divided into two classes : — 1. Tho quickly available, containing nitrogen, phosphates and potash in a form soluble, and therefore immediately effective. * * 2. Tho slowly available, containing tho elements of plant-food in a condition that necessitates transformation in tho soil either by bacterial, chemical, or physical agencies requiring more or less time before the plants can assiiuilato them. Now, then, it will bo understood that autumn-sown crops, which aro a'long time in the ground, aro in a position to utilise the more slowly acting manures, and oven then they benefit by a little active fertiliser as a top dressing when vegetation starts after tho turn of the year. Thus for wheat sown in the autumn a modorato dressing of slow-acting farmyard manure is excellent when backed up by a, littlo nitrate of soda in the spring, On tho other hand, spring-sown crops, especially oats, barley, and spring wheat, having to grow and mature in a relatively short time, and to assimilate in this brief period an equal quantity of nourishment, require all their plant-food in a more active form. From commencement of growth to maturity, tho fertilising substances required by tho plant must bo easily available, and therefore tho phosphates and potash, as well as the nitrogen, should bo in soluble forms— the value of spring-sown cereals of superphosphate, concentrated potash salts, and active nitrogenous fertilisers. The same consideration applies to turnips, mangolds, and potatoes; they only have a few months to grow, • and therefore require a big supply of fertilising material in an easily available condition. Farmyard manure, unless applied in excossivo quantities, does not furnish sufiicient available plant-food to enable tho rapidly-growing plants to draw tho requisite nourishment; hence tho wisdom of giving smaller dressings of farmyard manure, helped by superphosphate' or citric-soluble basic slag, with nitrogen and potash when. desirable in quickly-acting forms. ■ - .

WELL-BALANCED FERTILISERS. Money spent on fertilisers is not always laid out to the best advantage, because the ingredients bought in tho fertiliser as plant foods aro not in tho best, and therefore most economical proportions.

If wo buy a fertiliser containing more of ono element than wo need and not enough of another then wo waste our money. Tho three important plant foods, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, must all be present in the soil if wo desire any sort of good results. Should we have a superabundance of nitrogen or potash in tho soil for wheat or other grains, with not enough phosphorus, wo must not look for a good grain crop, because wo have left out tho amount of phosphorus needed to produce tho grain, as this element especially Influences tho grain production. If, on the other hand, wo apply phosphorus and nitrogen, without tho corresponding amount of potash wo have a weak spindling straw and grain or poor milling and feeding quality. Each clement has its own part to perform. Unless we have, the assurance, from actual experiments with tho soil, that we have a. sufficient amount, already there of either potassium or phosphorus, it is always- best, to use a mmplete and well-balanced fertiliser. Analyses of our soils do not suggest to a certainty tho required elements. Clay soils invariably possess a. greater or lesser amount of potash, yet our most learned .scientists have discovered that in. many in tames, • plants which wen- grown in clay soil;:, having a large amount of potash, were very much in" need of it to perfect their growth, and no success was attained in growing plants upon this soil until soluble potash was applied. The reason for this was that the potash natural to the soil has not yet been made available for plant food. POISONING SPARROWS. Directions for poisoning sparrows bymeans of phosphorised grain are to take about 301b of plump oats or wheat, two ' gallons of water, and j,ib (two sticks) phosphorus. Place the grain in u revolving cylinder such as an oil chum; light a lire close at hand, upon which place two j buckets, with one gallon oi' water in each. j When tho water boib put Lin: ;lb of phosI phorus into one of th.- buckets, and stir slowly for five minutes until phosphorus is dissolved. Pour this mixture into ihe machine, and add water from the other bucket as quickly as possible. Close the lid and turn machine slowly for about 20 minutes. If the machine lias not then cooled sufficiently to allow the hand to ! ><' ' placed upon 'it without burning, pour a bucket of water over it and turn for a few minutes. Tho machine should be turned for live minutes four hours after mixing, and also again for tho sumo time eight or nine hours afterwards. In 24 hours the mixture should be taken out and spread at once. Give the machine a few turns before talcing grain out. The mixing should not be done in an oxieri boiler, as tho phosphorus cannot be incorporated with sufficient quickness and evenness, and tho phosphorus generally runs to the bottom. A revolving machine should in all cases be used, and to ensure the retention of the phosphorus in the grain it is a. good thing to add a pound of starch to each bushel, or coat it with pollard. Phosphorus goes into flame at lOOdcg. Fa.hr., therefore it must be carefully handled. The phosphorus must always be kept under water, and if a stick has to be halved it must be cut under water. In hot weather it must not be held in the fingers more than a second or two. COOKING STOCK FOOD. The oh] idea of cooking tho food was that it mado it more digestible and palatable, but extensive experiments have shown that cooking really reduces the digestibility of foods, though it may render them much more palatable, while the value of heat has been much exaggerated. It is an expensive mistako to feed roots, for instance, in an icy-cold condition, so that where they arc fed whole it is a good plan to havo them under cover for 6omo time before use, in order that they may be slightly warmed up, as it were, and for this same reason pulping or slicing, and then mixing up with chopped hay or straw, gets tho most out. of them ; tho mixture—if it lias lain for a few hours—has had its chill taken off and is more relished by the animal. On the other hand, there is absolutely no benefit, derived from serving hot food; blood heat would be tho proper temperature, if that could be obtained without artificial tiro; but ordinarily tho temperature of tho atmosphere is good enough so long as it is fairly well above freezing-point. In short, the "expen- I sive and laborious system of cooking food was a mistake which never paid, and wo can make the most of our provender nowadays with ordinary chaffing of fodder, pulping of roots, and grinding up of grain.

