FARM AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 1986, 6 March 1890, Page 6

FARM AND STATION.

NOTES ON BUBAL TOPICS.

In one of my noteß a fortnight ago I alluded to the primitive nature of the Novices colonial methods of farming as &t oompared with the high standard Farming. o f farming generally practised . ! '. -, ■ in Britain. One is inclined to fancy that the farmers there are all thoroughly qualified managers, well versed in all branches of agricultural knowledge and well posted up in stock lore, and, of course, experienced hands at breeding and rearing all kinds of Btock. Such, however, is not invariably the case, if one may judge from the absurd querieß that are frequently propounded to the editors of the various farming papers. Those who ask many of them must be novices indeed -in fact, they usually sign themselves as such. Recently I have taken note of some of these conundrums, .and herewith quote a few for the edification of my readers. The query, " Am I compelled by law to have my donkey shod ? " would oome more appropriately from a London costermonger than from a would-be farmer, or from anyone connected with rural industries. Another novioe inquired with lamb-like innocence as to the best way of buying a good horse. To this a contributor replies that experience and observation can alone guide the querist, and that experienoe of this sort is often very dearly bought ; also that a good judge of a horse iB born, not made, and therefor the querist; would be none tbe wiser if the paper were filled with instructions as to the beet way of buying a good horse. Another is very anxious to know at what age a young bull should have a ring put in bis nose. This question is about on all fours with "At what age should a youpg man be married ?" and reminds me of a line of a song stating that tbe "girls do wear a ring that shows they've got Borne young ohap by the noße." The propounder of tbe next puzzle calls himself a farmer's son, and wants to know whether it is really useful to give salt to sheep on pasture, and, if so, should they have rock salt or common domestic salt. One would think that be would naturally ask bis father for information instead of bothering to write to a paper for it ; but probably he is one of those young men who think that tbe "old man " knows nothing. When, however, they get to tbe " old man " stage themselves and find that their boys pay them the same compliment they are ready to allow that their "old man" might have known something. I could mention dozens more of the same description of trivial queries requiring only a little thought and common sense on the part of the sender, but there are some people who are determined to write to tbe papers about something, and are therefore not very particular about the Bubjeots. I think tbe querieß quoted go to Bbow tbat there must be a good many men engaged in farming in the Home Country who would suit our sooalled primitive style of farming very well indeed, and wbo do not by any means come up to the standard of the typical British farmer possessed of an inborn capability for farming derived from half a dozen generations of farmers before him. In reference to the queries and answers upon agricultural matters, I may mention a custom whioh prevails at Home and wbiob I think ia productive of good. The editor of a farm paper does not attempt to reply to tbe queationß on farming subjects, butsimply prints the query and invites replies from farmers and other subscribers. In this way tho querist, generally gets a variety of answers in subsequent issues, and thus reaps the benefit of the experience, observation, and judgment of those who take the trouble to reply. Though we cannet yet boast of a weekly paper devoted entirely to agriculture and other rural matters, tbe «ame plan could, perhaps, be adopted with advantage in oonneotion with the farm pages of our weeklies. lam aware that the editor of the Witness is always glad to insert anything in tbe shape of local experience, but farmers, as a rule, though ready and willing to talk " shop " among themselves are very shy of going into " prent," Nevertheless, a good many would, I think, be tempted to state their opinion in reply to sensible questions concerning the farm,

Although wheat may be out while the grain is Boft it must on no acoount be stacking put into Btaok until both straw Grain. and grain are completely dry

and free from Bap, When wheat is put together in proper order it generally heats or Bweats to a certain extent, but this pasBBB off in a week or two and the grain is said to be all the better for the process. If, however, a large body of green grain be put together it will heat a very great deal too much, and the heat generated by the unfit straw and grain will, instead of passing off like a wholesome sweat, turn to a white mouldy dust and the grain will be very difficult to thresh and of very inferior quality. A few loads of sheaves* little on the green side will do no damage if put on the top of a stack, as there will not be bulk enough to cause an undue amount of heat, but if possible the carting should prooeed according to the time of cutting, beginning with that out first and following the reaper at a sufficient interval to allow of the grain being fit to go into stack. On hilly ground the grain ripens, of course, on the sunny slopes first, and both the reaping and the carting must of necessity be performed in a very patchy and fragmentary manner* This causes a good deal of trouble and waßte of time, but it cannot be avoided, and the only way is to make the best of an awkward job. It is often the case that the sunny faoinga are ripe a fortnight before the shady sides, and whether it is troublesome or not the grain must be out and stacked whenever it is fit, or it is not wortb while to grow it at all. Level land iB infinitely to be preferred to hilly land for cropping, but it is generally the case that the down land grows the best wheat.

