NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Different customs prevail in different countries, and methods which ap- ; Scottish pear strange to us are aoCrossbreds. i ounted good and sensible on the other side of the world. For example, in an article in a British paper it is said that for many years, and to this day, the most popular cross for sheep in the lowlands of Scotland is the Leicester ram on the Cheviot ewe, producing the hardy and lively halfbred sheep so well adapted to the circumstances of the Border grazier. The article goes on to say that the rams used for this purpose are half breds, the result of a first cross, biit that the ordinary commercial, mut-ton-making halfbred is produced by mating tin halfbred ram and the halfbred ewe. Rambreeding is said to be a separate and special business, and as much as £25 is paid for a halfbred ram at Kelso ram fair. Within the last 15 years the Oxford Dowrs have become popular, and still 'ater au attempt ha-5 been made to introduce the Suffolk Down, a breed that is scarcely e\ er heard of in this colony. I suppose the object i 3 to produce lambs that ■*?ill fatten early, and as with us, there appears to be a diversity of ideas as to the best ■way of attaining that objec*-. The greater part of the grazing lands in the .Scottish lovi lands runs to a considerable height above sea level, and it is necessary to have =heep of an active and hardy nature for the style of country. The Luceater Cheviot c.-oss gn es mutton of good quality containing a gieater proportion of lean meat than the pure Leicester. The wool is long and line, and generally brings a good price. If the Dov,n-cross lambs cannot be fattened as lambs they are got rid of after the first shearing. Tins is the case heie also, as it is found that though these crossbreds cut a fairly good fleece as hoggets, it rapidly deteriorates, and in a year or two becomes little more than a handful of light, fluffy wool of little value per pound. At any time it is good policy to use well bred ram?, but more especially Selecting when good lambs aie worth Rams. ro much. If a small sheep farmer cannot afford to buy good young ewes he can, at least, procure two ov three well-bred rams which will counterbalance the inferior quality of the ewes. But when old, cull rams are coupled with ewes ol th» like desciiption a satisfactory crop of lambs can scarcely be expected. High pi ices were going for English Leicester rams at the Christchurch ram fair last month, while Lincolns, Romneys, and Downs were quite neglected. It is generally safe to say that the j quality and breed of a ram is reckoned, and rightly so, by the price ghen at auction, but if it should happen that a notice is bidding against another novice for the same sheep the ' latter may be run up to a price quite dispro- : portionatc to its merits, according to prices - luhng at the time. It is difficult to under- : stand why fo many farmers arc unwilling to give a few pounds for a decent ram, when it ' is remembered that a ram a year old will be - '• come the father of about 200 lambs before ' ' his powers are impaired — that is, if he fed as he should be ; and surely a few pence per head for each lamb is not too much to pay for the siie. A pretty good young ram from j a registered flock can be got for £5, and that ■

! means only 6d per head for the lambs he will get by the time he is a full-mouthed sheep. There is a multitude of different opimon& anent the best breeds or cross breeds for producing the best lambs for the freezing trade, and opinions differ in the same districts where the nature of the soil and feed is much the same. The popular fancy m this matter changes, too, much as the fashion in dress changes, for there is no other explanation, of the fact that one particular breed is sought after in preference to all others, as was the cast* at the recent ram and ewe fair in Christchurch. Breeders' ideas change, too, with longer experience, for I know farmers who at one time were strong advocates of the Border Leicesters^-and would not hear of anything else, but who now have modified that opinion and admit that the most useful cross for good and early-ripening lambs is between the Border and the English Leicesters, the Jatter having fine quality in the meat, and the foimer imparting size and weight. Readers of the Witness will have noticed a paragraph stating that Mr Bruce, for many years chief stock inspector of New South Wales, and s» shrewd and observant man, has great faith in the Shropshire Downs rams for mating with merino ewes as a means of getting the best firstcross lambs for freezing. As a rule first cross lambs are too small and hard to fatten for our requirements, but conditions may be different m Australia. At any rate, much depends upon the size and quality of the merino ewes in getting good halfbred lambs, and good Shropshire rams would impart more substance and fattening qualities to the lamb