Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2151, 16 May 1895, Page 8

yfho will find a profitable market- for their meat in a market that is not easily overstocked.

Boviao Scarlatina.

It is well known that the higher animals, below us in the scale of organisation, are subject to iruny similar diseases to ourselves. One of the latest tiiuinphß of the scientific pathologist is the anti-toxin treatment for diphtheria, which is based on the feet that (his terribly fatal disease to us is cob fatal to the horeo, and therefore by using the scrum of a horse that has been inoculated with the diphtheria virus a-Bpecific for diphtheria in man has been found. Many of the animals arc subject to that disease commonly cilled consumption, and the monkey in confinement is very liable to it. Recently an obrcure and suddeu outbreak of scarlatina in Glasgow w»s thought to have its origin in the milk supplied from certain dairies. All along the route cf the milkman a trail of scarlatina was ltft, and that the milk was the source of the infection was established without a doubt. The professional tntrn who inspected the dairies and the cows found that several of the latter had an eruption on their teats, aooompsnied by a febrile state. A man who had been engaged milking some of these cows was the first victim, and after that wherever the milk was sold the disease was distributed. Whtn the supply from the infected cjairieswafl stopped there was no further spread of tho infection. The evidence appeared tolerably conclusive that an outbreak of bovine scarlatina had been the source of infection ; but subsequent and closer investigation proved that while the milk was the medium for disaenrinatiDg the disease, tha origin was human rather than bovice. The man first seized with the disease Bet tho br.)l rolling, a/id several who •were stricken shortly afterwards kept it going, till the sanitary authorities came to the reccue, and prohibited tho sale of milk from the fluspecttd dairies. Milk, it ia well known, or ought to be, is peculiarly liable to contamination, and too great care c&ueofc be exercised in the pretence of tjphoid, diphtheria, or any of the eruptive fevers by thore who sell milk.

Barley (Ironing

Barley is a mach-reglccted crop in all rartß of ttis colony, bus in Ob* go and Southland pne can seldom see a field of this cereal in a week's jourcey. The demand for maUfpg barley is liuiitei), and that musfc account for the small area grevn ; moreover, it is not a grain to grow for tt.ck feeding, an the yield is not usually so good as that of oitf, and bailey is, besides, a difficult crop to harvest utilesa all conditions are favourable. A good malting sample of barley is always saleable at a profitable figure, and a good crop well harvested is a very good thing as things go nowadays. A warm sandy loam vtith a warm aspect should be chosen fov barley, and I have always found that the best quality of this csreal is obtained by sowing in the autumn. It tillers out and becomes well established before the coldest weather, and is ready to go ahead as soon as the toil feels the warmth of spring. lam aware that this is at variance with the rule that barley is a sensitive, quick-growth plant that thrives best if unchecked in its growth, for the growth above ground must be checked for a time in mid-winkr, but its root-growth may proceed all the while. At all events by sowing barley in May I have reaped 50 buihels an acia cf good qu*lity, aud cold for 4"? pec bushel. Early sowing means early harvesting, and the earlier the harvest the baiter, as barley requires plenty of hot, dry weatfcer for both ripening and drying in the stook. A good rule to follow is that the belt seed gives the best iv suits (all other things being favourable), and that no bailey is too good for seed. Manure is not necessary to produce gx>d barley foe malting purposes— in fact, manure is apt to lead to rank straw and inferior grain. A light, loamy Boil deeply ar.d thoroughly cultivated is pretty sure to throw a good crop, and tho essential rich yellow colour can only be secured by careful harvesting and favourable weather. A British brewer, writing on ths subject, ssys that some farmers teem to think that barley is barley, and that one sort is as gocd as another. Others, he says, sup^e that tbintajl corn will do for seed, oblivious of the fac*> (hat in such matters like is apt to produce like, »nd the result be very disappciatiog.

Winter natrvinn'.

Without going into 'the question of the advisability of keeping the dairy factories goiDg through vfiuter as well as summer, is is certainly worth white to cocsidei. 1 tin means whereby we may profitably supply butter to the !oc^l roarkela while the dairy factories ate clcsed. Where there are uo factories the difference between summer and wialef prices of bulter is such that there is far more profit; in makiDg the grass into hay or ensilage duricg the summer and then into butter in the winter than to make all the summer grass into butter ■when it is ou'y bringing about 6d per 1b as against 9d or lOd or even Is per 1b during the montbß of wiater and early spring. Of course the reason of these high prices is th&t few people care to feed and milk cows iv the vfi&tsr, and if the practice was more general the prices would come down, as the lecal markets can only absorb a limited quantity. Wh-:n the farmer gets Is for his batter the consumer h^s to pay I4d or 15ii per lb, and butter at that price is a luxury that many housekeepers cannofc affoid. A few pence lower in price probibly means a doubled consumption, and under proper management 9d per lb at the s&ore is, I think, about the best paying thing there is going iuflt now for 6inall farmers, All that is neces-

