NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2996, 16 August 1911, Page 14

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The break up of the drought has been fairly general, although in some

Farm Work for August mid Septeiubui-.

localities more rain is wanted, but most of the South Island has now had

as much rain as is needed to supply and develop growing crops. Stock.—The dislocation of stock this year has been considerable. It has been found necessary to reduce stocks where they were not sent away altogether. A large number of ewes (have been killed, which, under ordinary circumstances, would have been retained. We have now got nearly two months past the shortest day, and sheep will soon be required to fill up the depleted areas again. The ewe flock will demand constant attention in view of the fact that lambing will soon be coming on. A little hay or one half pound each of crushed oats daily would help them considerably, and if on turnips a run off at night, the larger the better, would help to- keep them healthy. Store cattle over two years old will be difficult to get for fattening purposes this year, and high prices are asked for them. Two-year-olds must be well- fattened or they do not look much in the yards. The Wheat Crop.—The sooner the wheat is sown the better. There will not be much time lost in waiting for the turnip land. Although the purpre straw Tuscan may be sown successfully in good ground till the end of September, better results are obtained by avoiding late crops. As the season advances the quantity of seed used is increased—for velvet and rod straw one and a-half to two bushels, depending on the strength and condition of the land, and not less than two and a-half bushels for purple straw Tuscan. Formalin does not affect the germination, and is recommended for stooping the grain before sowing. If the winter wheat begins to wilt or assume a slightly yellowish tinge it is time the harrows and roller were set to work on it. There has been a long spell of frost without rain this year, and the soil will be loosened round the roots. The roller will make a marked change in the health of the plant. If grass seed is sown with wheat—and it is better to sow it with wheat than oats on heavy ground—a turn or two of the harrows will improve the seed bed and do no harm to the wheat when followed by the roller. In the wheat variety test conducted by -o field experiment division the old-established varieties like velvet chaff, pearl velvet, and red straw were found to be hard to beat, and solid straw Tuscan is esteemed as one of the finest wheats grown in the Canterbury district. Oats are sown as soon as they can b© got at, and barley as the turnips are eaten off, or on wheat stubble previously prepared and top-dressed.' While reliance will be placed on Gartons and Sparrowfoills, the experimental work of the division should not be overlooked, and it was found that the Triumph oat gave- the best results. This is an Anglicised French oat imported by the Department of Agriculture two years ago, and gave the best results both for grain and for chaff, while the Algerian cat, which had a great reputation as a rustresist er in the North Island, proved quite unsuitable to soil and climate in the exceedingly dry year experienced, and one of the worst of the lot. Peas and beans should be cultivated more than they are at present. Well saved and ground down they are a valuable adjunct to the food -rations of winter. On suitable well-limed soils they grow well, and, though difficult to harvest, they are worth the trouble. A small area will provide sufficient for home use, -and would help the horses through their hard work. They are amongst the most valuable foods for either young growing stock, horses, pigs, or sheep. An admixture of bean meal is also good for milk cows. Carrots may be sown at the end of September. For all sorts of live stock a .few carrots at intervals in small quantities improves the health, and their leaves are superior to those of any other_ root for milk cows. This crop is best suited to light, deep soils, retentive enough to supply the necessary moisture. They require liberal treatment with manure which has either been incorporated with the ground along with the previous crop or applied in a well rotted state in the autumn and assisted with superphosphate and potash when required. From the results of experiments quoted in the growth of carrots, -potash seems to be the dominant constituent required. Fodder Crops.—ln determining what crops shall be grown during the year, it is more than ever desirable that too much reliance should not, be placed on the swede or green-top turnip. They have failed

