NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Harvest is pretty well advanced in tho northern districts, but far1* arrest ther south operations may Items. scarcely be said to have commenced. The prevalence of wet and dull weather has caused much leafy growth and lite ripening, ana unless a spell of bright and hot weather hhould shortly an- . pear, there will he a great deal of red rusfc found in the late oats, tartarians excepted. The later the harvest the more necessary it is to wait till the straw is thoroughly -ipe before commencing to reap, for in such a, season as this late crops of cars are often ripo enough in the head to cut while the strawis still quite green and sappy. If lusty cats arc cut on the green side, and tied tightly, it is extremely difficult to get them dry after rain, and it is better to delay cutting for a time and run some risk oi having grain shaken than to have the crop get. half rotten in the sheaf. Another error (^ften made i«s to begin leading in too soon, and thus gat hot stacks. Far better to leave the stooks out and chance the rain than be too hoaty in stacking, and incur certain loss in that way. Anj- exjwrieneid hand can tell whether sheaves are fit to stack by merely sticking a fork into them. When a crop is cut green there is more danger of heating f rom the presence of sap than there is from a thoroughly rip© crop which is wes by reason of rain water. The days are shortening fast, and the sun's strength is declining, so that the later the harvest the more time a crop requires between cutting and stacking. I recently saw a statement in a northern paper to the effect that wheat must stand till quite ripe, while oats can safely be cut on tho green side. New this is contrary to my opinion and experience, for wheat, if cut a little green, seems to draw nourishment from the sap of the straw while in stook, and that prevents shrivelline; of the grain, and also gives a nice satiny appearance to tho skin ot the grain. Oats, unless required for c -heaf chaff, should be quite full and hard in the grain when cut, to avoid shrinking afterwards:. Millers luuo invariably told me that wheat cut while tou^h in tho grain Is "thinner in the skin, and of belter flavour than that which stands uncut till dead ripe. Seeing that the ground is now pretty damp, care should be taken to provide plenty of stiaw to put under the stacks to keep damp from rising into the strain. I£ straw is scarce, scrub, gorse, or boulders will answer the purpose as well. Tho number o£ bad st&okbuilders is tieci easing c.cry ysar c

anct there is not nowadays nearly so much grain' spoiled through" bad stacking as used to be the case. The bulk of the stacks seen are now good in external appearance, and properly constructed internally, so that they may safely stand through a winter without thatch and receive little harm beyond the outer skin. Nevertheless, I consider it pays to put on a coat of thatch as a protection against rain, .■wind, and birds. Moreover, thatch has another advantage, for if a heavy rain should come just before threshiftg, the tops of unthatcheu stacks will be damp, whereas in the case of thatched stacks the thatch is thrown off and every sheaf: is dry and clean, and fit to go through the mill at once, and there are no bags to be set aside and marked with -a big " D," as being damp.