In one respeot British farmers are very much behind the colonies, but perhaps Reapers »mi different airoumstances may Binder*. account for what seems difficult

to understand. For example, the reapers and binders are not nearly so generally used as is the -case in the colonies. One might travel through a whole British county at harvest time without seeing more than could be counted on one's fingers. In the Border countieß, for instance, they are almost unknown ; fk few of the largest farmers have perhaps one or two, but the majority seem to ignore their existence altogether. It may be that labour is so plentiful and cheap (especially female labour, for one sees great numbers of women working in the fields at harvest time) that the small farmers find that they can get their grain bound by hand for the same cost as by the automatio binders when the price of tha machine and the twine is considered. Until recently only the heavy Eng-lish-made reapers and binders have been used in the Old Country, and they were pretty expensive to buy, but now I see the Americans are sending a great many machines over, and oan Bupply them for much lobb than the English makers have been charging. Now that the Yankeeß have got a footing in Britain with their machines, they will probably push business and induce a great many Border farmers to adopt machine tying in place of the oldfashioned handwork. If, however, there are plenty of people wanting the work, and ready and willing to do it at about the same figure as it can be done with a machine, the farmer iB quite right in employing hand labour, provided he is at no lobb oy the harvest being longer about under the old plan, for there oan be no question as to the machine doing the reaping and binding more expeditiously than it is usually performed by hand. Of course I do not refer to the old reap-hook period when gangs of Irish reapers used to traverse Britain at harvest time, passing from farm to farm and cutting a surprising quantity of grain in a month or two. That custom is quite a thing of the paßt, and where reapers and binders are not used the grain is cut with self-delivering reaping maohines, and laid in neat sheaves for band tying. Unless the tying can be done as fast as the reaping much trouble and loss is caused in a wet harvest by the unbound sheaves being bo difficult to dry. I, at any rate, should be very sorry to have to return to the handbinding again,

Comparisons are always odious, and I shall not puff one particular maker of Edgiiih self-bindera at the expense of t. the others, nor do I think there American. | a a pj n fc 0 choose — as the saying is— between any of the Yankee machines or between any of the English ones. They are all about as near perfection as they are likely to get ; but I must say that there is a great difference between the English-made machines and those hailing from America, whether from the States or from Canada. The English machines are strong, durable, and make excellent work on level ground and in heavy crops. They are, however, heavy in draught and unfit for cutting hillsides. On the other hand the American makes ate much lighter in construction, easier to draw, and better adapted for hilly ground. They will not, however, last so long or otand so much work as the more substantially built English machines. I have machines of both classes in use, and the above is the impression I have formed from my experience of thorn,

Stacke are popping up now in every direction, and as the crops aro pretty stack bulky this year there is much Building. more straw to handle than has

been the ense for several years past, It is to be hoped that when the grain is stacked it will be secure from any damage by rain, for grain if worth reaping iB surely worth keeping safe, and whoa we have boon blessed with fine weather in which to gather the harvest it seems almost a tin for farmers to stack it in suoh a manner that it is liable to be spoiled by the first heavy rain. There are men who profess to be Btackere, but I should be sorry to allow them to stack my grain if they would do it gratis unless I had thatch ready and a man waiting to put it on as Boon as the staok was finished, Even then a night's rain might intervene, and the thatoher be too late to make the stack safe. There are a great many different methods of building a stack, but it is quite immaterial what the method iB so long as the stack is built properly with the sheaves in the roof lying at such an angle that the rain will run off the staok instead of into it. We cannot keep the vermin out without having stands, nor oan we prevent the autumnal gales from blowing the tops about now and then, but we oan most certainly make our stacks rain-proof by using a little skill and common sense. Wheat should not be threshed until it has been in staok a month or six weeks, and it is scarcely worth while to thatch for that time if the stacks are built as they should be ; but if it is intended to keep grain in staok till till the spring, I think it is well worth while while to tbatoh, for however well a stack may be built the outer sheaves must be considerably damaged by the winter rains, and, moreover, the thatch is a great protection against wind and the scratching of birds.