so miserably that whergyer possible the risk should foe divided by growing mangolds 'or a fodder crop for a portion of the winter supplies. Cab bage sown in beds now would transplant in November, and if the ground was well cultivated and manured they would be ready for use in May and June. Kohlrabi should be more used by dairymen than it is, as it does not flavour the milk. This_ crop is neither blight nor aphis proof. It is hardy, although the bulb grows entirely out of the ground, and will stand heavy manuring like cabbage. Kale sown in September would be ready for grazing in February, and can be grazed right through the autumn. Stocks are taken off about the end of May and the crop left till the spring, when it again yields a considerable -quantity of forage. Inquiry should be made in reference to Buda Kale, which, 'when sown in the north about the beginning of December, is ready there for / feeding in eight weeks. Chon Moellier or marrow cabbage, the French cow fodder, stands sft 6in high, and provides several strippings, and is stated to be frost and drought resistant. Linseed does well after wheat or oats on ground which has had the winter’s frost, but does not succeed so well after turnips. One and a-half bushels per acre drilled in lightly on good tilth ought to be sufficient seed, and it may bo covered with the chain harrows and rolled immediately. Old pasture on which cattle and horses have had turnips carted out to them will be thickly covered with droppings, and these should get a turn or two of the harrow's, and, if required, a partial seeding, ■ followed by another turn and the roller. The experiments of the Field Division of the Department ’of Agriculture took a prominent place in the Government exhibit at the Winter Show, and: the division is being besieged with applicants to have experiments conducted on their own farms. These applications have increased to such an, extent that the question of supervision and management is involved, ,and some of the demands w'ill have to be declined. The efforts of the field director hitherto have been mainly directed to determining the best variety of turnips to grow for particular localities, and incidentally to discover which variety resists the blight best, the best and most suitable grain for the different districts, and the best manurial treatment to aid these crops in their' growth. Some of the inquiries demanded have been repeatedly answered, the results carefully recorded, and published in the journal, only to be calmly set aside and disregarded, and such will have to be struck out. No fault can bo found with a zealous inquiry for information, so long as no demand is made to repeat the work of tho department time after time; but where tests have been carried out year after year, and the results fully established, there is no reason why the department should do anything more than refer tho demand back to the previous record. The general principle of manuring green crops, for instance, has been established and confirmed abundantly, and it only remains for each farmer to test has own land and ascertain what variation from these general deductions are necessary in his own, case. It does not need the supervision of the field instructor to do that. The case of providing a blight-proof aphis-proof substitute for turnips ia quite another matter, and that and similar investigations increase the knowledge of the farmer and, enable him to produce more food from his farm without an increased expenditure, and thus lower the cost of production. Some very good samples of ensilage wei'e exhibited by the Department of Agriculture in the Winter -Show. These have , been produced from northern prize-takers, and consisted mainly of maize alone, and various mixtures of which waize was the chief constieuent. The maximum points in the northern competitions had been allotted as follow's: —Condition 35, quality 30, aroma 25, and colour 10 The first-prize sample, which scored heavily, ■had been made in a circular pit Jug out of the hillside from maize grown in drills 2ft 6in apart, and mixed, layer for layer, with oats and Cape barley previously cut for oaten hay. and weighted with earth. The other exhibits made were not up to the quality of the first, but still served to show what could be done in the way of saving tho roughage of the farm when it was not required, and enabled dairymen and others interested to get some idda how this -system of preserving food has been taken up in other centres. In Taranaki they have adopted ensilage-making very generally, and find it a most convenient way of storing up the excessive growth of summer for future use. One exhibit provided an object-lesson, in the mismanagement of the process of saving ensilage. It had been overheated and scorched, and emitted anything but a wholesome aroma. It failed for three reasons, which may bo recorded with profit—viz. : (1) The material used in the ensilage stock was cut and laid out in. the sun and wind before it was carted to tho stack, instead of being cut and stacked the same day or simultaneously. (2) The temperature was not taken regularly, as it should have been—a daily register ensures success, —and when the stock was finished there was not enough pressure supplied to keep

The Demand for Experiments.

