FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

' SkilJ/jn^eeding.-^To' be a careful and successful feeder, a ! 'man 'doe's not require to be a thorongh' physiologist, 'but he . does require judgment ancT experience! It is sometimes said, of a man that he is' an excellent feeder, simply' because he gives'a go'oddeial of! feed. , He may] give" corn to £he horse or 'cow with a'scoop^or; shbvel,ye,t,this does;riot 'entitle him to be called] a good-feeder. ' O'n-ttfe:bse*;h'and,; such' 'a manj is a. bungler, a mere* fireman j of a 'day's ex-; peneh'ce as such,' could, in' that time', learn how ti> dpco'the valves, letting on steam. He could push the 'machine, to' sits limit of speed, but would' be yfery likfely, to 'burn out the firebox, simply from übtJihowibg'h'pwVto' fire up to the exact capacity. f of 'the macbiue, getting up a uniform rate .of Keat v generating a uniform quantity of steam, and making creditable speed. This principle applies,, to correct feeding, for the scoop shovel plan may destroy the animal's digestion, or so interfere' with the normal action 1 of the stomach as to retard growth and flesh-making for a while. Stock animals, as well as those intended for breeding, should not be crowded to fatness, but rather should be fed ,with a view to getting favorable growth. Skill in feeding with a view to fattening animals on next season's grass, the purpose being to turn them off in . the fall, is not illustrated by producing excessive fatness during the preceding fall and winter. The finishing up on the summer's pasture is greatly facilitated by keeping up a moderate and steady growth, rather than by pushing the digestion to its limits or beyond. Pushing the feeding beyond the capacity of the animal to digest' and absorb, involves the loss of much food, passing out as it does in the excrement. Breeding animals, and those intended for turning off at the close of the grass season next year, require to be fed with discretion, and within such a limit as will leave room for gain from the day they are turned out. — National Live Stock Journal. ' The Rapid Walk.— Attention is urged by a writer in Wallace's Monthly to the walking gait as the first to be developed in a colt or young horse, and by which a great degree of practical proficiency is attainable. He enforce s this idea by estimates and examples; "We have known numerous road-bred horses that would walk from four and a-half to five miles in an hour without urging, and many, in fact most well-bred road horses could be taught to cover greater distances, than this in the same time if it were not for the pernicious custom (as we think) of putting the colts to the Irot as won as they are* in harness and before they are really bridlewise. Every farmer's boy knows that he oan do a better 30b of work — ploughing, harrowing, or forking corn — with a fast walking team which makes the dirt fly than with a slow :one. The saying on a farm when the horses ,walk .three miles an' hour, -or even when they walk two miles and a-half,' is 20 per cent; or, ia other words, the jost team, can rest a whole day in the week and yet do a^ much wot k as the slow team— do it easier an.d better. When work is pressing, or weather uncertain, the fast team is,, a treasure. s While 'every effort has been made to Jncrease the speed of the trotter, the draft-horsem en,( h ave been working far pounds,- with little regard either- far muscle or walking speed, * It is a Very great mistake to suppose that the draft horse cannot b e trained ! to walk rapidly. . We have been breeding to a Perbheron for, four years that often walks nine miles ino'ne hour andfifty'.minutes, over a hilly roadj arid his colts are all rapid walkers."

Inoculation JTOR Pleubo. — Professor G. T. Brown, chief Veterinary Adviser to the Privy Council Office, has communicated the £ol« lowing letter on the subject of inoculation for pleuro'pneumoniato Mr Mark Stewart, of Dumfries : "JThefactsin respect to inoculation are— (l ) A certain amount of protection against the natural disease is conferred, for a length of time not determined.,^ (2) Inoculation,<loes not produce the, djsease (gleurpj-pneuraoiiia,)' either in tl\e, in? oculate/dj auiraal, or 'its 'offspring^ (3) Jno&nlated (otlier ! vvisej'"heal|h|') > ,r, r cauno the disease^ .to.jotKer^at^l^fth .whjeh they may cpme in contact*.' (4) When' inoculation is pjra-» tised in * hard in which pleuro-pneumonia has appeared it is quite certain that among the inocateted qattle which are. presumed to be healthy