There is a diversity of opinion respecting the shape and size of a' stack. The siio and Shapo Mark Lane Express says the of circular stack is much the best

stack. an( j i 8i 8 increasing in favour at Home against the anoient oblong form, the round ones being easier to

build and carrying off tbe rain better than the others. For my part I do not find that the circular staok is any easier to build than the oblong one. An experienced stacker can build both with equal facility. Nor do I see that a conical roof will oarry off the rain better than tho prism-shaped roof of the oblong stack unless tbe oorners of tbe latter are kept too full and square, forming too sharp a shoulder in tbe roof. Then, as to size and dimensions. Stacks are built of many different sizes, according to the farmer'B fancy or t • t^e available quantity of stuff. On hilly ground there is generally no option in this matter ; the stacks must be suited both in size and situation to the contour of the land. It would be great folly to start a big staok at tbe foot of a small sidling and then have to bring a lot of grain over the hill from another side in order to finish the staok. But, provided there are plenty of atooka within convenient distance, I think it in by far the best plan to build large stacks, provided also that the grain is well dried and fit to go into a large body. The smaller the stacks the more time is lost in finishing and starting. My idea of a good staok is one about 11yds long and 6yds wide, with tbe oorners . well rounded off. It would take a very wide ciroular staok to bold bo much as the one I have mentioned, and it requires a very high roof to bring a stack Byds or 9yds in diameter to a conical point, The higher tbe stack the more labour and timo required to top it, therefore a long, narrow Btack is, in my opinion, much the most economical as regards time, and time ia, money during harvest. For the Bame reason they should not be taken higher than a man can throw up to the top from the dray. ; 10ft or 12ft from the ground to the cave is high enough. I see that Professor Wallace recommends that they should be as high as from 18ft to 21ft from the ground to the cave. I suppose that would include the height of the staok stand— (l don't Buppose a professor could image suoh a thing as a stack witbout a stool or stand)— but even then the height be mentions would be perfectly absurd, for the top of the Btaok would be over 30ft from the ground. Land must be pretty scarce and valuable when stacks are piled so high as that. I Bbould prefer to cover a little more ground space and build a reasonable height. It is sometimes necessary when the sheaves are very heavy to put an extra hand upon a ladder to assist in passing the sheaves to the top of a large Btaok, but for a professor's stack, 20ft to the eaves, about three extra men would be required to get tbe last few loads to the top.

At a meeting of the French Sooiete Nationale d'Agriculture, M. Lavalard, weights and manager of the stables of the (iroiHh of Paris Omnibus Company, read iiorsoi. an interesting paper upon the weight of horses, in connection with wbiob he Ea3 been making some researches. M, Lavalard states that the weight of the horses in the tramways, omnibuses, and vans of Paris varies from lOcwt to 14cwt, while the Boullonais and the Percberons used for heavier draught purposes reach as much as 16owt or even 18owt, but be has oome acrosa very few horses weighing as much as a ton. He has found that as a rule the weights do nob vary while the animals get the same food and the same work, but if either of these conditions augments or diminishes, the weight varies with it, and he contends that it is in the interests of owners of horses to ascertain the weight of their animals from time to time. M. Lavalard says that the result of the experiments be has recently made is, tbab the weight of a fool increases by from 90 to 100 per cent, during the month or six weeks wbioh follow its birth ; from 25 to 50 per cent, of its weight at six weeks during the next 10 weeks, and from 15 to 25 percent, its weight at four months during tha succeeding 10 weeks. Immediately after weaning the foal does not increase by more than 8 or 10 per cent., but when once it has got accustomed to its new food the rate aof increase again becomes greater, reaching 20 to 30 per cent, up to the age of three, and 10 or 20 per cent, up to the age of four, and in some cases even five years. Before reaching this age there is often a check during the first few weeks of work, but when an animal is given a moderate amount of exercise the inorease of weight becomes more marked, and the horse attains all the more rapidly the maximum be will acquire. As a general rule a horse has reaobed bis definite weight and conformation when five years old, though there are exception?, as in the Norman horses, due to a different mode of rearing. Throughout the whole of the year 1888 M. Lavalard bad 350 horses running a tramway line. They were weighed daily before and after their work, with the result that these horses which weighed from lOowt to ll^owt lost from Ulb to 331b while at work, whioh was regained while they were at rest in the stables. When their work was increased the lobs of wrigbt increased in proportion, and it was, found very diffioult to reoover it. M. Lavalard adds that be made several experiments with a view to ascertaining whether the weight of a horse could be calculated by certain measurements of the body, but be found that these did not afford any trustworthy data.

