AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

(Continued from %>aye 7) .

The Owaka Dairy Factory is putting in a new Do Laval separator, capable of separating 320 gal per hou 11 .

How large a dairy herd we should keep depends upon a good many things. Says the National Stockman: — "If mixed farmicg is carried on the herd should not be so large as to require too large a percentage of land for pasture, but just large enough to fib in with the rotation of the crops. This presupposes, of course, that there is no permanent pasture that can be relied on to furnish enough feed for the cows all summer, unless unusual seasonal conditions should prevail. Where the papturago must come from the old meadow which is superseded by the new one, and which will be ploughed the next season to be planted with some cultivated crop, the size of the herd must bo limited to the average size of the fields in the rotation, unless full or partial soiling is resoitfd to. Oa farms devoted entirely to dairying the conditions are entirely different. In these cases the size of the herds should be much larger in proportion to the number of acres in the farm than where mixed farming is practised. Even so large a herd as a cow to the acre of arable land may be kept, the whole capacities of the farm being exclusively used to grow cow feed, both green and dry. On such a dfiiry farm the silo will be found useful, and soiling crops must be grown iv largo quantities, for in case of drought the cows wou'd have to be fed on soiling crops to keep up the milk yit Id, ad there would bo no px f r<v pasture fields to turn them into as there would be if a regular rotation of grass and grain crops were grown. So the solution, of the problem as to ho'v large a herd shall be kept must ba determined, in a measure, by the kind of farmiug carried on "

The statistics of yields of wheat in the United Stales are (says an exchange) very incomplete, but so far as obtainable they point towards diminishing returns. Bacauso of reduced yields and an increased tendency to diseas", wheat in Wisconsin, Illinois and lowa has been largely supplanted by other crops. Fifteen years ago, when tho journals were full of articles ou the bonanza farms of the northwest, and tho extinction of the small farmer was considered certain, the average yield fcr the Dakotsis was reporbv-d much larger tba'i now. Some of the Eastern Stati s give larger yields of wheat to the aero ihau the Western States. The wheat, area in tho cast is smill, well tilled, and probably r xceplionaliy fertile, because near the many large towns, aud cities there is a much larger supply of stable manure than there ia on the prairies. Ib is estimated that if the pries of wheat were to advance per-mane-ntly to Idol a bushel the present total annual production would be increased by more than o"<; Latt'. Thai; the soil could do this is shown by the experiments with seeds, soils, aud fertilisers which ths l*to Sir John B Lawes has been carrying on fas 60 jears at Eobfcamoled. One of bis experiment fluid.*, which has borne wlioat eve ry year f or 50 yeara without fertilising and without interruption, is now yielding moro wheab per aote than th^ average for the United States, or tho average for the whole worUL Bi tter culLuro is wh.\t is n?rdetl.

As showing the minner in whifh the r?.ilways are run ior the settlers it is (sa;ys the

Oamaru Mail of the 7bh) worthy of note thati 80 bales of wool arrived in town from Teschemaker's this morniDg, hauled by a traction engine. This despite the fact that the estate is served by the railway, and the road on which the wool was hauled runs for some dibtanco alongside the railway.

Tne Lumsden correspondent of the Southland Times writes on the 4th: — "The crops are looking pretty well in most parts of the district, and should do, as the weather has been favourable. The Five Rivers estate has been a source of employment lor a number of teams for months pasb, but the work has now coma to a close until the harvest. This year upwards of 2000 acres have been broken up ; 160 has been sown in wheat, and 740 in oats ; the former, I am told, is looking very well, and the latter bids fair to turn ou j a splendid crop. Besides this 1200 acres are sown in turnips, and these are looking strong and healthy ; there is also on this estate 18,000 acreß laid down in English grasses. The work of breaking up and sowing was completed much earlier this season than usual, as teams were obtained without difficulty, the prices paid being such as to enable a contractor to do a fair thing. The work is carried out in a systematic manner and under competent supervision. Arrangements are made so as to avoid any trouble about obtaining horse feed or store?, and there is a blacksmith's 6liop at the homestead iv case of repiirs or shoeing being required, bo that everything is done to make matters between employer and employed as amicable as possible." One of the many expedients resorted to by British farmers in the effort to save their crops, which suffered so badly from the drought of last s immer, was to water them by the aid of fire-engines. In the Fen districts several powerful engines were at work pumping water from the tens and discharging it into the air through special nozzles, so that it fell like fine rain. The results in all cases were excellent.

