THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20875, 15 November 1929, Page 4

THE RURAL WORLD.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

By Ritstictts

Items of interest to those engaged In agricultural and pastoral pursuits, with a view to their publication in these columns, will be welcomed. They should be addressed to “Kusticus,” Otago Daily Times, Dunedin,

FORTHCOMING SHOWS. November 15. —Canterbury Metropolitan. Novembei Ifi. —Taien, at Outram. November 19.—Waimate. November 21, 22. —North Otago. November 26, 27.—Otago Metropolitan. November 27. —Wallace. November 28, 29. —Clutha and Matan. November 30.—Winton. December 3. —Tokoraairiro. December 3, 4. -Gore. December 5. —Owaka. December 6.—Wyndham. December 10, 11, 12. —Royal, Invcrw gill. December 14.—Otago Peninsula. December 20.—Lawrence. December 27.—Waitahuna. 1929-30 WOOL SALE DATES. Dates and times of the Dominion wool sales 'for tire season 1929-30 have been fixed as follow; Wellington— December 0, 9 a.m, January 11, 9 a.m. February 19, 7.30 p.m. March 21, 9 a.m. Christchurch— November 30, 9 a.m. January 6, 7.30 p.m. February 11, 7.30 p.m, March 7, 9 a.m. Napier— November 18, 2 p'.rn. December 11, 9 a.m. January 16, 7.30 p.m. February 25, 9 a.m. March 24,. 7.30 p.m. Wanganui— November 21, 2 p.m. January 24, 7.30 p.m. March 1, 7.30 p.m. Auckland — November 25, 7.30 p.m, December 21, 9 a.m. March 28, 9 a.m. Dunedin December 20, 9 a.m. February 4, 9 a.m, March 12, 4 p.m. April 3, 7.30 p.m. Tiraaru — December 16, 9 a.m. February 7, 4 p.m. Invercargill— January 30. 7.30 p.m. March 14. 7.30 p.m. Regulating W°°l Offerings. The_ New Zealand Wool Committee, comprising representatives of the pronucers, wool brokers, and wool buyers, held a meeting last week for the ‘purpose of exercising its functions in regulating the offerings of wool at the various sales to be held throughout the Dominion during the coming season. The maximum aggregate quantities of wool (in bales) which may be offered at the sales were fixed as follows: November sales at Wellington, Napier,' Wanganui, Auckland, and Christchurch, no limit. December 6, Wellington, 27,000; December 11. Napier, 25,000; December 16, Tiniaru, no limit; December 20 Dunedin, no limit. January 6, Christchurch, 24,000; January 11, Wellington, 27,000; January 16. Napier, 25,000; January 21, Auckland, 20,000; January 24, Wanganui, 20,000; January 30, Invercargill, 22,000. February 4, Dunedin, 23,000; February 7. Timaru, 18,000; February 11, Christchurch. 24,000; February ]O, Wellington, 27,000; February 25, Napier, 25,000. March 1, Wanganui, 20,000; March 7, Christchurch, no limit; March 12, Dunedin, 23,000; March 14. Invercargill, no limit; March 21, Wellington, 27,000; March 24. Napier, no limit; March 28. Auckland, no limit, April 3, Dunedin, no limit. The committee has given very careful consideration to the position of the wool market, and in the allocations decided upon it has endeavoured to regulate offerings in the direction of a slight extension of the selling season. The committee anticipates that further sales will be arranged at some centres before the close of the season.