September lambs should be weaned this month, and put on some nice . Crntcliing soft food, but before doing Lambs. so it is advisable to crutch them — that is, remove all the ■wool from the breech and in the crutch ol the hind legs. By doing so now the wool from those which are clean can be saved and sold, •whereas if it is not done till they get dirty and daggy, the wool is spoiled. Lambs that are cared for in this way look better, thrive better, and sell better, and there is less clanger of maggots getting into their skin. The cost is only a few shillings per hundred, and the clean wool that is taken off will pay for the labour. All good farmers now crutch every sheep, young and old, before dipping them, and by clipping them short round the breech in the autumn the soft dung is prevented from hanging on the wool and forming unsightly dags through the winter. This ds a good and necessary work at any time •when required, but- more especially should it be attended to this year, when grass is soft and plentiful and sheep are so valuable that they well repay all the care and attention that can be given them. The prices going for fat lambs are now so good that there is a great inducement to put them into one's pocket, but if all the ewe lambs are sold off the fanner will have to give a big price for young ewes to replace them some time. I don't think there is any doubt about young breeding ewes of good quality being at a high price for a year or two to come. Ido not see how it can be otherwise, seeing that the colony is much understocked and a heavy j drain is made each year upon our supply of j ewe lambs. Many farmers do not so in for : keeping a regular flock of breeding ewes at all, but buy and fatten and sell. This pays very well now and again, but, as a general 1 rule, the best policy i* to keep a good flock, j and maintain it through good and bad seasons, j Those who do so have always the same brand and earmark, and 'also hare a regular clip ! of wool to depend upon. They should make a practice of parting with cull ewe? as necessity arises, replacing them with young ewes bred on the farm. An article in the Live Stock Journal Alma- , nac, by Mr Stein, describes j The some of the troubles of a Horse Sielmess cavalry officer owing to the of ravages of disease among South Africa, horses in India and Africa. Horses usually die within five or six hours of the first symptoms appearing, and Mr Stein says he lost 13 of the best froop horses in a fortnight in India. It appears that though anthrax is well known as a deadly disease, affecting sheep, cattle, and pigs in Europe, 'i has never been known j to attack horpes, while in India it is of fre- ' quent occurence among all animals, from elephants downwards, with the exception of i camels. Mr Stein says this disease imnifests j itself in two forms when horses are attacked : ' first when the respiratory organs are its prin- j cipal seat, and secondly when the dieestive j organs are mainly affected. The first form < is generally most rapidly fatal. Authorities say that anthrax has been traced to the action of its special bacillus, which gets into the system by being breathed into the lungs or through the stomach by means of food eaten. It is nourished by the soil, and infects -plants grown upon such infected soil, and Mr Stein is of opinion that a certain grass •which forms the staple food of horFes in India jp an active agent in the trnnsmission of the ctisease. This grass is a sort of couch, and the roots, as well as stems, are eaten. The natives supply the grass and ,wash the dirt off' the roots, and it is thought that if the •washing is done in filthy water the germs of anthrax may ba collected in this food. Mr Stein says, also, that it is carried in the air, and that this theory is supported by the fact that when an outbreak occurs it is generally in the stables of Government horses situated in a direct line with the prevailing wind, and the disease seems to march upon a broad path in which the deaths occur, while on either side there is perfect immunity.

■ Mr Stein says that when a cavalry officer lands in South Africa he thinks his troubles are at an end with regard to fatalities among the horses of his troop, but he finds that he has only dropped out of the frying pan into the fire in that respect. The South African horse sickness, the "paarde ziekte" of the "Boers, is just as sudden, raoid. and fatal as the anthrax of India, and Mr Stein gives an account of his own experience with troop hordes in the Transvaal, when he lost a third of the whole in a few weeks. ■ A horse would eat its morning feed -as if quite well, but a slight cough would appear, and the horse be dead before mid-day. Mr Stein says this pickness is similar to the Indian horse anthrax, in having two forms. The symptoms are much like tlaose of anthrax, and good veterinary authorities say that this disease is really anthrax, while others say that it is not. Mr Stein inclines to favour the affirmative view, though not a professional veterinary. The chief argument in favour of the contention that the South African sickness is not anthrax is that the disease cannot, like anthrax, be communicated to human beings by the blood of a dead animal gaining access to a wound in a man. But. on the other side, there is the fact that anthrax attacks cattle and sheen in India as well as horses and mules, while cattle are not affected in South Africa, when horses are dying in all directions. Again, it is believed that one attack of anthrax tisually gives immunity from future attacks, while a horse that has recovered from African sic-kness may die of that disease later on. It appears, therefore, that there is much evidence both for and against the theory that the South 'African disease is a. form of anthrax. Horse -sickness, in the opinion of all experts', trkes its origin from the soil, and especially from foul, swampy, or marshy ground. There, says Mr Steiu, the bacillus of the disease infects the vegetation, and thence it is carried by evaporation into the air. The herbage which grows in marshy ground is full of the poison germs, &nd so is also the mist or vapour which rises from svich spot«. Thus, in grazing on such (herbage, a horse is liable to absorb the poison both from the food and the air. The outbreaks of tho disease take place during the wet peason, when "a great quantity of rain loosens and softens tke soil, wjiicli being giibsea^ently

acted upon by the heat, emanations are developed and Ret liberty to rise into the air." Preventive measures may be taken with regard to warding off the disease, but, as yet, no treatment has been discovered which has the slightest effect in curing, or even modifying, a well-marked case of the disease. A few do recover, but not owing to scientific treatment, but probably to the accident that they have not happened to absorb at the time sufficient of the poison to render its effects fatal. The most effective preventive measures are those recommended by Professor Wallace, and mentioned in a footnote by the editor to a letter of inquiry from a. correspondent in the Witness two wceko ago. The rainy season is now on in South Africa, but so far there hns not been any word from the seat of war about serious loss of horses from this disease. The winter season be^-in? in May there, and then, Mr Stein say*, the horse sickness practically disappears, though sporadic cases have been known to occur in cold weather. AGRICOLA.