AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

i By being handed kindly and often colts soon .-become:'gentle, and are much* more easily handled when they become horses. > An interesting item on the estimates for the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S.A., is a sum of £651,000 for the campaign against tuberculosis. ■• * ~ ___ &?j*& '**■§• 4» .Government "has -allocated I a 1.038,000 for extending instruction in agriculture and domesti'c economy for boys ; and. girls after leaving school. ; - ; •, It is stated that the Argentine wool clip for 1922 was £225,000,000, compared with £285,000,000 in 1921, tho drop occurring principally in the north-west, where the bulk of the clip is of the coarse? grades -:,->..;,'... / -• .\> - # The cotton harvest in the Chicago territory, Argentina/: for the r. yj»r 1921-22 was 12,000 tons. Sold at an average price of £60 per ton, on. waggon, at point of shipment, it yielded to the cultivators' a gross amount of £720,000. ; Since 1909 the South African cotton ? ro £ jSJ&fe increased, from 12,0001b. to 2,000,0001b. Experts jestimate .that there. -are # 4,000,000 acres '. of good ' soil available in the Transvaal, Swaziland, and /iululand for cotton growing.. Of -, a . consignment of 718 cattle which were shipped from South America to Europe, .says; the Agriculture Gazette, 300 died during the' voyage.' .The cause ,! of death is -not/known, but it ;is thought, it' may have been the, extreme tropical heat; Carbohydrates provide heat * and ; mechanical power. Ordinary farm foods contarn plenty, of carbohydrates; , the diffi. culty is to secure enough protein to fill out the ration. Hence the need to purchase concentrated foods for special »urposes. ~'.,'.. ..".., : . • - - J t The live stock census for the province of Buenos Aires for period . ending DeoeS«£>C * 921 ', shows a decrease of ■■Z'ttf'iSZ . in shee P and an increase of 2,041.913 in cattle. The totals stand at —Cattle, 16,373,051; horses. 2,582.741sheep, 18,774,043; swine, 1,104,638.

; re £ Britain and the Isle of Man in 1922 Ireland exported 1.829,970 head of livestock. This included 421,493 fat 6 / 72 - 6 f^ on 383,603 lambs, 128,504 fat pigs, 480,787 store cattle, 134) sto i'JKSSSP* ' 33 » 352 cows . 30,955 calves, and 12,952 springers. -."■.,.■;<■ ' ■: # As with manures, analysis is the most important factor in judging the value of different foods. Their value lies in the possession of three main elements—protein, -carbohydrates, and fats. : Unless these points are fixed firmly in mind a food analysis will convey no information. The-British Research Association for the Wool atad Worsted Industries is experimenting with the. object of discovering an agent for marking sheep that l" will withstand the rigours of winter under exposure, will have no ill-effect on the wool, and will be easy to scour off the fleece.. ■ Cornell Experiment Station confirm previous experiments that the hard seeds of leguminous plants, such as red, white, and alsike clover will germinate after immersion in concentrated sulphuric acid, while many weed seals, are killed in from -15 to 60 minutes. Dodder seed, unfortunately;, is as resistant as the clover seed itself. : .. must be well cooled, especially during warm weather, before being sent to market. Badly cooled milk soon turns sour owing to certain kinds of bacteria which are always present in milk converting the milk sugar into lactic acid. Cooling milk numbs the bacteria, and renders them dormant until the milk again /rises in temperature to about 60deg. P.''/,-'"