Price of Wool and Clothes. With wool so low in price the Pastoral Review of Sydney remarks: “ We should expect to aee the general public beginning to make' a'rush for the cheap suits, socks, underclothing, etc,, that will be the outcome of cheap wool. We have noticed that when our tailor quotes us a guinea rise on the cost of a suit, or our mercer apologetically mentions the price of the latest shipment of socks he invariably accounts for the increase by 1 wool having gone up.’ Yet a moment’s thought regarding the weight of wool in a pair of socks or a suit of clothes will very clearly show the infinitesimal proportion of the i increased cost that can rightly be ascribed to even a 20 per cent, rise in wool prices. The truth is that conversion costs are so heavy and such profits are taken that raw material prices count for very little in the finished articles. The reduction of these items should be just ns much the aim of the campaign to rehabilitate wool as the reduction of costs in the production of the raw material. What is the,use of the grower straining every nerve to grow wool at a price that will enable it to compete with substitutes if all his sacrifices are wasted in the process of conversion and' his cheap wool reaches the consumer as dear clothing? ” South African Wool Trade, The Cape Wool Company of Port Elizabeth, reviewing the prospects of the 1029-30 season, says that in districts whoee clips are marketed in Port Elizabeth, owing to splendid winter rains, sheep are in excellent condition, and a good lambing season has been experienced. In consequence a slight increase in the clip on last year may be anticipated, In Southern and Central Orange Free State excellent winter rains have also made the outlook good. Lambing has been better than for the last two years, wools are better grown, sounder and cleaner than last year, and the clip will be larger. Especially good wools are expected from the Southern Free State. Northern Orange Free State has experienced less dust and good rains, which should make the clip cleaner. Lambing lias been good, and increased production is expected. In Little Karroo rains have relieved the drought, better feed is available, and flocks in good condition, raising prospects of an increased clip. Sheep that Survive Snowstorms. Since the recent snowstorms in Wales farmers in that country have been discussing how long a sheep will live under a fall of snow. Near Cilrhedyn, according to Mr W. Jones, one of his sheep was buried under eight feet of snow for six days, and was still alive when found. It has now recovered. Mr John Jones, Park Owen, Gwynfe, Llangadock, goes one bettor, and says that during the Black Mountain snowstorm in 1901 two of his sheep were buried under from 10 to 12 feet of snow for 19 days. When dug out they could not stand. Dominion Exports. Exports of the Dominion are dealt with in detail in the New Zealand Annual Exfort Review of 1929, by the journal Meat and Wool. __ The period is July 1 to June 30 as to New Zealand produce, but the overseas trade of the Dominion as a whole is dealt with as at December 31. Sections are devoted to almost every product exported: Hides, tallow, pelts, and veal, peas and beans, grass seed, honey, live stock, kauri gum, fruit and hops, coal and timber. Fat stock prices throughout the year are given in detail as to date, and place of sale, and prices realised, for every month of the year. Exports to various countries month by month, and the overseas steamers by which they were carried arc also given. The number is complete as to tabulated information of the great trade of the Dominion export. Liver Fluke in Sheep. Much has recently been written about the chemical treatment and drainage of pastures to clear away the water snail (Litnwea Truncatula), the intermediate host in the life history of the lirer fluke

(Distoma Hepaticum),' causing liver rot in sheep. Both draining of hill pasture and extensive treatment with copper sulphate are laborious and expensive compared with the carbon tetrachloride capsule treatment, which is now acknowledged to be the most effective cure yet discovered. In Shetland (writes a correspondent of the Farmer and Stockbreeder) this treatment is now recognised as a sure remedy. In 1927 and 1928 the North of Scotland College of Agriculture sent Mr J. Grant from their veterinary department to lecture on the prevention and cure of liver fluke throughout Shetland. So convincing was hia tour of propaganda work in this direction that in the year ended May 10, 1828, 35,000 sheep were dosed with carbon tetrachloride capsules without a single fatality. At a moderate estimate it is reckoned that already over 70,000 sheep have boon treated since winter sot in. Isot only have countless numbers of sheep been saved, but the crop of wool and lambs is steadily improving. The Shetland flockmastev has now fully realised that mass treatment is the only solution of this malady, and the propaganda work of the North of Scotland College of Agriculture has already borne fruit. Probably no county in Britain has responded so well to this work as this little county in the far north with its Shetland sheep. Dairy Export Grading*. Grading returns of butter and cheese for export for the first three months of the season, compared with those of 1928, are as follow: Aug., Sept., 1028. 1929, Oct. Tons. Tons. Butter .. 18.709 20.181 Choose .. 14,170 12,710 Increase butter 7.85 per cent.; decrease cheese 10.34 per cent. Converting these figures into huttcr-fnt equivalent, there is an increase of 2.64 per cent, in butter-fat production for the three months as compared with the corresponding period of the 1928-29 season. HEALTH OF STOCK. MINERAL REQUIREMENTS. EFFECT OF PHOSPHORIC ACID. In gauging the importance of phosphoric acid to general agricultural husbandry, consideration apart from its vital relationship to plant life must be taken into account. Principally it is necessary to understand its value as a nutritional factor to the animal. Although the total amount of phoshoriis in the animal body is comparatively small—perhaps one or two per cent.— compounds of the element are widely distributed and are as essential to the living coll as proteins. The most important of these -compounds include the phosphoproteins, ns casein of milk, and the ovovitellin of egg 30Ik, and phosphattds, which occur in brain and nerve tissues, and also, to a comparatively large extent in egg yolk. In the fluids of the body there is potassium phosphate, while the mineral matter of _ bone comprises over 80 per cent, of chlcium phosphate. Furthermore, it must be remembered that a gallon of core's milk contains approximately one-third of an ounce of phosphoric acid, while a gallon of sow’s milk contains two-thirds of an ounce of the element, the actual amount present in milk varying according to the growth-rate of the species of mammal. These facts are of vital significance to stock owners and infer the additional importance of maintaining adequate supplies of phosphoric acid in the soil as a safeguard to the health and general wellbeing ol stock. They are of special conc®rn _in New Zealand, where phosphate deficiency is an outstanding defect of the soil.

