ON THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17361, 7 January 1920, Page 12

ON THE LAND.

i'. ' ' '&%! '< GREAT SIRES. t , ' ' ;' l &km» history Mof stock-breeding ' abounds I; •; .in -illustrations of the obvious fact that • new and ihea there sometimes in t • the most unexpected manner—in *11 our * -r£ improved varieties of domestic animals '-v- f groai outstanding BHj«r*sire» that fairly X revolutionise breed- character and history • i (says toe Breeder's , Garotte, • Chicago). These sires are as far above the aTerago of their kind in point of power and value u Olympus above the Grecian, plain, just a in human life the occasional Napoleons and Shifcesperes aw endowed with genius ' unknown to their millions of contemporaries. Ihim ««ms to throw ties* sports" at. intervals, and through them works most of hef evolutionary wonders. Fortunate is be into " hose bancs one of these epoch-marking lires may Jail, and fortunate is he who discovers what he : has before h* parts with it. It has often been a case of entertaining angels unawares. The coming of these supersires is always unheralded. _ flow <tna then tome witaid in tliis fascinating business of modelling animal form, like Thomas Baf.es, will -foretell sane great event. The master oi Kirklevington predicted that by the union of the Duchess and Princess'blood Shorthorns socc as bad never been seen before were to be produced, and indeed so it did eventuate. Ordinarily, however, breeders are not able to speak with so much assurance. Happily, by the exercise of proper judgment, all may produce animals that shall be a joy and delight and a sou. of profit by simply utilising the material represented in our pedigree registers; and there is always the chance that the superEire, for which one is ever looking, may appear, all unannounced, evro in one's twn herd, to rejuvenate and filevate 1 iace. A sire may leave his impress a hundred times where the female leaves hen own but once or fcflice. Great sires can, therefore, become tho founders of real families POTASH SALTS. The British Government recantly acquired from; Germany a quantity of potash salts in eaih&nge for food, and arrangeuents have bsen made for the distribution of about 40,000 tons for agricultural purposes. Tbo sale of the material will 'be undertaken by the British Potash Company, Limited, under the direction of an : official committee, to be called the Potash ; Distribution Committee. The following maximum selling prices have been agreed: For sales to farmers delivered - to nearest railway station in Great Bri..*v tain or Ireland, in lots of not less than four tons—potash salts, 30 per cent, K2O, £12 10s; muriate of potash, 80 per cent. ; K.C.1., £20 12s fid; sulphate of potash, 90 . per cent.. K2SO4, £2d 2a 6tl, all per T ton net caah in bags. Manure mixers, merchants, dealers and co-operative societies will b<!> allowed a discount on these prices of 7i 6d per ton on potash salts, ; and 10? per tea on the muriate and sul- „ phate of pttash. . AMERICA EXPORTS HORSES. : 'ihe export of horses to Europe from the V United-States has set in strongly in spite : of high ocean freight Three shipments had left' early in July for Havre,, part of •' which v?iia intended for Belgium. Agents - . who acted in Belgium for those Americans, ■= baying skid horses there before the war, an uow buying on the Chica market . 1 . Saipmeats at the rate of betwwm 400 and J ' 500 per week .were expected to leave this - centre by the end of July. The horse V' _ ! most sought after, according to the secre- ' » _ tary of the Percheron Horse Society of ' " . America, Li one standing 16.3 to 17 hands, - depth of chest equal to one-half of height, - strong backed, powerful, well proportioned, ; and weighing over 17001b in good working condition, lit is predicted that by 1921 ' good draught horses will be higher in price than ever before. £;£ WON FARM WORKERS. • The British Board of Agriculture have - just received the results of an inquiry into the question of female farm labour, which had been conducted by women's asricultotal Mmmi' .tees. .Farmers in Staffordshire, JT Is 'stated, were asked to specify any X women whom they thought of sufficient * value to retain permanently, and gave the " names of 83 members to the Land Army Sas suitable , for retention. , Forty-one « fanners said they preferred men to woZ men. but 62 considered women better than " men to;- milking, 30 preferred women for - rearing stock, and nine for poultry keeping. Questioned as to the: branches of agriculture in which women should specialise as a permanent means of livelihood, 65 ..farmers advised milking, 61 stock rearing, ;; 14 dairy work, 23 poultry-keeping, and 1 four shepherding, while a few suggested that women should be specially trained in .horse keeping, thatching, and hedging, and % ditching. f: . : - PLANT FOOD. *». , X Ten chemical elements are necessary * : for plant growth. They are: Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sulphur, and iron. Each of these elements is as essential as any other. For example, if a soil contains no iron, a crop can not be grown upon it. Ever/ soil is, however, bo well supplied with iron that thi yield of the"common crops will never be limited ,bv the fict that the plant cannot secure _ enough to make the maximum growth. *Tho same is true of some of the other -essential