The Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1030, 27 November 1891, Page 26

The Farm.

BUSH FARMING. An original essay on bush farming in New Zealand, written for the New Zealand Mail by John Scott, winner of three first prizes for essays on agricultural subjects. This esßay consists of valuable and reliable information upon the following subjects : Land, choosing a section. Underscrubbing. Bushfelling. Burning off. Permanent pasture. Some general information for intend--1 iug applicants for Crown Lands. Leaving shelter, ora few remarks on forestry. Harvesting grass seed. Logging up. Building. Fencing, Industries for bush farmers. Cattle, Sheep. Dairying. Pigs. Poultry. Fruit Calture, Bee-keeping, Potato Culture, Fungus, Charcoal, Potash, Firewood. Cost of taking up a bush farm, and ether iuformation.

LAND. CHOOSINR A SECTION". The task of choosing a section is a difficult one, for the simple reason that at present there is a deal of land open for selection in different dist ricts. Therefore where there is so much to select from, an intending buyer has to travel about over a long distance and visit many localities before he gets suited. No one should buy a section on another person’s advice. It i 3 much more satisfactory to make a personal inspection, and go right round the section, or as near as possble. See that the land is well watered and not too much broken" I have known settlors go along a road or a survey line and purchase the section. When they have started to cut the side lines progress was blocked by great gullies, and the intending farmer has had to throw up his section. In many districts it is a difficult matter to get a small holding of say, s(fe to 150 acres well watered. True, there may be small creeks running through the bush when it is standing, but these too often run dry in a year or two, owing to the streams being fed by small eprings that have dried up whou the sun has beau allowed to shine on them. Plenty of clean running water is one of the most valuable assets to the grazier or dairy man, and every land buyer should see that the land is supplied with never-failing streams. Another point in choosing land is to note the nature of the timber covering the ground. Where the rimus are thick, or the white pines, it will be found a difficult matter to clear; another timber Pukatea usually found in wet and swampy ground, is difficult to get rid of, as if the trees be felled they will not burn as well as could be wished. Here I may say that swampy ground is a great drawback to a bush-farmer. Draining is a slow and expensive undertaking, and unless wet ground is drained it will be a long time before the grass will show the fattening properties it should, and in many districts the natural fall of the ground is so slight that it is a difficult matter to get the water in the drains to run.

Another point I could mention against swampy bush ground is this, that in the summer time the growth of grass is so rapid that the pasture becomes rank, and iu the winter there i 3 nothing for stock to eat except the decaying rankness of the previous summer’s growth. I should strongly advise all new beginners to leave the swampy ground alone, and endeavour to get a decent holding where draining will not have to be resorted to. Black birch is a timber that grows where the soil for the most part is not so good as it should be. Where whitewood,tawa,rata, matai, andtotara, is in abundance, and when the trees are of large size, the ground may be considered as good. However, taking the land on the "West coast of the North Island, there is very little land that is unfit for grazing purposes, though a lot of it is broken on the surface. I have already referred to the different systems under which land may be acquired, and to a man wishing to take up .bush laud I say that there is no use in delaying. Every week bri.igs fresh persons looking for land, and these; where the applicants are bona fide always get suited. And those who put off taking up land from time to time will find that they have lost their good opportunity, and will have to go into the depths of the bush or accept land nearer a market which has been rejected by others. There is a deal of judgment required in selecting land, and there is a good

deal of luck--also. I venture to say 1 that the pioneers that started in the • Manawatu never dreamt that their lands would become so valuable in a space so short, though the quality of the soil fully warrants the high prices obtained for improved farms. The opening of the Central Trunk railway, and the through road from Stratford to Auckland will tap a large area of excellent laud. I can speak with a direct knowledge of the land from Stratford to Auckland, as I went in about 30 miles about two years ago, and found excellent country —level flats and rolling downs, the soil of great fertility and capable of growing almost anything. For grass or root crops it would be most suitable, and will, when settled, carry an enormous population. There will be a large area "open for selection in this direction during the next two years, and there are large blocks of excellent land open for selection at the present time. . (To be continued.)