sary is to arrange for « few good cows to cilve about the beginning of winter,' and also to provide beforehand pleuty of salable fodder and j decent winter quarters. 1 lmt the cows should be good is very impoitant, seeing tbat a duffer will eat as much as the Lest milker. Some cows give a lot ef poor milk, bub little butter. Theie are not so bad if the eltim milk is made to pay in the shape of pork. Obhera give a smaller quantity of rich milk ; while a few here and there give a good pailful of rich milk, and of course these are the cows that will p-vy best for libsral artidcial feeding when the pastures • aro of little value except as an exercisa ground for tho cows. A few months pgo I had a note on " Good and Bad Cows Compared," and gave therein tho gist of a repot t of ceitain Daoi-h experiments with a number of cows of varying qualities as milker*. The bett cow of the 35 included in (he experiment yielded 132 per cent, more milk than tho worst cow, and 201 per cent, more butter, while the ex^case of fesdiDg her was only 4£ per cent, more than the duffer. In other words, tho best cow gave 837g5l milk iv tho year, and the other only 361 ; the former 388 b butter, and the latter 1291b. The cost of fe<-dirg the gcosl cow for the year was £10 183 lOd, and the bad cow £10 10s, only 8s 10 less, and so the cost per Ib of the butter in the former was but 6|d per Ib, and in the latter more than double that— namely, Is 7£d. This, theD, is the crucial test of the profit or loss in keeping oaws in milk while they have tj bo hand-fed. If a cow's bntter only brings in what it costs in food we lose all the labour of turning the hay, roots, &«., iuto butter, and could make more by carting those produsts stcaight to market. Bub if by means of a few good cows wo caa treble the current valua of cur hay, roots, &c, by selling them in the form of butter, ib is eu«ly well worlh while to do bo, notwithstanding the labour involved.

Feeding and Attention.

In Europe it is uiual to supplement the fodder produced on the farm with purchased fcoda of a concentrated mture. In arriving at the cost of winter fed milk and bulfcer the home-grown food should bo valued at what it would sail tor, and Bob what it cost tha farmer to produce; bat wilh regard to bought food, tho actual cost;, with c&rmga added, must, of course, be considered only. Thore is no prcfiii in feeding inferior cows, and tho profit from good cows will depend iODiewhat upon tße manner of feeding and upon tho shelter aud warmth provided. With good shelter and a dry bed a cow will turn the greater parfc of her food into milk, but without theso much of the food must go towards maintaining the heat of tho budy sgiiost the outer cold. Good food, too, is often wasted by giviug a caw more at one time Jhau she cares to eat, and consequently she noses it over or destroys it under foot. Tho makiDg of manure is another consideration in favour of housing and feeding cows. The food they eit this winter can be again incorporated with the soil ia the form of manure for the productiou of food for next winter, so that in calculating the cost of a cow's keep some allowance can be m<vde for the value of he? manure, provided it is so saved and utilised a? to be of a certain monetary value. Unfortunately, however, little attention is, as a rule, dsvoted to the proper niak'iDg and treatment of the manure, and its most important constituents are often wasted. If concrete floors and gutters are used for the cow theds the liquid manure that ii not absorbed by the litter can be run into an underground tank aud stored for spring use on lh-3 pasture land. Ac the urine is too t^rougly concentrated for use iv a pura state it is found necessary to dilute it with an equal quantity of water. This helps to retain the anitaoniacal constituents during the process of putrefaction. Freeh urine contains so much caustic anmonia that it is Jikely todestroy thegraes,au<2 therefore the dilution with water bnccsssary, and chemitts Bay that the mixture should then bo allowed to putrefy for eight or nine weeks in cold weather before it is fib for top dressing grass land. If applied early in the spriog the grass makes rapid and strong growth, and tho objectionable stuell paBECS off all the sooner. The late Mr Mechi was a firm believer iv the use of liquid manure, and invariably obtained good returns from it on the clayey laud of Tiptree farm. Mr Mechi, however, lived 30 yews ago, and more modern authorities agree thab while liquid manure is an excellent stimulant to grss3 or young crops in the eariy sprinj, fho best general results are obtained by usiog sniftcient straw or other litter to absorb aH the urine, and then applying tho whole mixluro of urine, dung, and straw in the ordinary form of farmyard manure. Aoricola.