Ensilage in the Winter Show.

in check the development of excessive heat, or, in other words, to exclude the air. Three sheaves of Argentine oats were exhibited at the Winter Show which had been grown at Ruakura, and demonstrated the principles which underlie successful crop-growing. A head of grain was selected from a crop grown in 1909, and the largest piles taken from it and sown. Selected seed from this crop was again sown in 1910, and an improvement in the original sample was shown, sufficiently marked at any rate to show that if the same process was continued for some years very great improvement would result in the crop. At' Ruakura they have a seedling of one of the Argentine oats, to grow which a careful selection was made from plants, perfectly free from rust, which, after two years’ testing, gives every indication of being rust-resistant. These are object lessons which clearly exhibit the necessity of the Fields Division securing a farm to grow seed in different quarters. They require to iknow what they are sowing, and in a few .years of such methods os’ the above they might demonstrate how a very much finer sample could be produced than the farmer can purchase. A habitation here and there would enable the experimenter to show how the fertility of the soil should be maintained uy of proper cultivation, and he could exhibit a proper rotation, he could show the effects the difference between sowing the seed early and anyhow. If Lincoln College had a State farm attached to it, as it should have, and another one was established in Otago, and a third in Southland, valuable results would ensue for the field experiments. The exhibits from Sunnyside Mental Asylum indicate that that institution is doing good work for the farmers, and they show to some small extent what could be done in a practical way at Lincoln College. A few central farms where seed could be grown, improved, and circulated would wipe out a reproach that Wo have no desire to obtain further knowledge and advancement. The Fields Experiment Division of the Department of Agriculture are experimenting in various places with silver beet, and inr some localities it • has grown to an enormous size, and yielded a gratifying .amount of fodder, and gives promise of proving a valuable substitute for rape or turnips. Mr Walter Blackie has also grown silver beet experimentally, and next year will extend its cultivation to the field. The following extract from the Dominion gives the experience of Lincoln College with silver beet: —“Replying to an inquiry as to the value of silver beet as a forage plant. Dr Hilgendorf, of Canterbury Agricultural College, says they have had a small plot of silver beet among the grass plots, and found that it produced a oonsiderabcut amount of feed from December to June. It needs to be fed off as soon as it has grown to a height of about 9in, because it grows much more rapidly after feeding off that it does before. Sheep are particularly fond of it, for they ate it down first of all when thSy had a selection of 50 grasses and clovers in plots to choose from, and it was the most closely eaten down of all the crops. It is, of course, quite immune from the attacks of grass grub, because it is not sown until October, when the grass grub has ceased its ravages, and towards May of next year it will probably be so firmly established that the grass grub will have no effect upon it. It is, moreover, immune from the attacks of turnip blight (aphis), as well as theMiamond-back moth, which so seriously affected the rape and turnip crops. The only diesas© by which it is affected, as far as Dd Hilgenderf’s observation gees, is rust, but this will probably not be at all troublesome if the crop is fed off sufficiently frequently. The college had a row of it in last year with rape, and also a row with kale, but it, grows so much more slowly than these plants that they had no chance of comparing it with them, excepting to observe that the sheep ate it at once when they found it. This year they had had a few rows in with turnips, but owing to the sheep not being turned on to the turnips until May, the silver beet did not secure favourable treatment. When grown by itself, however, Dr Hilgendorf thinks it will prove quite satisfactory as a substitute for rape, and also partially for turnips.” Farmers as a rule have no sympathy either with the name or the principles of Socialism as applied to agriculture, and State ownership of land is one of their pet aversions. Whether leaseholder or freeholder, the farmer who works land eventually to secure it for himself and his family. That is his laudable ambition, and it acts as a spur on the whole of his actions. It induces him to alienate himself from his kind and take up land in the back-blocks, where he never sees a white man from one year's end to the next. The more the doctrine of Socialism is spread among farmers the more they dislike it. It is opposed to every fibre of their being. The more they hear of Socialistic doctrine the less they believe it. They will have nothing whatever to do with it, and that all politicians are justified in combining to sweep all faddists and cranks right out of the country. It does not matter how hare-brained the notion

Argentine Oats.

Silver Beet.

Farmers ami Socialism.

any irresponsible person preaches he secures followers, and comes to regard himself as a patriot. The worst feature about the matter is that such men are countenanced when they ought to be charged with conspiracy. AGRICOLA.