SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 19

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(FBOM OUB OWS COKEESPONDBNT.) Unsettled weather still prevails, and farmers with . lambing ewes are paving an anxious time in consequence. The climatic , conditions, although not mild, have not been of a nature that was likely to result in mortality in the lambing flock, but the showery and blustery weather has disturbed _ the average -farmer’s peace of mind considerably. Every flockmaster knows the disastrous results of a stormy weather when ewes are in the midst of lambing, and when barometrical readings are low, arid when there are other indications of unfavourable and he naturally dreads what may be in store. Southland farmers were lamenting the scarcity of grass, but a visit to Canterbury and Otago at the present time would convince them that they have very little to complain .of on that score. It is true the grass is still very short, but the green appearance of the grass; paddocks indicates that there Is at least some feed for the stock, and this is a striking contrast' to the bare paddocks lying between . Clinton and Christchurch. From Canterbury one hears reports of ewes forsaking their lambs immediately they are dropped, and that is not to be wondered at when one is cognisant of the lack of green feed. Without grass the ewe cannot be expected to make milk, and the absence of milk means an absence of that maternal instinct so essential in a timid creature Like the sheep. _ Farmers nowadays make much better provision for the lambing flock in the matter of feed and shelter than was the case formerly. Dairying has commenced in real earnest again, and another two weeks will see the bulk of the milking herd calved. The high price ruling for cattle has induced dairymen to rear their calves, and mom than usual attention is being paid to this branch of farming. One notices, however, that sufficient regard is not paid to the rearing of calves, their starved appearance in a great many instances indicating that artificial foods as substitutes for new milk -are still unknown articles to many of those who go in for roaring calves. When poor prices rule for cattle the expense of these substitutes is scarcely Warranted, but the present state of the cattle market certainly justifies a moderate expenditure in purchase of some of the many substitutes now to be had.

The Weather and the Farm.

Writing of rearing calves <m milk substitutes calls to mind a paragraph I read recently in an English; agricultural paper concerning an . important scientific experiment which iuau vvvu. v«*ri«d out by an American gentleman resident' in Paris, in connection ■with milk as a food for foals. He has established the fact that foals grow and develop .much faster on dry milk than on any other food "ordinarily given them. Although milk is known to he a complete food —a food that contains all the elements necessary for the growth and repair of humair beings and animals —it is not generally realised that when it is reduced to a dry powder by the evaporation of its water, we have a highly concentrated natural food that is several times more nutritive than meat. When the water of liquid milk is evaporated upon cylinders heated in excess of 212 degrees Fahr., as is done_ at a dried milk factory somewhere in Wellington province, the nutritive milk solids are obtained in* a form of a yellowish powder, which is known as dried milk, or milk powder. The American referred to conceived the idea of rearing a thoroughbred colt lon dried milk, and he bought one four weeks old, took it from its mother, an d fed it ■ ondried milk. He gave it no other food, except a very small quantity of hay to give bulk. He weighed the colt every day, and found it gained 2£lh daily, and when it was

Searing a Colt on Dried Milk.

a year old it weighed 7521ib, having gained at least four months on colts fed in tlie ordinary, way. Furthermore, it was exceedingly strong and well muscled, and had as a consequence of the concentrated food a much smaller abdomen, than colts of one year old fed in the ordinary way. , He continued feeding with dried, milk, never giving the colt a particle of grain, and the youngster reached the full maximum weight m the unprecedented time of 18 months and 10 days. At that time it weighed 10121 b, and had gain.ed 8251 b in the 533 days that had intervened since it was taken from its mother, an average of over per day. If any farmer should have the misfortune to lose a mare at foaling he might with advantage emulate our American friend. It has sometimes been said that farmers remain farmers, because they can do nothing else. There is some truth in the fact that they cam do nothing else; but it is not probable that they remain, farmers unwillingly, or that they wish to give up farming. It_is a pursuit which a man need not retire from on account of age—at least, I have known farmers still going at 80 and 90 yefcars of age. A retired farmer cannot fail to miss Ins fields, his cattle, and his_ wide freedom. The retired farmers who are living in the towns and cities, and parade the principal streets every day vrhexi the weatheir permits, do not look as happy or contented as they did when the farm demanded the whole of their attention. It is true many of them have assumed aldermatfio proportions!, but that is not always consistent with good health. It is not a matter of wonder that farming is still attractive to the young, and also) to the old and' middleaged. There is romance- in it, andi readers of Burns know that to him at least it;.vas full of poetry. The profitableness of it is shrouded in mystery. Everyone knows farmers w"ho .have laid by money and bought land, and the sama thing still goes .on mostly with combination or co-operation, without aigitation or political wire-pulling; in fact, the majority of farmers decline to touch such matters, and leave them to public-spirited individuals, to whom, I suppose, they feel thankful for taking so much trouble off their bands. These appear to be the principal reasons why farming is still popular. It is one of the few oneman businesses left. In most of the others co-operation has extinguished the individual and converted the masters into the hiTe/ing and the proprietors into mere receivers of dividends.

Far miner as an Occupation.

The product of a dairy cow is the quantity and qualitv of her milk and the calf. The product of a beef cow is the quantity and quality of her flesh and her oalf. The product of either the beef or dairy bull is the quality of his oalves. In all cows the groat question is product. We breed for product, feed for product, care for and shelter for product, and so'wo. see that it is the character of the product that must govern us in our methods of manse-' meat, in our feeding, and in our breeding- A great many .men, lose sight entirely of quality of product. If they breed it is for quantity and not quality; a-.d a.jfain when it comes to care and management they pay no attention to the effects their own methods are going to have on the quality of the product. It is to the breeding we must look in all oases for the percentage of hutter-fat in mi'jk. We cannot change the percentage of butter-fat perceptibly by feeding, but we can increase the daily yield. So in trotting horses we havo to look to the breeding and the animal for its staying power, its endurance. There are many things which are due to breeding.: Among them may be enumerated: Fitness for the specific work thev are to do. the internal ease and certainty with which they do it, and their ability to endure the strain of that work is largely the result of breeding. What is called "constitution" is almost wholly the result of heredity, and so with a lack of it. Again, one cow will produce dlouble the amount on the same food that another will. This is an internal question, relating to individuality, and individuality is a question of heredity and not qi feed. Single-purposa animals carry on their functions with greater economy of effort than do so-oa.lled . dual-purpose animals. The racehorse will run a mile in half the time and with twice the ease of effort that & dual-purpose horse would. These facte belong to the domain of breeding. A dairybred cow will produce 3001 b of butter at much lees expense of food in 12 months than a so-called dual-purpose cow, and do it as a rule on less feed'. It is well to get a clear idea of what breeding doesi, of what feeding doas, of what care and environment does. The true dairyman strives to comprehend' the meaning of all three.

Does the Br>eding of an Animal AflVct Its Products!