NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Which is the best ? That is the question ! The Taranaki correspondent of the The Witne s says tbe-e is consideBest Dairy rable cliff t rence of opinion iv that Covr. district us to which is the best i breed of catt'e for dairy pur- ; peses. He then proceeds to state his own | opinion upon- the matter, and concludes by i gaying he shou'd like to have that ef j "Drover" and "Agricola" also. It is only natural that there should be a diversity of opinion upon such a question, just as there is about the most suitable breed of sheep for the farm. Some want a gocd wool-bearing sheep and one al=o that can bs profitably turned into mutton when necessary. Oihera place mutton qualities first and floece second, and no two men are quite agreed as to what breed or cross best fulfils the bill from each man's point j of view. It is the eanie with respect to all i classes of stock, and Taranaki farmers are not at all singular in that they arc divided upon a matter concerning the staple product of. their district. "16 is a strange thing that while one farmer finds a certain breed or class of slock suits his requirements admirably, another farmer, uader precisely similar circumstances, is quite satisfied with au entirely d.ff.rent breed or cross breed, and cannot understand why his neighbour keeps such unsuitable stock. And so it is evcrysrhare. Different people, diff< rent ideas, opinions, and prejudices, even when circum«tanee3 and environments are J similar and the chief end in view ia common to all — namely, how to make the most profib from a given area of land. Wi-11, to come to the poiut raised by the Taranaki corie pondent. He says that his own experience leads him to think that the shorthorn-Ayrshire cross give the best results as milkers, both as to quantity and quality, and also that the steers are satisfacioey as beef-makers. lam inclined to agree with this opinion, as I have, hud experience cf the cross, and f wund the cows to be deep and rich milkers, and the steers, though a bit oa the small side, do not kill iadiy at all if well done by in their youth. It U quite true, as my northern friend remarks, that the results of an elaborate milking test form no practical guidp, because, as he saj s, tbe excellent results recorded from time to time in these competitions are due to careful aud special artificial feeding to that end. For j instance, a week or two ago I drew attention to : the fact that the three prize- winners at the j milking test held at the li A.H. show at Manchaeter were ell shorthorns, and the quantity and quality of their milk was almost phenomena). By the nexb mail I saw a paragraph in one of the Home papers describing the manner in which these wonderful cows ware fed prior to the test, and their dietary would make a colonial dairy-farmer stare. So many pounds per day of oil cake, hrcwera' grains, and half a riizen other high-class and expensive food 3. When cows are housed and Btall-fed j they require a food ration based on ! a fixed standard — viz ," 3ib albuminoids or i fl-fh forming matter and about 17ib carbohydrates or fattening matter. So loDg as this standard is maintained the rations may vary iv kind, but the constituents must, in order \,.f' produce good results, be equal to the abojre-' mentioned proportion of flesh-forming atfd' fatfcrming matter. There is one point which dairy-farmers are apt to overlook, and that is the importance of securing a really good bull of whatever breed may be fancied.' The bull has the largest say in cattle breeding, and a mongrel bull or an inferior pedigree bull is enough to ruin any dairy herd.

A Home paper gives an illustration snd dea-

cription of a wonderful Dutch

A cow. Nothing is said about her Remarkable rations, but her performances Cow. would pay for pretty good feed-

ing and something over. She is now 12 years old, and during the last seven years and 10 months she has had seven calves and given llj3oogal of milk, weighing 50 tons Bcwt. She has during that period b^ea in milk 339 weeks, and averaged 33gal lq>; per week. Her heaviest milking per'od waa in 1892, when she gave 33qta per day — that is, 4j«l at each milking and a quart over for the family baby. When the paper waa published in September Issb she was giving 6^al per day afber being in milk 18 weeks.

