NOTES OF RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 7

NOTES OF RURAL TOPICS.

I have been reidlng the evidence given before a Committee of the Agricultural Hou=e set up la=;t session, Education In and called tho Education State Schools. Committee. They were

ordered to consider all matters relating to education find public instruction generally. After hearing a good deal of evidence upon the question of the teaching of rudimentary elements of agriculture and nature study in the schools of the Stste, the report of the Committee contained a recommendation that the subject should receive further consideration next year, and that the evidence be laid before the Goverment for consideration Mr J. G. Wilson president of the N.Z. Farmers' Union, volunteered to give evidence befoie the Committee, and his remarks aro w?ll worth the perusal of ell farmers and others interested in the welfare of tha rising generation of country boys. Mr Wilson stated his views very fully, and I regret that the editor cannot afford the necessary space for giving his remarks in full. He advocated the adoption of a system which has been in vogue in nearly every country that is advanced in education, and strongly recommended the appointment of a. Council of Education. Mr Wilson is strongly of opinion that such a council, properly constituted, and having at the head the Minister of Education, would bo of very great benefit to the colony. He would like to see the Mines Department and the various branches of the Agricultural Department represented upon the Council o* Education. Mr Wilson refers to a mattsv to which I have several times drawn attention in my notes advocating the> teaching of the rudiments of agricultural science in our primary ft hcols— namely. that while technical schools are being Luilt and teachers pro- \ ided for imparting technical instruction to the ohiUlrc.i in tlie towns, the Siate is doing nothing in the same direction for country children. It is doing nothing because it is hard to see- how much can be done for the children m thinly-populated country districts by reason of the difficulty of getting them to the teacher or the teacher to them. Mr Wilson is in favour of tvia\ oiling instructors, paid by the State, an 1 fully qualified to teach special branches of knowledge to meet the requirements of tho various districts. lam glad to know that Mr Wilson is &o much interested in this question, and I am confident that every word ho said before the Committee will bear fruit, and in tho course of time wo shall be follow'ng in the steps of such countries as France, Germany, and America. By interesting country boy* in the work thai goes on around them we shall induce them to take- up country pursuits instead of diifting to the towns and becoming tleiks counter-jumper^ etc. Aguculture h the mainstay of the colony, and as such should bo encouraged and fostered as much as poi-'ible from an educational point of i lew. The more intelligence which rai bo 1 loxight to boai upon agriculture the bettor. It i-s true that igt ore. tit fanners "mcceecl in making a good deal of money by sheer haid york and dogged perseverance, but taking the agricultural community as a whole, it

must be productive of good results to combine science with practice, and train up our boys to look into the reasons of things and be able to connect causo with effect.

'T. E.," a Hakataramea. farmer, w :s?ics bo know the quintity of oats Winter per day for feeding l^mba Feeding of and hoggets during the winIloggets. ter. He says he vould

have an oat diet purely, but goes on to ask whethe.- such a diet would keep the sheep in good order without any grass. I cannot tell him how many oats a hogget should get p-er day, because I ne\er fed sheep on a pure oat diet; nor d--, I suppose anybody would for any length of time. About; a pound and a-lialf of clean octs per day would sustain life, but m animal would thrive on such a dry and heating ration for several nionrhs. Half a. pound of oats per day, together with a little grass, roots, or ether soft food, Is far bettor thin four times as much dry food alone. In time of snow sheep have been kept aln-e on oac sheaves or oaten sheaf chaff for several weeks, but they cannot be said to do well without some addition in the shape of green food. Moreover, oat sheaves or oaten sheaf chaff is not binding as clean oats alone, and I would not advise '"T. K." to try h ; s hoggets on stich a diet. Even if pure oats were a suitable diet for young sheep, it would be a dear one. Allowing lglb per day, which is a low allowance, that would bo a bushel per month of 28 days ; and at 1-, 6d per bushel the ration would cost 4-^d per week. Again, though there may te sufficient nourishment in a few oats per day, there is not bulk enough to keep the digestive organs busy and healthy. As regards nourishment alone, a man could live "on an ounce of Liebig's extract of meat, but a* hat a miserable, pinching feeling he would have in tbe region of his stomach.

I have a query all the way from Dannevirkc, in which "Inquirer" Three Acres asks for advice about imandaCoYr. proving the grass upon a

em ill paddock for the family cow. The land has been in bush, and never ploughed ; it is also on the side of a hill. The best thing to do is to sow soaic gcccl grass and clover seed and give, a good top-diessing with fertilisers. A mixture of bone dust and superphosphate put on at the rate of 3ewt per acre — about half a ton to the paddock — would have- a very good _ effect for a year or two. As the land cannot be ploughed, surface-sowing and top-dressing are the only things to do. "Inquirer also wants to be told how to keep ur> the flow of milk from, his family cow during the winter. As his paddock is pretty bare, he had better buy a ton or two of mangels and a ton of hay, and feed her liberally, and house her at night cr keep her rugged in the. winter. Mangels and Lay with a picking of gra=s will keep her milk flowing if the cow is any good.

A Tuapelca. WV si: farmer writes, to say thai his district would like me Ej-e Corn. to give a full description of

rye. "He sowed some lasfc autumn, fed it off twice in the spring, and has now cut a very good crop of grain, and does not know what to do with it. In Buesia and some other Etiropean countries rye is made into what is called "black bread,' on account of i f ? dark colour. The spirits called schnapps i-, made from rye. Many year* ago, when there was a distillery in Dunedin, rye commanded a very good price, but it- was not largely grown. There are a few good points about rye — it is \ery hardy, will give a fair crop oi light land, and decs net feel a dry sea=o l po much a= do othor cereals. But for green spring feed foi shc-rp I think the dun oat ia better — ~ov.ii in the autumn early ife gives a lot of feeding off until quite late in tho spring, and th^n can be laid up for a crop. The same can be done with rye, but the oats gives more green feed than rye, and when a cro.p is got the- grain is more marketable than rye corn. My querist had bettor sell his rye for =f>^d to farmers round about him. It will do for pig feed if steeped a long time, but wheat is more fattening. It should not be cut until fully rip' I —it will not shake out in ! wind very easily It should weigh about 501b per bushel. That is the standard wc-ight, but a good sample will weigh a Jiitle more. The crop generally grows taller thaa whc-U, and a* the straw is solid, it is useful to saddlers for stuffing horsecollars, a!-o it makes good thatch for stacks or shod= I hava seen rye sown v.-ith. giass aad clover with good results, but no rr.ore than a bu=hel of rye seed should be sown under those circtimstances. Tho grain of rye it> second to maize and higher than the other coi-eals in the average percentage of digestible carbohydi-ates — that is, fat forming food ; but wheat and barley are ikhT :n nitrogenous compounds. ! ' AGRICOLA.