ft ? an . bo noted as a relative point that it is now generally believed that phosphorus supplied to the animal in an inorganic form may be used by it for the construction of the organic as well as of the inorganic phosphorus compounds of the body. An English authority suggMts, however, that more econopye and efficient synthesis of the organic phosphorus compounds will be achieved by ® u PP*y °f some organic phosphorus. Of the foodstuffs commonly used on the farm, straw, roots, potatoes, and a good deal of poor fodder are comparatively poor in phosphoric acid. Cereals, however, are more richly constituted in this direction, while peas and beans contain appreciable amounts. Milling offal is rich in phosphoric acid, since it is of cereal origin, and may contain as much as 601 b to the ton. while many concentrated foods and meals of vegetable origin are of high phosphoric acid content. Fish meal and meat-and-bone meals are exceptionally rich in the element, the tormer containing as much as 2001 b of phosphoric acid to the ton’ of food. Some meat-and-bone meals of the lower protein order contain even greater quantities. For this reason these two foods are usually used to supplement ration deficient in mineral matter. The phosphoric acid, of course, is present in these particular foods as phosphate of lime, and originated in the bone of the subject from which they were manufactured. Modern intensive production, as evidenced by the high standard of milk yield aimed at in these days, the trend toward early maturity in the supply of meat (as it relates to bone formation), and amountinjj cfzcr yields, makes extraordinary dc* mands on the phosphoric acid resources of the animal. Thus there is a cumulative importance attaching to the maintenance of an adequate supply 0 f the element. And in considering ways and means of meeting the demand it must be remembered that, just as only a portion of the phosphoric acid in the toil is immediately available to the plant, so Only a part of phosphoric acid in the ration can be assimilated and retained by the animal. In this connection, however it is interesting to recall that Dr F C Kelly, at the Rowett Research Institute! tound that the addition of small amounts of potassium iodide to the ordinary cereal rations of 3;ounp growing p i ss r€B ulted other things, an increased assimi ation and retention by the animals of the phosphorus of the ra'ion. Malcondition and disease in farm stock as the result of deficiency or lack of mineral balance in the- ration offer the final evidence of the importance of phosphoric acid to the animal Trouble resulting from a deficiency of this element is a common and wide occurrence. In extensive grazing areas in Africa. America, Australia, and elsewhere, the soil con- °, f , av ailable phosphoric acid is so small that it is reflected in tho natural herbage with very serious consequences to fill T Bt0 &- Tl,us in are - * Uch co P dltl ? ns as lamsiekte and °, n 6 °! ls - f "t lch the content of n onn-H 6 ftS 1 ' 0 ™ acul a '« o ''nts to about 0.0000 to 0.001 per cent. osteonialacia, and other bone troubles are associated with phosphorus-poor soils in iexas, u isconsm. Minnesota, and many other areas. It is noteworthy that ednikffi :e f«i P T ei 'J lo v ° £ , these troubles is effected by feeding bone meal to the stock.