AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 17

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

The proponent fowl can be known only through thd results of breeding it. The good effect of green stuff on the fowl's egg, flesh, and vital organs cannot be over-estimated. In selecting sheepdips, choose one which will remain in the wool and thus prevent re-infection after dipping. It is necessary that the farmer possess the same .liberal education as the successful lawyer, merchant, and manufacturer, Thore are at least sixty timber-yielding species of eucalyptus that can be grown somewhere and to some extent in New Zealand. The importance of insect enemies as a factor in the selection of encalypt species for New Zealand conditions is now well recognised. The ultimate object of efforts to improve the cultivated plants is to increase the return to the cultivator relative to the cost of production. The increased import duty on butter levied by France on Danish butter is seriously curtailing business in butter between Denmark and France. Dairymen in 45 cow-testing associations in the nine Western States of North America own 9484 cows that have made more than 401b. of butter-fat in a month. The return to the soil of the excreta from the animals pastured on it is a very considerable top-dressing, and the liquid portion is in a condition to be assimilated. The permanence of the dairy industry depends to a great extent upon installing in the minds of the rising generation a i genuine love for the cow and dairy farming. According to "Fleming's Obstetrics," the longest known period for which a cow has carried a calf is 353 days. A cow on a Hawera farm has recently exceeded this record by 24 days. Starch is the principal carbohydrate found in straw, and all the uitrogenous substances present are of groat importance since the proportion of non-album-inoid nitrogenous matters is very low. Very stiff, wet land is greatly benefited by a winter fallow; but the lighter North Island lands are apt to leach badly if left fallow, and for this reason they are usually better sown in a green wop. Phosphatic fertilisers are especially re. guired in top-dressing, and, with that object in view, farmers wisely review the needs of their paddfocks and decide as to the class of manure which gives the better results. New Zealand needs increasing thousands of supports for carrying electric wires. In theory, the supports may consist of reinforced concrete, or bolted steel bars, or wood. In practice preference is given to wood. \ Any reasonably intelligent young man knows that to lie as successful in the years to come as his father has been in the years gone by, he must accept and employ diligently the newer knowledge of agricultural affairs. Stacks of late-harvested cereals should now bo securely thatched and made snug for the winter, if not intended for early threshing or for chaffing. A few furrows should be ploughed around the stacks as a precaution against fire. The number of litters produced annually by the female ferret vary from one to two, but the majority of does will have one litter only. The period of gestation is from forty to forty-two days, and the average litter seven. Ensilage-making could, with advantage, be made a regular farm practice throughout this Dominion partially as a solution of haymaking difficulties in a wet climate, and as a substitute for the now somewhat precarious swede crop. Land in which it is intended to sow lucerne next season should be ploughed during the autumn, limed, and thoroughly cultivated through the winter. These cultivations germinate and destroy weed seeds, especially when continued in the spring. By ploughing up an old field of thick clovers, or applying a liberal dressing of stable manure, the albuminoid, or meatforming substances in straw, can be increased until they are 1,5 times higher than in the case of Btraw growing on badly-cultivated land. The *l°,"-* and quantity of manures, the best- season of applying them, and the frequency of so doing, are problems whidi every farmer should consider in tho circumstances of his own farm, and also, if possible, in relation to thfr- results obtained by his neighbours. Pennyroyal, which is a perennial, and which thrives especially on heavy, damp land —more especially sour Jand^—is somewhat difficult to eradicate by cutting, grubbing out, or pulling up. Where the land is ploughable it is more easily dealt with, as it can be worked out through a succession of crops. To combine the mature judgment and conservativeness of the middle-aged man who has achieved success with the ambitions and aspirations of the youth who is determined to make a success, is'to provide one of the strongest forces for ensuring the development of agriculture on a farm, in ft community, in a state, or in a nation.