ON the LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17338, 9 December 1919, Page 14

ON the LAND.

*5 COWS FOB FRANCE. f, The United States Department of Agrifcultui" was notified in July; that probably 3000 dairy cows and heifers would be -purchased in the first month by tthe Government of France- A trial order, ; consisting of 104 pure-bred and grade r<;ows and four pure-bred bulls, was despatched in April. Orders are also being placed in Canada and other countries; and repeat orders will depend upon the class of stock forwarded. The officials of the French Purchasing Commission have indicated a desire for large-framed animals. American breeders are urged by ■Ihe Department of Agriculture to furnish stock only that will reflt t credit on the American cattle industry, and breed . societies are asked to impress on members .the importance of making a good impression on ..foreign buyers. *- -AUSTRALIAN WINE. An article on " The Grape in Australia," by John Duce, contains the following interesting particulars: "We are at present producing the comparatively insignifi- : cant quantity of about 6,000.000 gallons of 'vino a year, worth probably £1,000.000. Compare this with France 1,600,000,000 .gallons; Italy, 947,000,000 gallons; Spain, 620,000,000 gallons, and consider that the French vintage alone at an average of ' "two shillings per gallon, represents an annual value of £130,000.000, or just about two-thirds of the value of everything produced in Australia (pre-war total of '. £195,000,000). Also estimate that about 25 per cent, of the French population live either directly or indirectly upon the win© industry and where can one find braver, healthier and more prosperous, more contented or sober people than the French?" WAR AND FORESTS. .., The war made & phenomenal drain on the forests of England and France. Timber was required in enormous quantities p for -military purposes, and some of the most* precious of trees, trees rich with great historical interest, had to be destroyed. One of the most picturesque and merftorable pieces of work by the Canadian ;; Forestry Corps in England was the felling of the "" William the Conqueror's Oak," ™j which stood beneath the King's window at "Windsor. For several reasons this was, - ''perhaps, the most remarkable tree in the British Isles. It was more than 1000 "years old. Authentic records show that it ; was standing as long ago as 900 A.D. • The tree was 3cUft in diameter at the base, i It was felled at the request of the King. Its heart was rotten, but it was still bearintr Miage, and vearlv adding new wood. - Care had been exercised through the centuries to preserve it, a circular fence screening it from the deer. It was 65ft iihieh, with a wide, branching top. The :,Z ordinary crosscut saws are only sft in 'Z length, but for this gigantic oak they •;': needed a saw some 15ft long. Such a saw ■was made to order. Into the heart of the ■ -'trunk a hole was cut, and a sawver placed '' inside. The sawyer inside,. working with _. the rfellow outside, cut gradually aronnd ... the "trunk until the ancient monarch fell. In a typically Canadian log-cabin, built for the King at Windsor,- the mantelpiece ■"* is made' of wood from the old oak. There ■ is not' a nail in the cabin. The logs, which - are of larch, are fastened with wooden -'pins. The roof is of shark, the floor logs '.;,.' were'hewn with an axe, and they rest on rji pillars. : : AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENT. J* " We have 600,000,000 acres of land in £* Western Australia," said the Premier (Mr. X, Mitchell) on August 18. " Of this, ■ *? 21,0Q0;000 acres are alienated or in process of alienation, and. 1 241,000,000 acres are held under pastoral leases, and yields only £136,025 a year in rents. The task of setm - tling our lands is a tremendous one, but "j r we must tackle it- We are now settling * returned Australian soldiers on the laud at "2 the rate of 50 a week, and hope to put at *? least 4000 of them on farms. We want 1Z also to provide for many thousands of Bri'"2 tish, ,gx-jservice men. In their case the ;,; British Government will find the money as ,"':: well as the men. It will advance Jto each £ settler -at least £500, either directly or <*" through us, and will also advance to us, ■»» by way of loan, the money for railways ZZ, and other public works necessary to open "t- up the lands for these men. We had pro--1 posed absprb 1000 British ex-soldiers a £;', monjhrfpr one year, but recent cable mes- ; sages indicate that the British "Govern- '-■ ment will probably desire to continue the ~ arrangement for two or three years. Great «" Britain is fully alive to the fact that these '." men will not be lost to the Empire when ':'' they come to Australia, but that it will, ■;••; in fact, be better both for the Empire and ;; for themselves if suitable men are encour- * 'l aged and settled here. The men will be '■"■ selected by us. We have no doubt about .'Lour. ability to find the land both for these .;'; and for our own men." * :. lit ThIOTHY'GRASS. Timothy, says an American writer, is : undoubtedly the most popular hay grass m ~: the northern and north-eastern States, al- • 'though in recent years much has been said »• and written against it. There are several reasons why timothy is popular as a hay ; grass.