SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 20

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(Feom Oim Own Correspondent.) Considering th© season of the year, the weather still continues wonderfully mild, and the result is that farmers are well advanced with their ploughing and other seasonable work. Stock, too, are experiencing a season the like of which was not anticipated when the never-to-be-forgotten storm burst upon us in April. In farms where grass was not oaten down too bare in the summer and autumn there is still a good bite to be found, and the same applies to rough tussock, swamp, and partially cleared bush land.

The Weather and the Farm.

Potato-digging still goes on apace, and those who hav© not sold do not feel disposed to do so at the present juncture. Some merchants who were fortunate enough to anticipate the market, some few weeks ago, rushed around amongst the farmers and bought up largely for forward delivery. Large areas were bought in the .field, and. the price paid was from £3 to £3 10s pet ton on trucks. The price has now risen to £5, and merchants find a difficulty in filling their Auckland orders. The grower who sold at the lesser figure is now called upon to give delivery, and in some cases the quality of the tuber is far from satisfactory. The grower evidently thinks the merchant is getting the best of the bargain, and in order to make good, to some extent, what he has lost in price, is forwarding potatoes of indifferent quality. Those sold as seed are in some oases not much larger than marbles, and the eating variety would not make even good-sized seed. At this point the grader steps in (all potatoes being purchased on condition that they pass the grader), and refuses to pass the consignments. The seller on being made aware of the grader’s refusal to give a satisfactory certificate, threatens to have the consignment transported back to-his home, but the merchant insists that he shall arrange for the picking over of the consignment at the port of shipment. This has caused a great deal of friction between seller and buyer, which it is found difficult to smooth over. As a .plain matter of fact, the grow r er is losing faith in the _merchant, whom he openly accuses of trying to mislead him. The merchant tells the grower that unless he is prepared to accept present ruling rates or lower he will find his only market (Auckland) flooded with Australian potatoes; but the grower is sceptical, and l the fact that he refuses to sell at present prices is proof that he is prepared to take the risk.

The Potato Crop aud Market.

Stockowners are gradually having it brought home to them that bovine tuberculosis is much more prevalent than they were at first -disposed to believe. In talking with several dairyfarmers recently I found that they are beginning to realise the necessity of taking precautionary or preventive measures. At present the only means of discovering whether tuberculosis exists in a herd or not is by the use of Professor Koch’s tuberculin, which has been of the greatest use in enabling stockowners and others to pronounce with reasonable .certainty whether animals are tuberculous or not; but a French experimentalist, Professor Arloin, olaime_ to have discovered a method of rendering cattle immune to it; and it is also claimed that it is inexpensive. His method is to cultivate living bacilli of bovine origin in glycerinated bouillon. In this he follows to some extent on the lines of Pasteur; but the originator of the cultivation method used a series of animals, not beef tea, to modify the virulence of the bacilli, and it was after the ninth or tenth rodent had been employed to dilute the virus of rabies that he ventured _ to innoculate human beings with material obtained from the last victim. The necessary modifications in the vaccine having _ been obtained, M. Arloin proceeds to introduce it into the living body of the .animal, by injection into a vein, by hypodermis injection or by ingestion. He pronounces in favour 1 of the first method in calves of three or four months old, and claims for it .an immunity against tuberculosis lasting from seven to 22 months. Near the end of the first year a second immunisation is, attempted, and subsequently from year to year,, the reinforced immunisations being subcutaneously. The latter seems to be cnosen for its greater simplicity, and is not, as far as I can gather, any less potent than when intravenously injected. This will be a point of importance if the vaccine comes to be generally employed, as any intelligent .person may learn to use the hypodermic syringe, but the discharge of a vaccine into a vein is a delicate operation to be undertaken with struggling stock under ordinary farmyard conditions —conditions too often forgotten by laboratory -men, propounding plans of immunisation for the general practitioner to carry', out with the assistance of wholly untrained assistants. British veterinarians were reluctant to advise their clients to vaccinate against blackleg and anthrax because the original cultures' were dangerous. If they entered into connective tissues instead of going direct into the muscle or vein as intended, they sometimes produced death instead'of the immunisation sought against a malady not claiming more than 5 per cent, of victims in this country, although _ mlaking clattle-rearing almost ■ impossible in certain regions upon the Continent. . Arlipn’s , vaccine, it. is claimed, cannot cause a mortal infection amongst cattle, and a further great advantage is said to attach to it —the permenance in the modification of the bacilli cultivated in the medium mentioned.

Bovine Tuberculosis.

A query wag once addressed to a veteran ' orchardist as to_ the best means of cultivating for an apple orchard. His reply reads something like the following:—lf you will put 10 sheep to the acre in. your orchard early in spring, and keep them there all summer, feeding them enough wheat bran, to keep them thriving, and do this every year, you need not have any thought about cultivating every other year. Nor will there be any trouble with ground-washing. More than this, you will find your orchard making

Skeep In the Orchard.

an abundant growth of the healthiest wood and plenty of fruit. If trees are no more than 10 to 15 years old it will be necessary to protect them from the sheep. This can be don© by putting wire-netting round the trees, or- by . making out of wire and laths something like a picket fence to set up around them. Also, "it will be necessary to give plenty of drinking water for the sheep. Of course, tho animals will eat limbs, leaves, and fruit as high as they can reach, but this will not do any harm, and there will be just as much and better fruit than if no sheep were kept in the orchard. The sheep will do another thing: thsy will eat every apple that falls as soon as it falls, and in this way will do very much towards keeping codlin moth out of the fruit. Just how much wheat bran will bo needed for feeding the sheep will depend iipon the amount of grass and weeds, but the more the batter for the orchard, while the growth and maintenance of the sheep should be worth the cost of feed, and thus leave the manure as clear profit There is no need to think of even ploughing the orchard. If anything in the shape of breaking the ground' is wanted to be done after the sheep are taken out at apple-picking time, just go in with a cut-away or spading harrow, run over the ground two or three times, and sow two bushels of rye per acre, cultivating it in to coyer the ground, hold the leaves from blowing away, and form early pasture for the sheep next spring. In this way your orchard will do far better than by any system of cultivation, and at no expense in comparison.