elements, hot not of the five relements, calcium, sulphur, potassium, * phosphorous, and nitrogen. These are * the ones that are lost or are removed f*ora -the soil most rapidly. They are-the ones the farmer must sooner or later add to his soil if he is to maintain or increase Ha fertility. The rapidity of load of . -rthese elements depends in part on the type of farming, that is, whether the entire crop is sold (hay), whether only a "part it wold (grain), or whether the jjiov ;dacts «oid contain but small quantiies of v these elements (butterfat). STABLE MANURE. Various! investigations on fermenting manure hive nearly always shown more or Jess consilerable loss in nitrogen; an increase in nitrogen has but rarely been observed. During recent work on the ;cbanges. in a fermenting mixture of <"ow and horse manure in increase in nitrogen was obsened after two and four weeks. his increase was followed by bo largj a decrease that after twelve weeks the loss in nitrogen was complete. The increase ■in the nitrogen content is much greater in straw-littered than "in -littered manure. This fixation phenomenon was (.infirmed by laboratory control tests. The manure mixture «'ii kept either in cov> r ed galvanised iron pails or inoculated with rnannite or other solutions. The results showed manure to contain nitrogen-Gxing bacteria of considerable activity, especially when mixed with straw, which appear? to he an important source of energy for these micro-organisms. It is obvious 'that the. increase of nitrogen in manure at 'the beginning of fermentation may prove of practical value in manuring sail if this /increase is not counfcer-balarwd bv a simultaneous loss in cganic matter. Experiments with straw-littered manure (gathered freth and placed in covered i boxes out of doors diiring the winter i months so as to limit fermentation) ap- ! plied to a rotation of maize, barley ind clover, showed such maiiure to increase the yield in maize grain by 5.3 per cent, and the yield in maize stover by 7.4 er cent., a,- compared with fresh manure with straw. This difference disappeared nth barley and was reversed with clover. 'Joe * results of these experiments, which las.ed six years, were in favour of limited Nation of manure if the nitrogen so Pied can be- utilised at the time of application. RESISTANT PESTS. Professor Mel&nder, head of the department of entomology of the Washington State College, is reported to have stated that it 8 possible that under continued spraying with insecticides hardier rains of insect &.este are being produced, v-Lich are better and better able to withstand the "effects of poisons. "In other yorde," said Professor Melander, "it w

possible $- fro® »;; biological »t#nopoint ] that we are heeding the resistant ineacta. : If there 'is such ft thing u this, it is 0 ! biff, lag thing in the fruit ■ wirfiM'A few yean ago we were cocksure that sulpfcurlime would kill red spider eggs, would toil eggs of tho . green aphis, and yet T„n ftVe examined I don't know how many millions of red spider eggs and failed to find them dead after being sprayed with sulphurlime. Hie came can bo said of aphis in a good many localities. Whether it is a biological fact that scale and other insects are besoming resistant by a gradual process of weeding out the individuals that are cot hardy Ido not know. ; But I do know that some of the standard fprays are not nearly so sure and eflective; as they used to be. If. the biological' theory ie tine that we are breeding up scales that are resistant to this Or that ipr£>y, it may be that' we shall have to 1 swatch our methods of fighting the p«w. we will say every 20 years. We will i>pray with snlphur-limo; that will l)fi tbo best for 20 years, and then wo will switch over and take up the oil emulsion, and j liouv with that for 20 years, until we get a* scale that is resistant to oil emulsion, and then come back and switch to the other. Biologically, it is possible to rear up & breed that would be resistant.' PRESERVING WATERMELONS. Commercial cheriistry, applied to _ the watermelon, says the Scientific American,! plays ft big part in delivering to the consumer, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles from the producing district, reasonably-priced me.ons which are . crisp, fresh, and just ripe enough for maximum enjoyment. The chemistry .involved is a special paste which is app.ied to the stem end of the watermelon by the shipper. This paste furnishes complete protection to the stem end, a point where otherwise decay is very likely to set in. Before this paste was originated, (lie loss of entire cars of watermelons from decay was not infrequent. So necessary and valuable is the paste that a regional director of railways this season issued an order that unless melons were pasted they would not be accepted for, transmission except by prepaid freight. . Using copper or enamel-ware vtfisels, the watermelon shipper dissolves four ounces bluestone in two pints boiling j water, and three ounces powdered alum in one pint water, adding '-o the latter. ounces rye flour and railing to a smooth pastfc When the bluestone is thoroughly <ii»oived he pours the solution into the [paste, stirring the mixture thoroughly jit in now brought to the boiling point and cooked for five minutes, then cooled and strained through cheesecloth. Last of all, before placing in glass jars or tin