AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 15

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Many cases of malnutrition in animals due to mineral deficiency of pasture have been recorded. Internal parasites in lambs and pigs cause unthriftiness, and in some instances death. Young stock running on old pastures are most subject to infection. Consumers when they go to the retailer find everything just as dear as ever to buy, while the producer is losing heavily on everything he has to sell. A motherly sow, which is good tempered and successfully rears her litter, is a valuable asset, and she should not be parted with until her best days are over. Top-dressed areas remain green for a longer period than those that are unmanured, thus providing succulent feed for a longer period and diminishing the dangei of fire. To get the best out of a pasture we must keep it as nutritious as possible, and also make it palatable by presenting the feed in its most attractive form to the grazing animal. A co-operativo association is not operated to make a profit on invested capital above the usual rate of interest, but to profitably market the products of its members at t-he lowest possible cos . Nature does all her breeding by the ruthless method of culling. Darwin called it natural selection. Culling alone, purposefully followed as a practice through the years, will result in a great herd or flock. Thp heaviest planting of early potatoes in the history of the industry on the north-west coast of Tasmania is taking place. Fifty per cent, more superphosphate has been used this season than last.

Frost depresses bacterial * life, though activity is rapidly regained with milder weather. The lower layers of soils are not favourable; in this respect deep cultivation, admitting air to penetrate the lower layers, is of advantage. Alberta is the premier sheep-raisirig province in Western Canada and shows constant growth there from 133,592 at the 1922 census to 476.009 in 1926, the numbers at the intervening cenfsusyears being —1916, 294,690; 1921, 431,479. A stunted the amount , of feeding will never overtake others of the same litter. And when you have to feed pigs with expensive meals in order toJkethen, gri» .IBM. to tor jou are on the wrong track to catcTi profits. Milk producers, .as a whole, are well aware that the keeping quahtyofmik and its general fitness for use in manu facturing our various dairy for the fresh milk trade, depend on the extent to which bacteria may be kept out or kept in check. One pig f or every producing dairy cow, to coosu™ skim milk; one per term, to consume table waste; and enough more to clean up waste from the grain field, is about the right proportion to be kep in most areas where raising s%vino is a side issue to dairying. Outdoor exercise is especially beneficial but pigs should be protected from cold winds or . very hot »n Byth. tap. the young pigs are three or foul weeks old they will have learned to eat. If oX ail possible it is a good plan to give them a trough to themselves. The progeny of a cross-mating between two pure breeds can be expected to be tery Uniform in type, but if these crossbred Pigs are user) for breeding the next generation "ill consist of very mixed tvpes Breeding from crossbred pigs is, therefore, to bo discouraged. " A horse is as sound as his legs, is an old saying. Almost equally, true it might be added, "and his teeth. Bad teetii mean faulty digestion and loss of condition or colic and loss.of U lmr<so It pays to have the tcetn seen by a veterinary surgeon at least once a year. . At the beginning of the present year th«re were approximately 2,800,000 larms j 300.000. A recent feue of the Australasian contains the following interesting comn.cntarv —The demand for agricultural land in Western Australia is so great that the Ministry is speeding up the survey and classification of new country b-Lve been released from work that is not mnsidered urgent, and roads are being S out and blocks subdivided between the southern end of Lake King Southern Cross, .where the surveyorgeneral estimates that he will get 1500 blocks of good land. One hundred of these should be opened by the end of the vear Further subdivisions are being made east of the Esperance railway. j