NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2161, 25 July 1895, Page 4

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The dairy school recently conducted at Edendale under the supervision of the The Dairy Government dairy expert is a

School. step in the right direction, and ' doubtless the tuition rectivtd there by factory managers and others engaged in the work of butter and cheese making will be fraught with good. I have heard it stated that too many students attended the classes, so that individual instruction became a mttter of difficulty, nullifying to a great extent the benefits of expert instruction. Another complaint is that noDC but thrse concected with dairy factories were expected to attend the course of instruction at Edendale. For a beginning I suppose the beat thirg for a Government to do is to give the factory managers the bcncfib of Mr MacE wau'6 expert knowledge, and for that purpose dairy schools will have to bo opened at a great many centres throughout the colony. The dairy factory managers are supposed to understand their business thoroughly already, but unfortunately most of them were instructed in the colony, where no regular system is recognised, and where every factory manager is a law unto himself. The result is that no two factories put sue precisely the same methods, end the manufactured product is therefore variable in quality. What we should aim at is the production of a standard New Zealand quality of cheese and butter that will in time come to b8 recognised as such in the Home market ; and in order to do that we shall have to bring our methods into line, under the supervision of one thoroughly competent chief dairy instructor. The appl ; cation of science will have to be brought to bear, and the latest scientific discoTeriea applied to the. wcrk of butter and cheete making. The old crude methods, when Nature jwas allowed to perform her operations in her own way, must be abandoned, and the new methods whereby Nature is brought into line with our labours employed instead. Experiment, assisted by the microscope, has shown that the ripening of cream, for instance, is due to certain bacteria ; but unfortunately so is the soaring of milk and cream. Armed by this knowledge the scientific method is to sterilise the milk shortly after it is drawn from the cow by heating it to near the boiling point. Then,

wben it cool* again, a little cream containing the ripf ning bacteria is added and well stirred into the cream as soon as it leaves the sr-parator. The destruction of hurtful bae'eria and tho additio m of beneficial bacteria to give that sweet nulty flavour co much desired in butter is what we want to aim at. Although tbe same thing is not done in the case of cheese, the chances are that scientific dairying will lead to the sterilising of the milk and the addition of some beneficial bacteriv before the rennet is added to tha milk, in order to produce cheese of a uniform flavour and quality.-- When the factory managers have had this expert scientific knowledge thoroughly instilled into them the time will have arrived for itinerant dairy schools for the instruction cf those engaged in dairying on their own account.

A year or two ago breeders of certain longwoolled breeds of sheep were A Sorry Sale confident that there was a lot Of of money to be made by sending Sheep. stud sheep to Sydney. The first sale or two weie quite satisfactory, but from various causes the Australian demand has failed most disastrously, and good sheep have had to be sold for a few shillings per head or brought back »g*in ; The depression in the London meal; markets is probably tbe chief cause of the slack demand for more longwools in Australia, atyi I suppose tbo sheepfarmers there contider that they have a sufficient number of long wools, bought in previous jears, to work up enough crossbreds to la»t them until tbe prices of frozen meat are aore tempting. Ido not say that the result serves the shippers right, but I thitik that circumstances did not warrant expectation of eatit factory prices just' now. Of course I am aware that it is extremely easy to ba wise after the event, but I may say that I did not anticipate BDy other result from what I considered an ill-considered venture.

The substantial rise in the price of wool at the

recent London sales is good Tho Recent news for this colony. With the TTool Sales, turn of the tide of prosperity

noticeable the world around, the ri ccc c in the value of wool is not likely to be merely a epuit to be followed by an immediate drop. It is tolerably certain that the rise in wool will continue for some considerable time. During the past few yeais of marked depression there has been a gradual «hrinki>ge in the stocks of manufactured woollen goods ; and that will naturally lead to an increased demand for some little time to come. If there is no atttmpt made to create a boom in woollens, then the increased demand will be the more likely to continue. "With the return of better times woollen goods will be mora sought after by the people, ro that the demand is likely to keep up. The rise of from 12 to 20 per cent, that has taken place in London means a very great deal for the colony. Wool is one of our staple exports, and a rise all round of Id per lb means a materially increased return to the woolgrower. During past jears, what between extra taxation, low prices, and the ravages of the rabbits, the earnings of the rußholders.have been very small. The increased price cf wool will leave a good margin for profit, and when the theepowners are doing well the community at large will reap the benefit. Over many of the runs the natural pasture is giving out, and the necessity for cultivation of seme sort has arisen. If prices justified the outlay it would not be long before the runholders brought the best of their land into cultivation for the purpose of laying itfQ^n in grass. The native pasture will in time be athiDg of the past, and in any case the question of cultivated grasses must come to the front. If the runholders see fit to cultivate the best of their holdings there will be a considerable dt mand for labour, and so the benefits of the rise in the price of wool will go round. Let us hope, at any r»te, that the substantial increase is no mere trade spurt, but that it will continue.