TAPEWORM IN LAMBS. Tapeworm in lambs, causing parasitic diarrhoea, which, if not always fatal, occasions great loss, is a derangement of great and growing interest, on account of its frequency. Judging from the questions asked about it every summer, tapeworm disease among lambs is on the increase, and it may therefore be useful to consider the subject from both a prophylactic aud curative point of view. The three questions in which sheep farmers are most interested are tapeworms introduced into lambs ? (2) How can this be prevented ? (3) What is the best remedy to expel them P Dr Cobbold terms a tapeworm a chain of zooids, or individualised creatures linked together in single file, and each of these zooids is capable of producing irom 30,000 to 35,000 eggs. The tapeworm’s head is very small indeed, but the first segment is the nurse for the remainder, and it is therefore important to get it expelled. Behind the head ome the proglottides, which are produced by a process of budding from the head, the youngest segments being soft and narrow, each becoming broader, longer, and more distinct from one another as the distance from the head is increased. This is contrary to popular opinion, which is founded probably on the fact that most things in creation narrow towards the tail, aud, consequently, the broadest part of a tapeworm is assumed to be the head, whereas it is exactly the reverse. When the parasite has attained its full growth the last zooid falls off, then the next, and so on, the segments being passed with the foeces. It is Baid in Australia, where tapeworm is common and very fatal among lambs, the tapeworm segments may often be seen in great quantities on the washed Boil after heavy rains. The segments that escape from the body are full of bard-shelled eggs that retain their vitality after the decay of the zooid, and when the conditions are favourable, presently undergo the series of changes which culminate in the adult tapeworm. The sheep

harbours three kinds of tapeworm, called respectively, Tcenia ovilla, Toenia denticulata, and Toenia expansa, the last named being by far the most common, and is the particular parasite that brings about so many deaths among lambs infested by it. Tcenia expansa is peculiar in that the segments are broader than they are long. It is made up of the enormous number of 7000 segments ; the head is unarmed, i.e., not provided with hooks as are some tapeworms, but is furnished with four suckers.

The questions of introduction and prevention are closely allied, and may with advantage be treated of together, but we come to a halt at the very outset, because we are confronted with the fact that the life history of Toonia expansa, the parasite we are now interested in, is not accurately determined. Tapeworms are the perfect entoza arising out of the bladder like bodies which are.met with in different parts of the organism of various animals. The hydatid, or scolex of the mature parasite, passes its existence outside the body of its previous host, and within that of another, and gains access to its natural habitat by boing devoured or taken in with food or water by an animal in the shape of eggs or segments of a mature worm, and again by the other natural host as hydatids. Hydatids and tapeworms have a necessary and mutual dependence on each other, and if the chain of development is broken at any one link the creatures perish. An example of this interdependence may be found in the connection between a tapeworm of the dog and the hydatid causing ‘ gid * or sturdy in sheep. The dog harbours a tapeworm known as Tceaia serrata, and as the segments and eggs are commonly deposited on the pass tures, they are picked up by sheep. The ova alter various changes developinto an hydatid, which locates itself in the brain of the sheep, and remains there until liberated from the skull by the death of the animal or the operation of trephining. Tin's hydatid eaten by a dog, will produce Toenia serrata —the Cceaurus celebralis being its scolex. The regular metamorphoses undergone by this particular worm have been demonstrated by experiment, dogs and sheep being fed with segment and hydatids, and killed at various intervals to determine the development. The history of other tapeworms is equally well known. The biadder-worm of pork, Cystieercus celluloso, is a scolex of a tapeworm of man, an argument in favour of thoroughly cooking pork to-ensure complete destruction of eggs. The scolex of the Toonia echinococcus of the doggives rise to the dreadful Echinococcus disease of man and animals. The eggs of the Toonia cucumerina, a small but very long tapeworm of the dog, pass through the body of the dog-louse, Tricodecter latus, so that we have the peculiarity of the animal carrying about both the parasite and its intermediary bearer. The louse ingests the eggs of the tapeworm, and the dog ingests the louso. Perhaps someone may be inclined to ask what has all this to do with the tapeworm of lambs ? Only this—the source and life-history of Tcenia ex-

