FARM TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 58

FARM TOPICS.

In the matter of narrow tyres, a settler who has put broad tyres on his thi-lk cart told the Manawatu County Council recently that if broad tyres were generally fitted it would be necessary to have the rhetal broken smaller than ia now customary. . # * * *

In discussing the subject of declaring gorse a noxious weed, which was before the Rangitikei County Council recently. Mr Robert Wilson incidentally remarked that many years ago he received a very strict notice from the Council, requesting him to check the spreading of gorse on Heaton Park estate. The work was carried out in its entirety, according to the request. It was subsequently brought under his notice that others had received similar letters, but the Council's request had been entirely ignored. He was the only individual who suffered expense, as no further action was taken by the local body in compelling the work to be done on other properties. The chairman closed the incident by stating he was rather against the local body administering. ##. # *

A meeting of pastoralists and farmers was held at Blenheim on Saturday week last, under the auspices of the A. and P. Association to consider the movement recently set on foot to gain sanction of the Agricultural Department as to the rabbit trapping industry. A resolution was passed strongly condemning the proposal, and expressing the opinion that the re-introduction of this method of dealing with rabbits would bo most detrimental to the interests of Marlborough.

The most human, and, at the same time effective, method of preventing t&e horn growth in calves is to use a small stick of caustio potash, which may be purchased from * the chemist. The operation requires two men". "While one fields the calf's head firmly, the other, after rolling a piece of paper round one end of the stick to prevent injury to his hand, divides the hair from the young horn or bud, and rubs it with the stick of caustio potash, until it gets red, and looks as if it were about to bleed. The fiorn bud must .be moistened, two or three times during the rubbing, but not too freely, otherwise the moisture will run down, and will cause a sore. Only a few minutes’ rubbing is required. If it is successfully done, there will be a depression where the bud was, and the horn will give no more trouble. # # # »

The Ron go tea Co-operative Dairy Co. have decided to pay suppliers 9d per pound for butter fat during the present month.

Stock Inspector Miller, late of Lincoln, Canterbury, has been appointed to the Feilding district, thus relieving Stock Inspector Duncan of a portion of his large district which, now. will extend from Waikanae to Feilding. Inspector Miller will have charge of the Feilding district and all the country up around Apiti. In addition to performing all his other numerous duties Inspector Duncan during the months of April and May condemned and had killed 105 head of stock suffering from disease, principally tuberculosis.'

A Berkshire sow was exhibited at Qrmondville the other day which turned the scale at 4051 b. It was bred and reared on skim milk by a local dairy farmer. # * * *

In Christchurch there have been received copies of an illustrated booklet issued by Messrs Wise and Co., of Bristol, England, in which they state that for years past large numbers of their customers have requested them to supply tfiem with Canterbury lamb, and tliat to enable them to meet this increasing demand they have made arrangements with the Christchurch Meat Company, "the largest exporters of the very best grass fed lambs," for a continuous supply of their celebrated "Eclipse" brand of Canterbury lambs. Messrs Wise and Co., further state that hitherto they have not. encouraged the sale of frozen meat of any kind, but they have no hesitation in recommending the brand they l are now prepared to sell. No frozen meat, except Canterbury lamb, will be sold at either of their establishments.

A Canterbury man, who was one of the applicants for a farm in the Matamata estate, has had rather bad luck at the ballot. In his efforts to secure a section of land hie had entered and been unsuccessful at four ballots in various parts of the colony, and made his fifth unsuccessful attempt at the Matamata ballot. In his search after land he has travelled over a good-part of the colony. This shows what a farce the ballot system is, and how unfair it is to bona fide farmers who have to compete again and again with the dummies and speculators who swarm wherever land is under offer.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Ltd.; Gore, have just completed loading at Bluff an interesting shipment of sheep by the Suffolk, comprising 130 Merinoes, Jttomneya. and Corriedales. to the order of Mr Walker Dun, representing an East African syndicate which has taken up a large track of land in British East Africa, and intends to test its capabilities as a sheep country. The sheep just shipped are a fine hardy lot, and have been obtained from such well-known breeders as Messrs Watson Skennan of Puketoi, W. Cunningham, of

Moa Plat, J. R. McKenzie, of Pomahaka, and J. and J. Miller, of Taieri, and it is intended to endeavour to establish a woolproducing cross with the native sheep, which while possessing a good frame have only a scant hairy fleece. The Suffolk will carry the sheep to Durban, where they will be shipped to Mombassa, and thence by rail .380 miles to their destination at Lake Nawashi, near the eastern border of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The sheep now* being taken over by Mr Dun are an experimental lot, to be tried in Great Rift Valley, ana on plateau land in British East Africa at an elevation of 8000 to 12,000 feet above sea level, in what is described as a "white man's country" directly under th.e Equator.