A Mokoreta settler, is afraid that Runs 161 and

162 in that district will not be Subdividing cut up in small enough blocks. Buns. He thinks areas ranging from 300 to 2000 acues, according to the nature of the land, will be large enough. Judging fiom the splendid character he gives to the land and climate, tho siz3B he mentions may suffice to enable a man to make a living, and noji, knowing the locality I cannot contradiCi his .statement*. As a rulo, however, I think the;tendency in subdividing runs for settlement is to cut them up too much. Taking the average character of fairly-grassed hill runs, I know from actual knowledge that about 5000 acres is little enough for a man and family to live upon, and even then he will require to get some ready cash by assisting his neighbours in mustering and shearing. Of course much depends upon the rent to be paid and the liability to snowfalls, but generally speaking a man cannoi run enough sheep upon 2000 or 3000 acres to being him in a fair margin after paying rent and working expenses, to say nothing of interest upon his improvements. I have kuowa numbers of shepherds who have toiled and slaved for years in order to gel together a, few hundred pounda and sUrfe a home for bhem-

selves upon the style of country they hava been accustomed to. They have perhaps beea too sanguine in their calculation?, but at any rate they could not foresee a serious fall in the price of sheep and wool, aud the • result has been in mauy cases that they have had to eurrender ; which means heivy loss besides a breaking up of their homes and hopes. A farmer with freehold upon which to winter the hill sheep can do very well with a thousand or two acres of tussock adjoining hi 3 farm, providiugthe rent is not oubof proportion to its vslue, but for a man to squat down on a block of that size with nothing to feed hia sheep with in winter is, in my opinion, fheer madness. I know instances in which a large number of these small graz'ng runs have been thrown up, and now they are beiog grouped and offered again in blocks of five or six thousand seres at a reduced rent. Of course everything depends upon the climate' and the rent, but unless the snowfall is very light and tbe natural herbage very good the areas mentioned by ♦' Mokoreta Settler" are much too small.

The vagaries of our weather clerk are inscrutable and past finding out. Notes on the Southern districts are just reSeason, covering from continuous excessiva rains, while northern Ofeago and the whole of Canterbury have been lacking sufficient rain to ke p tbe crops going. The consequence is that Southland crops will be very late and northern districts will have none I to reap at all with some few exceptions. j Unless a good'soaking rain falls before this gets 1 into print the oats in dry districts will not be worth reaph g, and the wheat will not fill iv a satisfactory manner. Too much rain is better than none at all, but either extreme is very undesirable from a farmer's point of view, and the worst of it is that we caunot possibly mend inattcrs in either cise. It is certain that oats will be in short supply this season, and those who are fortnoate erough to get a good crop will probably find them in goad demand later on. The same was said last year, and yet the . price of this cereal did nob rise very much. Southland will not, however, reap such good crops as last year, and I think the two dry seasons will surely cause a partial famine in northern districts. What with rain in some parts and drought in others, with an occasional frosty night, potatoes are having a bad time of it, and a fall crop on an average cannot be reckoned upon. Root crops in the recently flooded districts will require a lot o^atteutiou, or they will do very battly, because the laad will dry co quickly at this time of the year and cake and crust on the surface. Breaking the surface up by hoeing and moulding will help the root crops s great deal — in fact, without such treatment failure must result. The ill effects of ixiebsive diyness can be lessened, too, by keeping th" surface loose and fine. The young

turnips mvut be coaxed on by attention t> this

i ia J }>ott."^>b opeiation. Last year late-so7?n [^•v.raijjs' ' ''<.''(! io germinate at all till the grow- : inpy . jQ \vos nearly over ; and in such a case ;' thC/ifirsier is quite helpless and must bow to I thaffiinevits.blo. The water drill is an excellent

j vttfWtitute ior-long-delayed rain, as it gives the r eed & start, and there is usually some moisture

in the subsoil which aids the artificial watering in keeping the plant growing tiSl ths tardy rain arrives. The water drill, however, is an expensive implement to buy and also to keep going, as the water must be carted to it, and ia some badly-watered districts this is almost an impossibility. Many farmers have pub forth special eff jrts to provide a good supply of autumn feed of one kind or another upon which to fatten" iarnbvbut excessive rain in some cases aud lack of rain in others have, so far, defeated their good intentions to a large extent. The London lamb market is not very promising ; nevertheless a fat lamb is a saleable' article here, and that is more than can be said for any other class of sheep just now. A pessimistic droughtstricken farmer says the present outlook is the gloomiest he has ever known, and the only prospecb i3to turn the lambs upon the stunted crops and boil down the ewes to save them fpom starvation nexb winter. A good rain within a week would probably change hia views considerably, for we are all creatures of circumstances — especially farmers. It is said that where there's a will there's a way, but though I have a very hearty will to send rain where it is badly wanted, I don't quite see nay way to do co. aud therefore must at present^contenb -rnyseK with wishing all my readers A Happy and Prosperous New Yb\b. Agkicola.