SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 17

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.)

Ploughing is being pushed forward with a

The Weather and the Farm.

good deal of vigour, although the weather has not been conducive to the turnover of damp ground. The fact that large areas of lea

ground are being broken up leads one to assume that the, total area to be sown in grain in Southland this year will be much heavier than usual. The bulk of extra ground will, of course, go under oats, although the area to be sown in wheat is also very much greater than usual. It is well that increased attention is being given to grain-growing in Southland, as the area to be sown in both wheat and oats in Canterbury this year is very much reduced as compared with former • years. The absence of rain has interfered with ploughing in the northern province, and it is too late to sow Velvet wheat even should ram come now. Tuscan is the only variety which could be grown profitably now. - Most farmers and graziers in Southland are becoming apprehensive regarding the supply of winter feed. The turnip crops are, generally speaking, poor, and the inability to get fat stock killed owing to the scarcity of shipping space has accentuated the trouble. A great deal, however, depends on the winter. If the weather should happen to be severe, feed will be dear, and bleeding and young stock will have to go on short commons. If, on the other hand, a mild winter should be experienced, the feed question need not bo regarded as of serious moment.

As lambing time approaches one hears of

Selecting Ewes fop Twin Bearing.

the possibility of high percentages being obtained. Efforts have from time to time been made in the direc-

lion of improving the quality -of the flock by selecting the best ewe lambs for breeding that have been reared by mothers noted for twin-bearing, and also for milk-yielding capacity. A well-known Australian sheop-breeder has recently given his experiences in breeding twin lambs. His ewe flock were Border Leicester cross. Breeding operations were limited to the ewe lambs that were twins. A careful examination of the cases where twins were reared showed that the ewe was able to nourish each lamb just as well as if there had been only one. Consequently, since the rearing of twins seemed to impose no unfair burden on the mother, or in any way affect the development of the lambs, no hesitation was experienced in entering upon the experiment. The result has been quite remarkable. Before the new departure was entered upon the percentage of lambs reared was 89. The next year it rose to 104. In the third year there were 144 lambs reared to every 100 owes. The expectation was that there would be justification by results of the old breeding aphorism that “like begets like.” and now that the merit of the experiment has been so well established, it is intended to extend the selection on account of descent from prolific mothers to rams. It has been well established in dairying experience that a bull descended from a good milk-yielding strain is much more jikely to beget heifers that will develop into good milkers than one whose ancestral milking records are poor. So fully is this fact realised nowadays that the most progressive dairy farmer will buy a bull only after be has obtained convincing evidence as to tho dairy quality of his forebears. In applying tho same principle to the selection of his Border Leicester rams, this farmer is only following an example which has been proved in other linos of stockbreeding. It is believed, by mating rams dropped by prolific mothers with ewes also descended' from similar dams, that no difficulty will be experienced in raising the lambing percentage to 200. Beyond this point it is not thought advisable to go, since it is possible to over-specialise in prolific character at the risk of other important characteristics being interfered with.

The breeding of horses has received an im-

Breeding Age of Fillies.

petus as the result of the demand which has been created for all classes of

horses for war purposes. This has prompted farmers to breed from fillies at a younger age than might otherwise have been the case. It cannot bo said, however, that breeding from fillies need bo looked upon with disfavour. The opinion of the most experienced horsebreeders is in favour of fillies,' especially if destined for a stud career, beginning young. It is submitted that there are .goodl reasons why this course should bo advocated, for not only is a young mare more certain to breed than an older mare, but an early calling into play of the reproductive functions has the effect of enhancing the filly’s reliability and regularity as a breeder in future years. This latter, in particular, is. of course, an important consideration, as failure to brood and irregularity in breeding notoriously occur with much greater frequency in the case of mares than among the females of any other kinds of stock. Carried to its practical limit, the principle of early breeding means mating a filly at two

years old, and this practice is now becoming common with breeders of draught stock. Light-horse breeders do not favour it to anything like the same extent, although cases in which two-year-old fillies of lignt breed are put to the horse are by no means infrequent. While the system is common enough, some difference of opinion is none the less found to prevail among the breeders regarding the question whether it is advisable to breed from fillies at two years old. 'There are some who condemn such early breeding out and out, contending that a filly is still too immature at that age, and that being put in foal so early has a detrimental effect upon her.