A block of land of 3600 acres in the Kawhia County, about 11 miles from Kawhia township, is being prepared for settlement. It will be subdivided into nine sections, ranging from 127 to 619 acres. The Department hopes to have tie holdings ready for selection about the middle of July. They are to be offered under the lease in perpetuity system. • • • • »

A splendid line of heavy weight fat lambs, from Mr J. Madison, Norwood, made a record price for such a number at the Addington saleyards recently. Ten of the heaviest were sold at 22s 9d, and 463 were taken for export by Mr A. Stark at 19s 6d. They were Ehglish Leicester and Down crosses, and were of very prime auality. * * W # »

An ingenious device has been adopted by Mr B. L. Knight in connection with the carriage of sawn timber. from his new mill in the Hunterville district. The mill is seven miles from the Hunterville railway station, with which it is connected by a tramway. Some of the gradients are one in. fifteen, and the line has several awkward curves in it. The timber will be placed on bogey trucks, which will be drawn by two others fitted, with machinery. On one of the two latter will a twelve fiorse power engine attached to a large drum, and on the other a boiler will be placed. A wire rope will fie fastened at each end of the tramway, after two or three turns have been taken round the drum. As the drum revolves the two trucks (which will be coupled) will move either backward or forward, and will haul the timber trucks.

One' of the-events of the Dunedin Winter Show week was Messrs Wright, Stepfienson and Co.’s great horse sale. This year there were 227 entries and the sale occupied two days. There was a very large attendance, and competition was good for anything sound and not too old; but really first class lots were scare, and the highest price <£72, while £6O was obtained two or three times; good heavy workers from six years old brought £4O to £SO and older horses of- the same class £2O to £35, medium draughts £3O to £4O, light horses £l2 to £2B. The auctioneers consider that heavy draughts were down £lO a head from last year’s value, this being due to the low price of grain and heavy farm work being pretty well finished for.the season.

Thus a correspondent of the “Rural New Yorker”; —“There are some things in this gospel of soil culture, as it is being preached to-day, that seem to me to be false teachings. The purpose of cultivation, as so often given, is to stir up tiie heavy soil so as to let in the air and sunshine. Now I ‘stall’ on this proposition. The ideal condition for allowing the air and sunshine to get through the soil would be either to plough up the soil earlv and leave it lying till planting time without any working down, or else allow the bare soil to bake and crack open 1 under the influence of hot sun and winds. Either case would be thorough soil aeration, hut in either case the soil would be sterile as a stone. This spring, when wanting the best soil I could find for starting early plants, I dug it from under an old building, where the sun had not shone on it for forty years. The kind of culture that best serves to keep the air and sunshine out of the soil will give the best crops. A dust mulch itself, when thoroughly worked, even though it be 6in deep, is all inert matter, and! all the bacterial and root growth takes place in the firm moist soil below the mulch. The whole purpose of soil culturfe as it is. revealed to me is not to let the air and sunshine into the soil, but to form a covering to keep it out. If this is true, is it not about time some of the wise ones should find it out and revise their text?”

A correspondent of the Sydney ‘‘Stock and Station Journal’' sends the following acount. of a phenomenally heavy fleece. “In ’9B I saw a ram shorn on Bogewong station, near Walgett, that cut exactly half a hundredweight of wool. This sheep was bred by the late Mi- V. J. Dowling, and was, purchased from him by a man named Bridges, who, at that time, had a selection on the abovenamed station. On his‘ selling out, the fetation took over his sheep, among which was the ram mentioned. When 1 saw this sheep shorn, he had 13 months’ wool on, and it took the shearer 2 hours (excluding smokes) to shear him. The name of the man who shore him is James Fox, He resides at Carinda, near Walgett, and can verify my words re weight of fleece. We weighed trimmings and all, but we didn’t tie it with fencing wire or lead pipe.” The states that the letter is from a wellknown and reliable breeder up north.

In discussing the dual-purpose cow, a writer in the “Live Stock Journal” says: —“Most people are aware that the reason of the disappearance of the milking tendency in so many fashionable shorthorns must be looked for in the pursuit of the square, solid shape, and thick flesh which took its rise with the development of the show system, and the demand for that type which sprang up from abroad. Beef generally sold well, and milk to namparativals at a dis-

count, consequently it became necessary to breed cows which, seen in profile, should present an outline, as.near as possible, to a parallelogram, with the forequarters as heavily formed as the hind. In this endeavour our breeders succeeded, but in so doing some sacrificed more than tfiey bargained for. . They got the beef, but they lost the milk, and in building up a handsome butcher’s beast they made her almost useless for the dairy.”