Colonel T. D, Curtis, an experienced authority ■ on the subject, contributes to the siiecii-ijrceding January number of the Ameriin tho oan Agriculturist an article on Uuitod status. " Sheep-breeding in the United States, which throws considerable light on the conditions which affect tha industry there, and which, in the writer's opinion, must continue to hinder any material development of wool production in the country. After adverting to the small increase in price of States grown wool this year, and the further aid given producers by the action of the Treasury department nt Washington in bo constructing the law that a higher duty is enforced than was paid hitherto on wool worked or partly manufactured, the writer is still of the opinion that "the percentage of gain will not put a lasting backbone into the sheep industry," In Bupport of this opinion he states that " east of the Mississippi river the average cost for keeping a sheep one year is not less than 2dol 50c, and in all the Atlantic States it is 3dol. The wool of my flock will pay half the keeping of my sheep with 3o over. If every ewe had scored a lamb, they (merinos) would not be worth more than 2dol at any time during summer or autumn. If kept into the winter they would cost all they would gain. In fact, lambs, yearlings, or two-year-olds will not pay for their keeping with only the wool for an income, and this is all there is ; unless the future increase of the ewe, the lambs she may yean, are taken into account, When this is done then the annual income must be charged with the bask charges for rearing. Is this not a olose business? Although my merinos were of the best, and thoroughbred, I could not afford to keep them. There were no sales extra at fancy prices, and I had to keep them on a mutton and wool basis. We are now eating the mutton of sheep that cost 35d0l each. I am still a sheep man but not on the wool basis. Wool must be made an incidental consideration. It must oome in secondary. My ideal ia mutton, Ido not build entirely on

mere theory. My castle is not entirely in the air." Colonel Curtis prooeeda to give his experience of sheep of the mutton producing breeds. He bad a number of ewes whose pedigrees were mixed, with dark faces and good , sized bodies. These ewes produced lambs that went to the butchers when three months old and brought 4dol each. The ewes averaged 51b of wool each, wbioh sold at 220 per Ib, making Idol 10c each sheep, or sdol 100 income. " This," he says, "is not a big showing, but it is the result of a common sheep business. My new sheep must do better. East of the Mississippi, where sheep are bred for wool, there never will be, and never oan ba, muoh income from inoreaae of the flock. The vigour of the flpok ia exhausted in the wool in the production of greater fleeces." Colonel Curtiß mentions the Bale of his dip from pure merinos at 17o per lb unwashed. "This made a total of Idol 530 on an average per sheep of inoome. About half of them had lambß," The fleeces averaged 91b. In the Colonel's judgment the sheep interest east of the Mißsißßipi must be built up on a meat basis. With this object in view the mutton breeds must supplant the merinos. His " ideal of a flock for profit would be blooky, thick- fleeced, blaok- faced ewes (such as the Hampshire Downs), but of any breed obtainable, or even high graded, and then cross them with Dorset-hot ned rams. I should expect with this mingling of blood to get lambs of fine quality, quick to mature, and lota of twins." He Btrongly advocates breeding for twins and feeding ewes and lambß sufficiently high (wheat, bran, and oil meal he reoommende), so that the latter wculd bring at the shambles sdol per head when four months old. He adds that the present system in the States of. sheepfarming for wool only is driving many out of sheep-rearing baoause they have been dulled with disappointment in profits and little increase in the flocks, " Enthusiasm for sheep," he says, "must not die. Their flesh is' the best meat food God gives us, and we must have it, and have it as a nation." Agbioola.