All round the wheat market is depressed, but according to the estimates made of the yields and requirements for this year by the Corn Trade Review, the English organ of the trade on foreign graiD, there is some prospect of a recovery iv the coarse of the uexb few months. The Review givo3 the estimated supplies and requirements of the principal countries for tho cereal year ended July 31, 1894, as follows :—: —

The deficiency is thus estimated to ba 10,350,000 quarters, while th-j Stitist is of opinion the deficiency will be 150,000 quarters more than that. •

By invitation of Colonel W. V. Legge, hon. secretary of the Sb. Mary'a branch of the Board of Agriculture, Tasmania, several of the members of that body (says a Tasmanian paper of a late date) met at Cultenswood en the Ist instant to witness the operation of spaying. At a meeting of the local B jard of Agriculture held in June last, Colonel Legge read a paper on the spaying process. In this paper he showed the advantages to be obtained from spaying in weeding out bad heifer stock, and so improving the dairy herd ; also in fattening cows for the marker. He gave testimony of the great number of heifers spayed on the Continent, and urged upon farmers to at once adopt the practice at St. Mary's. To put his paper into a practicable form, he ab once communicated with Mr Charles Parker, a clever expert in the process, and ib was arranged that that gentleman 6hould visit Cullenswood for the purpose of initiating spaying in the district. The operation performed by Mr Parker differs somewhat from the instructions given in Colonel Legge's paper. Mr Parker's method is very simple. The beast is caught round the horns and drawn up to a fence. A leg rope is placed on the near fore leg, a rope on the near hind leg, and then both ropes are drawn taut. The animal's legs come from under her, and she goes down gently. The hind legs are then drawn back, the cow then lying on her side." An incision is made through the skin high up on the lefb flank, about halfway between the haunch bone and the last rib, nearly parallel to tbe latter. The incision was about 4-in or sin long, with just a small nick in the flesh. The baid wastheninserted to find the ovaries, which are situated one on each side of the spine. When found they are drawn to the surface and cut off. The next thing to do was to .stitch the incision together. This was done with an ordinary packing needle and a piece of twine. The operation was then finished. During the operation the cow scarcely moved, and made no noise whatever. She did not seem to suffer any paw, and when all was over she was placed in a good paddock of grass, where she went on feeding jusb as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. There were altogether 10 cows op?rated upon. The time taken for the lot, including ropiDg, was less than two hour.".

A correspondent from Chicago to the Caps Argus describes a milking machine ab the World's Fair exhibited "by a Danish inventor, which he saw in actual operation. Thi3 Dane declares that the principle of suction applied bo milking is absolutely ruinous to the cow. There have been scores of inventions based on the suction principle patented in the United Stares, bufe every dairy expert declares against them ; in the end they run the crw dry is the universal verdict. The Danish milking machine is purely mechanical, and simply replaces hand milkiDg by what is claimed to be a more cleanly and more gentle action. By the apparatus all four teats arc milked simultaneously by two pairti of elattio and feathering roller segments, h-wing rocking, approaching, and receding movements. The teals are squeezed from the upper ends, or root?, down to the bottom. When one pair of the rocking segments approach each other, squeezing tho trvo teats on the right side of the udder, tho other pair of segments, on the left sidp, recede from each other, and vice versa. The operator "turns a handle, situated an arm's length from the right side of the cow, and connected with the main shaft, by a flat link chain. Tho micluuo rests iv a self-adjusting frame, suspended on tho co .~, and is nob affected by any movements the cow may make during the milkiug. The machine i 3 put in place in a few seconds, and removed simply by a turn of the hand. The milk flows through a funnel into the milk pan, and the operator, is thus able to see when the cow is clean — that is. when ro more milk flows. The descriher can personally vouch foe tho fact U.ati the apparatus milks the cows without; apparent, diaeomfor jto tho anima 1 , and under marked conditions ot cleanliness. Whether

machine milking is easier, handier, more economical, and more expeditious than hand milking, each practical dairyman must decide for himself.