cans lined with paraffin, sealed air-tight, the paste is coloured with one-half fluid ounce of pistachio green. The same paste applied to the stem end of pumpkins should assist to preserve them. IMPROVING MILK QUALITIES. Hie surest and safest method of improving the milking quality of a herd of cows is to raise the heifer calves from the lest cows in the milking herd, says an! American stock paj>er. It may not alTrays be good practice to raise the heifer that is her dam's first calf; the dam may not turn out a profitable cow, and by the time this is found out a certain amount of expense has been incurred in rasing a calf that would otherwise not be kept. It is safer to select calves from proven cows, and even then there are many instances that'cannot bo explained of inferior heifers from heavy milking stock on both sides. ' _________ ARSENATE OF LEAD FAILURES. Mr W. J. Allen, EVuit Expert to the Department of Agriculture, Sydney, recently stated that codlin moth was exceptionally bad in New South Wales last season. He suggests that it may be possible that arsenate of lead of inferior grade may have been used. Somo of the arsenates of lead on the market at the present time seem to be very gritty, and the small undissolved particles cannot therefore be eaten by young caterpillars when they are just hatched. The result in, of course, that they are not poisoned. If it be a fact that the arsenate of lead it gfitty, it will bo necessary for the manufacturers to exercise more car. in its preparation, so that every particle shall be rendered soluble. Mr. Allen is having the various brands of arsenate of lead examined in Sydney. A further suggestion has been made 'that, owing to the light crop of fruit thii season, the foliage is, as a r -»alt, fiir more abundant; this renders it more difficult to '/each the reduced crop by spraying, as the abundant foliage partially protects the fruit and prevents it from receiving a sufficient quantity of spray. It would hardly seem necessary to place this aspect before growers, but the remark comes from one of the most experienced and leading S growers of the State. Perhaps it may be well to suggest that most careful spraying is necessary when the crop is reduced and when, as a result, the foliage is much more abundant.. ROCK PHOSPHATE. The material furnishing phosphate and used for agricultural purposes is known by a number of names—raw rock phosphate, phosphatic rock, and floats. These names apply to a fine-ground rock containing from 10 to 14 per cent, of phosphorus, There are the terms add phosphate and phosphoric acid, which apply to the same rock, but to which has been mixed an equal volume of sulphuric acid. The phosphorus in the phosphoric acid is in an available form for plants. The phosphorus in the raw rock phosphate is not in an available form. However, in America it is a common practice to make free use of the raw rock phosphate by applying it when finelv ground direct to the land. The raw phosphate is applied to the land by mixing it with the farmyard manure or by ploughing it under with some green ciop. The decomposition of this organic matter—that is, the manure or the green cropforms organic acid which liberates the phosphoric acid. COWS IN FULL PROFIT. Although cows in good condition will yield practically as much on good grass without concentrated feed as where such foods are given, the wise breeder keeps his cows on a concentrated ration even after they go to grass, reducing the amount to the point where tho cow will preserve her good condition. Grass simulates milk production and encourages the ;ow to do her best, even to the point of sacrificing herself. As the grass decreases the cow loses flesh and the milk flow decreases also, so that if condition is not maintained the reserve fund ol milk-making nutrients will be used up, with the result that the cow comes in lean, and does net milk so well. No breeder (says tho British Friesian Journal) should be milking cows merely for the profit to be obtained during the short period the grass is at its best. The remunerative cow is the steady yearly yieJder and breeder. A BRITISH SILO. I A large grain k'lo has recently been installed at the port of Hull, England. II is constructed throughout of reinforced concrete, and litis a capacity of 40.00 C tons. The building is in two blocks, each with its own receiving house equipped j with elevating, weighing, cleaning, and ! ether machinery. Six electrically operated ; bucket elevators are provided on 10-tor ' dock cranes for discharging the grain from the ships; each of these elevators if able to deal with 150 tons per hour. The grain is feci to band cocveyors, which I carry it to the receiving houses, where il is automatically weighed in bulk. Aftei weighing it is lifted to the top floor oi the building and conveyed to the bins. Very complete provision has been madt for the process of " turning-over " so es sential in the case of grain that is warn or out of condition. " Loading-out "i: done direct from tho bins without th< aid of conveyors, sacks being filler l through automatic sacking scales and I placed on railway trucks or put dnwr ' shoots which lead to barges. Each mail j block is supplied with elaborate dust ' collecting plant, and the equipment, whirl 'includes lifts, intercommunication tele phones, and signal systems, is up to dat< in every detail.