Farmers’ Column.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 23, 1 July 1871, Page 9

Farmers’ Column.

SUBSOILING PREVENTIVE OF DROUGHT. That is, get up the soil from below the present working soil, and till that. It is there in most cases, and can readily be used, dropping the soil now in the daylight, into the dark below. This will give you a mellow subsoil, porous, what is wanted in our droughty seasons. This deepens the land, that materially doubles the depth, and the subsoil plough may be used with the greatest ease and the finest effect. The whole operation is almost equivalent to drainage, in some cases superior (where the soil is but slightly overmoist); only it does not discharge water but greatly adds to the growth of grain and the withstanding a drought. How are we to get such a deep soil P In other words, how are we to bring up this farm ? It is a very nice question, and a very heavy load to raise ; you would be surprised were you to see the figures upon it.

Of course it is to be raised by the plough. There- are so many different kinds of ploughs now a days, that it is not difficult to treat land in any way we wish ; simply get the plough that will best bring up the subsoil. Now there are two ways of doing this—two general ways, and both are good; both have been tried by us. You may bring up part of your under-soil and use it for years, mixing with the top of your other soil, or you may bring it up all at one time, burying the other beneath it. The latter is the best way where you have time and can afford it, for you have a raw fallow here and it requires time to reduce it to a proper growing soil. The first year—generally speaking, of course —there will be little more realized than to pay expenses, and this, on the whole, is a favorable look ; we are inclined to think the majority of cases would not pay expenses, we know in our testing, this has been so. The first two years there was little to pay—grain scarcely anything, grass a failure. What has been proved is, that the thorough working of the soil, begging in the fall by throwing it to the frosts and the snows, and re-ploughing, ploughing often, and cultivating in the summer —this gives a chance for the elements to act constantly, and do a good work. They of course prepare the mineral and what vegetable matter there is for plant food. They disintegrate and reduce the harsh soil to the proper consistence and making it mellow—the first in its existence, and mellower and better (mechanically), than the soil that has been 'turned beneath it, which has been hurt by its bad treatment, and is glad to lie still and rest. One season's treatment of this under soil will give you a fine sight; you have a cushioned field yielding softly, deeply to the pressure of the foot; you have, most likely, a new color—darker or lighter, or Tariegated; you have few weeds; you find the rains affect your land but little; and if the drought is ever so great, you will be surprised at the moist condition your land is in, the old land below helping in this respect, and it does to a great extent, the upper soil acting as a great mulch to the farm below, which, in compensation, gives back what is wanted when the earth suffers from thirst. You need not be afraid to do this. But first become satisfied that your under-soil is a good one—that is one containing the elements of plant food. If there is clay and sand, with some vegetable matter—which is likely, as it drops from above, the lime being sure to do this—there will also be more or less inorganic matter which has found its way down ; the clay, especially, ff more or less firm, will have retained this. These you all get; many of them are fit to be used at once.

There is some land equally good below as above, some better—we mean for immediate use. This, of course, wants to be brought up at once. A rich sandy loam is apt to be such a one. You find the soil along our rivers, and in other places. Where there is mostly gravel, or simply clay, or hard pan, and these not mixed, it is best to leave them where they are, as you would the rock that underlies some soil. You can tell—you may have experimented most, if not all farmers have —whether your soil below will admit of being brought up. If not tested, it may be easily done; but test fairly, expose to the frost, the sun, the rains, and to the harrow and cultivator, after the plough has brought it up. Quite likely you have a farm below your present one that is a good one—one that can be made much better than the one you now work ; and there will be a new soil, new in color and in quality to a greater or less extent. You may, in such case, be enabled to raise grain from a field that would not grow a particular grain before—wheat, for instance, or corn, possibly ; grass and clover are pretty sure to do better, and to yield, with proper top-culture, crops of a permanent character, for you have now really two farms to do the work of one. If the grasses (some of them) do not- reach down to the old soil, the clover certainly will, and so will the wheat and the corn, and

the fruit trees and the berry bushes; there are few things that will not do it, so that the old farm is still in service.

But we have prepared this new land. There is sand clay, and it will be seen some vegetable matter, decayed roots of some stubborn stumps that yield slowly, and other novelties to interest. Here is a body of soil some eight inches deep, well prepared, overlying another of the same depth. We have much mineral and some vegetable matter. The elements having acted upon these thoroughly for a year, there has been considerable disintegration and chemical action. This land, which you dread after all to trust, is doubtless the very thing for wheat; wheat loves a mineral soil, where the inorganic elements are plenty and the vegetable old, well prepared. There is little doubt that you will get a crop of wheat that will pay, - and a crop of clover to follow after that will more than pay. This become certain if you use manure as a top-dressing. You need but a footing of the clover, and it will help itself; the manure will do this, and it does not need much, only spread evenly and finely, as all manure should be applied. But this soil will generally bear manure, and be benefited by it—more benefited than other soil that has had frequent doses which have acted upon it. This being new, the full force will be felt, chemically and mechanically. It would help at once, after ploughing in the fall, or applied in the spring, better in the fall. Late fall or winter ploughing is the thing to start this with, and it will be ready for you to work during the summer, beginning after spring's work. In the fall you may be safe with that if you use manure, and possibly without it; we have known cases where the latter acted successfully outdoing the crops that were raised before. Judgment is require in the matter. But if the land is not ploughed in the fall—if only in spring, and not summer fallowed, working thrown to the light and heat, a crop in the fall is very risky ; there needs another ploughing and another season, and then the prospect is not flattering.—" Farmer."

