AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19303, 16 April 1926, Page 16

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Much depends upon tho tractive power of the horse, and its effectivo utilisation necessitates the adoption of harness which will not in any degreo tend to depreciate 1 th value of his strength. With the adoption of improved methods hi the treatment of the land, and tho , demonstration of correct manurial treatiment, farming in tho Auckland provincial district has been placed on a much more stable basis. In a season like tho present, there may be a larger proportion than usual of unfinished lambs toward tho end of the . fattening season. These can bo profit- ' ably dealt with, howovor, provided suit- ■ able crops aro sown to finish them off. Over 60,000 cows in 50 groups are being tester! by the Now Zealand Co-opera-tive Herd-testing Association during tho 1 current season, compared with 50,300 cows in 45 groups Inst year. Tho association's district now extends as far south as Aria. There is no branch of farming where knowledge has increased more than in | tho care, and feeding of pigs. It was an old-fashioned idea that pigs did best |in tho sty, that wot, dirty straw beds were not much of a disability, and that the moro skim milk the pigs could euzzlo tho better it was for them. For Ijie reason that artichokes are rich In digestible nutriments (especially carbohydrates), they stimulate digestion and renovate the intestines. Pig-raisers should grow an aero or mora adjoining a plot of soya, beans, and, at tho proper time, turn the pigs in to do their own harvesting and select;—as they surely will—a most effectivo balanced ration. Line breeding is a special form of in- , breeding in which two mated animals , , aro related only through their doscent ■■r from ono particular ancestor instead of ' t being relatod through a number of dif- > iJerent ancestors as they would be if the I in-breeding ware closo and indiscriminate. | Line breeding ig very popular among most breeders of purebred* to day. _ . Hi,