- First of all" it usually brings an ; excellent price at the city markets. Horse- ~* men like it because it* is usually fairly even «in- quality and because horses will '"* not gorge themselves with it. Alfa'fa ' ..' and clover contain more protein but if ." allowed to, horses will often eat too much of them. Timothy is more of a filler, the horse getting most of the needed nutrients :..: ? rom l grain. Then, too, timothy seed is comparatively cheap and easy to obtain, the crop is easily cured and is cut later than alfalfa. This last is a decided advantage in many States, for the corn l&ual'y needs cultivation at about the time the first crop of alfalfa and clover should be cut for hay. What disadvantages can we find for this crop There are several and at least one of them should be of special importance to - - junior dairymen. Timothy is not as valuable a feed for dairy cows as is clover or alfalfa. When we feid roughages *,<-> our cows . we want something more than a filler; we am looking for a roughable that will supply a large amount of feed as well. Not only is it a poor feed but cows and sheep do not usuafly relish timothy hay, especially when it was cut during the . ripening stape. Another di'adyanta 7C lief in the fact thit timothy produces but one crop in a season and usually does not produce a very heavy aftermath or late season growth. In fact, verv often it grows but little for several weeks after the crop is harvested. It is rather slow to start in the spring and does not produce a dense sod, so it is not as desirable for a pasture grass as are some of the other grasses. Then, too, it is more easily injured hv tramping and wet weather than is Kentucky blue grass. FEEDING VALUES. To underhand the feeding values of the several crops, the farmer must learn the meaning of the terms used in describing the parts of a feed. Doubtless every reader of this paper has heard the trims, protein, carbo-hydrates, an J fat. What are they? Protein is that part of any feed which is responsible for the formation of lean meat, body organs muscles, hair, horns, etc., and* the curd of n-iiik. Protein is aso converted into the tat of milk. The ba.«is of protein matter is nitrogen, hence the proteins are often described as the nitrogenous part of a feed. Oarbo hydrates are those parts of any feed which provide the source of animal heat and energy. Then* are corn- . posed, of the woody fibre of 'plants and .grains, and the starch, sugar, etc. Tat -.is that part of any feed wh'.-h may be ■disso Wed out by ether. It can be used try the animal for maintaining the body .' ST ' and L ' f, »- lh * P»rpose. » is *«<-• or com. •nece ßaarv S?' fun,,B, »*>-- the several J'ydrateJ, and fcl" ~ carbo •amount as Jffll" Buch proportion and < ■ . .^" nourish a *^v Per,y . a " d without L, ■*»«». A BttL»w gIVon anima l for 24 ||. ■** mVw ««w» niaonetbat

furnishes a .sufficiency for the several nutrients to maintain a given rest for the animal so that it will neither gain nor ' lose" in weight. A cow yielding 221b of milk daily requires 2Jlb protein, 131b carbo-hydrates, and £lb fat to. do her work. A steer that is fattening requires the same amount of protein, but 151b carbo-hydrates and the came amount of fat. Most common feeds are very low in protein, but rich in carbo-hydrates, hence the necessity of knowing what is what, so that supplementary feeds may be given to balance the ration. Green # clover contains front 3 to 4 per cent, of protein; green lucerne contains nearly 5 per cent. ; lucerne hay contains about 14 per cent. It will be seen that to balance such feeds as green maize it is necessary to add such feeds as lucerne. This is not meant to be an elaborate statement of the science of feeding, but merely a -simple introduction to encourage cattle men to study the eubject more freely. Let us be content to set down a division of the more common feeds into those that are rich in protein and those that are rich in carbo-hydrates and low in protein — Rich in Protein: Lucerne, clover, cowpeas, field peas, saltbush, vetch, brewers' grains, gluten meal, pollard, bran, pea meal, oilcake, linseed meal, cotton-seed meal, peanut meal, sunflower seeds, dried blood, skim-milk. Rich in Carbo-hydrates : Maize (though it contains 10 per cent, protein), cob meal, kaffir corn, molasses, beets, sweet potatoes, mangolds, turnips, green feeds, such as maize, eorghum, imphee, etc., pumpkin, prickly pear, teosinthe, etc. To feed lucerne and bran -■ together, therefore, is not to balance the feed. Lucerne should be fed with one of the second group. Green maize should be fed with one of the first group. , FROST AND MAIZE. The question has been recently raised whether there are frost-resistant varieties of maize. It is well known that maize is a hot climate plant, and it is doubtful whether any variety of maize exists which can be strictly called frost resistant. It is at least certain that there is no reason to warrant the attempt to change its season of growth from summer to winter in any clmate, except in the frostless zones of the tropical regions. At the same time (writes H. Wenholz, B.Sc, Inspector of Agriculture in New South Wales, in the departmental journal), it is known that the late maturing varieties, which are usually grown on the coast of this State where but little frost occurs during any part of the growing period, do not withstand frost as do early varieties which are grown on the tablelands. This is, firstly, because frosts are not so killing in a normally dry atmosphere as in humid regions, and this comparatively greater resistance to frosts on the tablelands as compared with the coast is. further accentuated by acclimatisation