pansa being as yet undetermined, we can oniy argue from analogy and endeavour to find a possible explanation bv a study of the habits of other and better known forms. Many pass through complex changes, and they often exist out of the bodies of the animals they ultimately inhabit in such peculiar forms, and for so long a time, as to almost set at nought, the efforts of the helminthologist to unravel their several transformations and the Toenia expansa is au instance. It has beeu suggested, but not proved, that Toenia expansa may be dependent on the louse, or some other vermin of sheep, as a nurse for its law®, in the same way as the tapeworm of the dog above described. The possibility of this is the more feasible because it is known that the larvae of tapeworms, which have thin-walled shells are developed in insects, while those with thick shells pass their larval stages in the flesh of animals. The absence of absolute certainty as to the life history of the parasite increases the difficultv ofdevising means for prevention. With other forms the most convenient point of attack is the scolex, this being the most vulnerable, but as we do not know the cystic form of the lamb tapeworm the most that can bo done to prevent it is to collect aud burn the droppings of infested sheep, and use every effort to expel the mature worms bygivingverraifuges, afterwards dealing with the excreta in the same way in order to ensure complete destruction of all the eggs. . In view of the possibility of vermin being nurses or bearers the sheep should be kept free —the more so as there are other reasons beside for their destruction—by dipping them when necessary. Experience goes to show that the samo lands produce tapeworm year after year, or, more correctly, that the sheep on the same larms suffer annually. This suggests the advisability of periodical salt sowings on the pastilles, and the provision of a free supply of rock salt to all the stock turned on them. Bait is a powerful germicide, and few, if any, low forms of life survive its application. The symptoms need not take long to describe—the lambs lose appetite, become rapidly emaciated, aud suffer from diarrhoea, segments of the worms being passed. The parasites cause pain and wasting, and predispose the lambs to other disorders. After death the intestines are found filled with tceaia. When there is no purging there is sometimes convulsions, the lambs running round in a circle and dropping dead. Besides the actual loss from fatalities must be considered the lose by reduction in value and amount of fat, flesh, and wool. Now as to treatment —the best as well as the most common remedy is turpentine, but if given in combination with male fern it is perhaps rendered even more certain. A useful mixture is equal parts of spirit of turpentine, tincture of assafeetida, liquid extract of male fern and linseed oil. Of this give half a fluid ounce to each lamb in its gruel or mixed with more linseed oilas a vehicle. The dose should be repeated twice, if necessary, on alternate days, and the treatment finished with a full dose of Epsom salts in solution. All worm medicines acfc best when

administered to the animal when fasting, and the lambs should be shut up over night and the medicine given early in the morning.

NEW ZEALAND WOOL. New Zealand wool is evidently thought a good deal of in the States. The American correspondent of the Dunedin Star says: —The middle State wool raisers have discovered that they made a mistake when they submitted the amendment which was incorporated in the M’Kinley JBill in their interest. They have found that, while the nominal duty on New Zealand wool is eleven cents per pound, it is really only seven cents on the basis of American wools, because the latter shrink about 66 per cent. Wools vary in their degree of shrinkage, and New Zealand wool is among those which lose the least. The facto are that, no matter what the shrinkage may be, the duty on the New Zealand and Australian wools is higher than it was a year ago ; yet both classes of wool are being imported in largely increased quantities. The London commission men are paying the duty, and are carrying on a more lively competition than ever with our native wool raisers. Mr David. A. Wells has written one of his trenchant and thorough essays on the wool tariff. He attacks it with greater force because of the depressed state of the American wool market, despite the tariff. One fact he calls attention to is worthy of attention. By the census of 1880 it appeared that 41 percent of the so called woollen goods sold in America was cotton and not wool; and he thinks that this is the reason why the death rate from pneumonia an d consumption is so much higher in the United States than in the wet, cold, cloudy, and foggy climates of Great Britain and Ireland. There woollen goods are woollen, here in America they are cotton.

SUCCESSFUL FRUITGROWING. The owner of an orchard attributes his success in peach culture to the following causes : First, that the soil, which was a light sandy loam, suited that fruit; secondly, thaj the land was kept light and mellow by frequent workings; thirdly,that he gave each tree a dressing of a quart of kainit and raw bone each, not less than twice a year. He saw that the peach crop was most exhaustive to the soil, and that the trees would soon dwindle away unless heavily and repeatedly fertilised. He did not trim bis trees at all, but allowed them to spread from the ground bo as to make a dense shade for the soil and the trunk of the tree. He never cultivated any crop in the orchard, but allowed the whole strength of the land to go to the production of the fruit. In winter he would draw back the earth from the roots of the treeß in order to freeze the worms that were troubling them. \ MIXING FODDER. Scientific men are engaged in deciding fine points in regard to the feeding value of different foods, and while there is much that they have not finally settled, they have already given