THE PRINCIPLE OF BREEDING DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

A valued correspondent, whose letter we publish in another column, encloses as a report of a very able and interesting lecture on .the principles of breeding, delivered recently by Mr F. F. Jamieson, lecturer on agriculture in the Aberdeen University. We shall endeavor to give such an abstract of it as will convey to our readers an adequate conception of the propositions laid down by the lecturer, and the arguments used to prove them. After dwelling on the importance of the general object of breeding, which is, as he says, to develope the type of animal best suited for the purposes for which it is kept; if for dairying, then to develope the type of animal which will convert the greatest amount of the vegetable produce it consumes into milk; if for fattening, then to develope the type of animal which will convert the greatest amount of it into beef or mutton, as the case may be. He says, in the first place, " in proceeding to establish a breed, it is of the utmost importance to start from a right foundation." It is almost impossible to make any very great improvement on a breed of an inferior description, merely by selecting the best animals out of it, to breed from. All great improvements have been effected by the introduction of some better blood. He proceeds to prove this by an outline of the history of the Hereford and Shorthorn breed :—" John Price, the great breeder of Hereford cattle," he says, " tells us that in commencing to form a herd ivhich should possess the form and qualities he thought most desirable, he, after much search, fixed upon the animals belonging to Mr Tompkins, of Wellington Court, from whom he purchased a considerable number of cows and heifers, and three bulls. The cattle were of a smaller size than other herds he saw in Herefordshire, but had more of the good properties of the model he had in view than any others ke could meet with. He at first attempted to improve this breed of Tompkins by crossing them with larger cattle, apparently with the view of increasing their size ; but the result was so unfavorable that he put away all these crosses and returned to the pure Tomkins. This Mr Tomkins, we learn, began breeding his stock so long ago as 1769, commencing with two dairy cows which his father-in-law purchased, and which he observed had an extraordinary tendency to thrive and grow fat. The one with most white he called Pigeon, and the other of a rich red, with a spotted face, he called Mottle ; and from these he reared his two lines, the Mottle tribe and the Pigeon or Silver tribe. We see, therefore, that Price, built on Tomkins' foundations, and Tomkins himself started with animals of unusually fine quality, no doubt themselves descended from a good sort."

With reference to the shorthorns, he shews that " it is quite clear that Charles Colling, the great breeder of shorthorns, who first brought the race into prominent notice, took the utmost pains to find out the finest cattle in the neighborhood, and that

he at length succeded in gathering the cream of the best tribes that then existed in the North of England, and from this nucleus he developed his herd, to which, as to a fountain head, we traced all the best blood of the present day." The following is an interesting episode in the history of the breed :—" One of the very best animals in Mr Collings possesion was was got by him from Mr Maynard, of Eryholme, who had carefully bred them for a long time. Collings and his wife took a drive one fine day over to Eryholme. When they arrived their attention was drawn to a finj cow which Miss Maynard was engaged milking. Colling offered to buy the cow and her calf, and after haggling on both sides, the purchase was made for thirty guineas, and Maynard, gave him a long pedigree of them, going back as far as the time of the murrain of 1745, which would show that their breeding had been carefully attended to and recorded half a century before the " Herd Book" was thought of. This same cow, which was bought from Mr Maynard, was the grandam of Colling's famous bull Favorite, to whose blood almost all the shorthorns of the present day trace their lineage. Colling, therefore, appears to have picked up all the plums he could find, and to have started from the best stock that was to be got in his day." The second proposition is that having got the best sort, it is of the greatest importance to stick to it. This he also proves, in the first place, by adducing examples from the history of the different famous breeds. "We see," he says, "that Price tried to improve Tomkins' choice Herefords by crossing them with a larger race, but he found he was wrong and had to retrace all his steps; and Thomas Bates the celebrated breeder of shorthorns, tells us that he never used any bull that had not the Duchess blood, without immediately perceiving the error, excepting Belvidere, and he was come of a long race of well desended shorthorns, whose blood traced down to Coliing's Favorite." He alludes also, to some attempts which had been made to improve the shorthorn breed by crossing them with the West Highland cattle, in themselves an excellent desscription of animal, one, as an eminent breeder remarked, which approached more nearly than any other to the standard of form which he considered the true one. He also was so impressed "with the capabilities of this breed, and the possibility of developing something more excellent than had yet been seen by uniting them with the shorthorn, that he persevered in the attempt for nearly thirty years, having at one time nearly 100 breeding cows of the cross between the Highland heifer and the Messrs Collings' shorthorn bulls and sparing no pains to procure the finest cattle from the West Highlands thatcould begot. In the end, however, he gave it up entirely, finding, apparently, that the shorthorn breed was not improved in this way." The experience of other breeders was the same; though many extraordinary animals were produced by the cross, their offspring were not often found uniformly to improve by each succeeding cross, and there was great uncertainty in their progeny. So far the lecturer had adhered to what logicians call the inductive method, supporting his general statements by bringing forward particular cases in which they were borne out. In the portion which follows he makes use of the deductive method, giving reasons drawn from such general laws of breeding, which have been established mainly by the experiments and researches of Mr Darwin.—" Hawke's Bay Herald." UTENSILS OF THE~DAIRY. There is very great diversity of opinion with regard to the best material for the coolers or vessels which contain the milk while it remains in the dairy, china, glass, wood, earthenware, zinc, and tinned iron having all supporters, and all having something to recommend them either on the score of economy or usefulness. China bowls being the most ornamental, are found on the shelves of those dairies which we have already had occasion to notice ; but are never seen in the possession of ordinary farmers. Glass is an excellent material for a milk pan, and would appear from experiments which have, been made to have a certain advantage over other materials, in conducing to the rising of the cream. Notwithstanding this, they do not seem to have come into such general use as might have been anticipated, probably on account of the first cost being considerable and from a natural fear of their being easily broken ; which we believe, however, is not really the case. The brown ware pan recommends itself by reason of its cheapness, and is a favorite ; it is easily cleaned and if a few breakages do occur in the season, the expense of replacing them is but trifling. Wooden coolers are also largely used, and are, probably on account of their lasting nature, the most economical of all vessels. When kept as they ought to be they are highly ornamental ; the hoops bright as silver, and the oak scoured white as snow, affording a very pleasant contrast. They have also the great advantage of preserving the natural warmth of the milk much longer in a low temperature, a quality which adds