of the variety of maize grown; secondly, maize is more materially injured by frost at the latter end of its growth than at the beginning, for all further growth ceases with a heavy autumn frost on well-grown maize reaching maturity, the more sappy or immature the crop the fewer degrees of frost being necessary to injure it. Air-dry grain will stand almost anv natural temperature below zero, while grain on the cob with 25 to 30 per cent, moisture will not stand more than a few degrees of frost, if that, without injury to the /germ. With the shorter season of growth on the tablelands, autumn frosts ara more likely to occur before the crop is properly mature. ( A spring frost on young maize does less damage than an autumn frost on maize in the cobbing stage for the fol- I lowing reasons: (a) It takes a heavier I frost to cause any injury to young maize plants than to maize in the process of grain formation. (b) Late spring frosts do not affect some varieties of maize as badly as others, whereas the damage from early autumn frosts is the same with all varieties if they arp caught at the same stage of immaturity. * NEW GRASSES. Attention is being paid to the possibilities in introducing new grasses and improving the best of those now in New ' South Wales. A grass recently discussed in this State is that hardy species of ryegrass, known in the north-west of Victoria under the common name of Wimmera ryegrass (Lolium subulatum). This grass has but recently been investigated by a field officer to the Victorian Department of Agriculture. It .is very hardy, and in an average year in the Wimmera district, under a 16in rainfall, it grows about 2ft - high, and in very good seasons to 3ft. Farmers testify to its good carrying capacity and food value; but there is a dan- I ger that it will monopolise wheat lands, and prove very difficult to eradicate. For this reason New South Wales fanners should be very careful in trying this grass. In New South Wales Italian ryegrass has been established on parts* of the highlands and the coast country, and the most " robust species stands feeding pretty well, and comes again in normal seasons. The area under exotic grasses in this State is. however, not extensive, because over enormous stretches none has been found to stand the conditions. Much of the country should carry a grass which can hold its own- in tha Wimmera. In fact, almost the whole of, the wheat country here should prove favourable to a plant that would do well in the north-western parts of Victoria. Large areas of wheat coun- ' try go out of cultivation every year, and are brought under wheat again from time to time. The natural grasses return slowly to the old paddock?, and it might be proved that this ryegrass could be grown on these lands with profit to the farmers.. The prolific Soudan grass is coming into. favour here as a fodder to cut for stock. Proof of its drought-resistant properties is being furnished, and it is claimed that it will grow and give a good return with a very few points of rain. ! COW-TESTING FRAUDS. A bombshell has been dropped into the Friesland cattle camp in the United States of America by the publication of a letter in dairying papers from the presi dent of the Breed Association, exposing the fraudulent practices of an official tester in carrying cut tests. It appeals that the official tester was detected in adding cream to the milk of a cow he owned himself, by means of v rubber bottle and tube concealed under the clothing. The matter was investigated, and the information el : cited that this mar- | had been carrying on these fraudulent ] practices for some years in connectioi with various herds, and had been encour ] aged by the bonuses given by owners foi ; large tests. In several cases owners wen entirely ignorant of the fraud, which wi ! iduse great confus'on in the herd book of the society, as the records of certaicows will have to be expunged. There , will also be heavy losses to breeders, who have bought the offspring of these'cows at high prices on the strength of their records. DIGGING POTATOES. A point worth considering is advanced by a correspondent in the Otago (New Zealand) Witness, in reference to' the harm, rather than good, which results from leaving potatoes overlong in the ground, In the case of many of the main crop potatoes which were planted in good time, it will be found that the bulk of the potatoes are already detached from the stalks, one or two "immature tuber.--near the surface alone deriving any nour ishment from the parent plant. It* is evi dent that if this is so the detached pota toes have attained their full growth, si the only gain in weight to be looked' foi is from a very small portion of the crop, and that portion from its position is in most danger of spore infection. I. it ; worth, then, risking the whole crop for a! precarious gain '! It depends a. deal on I the local conditions in regard to labour I and the likelihood of blight infestation I from near or far away diseased crops. ' ; There is. too, the matter whether it is not worth while digging before the land becomes wet and sodden from late autumn rains. It i.? a. moderately easy job lifting potatoes when the soil" is dry, in < ontrast to similar work later in the year. In the matter of keeping potatoes, the early ones, after a few hours' drying in ' sunny weather, keep everv bit as well as ■ those dug later. No hard and fast rules can be adhered to, but every crop may be > determined by circumstances, •