than tuually results from the Longwool-merino cross. The rams and ewes should be mated early ia April for September lambs, but the uate of lambs should not be decided by any custom or arbitrary rule, but rather by the probable amount of feed available for the ewea to lamb upon. It is customary to put ewea upon a nice bit of sweet and juicy feed when • a F £ ms 8° with them - Thi s is termed " flushing, ' and bring 3 the ewes in season all together, promoting this chances of conception, and thus ensuring a better percentage of lamb?. Rams, too, should be in good fettle for their work, and for a few weeks before th<? tupping should be strengthened and stimulated with some extra good feed and a daily ration of oats. Attention to these matters tends to a quick and satisfactory lambing. I - Since penning the foregoing the Oamaru , ram and ewe fair has been held, with the same ; result as at Christohurch, the two Leicester breeds in fairly good demand, while Shropshires and Lincolns were quite neglected showing a great contrast to the prevailing ideas of a few years ago, when Shropshirea and other Down breeds were all the fashion. If wool were of more value one could understand the loss of popularity of the Down crosses, but seeing that at present prices the carcase is of very much more importance than the fleece, there seems little reason for tne neglect of the brown faces. Whether oats are grown for milling into oatmeal or for horses and other Experiments stock the more meal they With Oats. contain the better. The short and plump grain known as "milling oats" ;s supposed to contain the most meal, but as these varieties usually have* a thick and heavy husk enclosing the kernel the percentage of meal by weight may not be much greater than in the varieties which have a longer grain and are termed food oats. Lasfi year some experiments were made at the West of Scotland Agricultural College with a \iew of ascertaining what percentages of husk and kernel there are in some of the best-known, varieties. The oat known as the Tarn Finlay. out of 12 kii/ds, gave the largest peieentagp of kernel, and therefore, of course, the smallest percentage of husk, namely 75 per cpnt. of kernel, or meal, and 25 per cent of husk. The test was, I suppose, decided by weight, and m that ease the result means that of a bushel of Tarn Finlay oats weighing 401b to the bushoh there would be 301b of meal and onlr 101b of husK Th out?h 401b is the standard wej^ht of an Imperial bushel measure filled with oaK I should say that a bushel of these oats would weigh neorer 501b than 401b. Another kind of oat called the Newmarket eamo vny close up to the Tarn Finlay in percentage of kernel, and the third best was a variety that is =trange to me — namely, the Longhoughton oat. The black Tartarian ga-ie a percentage of 70 of kernel, while at the bottom of the list was a new oat known a<? the Ci Pioneer." which had 65 per cent, of kernel and 35 per cent, of husk Experiments were also made in the tillering qualities of various oats to see which would throw up the greatest number of good grain-bearing stalks from each seed. Se^ en of each kind were planted in pots, and their growth carefully watched. Observant farmci3 will have noticed that in a .strong crop of onts each, plant is composed of many shoots or branches in different stages of development. When the. oat seed first brairds there is only one blade> with a small bunch of fibrous roots, but at tbp base of thie- first blade there arc a number of buds, and in due time the=e throw out new shoot» and form separate bunches of roots. As those new shoots may al?o tiller out, it fellows that there may be many stalks in a bunch, but all of them do not develop into mature, grain bearing stems, as some only get as far as throwing out a weak head, which does not fill with grain and ripen, while scmt Now is the time to secure novelties for the flower garden. Send at once to Nimmo AND Blaib, Ouaedin, for full particulars^

Of tbe stalks do not get as far as that, and fail to shoot into tar at all. In the experiment referred to the Tim Finlay wa« again to th< fore. The seven seeds sown produced in all 84 stalks or branches, but of these W proved immature, so that there were 44 sound train-bearing heads from the seven seeds, lhe potato oat and the Pioneer were the worst £s regards number of good stalks, the one Saving" 11 and the other 12 full-matured and B ood heads. The Tartar King is a new oat obtained by crose-fertilisat™ at the hanas of Messrs Garton Bros., to whom I have referred in previous notes. This cat produced 16 stalk 3 from the seven seeds, and they all proved good and in due course fully matured. The Sandy oat produced 65 stems, but 30 ot tl-eee proved worthless. Of course, the result of one test such as this is not sufficient data to «o upon in deciding the comparative merits of different kinds, and no doubt the test will fee repeated this year. AGRIOO LA.