to their merit in no small degree. When temporarily out of use a little water may be placed in them, so that the hoops will not loosen, which they are apt to do in very hard dry weather. Attention to this little matter will render a well made oak cooler almost imperishable. Shallow rather than deep vessels are the most suitable, the cream rising more quickly. This formais exactly found in the wooden cooler as usually made; and vessels of other material made in the same form are best adapted for the dairy. The churn has of late years come as near perfection as it seems possible to bring it; and certainly in the hands of those accustomed to its use, the forming of the butter can be regulated to a minute, the quantity of the article being superb when good sweet cream is used. It is of no advantage to bring the butter quickly, as by doing so the quantity is less and the quality inferior. To have substantial butter, firm in texture, rich in color, and of good keeping quality, and moreover, so as to extract all the butter which the cream contains, the process of churning should occupy not less than half an hour : and will frequently run on to the full hour if the temperature is rather under the mark, which is as nearly as possible 60 degrees. For ease of working and simplicity of action there is no form to equal the barrel churn, as sent out by the best English makers; and it seems by general acceptance to be the universal favorite. About 801 b can be easily churned by manual labor when the axle of the churn is mounted on a single little roller to ease the friction; and in practice there is not the slightest difficulty in getting the butter out of this style of churn, nor is there the slightest inconvenience experienced in cleaning it. USE OF SALT IN AGRICULTURE. Whether common salt is of any value to plants, is still a mooted question, and one that finds advocates on both sides. The luxuriant growth of marsh meadow grass is taken as a proof that salt water must be favorable, and farmers try to imitate this state of things by putting salt on the grass without reflecting that all other conditions are omitted in the experiment. They are generally astonished to find that the grass is killed, instead of being promoted in its growth. It is a remarkable fact that this same salt marsh grass, on analysis, is found to contain very little soda, but to have its full complement of potash. This would seem to indicate that it had grown in spite of the salt, rather than in consequence of it. According to some recent reserches, made in France, potash is a hundred times more valuable to plants, than soda. It is true that small quantities of soda have been found in plants, but generally, under circumstances that seem to point to its accidental rather than essential presence. Direct experiments have shown that salt is injurious to tobacco and to the sugar beet. An examination of the plants growing near salt springs and salt marshes shows that the vegetation is of a limited and peculiar character. All of these observations point to the conclusion that the use of salt, as an artificial fertiliser, is only applicable to such plants as grow on the sea shore, or near salt springs, and not at all to the usual grasses and cereals of our farms. The whole system of manuring farms is based upon the principal to restore to the soil the constituents that are removed by the crops. As the crops carry away no soda, it follows that none is necessary to their growth. There is another objection to the use of common salt and this is the chlorine contained in it. This element is decidedlyinjurious, as has been shown by the experiment of Wolf and others. Public opinion in Germany has set so strongly against the use of salt, that, in the famous mines of Stassfurt, where vast quantities of artificial fertilisers are manufactured, the exclusion of chloride of sodium, or common salt, is now considered necessary, and the value of a manure is made to depend upon its percentage of potash. The safest and cheapest way of supplying salt to your farm lands, if at all desirable, is to feed your live stock, for natural channels of distribution are always the best.