at the time a certain proportion— sometimes a large , proportion— are already ;the subjects «©f pleuro-pneumonia in a limited area of the lungs, the disease not being discoverable without; a ■post mortem examination.. These are theinimals which are likely to communicate the disease, 1 not because they are inoculated, but' foWtfre more evident reason that they are actually* "effected with pleuro-pneumonia in an obscure form, Which is not modified by inoculation. . With the above I facts before us we cannot doubt, that ifl inocula- ; tion is practised at all as an alternative to eiau§h_ter in the case of'cattle which' have been exposed to the oontagion .of pleuro-pneumonia; bat ! §re i not discoverably affected,. the inoculated' cattle I should be kept -in . the infected place' untiPthfey are in a condition fotthe butcher; iahd'the-in-fected place should, not be declared' free 1 while any of the inoculated cattle remain alive. Jl "may, in conclusion, remark that ifi the stamping out system be adopted as the easiest way^off getting rid of pleurQ-pneumonia and other ' contagious diseases, there will be neither occasion nor necessity for the practice of inocnlotipD." " ? ' >v; <" Pigs on Grass.— The hog iis a gr^ss^ting animal by nature, and its health is.tberefore promoted by the use of grass as.a par t^of its food The grass gives bulk and porousnesß,to,t)ie."cou-. tents of the stomach, and thus "aids digestion. If the hogs are to be pushed in fattening, 'finishing them off in the fall, then they may be kept in a dry pen or yard,' and the green',, succalent'grass brought to them every day and given in' three small feeds, in small racks over the troughs/ In this way they will not get much under fobCand what falls out of the rack "will drop" ihtp/the trough. Some years since we^fbund^.the "best plan in feeding hogs clover in a pen, was to run it through a strow-cutter .and t^eii, 'feed "two quarts of the cut clover, mised wiih'its rations of meal, to each hog three times a day. We adopted the cutting of .the clover in the morniog,",aiid mixing the propoation of meal with^it'that\we desired the hogs to eat per day and letting it .lie in bulk through the day. It wouldtlien become so mingled that the grass and meal ,'woula be. enten together: It would warm up Bome,"bufe not enough to injure itsquality. The hogs were extremely fond of it and gained in weight from 121b to 151b each per week.' We were feeding for rapid growth through the sumraeiv and fed 61b of cornmeal to each pig, with the cloyef, per day. The result was quite .satisfactory., — National Livestock Journal; " -, ' "

Caxada Thistle.— There is. (says the Town and Country Journal) no more "unmitigated pest in the whole lißt of weeds than the Canada thistle. In the whole world ifcid known as the creeping thistle, because it spreads byits long, creeping rootslocks. It is supposed to have received the name by which' it is exclusively known in America from having' beau introduced in the fleeces of sheep brought from Canada, It has .deep, roots, which the pteugh cannot usually reach, aud its creeping root h very tenacious of life, bo that wherever it is cat it is capable of making a new plant. • It Bpreads, too, widely., through the medium .of ite abundant seeds. It will, however,' yield, .liktfothet perennials, to persistent mowing. To 'destroy the plant, therefore, as soon as it has feegtri to (lower, plough it under. If other! p'Mut* spring up, out; them down ; and several Mm#3 go over the gro\m<J with a<hoe/bna | cetit l 'adwti any young tf'row,th of the thistle that 'can", lie perceived. Keep this ,up till the: middle- ( oS autumn, and the next year sow. the; gVbunß to wheat or rye. If any uew plants appear again during the next summer, out them down. promptly. Jf the plants grow in 'olump's of heads, cut each dqvm to the' surface, of ground, and pour dilute sulphurio acid ap6fcibfc root. Digging holes into each cluster otf Mots and pouring in a quantity of salt is 1 also Ha. effective method of destroying the* -plant. When the ground has been newly cleared, 1 ans the thistles have but just -made theto>appeari ance, seed the ground thickly to grass; and ta"dw> both grass arid thistles &$ soon as the latter are in <lower. The main point is to let no seedo ripen, and to destroy the vitality of .-the root by choking it with the close growth of other roots

Height of an t Average Draught Horsr at Work.— What Is the height of 'an an average draught horse ' work ? is a question we are prompted to ask 'from seeing in a watercart at Richmond an animal of 19£ hands high, of the old Cleveland' Bay style, whole coloured, flint-boned, and "razor-legged," as old • Clydesdale FtuW would have .said. Aa a rule, 153 ia the- beat height amongst Clydesdales in the- Glasgow streets for real pood lorry-drawing ' purposes, though sometimes a very good horse is seen' in the Broomielaw, pulling hard and heavy,' at 171.' Iv London the most effective horses in the inclines, when it conies to dead dragging^ are' the heavy roan-grey shires, the real batfcle.horses ot the olden times, whioh will command the admira, tion of everyene from the way they lend theftweight to their loads when required, " ' ' ' '