Only men with cleanly instincts (says the “Farmers' Review”) should be permitted to have a part in drawing the milk from the cow or handling it at any time. If dirty men are to be retained on the farm tfiey should be put to some other work than that tlxat directly affects the milk. We hear about men that dip their fingers into the milk when they want o moisten the teats of the cow they are milking. It has never seemed to the writer that the facts as reported could be possible, but the preponderance of testimony seems to be that there are such dirty milkers. That being the case, the dirty man must be recognised as existing, and he should be prevented from contaminating the milk supply. But he is not always easy to find. His dirty tricks are kept by him in the background as much as possible. He must be run down. Perhaps the best way to find him is for the cow owner to give his milkers general instructions against such methods. When the dirty man is the proprietor himself, the case becomes moire difficult to handle, and until something like the curd test for dirt is adopted by the creameries and cheese factories there is little chance of finding him out. It should not be forgotten tfiat the dirty man stands in the way of the maker of both butter and cheese. The dirty man can bring to naught the finest skill in the world. If we would build up from the foundation we must eliminate dirt in men and methods. Cleanliness in all things is the first step in our upward progress.

Cattle plague has destroyed a very great number of oxen and cows in Egypt. Large proprietors are therefore turning their attention to steam ploughs, and to any form of agricultural implement that can bo used without cattle, and are looking with much interest towards machines which are of the automobile type.

Great quantities of fruit trees are being despatched from Somerville daily. During the past two days eight trucks full of trees, estimated to contain 50,000 trees have been forwarded from Somerville ‘station. The major portion are consigned to Durban, South Africa, for transport to Ladysmith and the surrounding districts.

In preparing food for horses the opinion is nearly unanimous in favour of chopping hay and straw. Professor Sauborn fed two horses on cut hay for 85 days, and they gained 991 b, but two others, fed on uncut hay, gained only 621 b. Then he reversed the feed for 48 days, during which the lot fed on cut hay gained 75 lb, but the other lot lost 51b. The test was with lucerne ani clover. The advantage in crushing grain for horses with good teeth and good digestions is not so marked, but with old horses, and those with bad digestion/ it is a necessity.

Camels are used quite commonly as draught animals on the farms in Siberia. They require very little attention, and live on hay and straw entirely. They are large and strong, and with their long stride make splendid draught animals for modern farm machinery. The native horses are small, but they are hardy, and can" withstand a great deal of hardship. The cattle of tha country are-what we call scrub stock. However, the Agricultural College is introducing high-bred cattle, hogs, and horses. The sheep of Siberia are of a very good breed, being large and muscular, with long fine wool.

Barley, as is pretty generally known, is one of the most fattening foods which horses can receive, especially when cooked, but for a variety of reasons—and particularly because it is not conducive to the production of the stout muscular tissue which, is soi essential to staying power—barley has never met with, much favour as a food for horses in this country. Curiously enough, the Arabs, who are celebrated for the care they take of their horses, use barley to a very large extent, in the feeding of their animals. Along with hay and straw, barley enters extensively into the food rations for Arab horses in many of the great desert tracts in which the animals find a home.

Describing a large dairy farm in Jutland, a gentleman gives the “Live Stock Journal” some curious particulars or Danish methods of management. Under one great roof 160 cows were kept, in four rows, each cow secured by collar and chain to a ring riding loose on an upright post. From November to about May 1 the cows remain in the shed and are never moved unless ill. A bull is kept at the end of each row, and twice a day he is walked up and down the passage betwen the ranks of cows to serve any that may be in season. The cows calve where they stand, and their calves are at once removed, either for slaughter or to be reare'd by hand. Each cow is curried down daily, and, as very little straw is given for litter—merely the refuse of that given for food —and the manure is constantly removed, the at-

mospliere remains sweet. Cows in full milk received. 121 b of hay and a little straw, and 121 b of oats, beans, barley, rape and palmnut cake, daily. Never \ earlier than May 1, and frequently a \\ few days later, the cows are turned out yy- into the pastures, and until November depend on the grass albne. So abrupt a change in mode of life and diet is necessarily attended by some risk, but it was stated that were the cows brought in at night after tasting the sweets of > freedom, they would fret and lose their . milk. . - M ' i/'--

Brood sows, like brood mares, should have exercise during their period of pregnancy. The result will he a stronger and more vigorous lot of pigs with a stronger and healthier dam. ' VW * * •

, : A Napier gentleman has received a letter from Victoria which throws some light on the state. of the labour maiket there. “This country,’ 5 says the writer, “is simply done. Let me give you an instance. The other day there • was a vacancy for a caretaker of the Melbourne show-ground, wages £1 Ids , a week, with free house. The applicants numbered 1503!” ' Standard butter in the United States is butter cantaming not less than 82.5 • > per cent, of butter fat. Renovated or process butter is the produce obtained by" melting butter and reworking, without the addition or use of chemicals or . airy substances except milk, cream, or salt. Standard renovated, or process butter is that containing hot more than 16 per cent, of water and at least 82.5 per cent-, of butter fat. Cheese is defined as the solid or ripened product cb- . tamed by coagulating the casein of milk by means of rennet or acids, with or without the addition of ripening ferments and seasoning. By act of Congress, 1896, cheese may also contain additional colouring matter.