Amongst the older farmers it used to be a theory that if each ewe reared Tnln cne healthy lamb every season iambs. that was the most that we could reasonably expect. A few twin lambs were welcomed to replace any that died shortly after birth, or any that were dead born ; bat beyond that the production of twin lambs

was not favoured. Now, however, wo hava changed all that, and the proportion of twin lamba in every flock of crossbred sheep is very considerable. Our forefathers feared that tha breeding of twin lambs made too great demands upon the strength of the ewes, and that it was therefore not advisable to encourage tha (eudency. With the merino and rough, billfed sheep I hive no doubt the extra strain upon the ewes would prcve too much before many years had passed, but it rerolves ibft-lf after all into the question of feeding. Crosubred sheep kept in well-»helfcered paddocks and supplied with abundance of good feed oan produco twin lambs fcvery Reason with profit to their owner and without hurt to thenasulvcs. Recognising this, most flochowners take pains to encourage, the tendency to products t« io lambs. Tho method of procedure in to save twin lambs of the besfc type for breeding purposes ; for Nature always inclines to make a tendency of thut kind htreuitary. Say that one ewe iii the fleck for the flrafi time drops twin lambs ; then (he stronger animal of the pair and reserve for breeding, and the chances are that it will drop twins more than ence. If a twin ram is m-xtpaired with a twin ewe the tendency will be accentuated, and like enough most of the progeny will be twina. By weeding out such ewes as pro«_ duce only one lamb at a time, and keeping to the tvrin variety, the tende ncy to produce twins can be made inherent in the flock. But of course tho sheep must be well fed to keep that going. Not only mns>t they get abundance of grass in summer, but fchoy will require handfeeding in winter. The principle underlying the matter is that fecundity may be inculcated by development and selection, and thereby made hereditary.

I have not heard or seen much lately of the long - talked -of Farmorh' Co* Duncdlu operative Association for Otago, Charges. but if what lam about to relate

is a common experience, it; would appear that the sooner the associationgets under way the bettsr. A South Canterbury farmer, and a shareholder in the Canterbury Farmers' Co-operative Association, recently sentt a consignment of wheat to Danedin to be sold! at the public auctions of grain, b*>ng tempted by the higher prices prevailing there than in Timaru. I happened to hear, in a rourdabout way, but on good authority, that he was much disgusted with the net returns, though the wheat cold very well. He knew the oost of railage, bufe was Bob pre* pared for the 5 per cent, charged as commis* sion (2£ for celling and 2£ for cash returns). He fa : d he is accustomed to very diflxreLfc treatment on his own side of tha Waituki, as the co-operative association only charge 1 pec cent, commission for selling privately and 2£, for auction sales, and nothing more, is charged for discount. Moreover, his b»ga were weighed in, and thus brought him a trifle over twopenceeach, whereas, he ffiid, h« could have got fivopence for them if he had sojd at Timaru. la" this connection I may rnet.tioa that the Christchurch association has just issued its balance sheet for Jhe past year, and the net amount o£ profits for distribution among shareholders is shown to be £10,570. This satisfactory result' enables the directors to p*y a dividend of 7 per cent, on the share capital for 'the year, as well as a bonus of 3 per csnfc. on the amount of called-up capital ; also a bonus of 3 per cant, on the amount of goods bought daring the year by the shareholders-; a similar bonus on all salaries and wages of the employees ; to allow 10 per cent, for depreciation - of machinery and office furniture, to carry £1000 to reserve fund and a few hundreds to next year's profit and .less account ; and las'--, but not least, to refund to their customers 20 per cent, of all pet commissions earned by the association during the year. It is no wonder that the number of shareholders is increasing year by year, and also the amount of subscribed capital. Although the r*te of commisbion charged is so low it appears >hat it leaves a net profit, and 20 per cent, of that {S refunded to shareholders.

