THE FARM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 745, 11 June 1886, Page 15

THE FARM.

economy in feeding. r Written Expressly fob the New Zealand Mail, by “ Seed Drill.’'] In a district where milk at this season of the year is scarce and artificial feeding has to be resorted to, it is of the utmost importance to producers to obtain and use those foods from which the greatest results can be obtained at a reasonable or rather payable price. Few farmers having suitable land to grow their own feed have to depend upon the feed brought from other parts. It is of these foods I intend to write, knowing many are ignorant of or unable to obtain the information required when buying. The different foodß to be bought here are limited and dear, being wheat, barley, oats, bran, pollard, beans and peas, and occasionally rice dust in small quantities. The general idea among milkmen being that bran and pollard are the best feed for cows, mixed, of course, with roots and chaff. COMPOSITION OF FOODS.

*About same as beans, slightly inferior. From the above foods we have to pick our cow feed, and it is easy at a glance to see which (by feeding value) we should take. But then comes the price from which we must make our calculations. An explanation of the terms used may here be all that is necessary, a farmer easily calculating himself which is the most valuable feed to him by the prices quoted when buying. Water. The chief constituent in mo3t

plants when green, andffrom 14to 17 percent in hay. Albuminoids (Glutine, Gluten, Vegetable Cassein). —Nitrogenous matter goes to form flesh, also the gelatinoids and some of the fats ; repair waste of nitrogenous tissue, and supply in themselves most of the requirements of animals.

Fats and Oils (Hydro-carbons, Palmitine, Stearme, Olrine, Margarine, &c.), form fat; burnt in respiration to supply heat and mechanical force, and are thus fat formers and heat givers. 1 of fat, 2-44 of starch in food value.

Cabbo hydrates.—More immediately used for heat and mechanical work; if taken in excess are stored as fat ; consist of carbon hydrogen and. oxygen, the last two in proportion to form water. They form the largest part of all vegetables. Ash (Salts of Potash, Soda Magnesia, Phosphate of Lime, &c). —the incombustible or mineral part of plants or foods—consist mostly of salts ; goes to form bones, blood, &c., in the animnl. LAYING DOWN LAND TO GRASS. New Zealand Farmer. GRASSING LIGHT PERN LAND. In sowing down to grass fern land that has had no previous cultivation, it. should be remembered that it is only on light (though not poor) warm, sandy soils, that grass thus sown does any good. The practice followed has usually been to burn off the fern in February, then to plough up and harrow well, sowing the seed in April or •.early in May. On land of this description thus treated, the grass does fairly well for a time ; but where the fern has been of strong growth, unless before being laid down the land was ploughed and harrowed, and cross harrowed with disc harrows to cut up the fern root, it will before long almost certainly regain possession of the soil and destroy the pasture.

heavy febn land should be sown with oats the first year it is broken np, to be fed off with sheep or ploughed in during the summer, before attempting to sow it down to grass. ti-tree and flax land.

The ti-tree and flax should be cut down about January, left for some weeks to dry nroperly, and then burnt on the ground, if the ti-tree has been heavy, a certain amount of stabbing up the stumps will be necessary before the land can be ploughed. It should then be broken up roughly with a strong single furrow plough, and left to mellow for a few weeks. It should then be harrowed with heavy harrows, the stumps and rubbish collected and burnt, when it should he harrowed again and then crosaoloughed. It Should then be cropped for two or three years (my attempt is made to lay it down in pasture.