BREVITIES. Eventually some wise Minister of Education will havo a good deal about agriculture in the books used in the State schools. There is nothing in the whole of the curriculum of the farm which returns proportionate profits as does the sheep. There, is no animal which uses so much coarse food of low value on the farm as the sheep, and none which calls for so little attendant labour. Another high authority is to the fore with the assertion that the soil needs change and constant feeding, "and one crop .should never be followed by another of the same sort." For the first planting of lucerne a good seed bed is desirable, and the legume docs bettor if planted on a slope whore there is drainage of the ground, as the roots do not thrive in water-soaked country. Lime is not a manure, and there should be no mistake as to its purpose, which is to sweeten the soil and justify certain of the shortages. Too much of it is calculated to injure the micro-organisms, and will bo harmful rather than helpful. . i Germany is rapidly catching up with England, formerly the world's largest producer of sulphate of ammonia. The differ, enco in tho output of tho two countries in, 1909 was but 8000 tons. Nino years ago the difference was 80,000 tons.

Germany is rapidly catching up with England, formerly tho world's largest producer of sulphate of ammonia. The differ, enco in tho output of iho two countries in, 1909 was but 8000 tons. Nino years ago tho difference was 80,000 tons.

In an agricultural paper the dairyman is advised to compare tho milk yield with the " escutcheon" of tho cow—tho escutcheon being tho natural outline of the lodgment of tho udder, also called tho "milk mirror," on account of its supposed indications of values. " Tho agricultural college should be looked on as a finishing and not a preparatory school for the farmer." and the novice who wants to learn should put in two or three years on a good farm, and take his part in tho actual everyday work of the place. _ Expert authority pronounces the phalaris, which, as a winter grass, is placed as a favourite, not, to bo ph. commutata, but ph. bulbosa. Tho commutata is a poor fodder, and persons who havo obtained and planted seed of it have been seriously disappointed. Experiments in Canada have demonstrated that fresh farmyard manure is equal, ton for ton, to the rotted material for crop-producing purposes. And so goes another old belief. The advantages in tho rotted manure is in its smaller weed production. Flag smut, is one of the fungi whose attacks mean loss to tho producer. In districts last season it got away with half the crop on some of tho farms. It attacks tho flag mostly first, but it may go to the sheath and stem, and even on the chaff, to the destruction of tho grain. In these good times of the farmer the homestead and tho fences should bo given liberal attention. Where there is water flowers and fruit should bo cultivated and ornamental plots put down. The young women on he holding wiJ) keep these in order when they are once there. A good suggestion is to the effect that the young men on the land should bo introduced as members of the bureau, and given the opportunity of setting out their ideas and experiences. As they will have to take the place of their elders in duo course, they should be permitted to qualify early. In view of tho demand for foodstuffs all the world over, the time is coming when ib will bo impossible to keep sheep and cattlo on tha wheat country.