a great deal of valuable information. When science confirms practical experience, its conclusions are doubly welcome, and there are few more satisfactory discoveries than that which points to the advantages of mixing fodder iu the feeding of stock. Practical men have long been acquainted with the merics of mixing food, but they would not be prepared to go further in favour of the system. The following statement of a scientific man Professor Tanner, says :— ‘ It has been shown by repeated trials that by a judicious combination of different kinds of food we can obtain a much larger production of flesh and fat than by using the same quantity of the same food separately from each other. For instance, it- has been stated that 81b of beans or 61b of linseed cake are each capable of producing lib of increase in live weight; but it has also been shown, by direct experiment that when these foods are mixed and given, then we just get double the produce. This 81b of beans would produce lib increase, and Gib of linseed would produce a second pound, but if the beans and linseed cake are given as a mixed food they produce 41b of live weight.’ This striking fact throws some light upon the extraordinary merit which practical farmers find in ensilage as a fodder for live stock.

NEW ZEALAND MEAT AT HOMEMr Rayner, a well-known sheep breeder of Masterton, Wairarapa, who has just returned from a trip to- the Old Country, has been interviewed by a reporter from the Marton Mercury. During his sojourn in England he says he made the best of his time bv visiting the principal stock breeders, fairs, markets, and special sales of purebred stock. The breeders of purebred stock at Home look to the Colonies as a good outlet for their surplus stock. The prices for such stock appear to maintain a high figure, notwithstanding the competition in the meat market by importations of frozen meat. Mr Rayner said : ‘ I visited a number of towns—some of them small, or what they consider at Home small towns—of from 15,000 to 25,000 people, and found that the frozen meat is sold in a number of butchers’ shops. I heard one fellow outside the shop in one town singing out, ‘ This way for your prime New Zealand mutton !’ I went across aud examined the meat. * Miserable skinny, lean meat.’ I s’nouid say it came from the mountainous portions of Australia. I said to the man in the shop, ‘Do you mean to tell me that this is New Zealand mutton? Why we would scarcely feed the dogs with this meat in New Zealand. I’ll bet you what you like this is not New Zealand mutton.’ The man looked at me for awhile, and said ‘ I suppose you are from New Zealand?’ I said ‘ Yes.’ ‘ Come inside,’ says he. I went in, and he showed me some mutton from New Zealand, quite different meat, of coarse. He said, ‘We must soli that meat, you know,’ pointing to what purported to be from this colony, *to people who don’t know, and we keep this behind for people who do know.’ “ I was staying,” said Mr Raynor

'with my brother, who poo poohs too Uew Zealnnd mutton. I said to my brother’s wife one day, “ Let me get your next joint from the butchei' aud don’t say anything to my brother. I ordered a hindquarter of New Zealand frozen lamo, to bo sent. xhe joint vvas duly cooked, dinner served. My brother said, “ Now, James, what do think of this? Your New Zealand meat can’t come up to this.” “ Very good,” I said. The next day they dyted off the same joint, and the same remarks were passed, but the secret was made known, with the result that mv brother’s views are changed with regard to New Zealand frozen meat.

TIMARTJ FARMERS’ CO OPERATIVE SOCIETY(PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Timartt, November 21. The eleventh annual report of tlio Farmers’ Co-operative Society is satisfactory. For the year there was £7500 6s in reoeipts: £2OS9 from commissions; £1942 from storage; £5640 from profits on merchandise. The directors propose to divide S per cent on capital, 7 per cent bonu3 on accounts, and place £2OJO to a reserve fund. During the year the premises were enlarged, and the erection of a large grain store has been determined on. At the annual meeting to-day the Chairman stated the gross turnover was £207,000. He spoke strongly of the high railway rates, and said the farmers were only kept in the swim at all by the generous yield they got, but this being reduced by ruinous over cropping, they must get the rates reduced and farm bettar. The farmers needed a stringent adulteration law, especially for manures. A shareholder recommended the directors to consider whether they could not arrange to take charge of the frozen meat business at the o-her end, making on advance here from British capital. The retiring directors were re-elected.