FERN AND TI TREE are one of the greatest difficulties which those who take up new land in North New Zealand have to deal with. A colonial writer says :— * Serious mistakes have been made by many settlers, who, after laying down the fern land in permanent pasture, have stocked their farmß with sheep; the fern has grown again without anything to check it, the grass and clover have been eaten down to the roots and killed, the fern in a few years regained possession of the land, necessitating olearing,. ploughing, working, and sowing down again. Wisdom, thus gained by experience, has grazed the land with cattle, which by eating and tiamppling keep the fern down, and allow room for the grass and clover to grow. 5 The professed infallible modes of killing fern expeditiously have been numerous, but when tried have always been found disappointing in the results obtained. On the Matamata estate we believe that mowing the paddocks in which fern has sprung up in the month of February has been very efficacious in checking and killing the pe3t. But on light fern land nothing can beat the disc harrow to exterminate fern expeditiously and cheaply. We may add to the above that it is utterly useless to sow rye gras3 on light new land, however good, before it has become consolidated by cultivation and grazing of cattle. Cocksfoot, on the other hand, often does very well on new land.

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. Mr James Howard, of Clapham Park, Bedford, in one of the driest districts of Britain, decribed his experience in the 16th volume of the * English Agricultural Society’s Journal 5 (1881) as an ultimate success, after a considerable trial of patience His most rapidly achieved success was obtained by the practice of 80-called inoculation, which consists in ploughing narrow strips out of a good pasture, chopping them up/and planting the bits, right Bide down, nine inches apart, on good land which has been just seeded with mixed grass seeds and rolling the whole down. The rooted grasses and the sown grasses soon make a sward, and the dying out of grasses in the third and fourth year, which is commonly seen when you depend wholly upon seeds, is not so observable. Mr Howard prefers autumn sowings and plantings without a corn crop to spring sowings with barley or rape or sanfoin. He recommends rather frequent small dressings of manure, than occasional large dressings. And. he also advises re-sow-ing with so-called renovating clovers and grasses in the third or fourth year after the original sowing; about 6 lbs of seed being thus sown per acre, and well harrowed in wet weather. TREATMENT OF YOUNG GRASS. Young grass shou'd not be closely grazed the first year, or be trodden in wet weather jby heavy stock. In districts were frosts prevail in winter, stock should not be allowed on young grasß. The following spring may either be mown—but not later than November —and then fed off with stock, but not too closely, or it may be grazed throughout the seasou. Where patches are left ungraxed in young grass, which often happens, the patches of rough or rank grass Bhould be mown off with the scythe.

From agricultural returns published in last night week’s Gazette, it appears that the number of holdings, freehold and rented, in Hutt County is 697, in Wairarapa West 553, and in Wairarapa East 546. In Hutt County there are 96 acres

broken up, but not in crop ; 1068 in crop ; 4040 in grasses after having been broken up; and 86,056 in grasses on unploughed land. In Wairarapa West there are 2054 acres broken up without crops ; 7284 in crops ; 24,968 in grasses, after having been broken up; and 177,446 in grasses on unploughed land. In Wairarapa East ' ‘there are 1131 acres broken up without crop; 6086 in crop ; 15,985 in grasses after having been broken up, and 228,625 in grasses on unploughed land. In Wairarapa West there were 591 acres in wheat, with a produce of 9283 bushels, and 1691 in oats for grain with a produce of 35,776 bushels. In Wairarapa East there were 1549 acres in wheat, with a produce of 35,817 bushels; and 1867 in oats for grain, with a produce of 47,759 bushels. In Wairarapa West there were 4214 acres in turnips or rape, and in Wairarapa East 1710 acres in similar crops. The statistics were taken in March last.

w Beans .. Bods Straw .. B. Forage Brewers’ Grains.. "Wheat .. Oats Peas* .. Barley .. Bran I Food. w >-* M W *<r OOM«-Jh-« torfw* Kk ut cj o tri 0505 Cu O tO O O Oi Water. M . M M M M K) 05 * to CO Ol to © © ox © © © © © co to On 0*1 Albuminoids. CO M • OOMM cn m cototfl to on to Fats. W Ot 05 CO 05 »vj M • M CO CO Oi W Ifk dl Cn * CO H |ti to to 05 O CarboHydrates. 01 to tOMW H CO M 05 td « M M to OCntnO Ash. Difference between sum of figures given and 100 fibreno value.