Years ago I placed my opinion on record in these notes anent the harmless Turnips nature of turnips ss food for Tainting milch cows, and can now endorse Milk. all that "Drover" «aid on the

subject last week. Mangels are, of coarse, the best root for the purpose, bub failing a supply of tbem turnips can be used with perfect safety as a substitute if supplied to the cows at the proper time. Although I have consistently advocated the growth o£ mangels for feeding to dairy cows in conjunc* tion with hay or chaff, I have not alwaya myself been able to dispense with the useful turnip, and have never found them to give any flavour to milk or butter. I never feed them immediately before milking nor when the cows are very hungry. I find that the best time is aftec the cows are milked and have had then: evening meal of dry food. I think id a bad plan to chop the roots into junks fox cows, and unless ificed in a cotter it is far safes

Jk) feed the whole toot. In that cue they are not ho liable to choke as when they gets hold of - "»T»ig lump and try to swallow it without any mastication. I have known cowa to bs choked by roats chopped up with a spade in a box, but never by sliced or whole roots. - Then with regard to lha kind of turnip, I would recommend any of the soft white kinds in preference tothe hard, yellow, and more strongly- flavoured turnips. Swedes are hard in the grain, but sweet and juicy, and are bad to beat as food for any- kind of stock, though more troublesome aud risky to grow than turcips, bulk for bulk, ,or weight for weight. As a matter of fact, 1 pulping the coots and mixing them with steamed i Shopped hay or chaff is the orthodox method of ;tuing turnips ; but, so far as my experience goes, cows thrive as well on whole roots and long hay as they possibly could on a similar diet prepared in a more expensive and elaborate manner. Anybody can easily find the miner* *^sidue of a plant by the si^^e process of The heatiog it in the open air. As Mineral goon as the temperature reaches ■■ Constituents about 220deg Fahr. the water of Plants, in the plant will be eraporated and the plant thus lose an amount of its original weight equivalent to the percentage of water contained in it, and this varies from about 40 to 90 per cent, in the general run of plants. By applying more heat a higher teoiperature is reached, and the plant suffers a further loss, and thi3 is the organic matter— carbonic acid, ammonia, &3. A white ashy residue is now left (technically known as ' the " ash " of plants), and this Snal residue contains the mineral constituents of the plant. ' plant of any sort whatsoever pan be re- ; duced to its mineral constituents by the appltcation cf heat in a proper manner. The following elements are comprised in the mineral constituents of plants : — Potassium, magnesium, cilc"um, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, cblorine, eilicura, sodium. At one time it was thought that all these were necessary to a healthy condition of plant life, but of recent years ifc has been found that fiijeon, chlorine, and sodium are nob indispensable minerals, and accordingly the.yhuve been deleted from the list, leaving the fcix first ment ; oned as necessary to all plant life. Iron is necessary to the green colour of plants, and its &b3cnco gives them a white dnd bleached appearance. Potassium is necessary to the formation of starch, htnee the potato, which is rich in starch, requires a lot of potash. Sulphur is a constituent .of albumenoids, cslcium precipitates the po : sonous cx&ltc acid, and phosphorus is found in closa connection with the vitftl parts, the protoplasm and nucleus. As the mineral salts of a Boil have a very important bearing on tbe practice of agriculture » great deal of interest ha? been awakened in xecent times in the origin, nature, and fuootions of th? mineral comtitueuta of plants. Careful experiments in this direction h&ve beenconducted by the greatest chemists of the diy, both in Britain and in France and Germany, and the effects of individual manures and a. mixture of individual manures, consisting of pure salt* and ' a mixture of salt?, as applied to farm crops growing in the laboratory and in the field, have been carefully noted. It has been focmd that some natural orders of plants require in a ipecial degree supplies of one miucral constituent more than others, while otter natural orders require to ba specially supplied with another mineral constituent. It might be naturally imagined that plants which reqaire tome particular mineral 6»lt ia sp?cial quantity for healthy growth will be found to largely contain that mineral constituent when reduced to a?h, bub euch is not always tbe case. Sometimes it is bo, but the general and moat frequent reason why a crop demand* a certain material constituent is that it fiuds a special difficulty in digesting that constituent as it finds it in the soil, and not simply because it requires a greater quantity for its nourishment. An au' liurity puts the matter in this way : ' ' The crops which, on account of their weak digestion or some other me.hauical disability, are most benefited by a special manure are the very crops which contain the element of this special manure in a smaller proportion than usual. Through long-ccntinued constitutional difficulty in absorbing that ingredient, th"jy have become capable of a healthy existence with a smaller proportion of it than their fellow plants. This is an instance in plants of adaptation to environment." It is worthy of note in this connection that tbe individual mineral constituents of a plant are not present in the same degree in all the parts and organs of a plant, for some b?long especially to one part and others to anotler part. For example, ia cereal crop*, '.phosphoric acid, along with nitrogen, is mostly < concentrated in the matured grain, while lime, potash, toda, and silica are alinrs 1 ; wholly confined to the straw. Agricola.