In an article in the Contemporary on " The Right Solution of the Highland Question," Mr R. Munro Ferguson writes: — "There is one form of occupation whioh could be well undertaken by the State itself. The creation of State forests would add largely to national wealth, especially in Scotland, where there must be about three million acres wbich ought to be planted, and where the growth of timber is the right solution of the Highland question. On fair hill land, instead of Is a year | tor grazing, from 5s to 20s can be made when it is cohered with plantations. Many an acre of land worth 20s has been known to grow a crop of larch worth £100, and when the timber is manufactured a sum equal to the profit can be realised to provide for wages and outlay. Private owners cannot, as a rule, forego immediate rents, however small, for the sake of profits which, however great, are remote. Communes may own plantations here, as on the Continent; but we do not burn wood, and communal plantations will not be a matter of to-day or to-morrow. It is the State alone which can secure this dormant wealth and occupation for the people, which lies as assuredly in the broken lands of the north as it does in the building land* round a centre of industry." The Melbourne Weekly Times says :— " The new form of compressed fodder 6eems to offer special facilities for the development of an export trade in chaff to England and other countries where fodder is scarce. Westcott's Patent Compressed Fodder, as is is termed, is being prepared at the Austral Otis Work?, South Melbourne, for purposes of experiment, and results show that the reduction is carried to a remarkable extent, without as far as can be seen in any way injuring the fodder. For many years past methods towards this end have been patented ; but the failure in all has been that something had to ba added or taken from the fodder. The main principle used is hydraulic pressure, and samples of oats, bran, chaff, and all three mixed, with maize added, may be seen at the works by those interested. A bran block after being composed can be cut into blocks with a circular saw, and resembles more than anything else a block of kauri pine, yet pressure upon the ends breaks it up easily. Some idea of the pressure used is gained from the fact that a ton or chaff can be put into 40 cubic feet, while 120 cubic feet is the smallest bulk obtainable in any other way, and a reduction to 40ft to the ton brings it to the bulk at which lowest freights are charged for shipping. So far as the experiments made show the possibilities, the cost of preparing it in this way, inclusive of chaffing, will be 25 s per ton. Mr Connor, M.L.C., who made the experimenb of sending Home chaff lately, paid 15s per ton for preparing it in a balk of 120 ft to the ton, and 35a per ton for freight. With the chaff condensed, as in this case— his three tons into one — he would have made a good profit. The charge of 253 per ton quoted by the inventors includes chaffing, compressing, and placing in a jute wrap and bindiDg with iron hoops ready for shipment or carriage anywhere. The plant proposed for working it on a large scale would make, it is considered, 100 blocks an hour, and for convenience in handling it is proposed to make them up in blocks of 28lb each, these blocks measuring 16in x 9in and 6in thick. Four of these blocks, or lewfc of fodder, would have a bulk of two cubic feet. The firm have given the compressed fodder to their own horses, which show a preference for it as against the feed as ordinarily mixed, and the fact of the fibre in all cases beiDg thoroughly crushed will, it is thought, make it a more economical food to use. This may be admitted, since the expense of crushing oats for feed is considered by most people to be fully covered by the extra gain in its quality as fodder. The fodder in its compressed form has been examined by representatives of the leading shipping firms, who state that it has none of the disadvantages of chaff when shipped in its ordinary form, such, for instance, as risk from fire. Samples of the fodder have already been sent to the West Australian goldfieldß for use by carriers, and to India with one of the last shipments of horses, and reports will be obtained in due couree as to its suitability for the Indian trade, but more especially as to the prospect of sending fodder in such a form to India. Many gentlemen interested in stock have inspected the fodder so prepared, and the general opinion is that the process is likely to be of great value, even if limited to Australia, but that it offers altogether new possibilities in an export trade." On the subject of wide tyres Mr George D. Sellar, of Abbotsford, writes as follows in the Melbourne Age : — " All the waggons used by us had 9in tyres, with the exception of expresses for quick delivery of light or perishable goods. We found our expenses reduced in general wear and tear, the draught lessened, and the wide tyres of great protection to the road. We used them on a military-made road, half of which went through swamp land, the other portion very hilly, with some sharp corners and steep pinches. This road was the only one available for traffic to and from four townships and a large agricultural and pastoral area. Several sawmillis en route used it for their heavilyladen ■waggons, and although the trailii was very large this road was always in good repair, equal to any I have seen in Victoria, certainly better than many. The various road boards collected toll for all horses and waggons passing through their districts, but allowed us a large reduction from the regular tariff owing to our using the broad tyre, clearly showing that they were benefited by their use as well as ourselves." The Southern Standard hears that hundreds of sheep on the Waikaia and Nokomai Hills — in fact, on all exposed country — have succumbed to .the recent "cold snap." Mobs of sheep in lots of 10 to 20 each are lying dead on the Wendonside plains. Mr Gillanders's loss has been a severe one in this respect, and Hyde Home and Glenary stations have also suffered. The mortality seems greatest amongst the old breeding ewes.

Surpluses. Requirements. qvs. United States 13,000,000 Canada ... 1,01)0,000 llussia & Poland ... 13,000,000 lloutnania ... 4,200,000 Bulgaria ... 1,40'), 000 East lioumelia 100,000 Servia 4'J0,090 Austria - Hunqrs. United Kingdom 22,000,000 France ... 7,000,000 Germany ... 4,500,000 Belgium ... 3,500,000 Netherlands 1 SOO.OUO Italy 4,000,000 Spain 1,700,000 Portugal ... 700,000 •Sweden ... 800,000 Denmark ... 450,000 Norway ... 400,000 Switzerland... 1,800,000 Greece 400,000 China, Brazil, &c 3,500,000 Total demand 52,550,000 Gary 600,000 India 4,000,000 Argentina ... 2,500,000 Australasia ... 1,200,00.'' Tunis IUO.OOO Egypt 200,000 Ohih 600,000 Total surplus 42,200,000