NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 16

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The constant farm work at this time of the

Farm Work for October.

year necessitates good focdingof all working horses, and good grooming. In-foal

mares due to foal early, if worked, should be eased up and turned out in the paddock. The stallion shows are with us, and it behoves farmers with docent sorts of mares to attend and select the best animal fitted for his. purpose. Dairy cows are coming in rapidly now, and the essentials should be in readiness in case of milk fever. Calves are worthy of the best of care, end should get their milk at bloodheat, and some hay or crushed oats provided. They never recover a set-back in their youth. A cupful of lime-water occasionally in their milk is recommended. The pigs require warm and well-ventilated sties; and although feed is dear, yet pork at the present price shows a fair margin of profit. Some of this year’s wool has already been delivered in store in the North Island. It is somewhat early in this, locality, and yet, in view of likelihood of shearing dragging’ on for a long period on account of possibly a shortage of shearers, farmers will be tempted to handle their paddock wethers and hogvgeis early. These sheep fatten earlier if shorn under temperate climatic conditions. The sheep should be roughly drafted before being put in the woolshed—the coarse from the fine woollod, —and shear and' bale separately. All daggy sheep should be cleaned before bringing them on to the shearing-board, and the skirting should bo light, merely taking the stained pieces off. The woolshed should be cleaned out <?f all straw, sacks, skins, etc., and the board disinfected. Trim feet of all sheep when noticed at shearing. In regard to the growing grain crops, the expediency of both harrowing and rolling must be Carefully considered by the owner, but in an ordinary season it Is a wise procedure. The potato-planting must be pushed on with, allowing sufficient width between the drills for Intercultivation with ease, the manure should not bo grudged, although it is unwise to deluge the tuber. The paddock in-

tended for hay should bo shut up, after harrowing _to scatter manure, etc-, and jf dressed with super all the better, or thb liquid manure from byre should be utilised. Mangels must be got in without delay, an invaluable crop and worth any amount of trouble. The farmyard manure should long ago have been applied to the area intended for mangels, and the land limed, and fi now incorporated with the soil, superphosphate applied when sowing, the seed should result satisfactorily. Field carrots sown now under good tillage and soil conditions m ay yield up to 15 tons per acre. The ground for roots must be in hand, at least for swedes, while the growing of rape must not bo overlooked for lamb-fattening. Rape can bo sown early this month by itself, or with grasses, or with, say, 201 b of oats per acre, which will be in the milk stage when the rape is ready for feeding. Weeds will have been vanquished this season, and most ; seed-beds will bo worked up without trouble ! into a fine tilth. If sowing down a paddock j in grass, time spent in considering what | mixture of grasses to use is not wasted effort. Use the best seed obtainable, and sow out with a thin seeding of soil turnips lor rape or Italian ryegrass. Small birds | threaten to be too plentiful, and should be i poisoned and thinned out, or rape and suchlike small seeds will suffer.

As generally known, the embargo on wheat

Wheat Embargo.

is still in force, and it is not anticipated that the efforts of millers and merchants to induce the Go-

| vornmcnt to allow any of their dear -wheat to bo exported to Australia will be success- ! ful. It is questionable, indeed, whether the I export of wheat from New Zealand would I let holders out, under circumstances perj taming at the present time in the CornmonI wealth. It must not be overlooked that I probably the same thing would eventuate I as tv as the case with the removal of the I embargo on oats. Commonwealth holders I would promptly undersell consignments I from New Zealand, particularly in view of the imminent marketing of a record harvest I in November. The public here would not . view with equanimity a rise in the price of | flour and bread at the present time. I Holders should consider the position sorij ously and determine whether, in view of ■ the 150,000,000 bushels of wheat in all probability to be harvested in Australia, plus j our own Dominion yield, whether present, I or even lower, prices should not be thankfully accepted. It is worth noting that the New South Wales State Government will rot purchase any more wheat from farmers in New South Wales after September 30. "I have decided to withdraw all Government wheat-buying agencies in Now South Wales on September 30/’ said Mr Hall, the State Attorney-general, who is administering the Wheat Acquisition Act. “I understand that a number of farmers have been holding back their wheat on the expectation of securing a better x> r i° e than 5s when the act expires at the end of September. Personally, I think they have been very ill-advised, and they will find considerable difficulty in obtaining even 5s for old wheat | in October, and _ there does not appear to i be the least likelihood of new season opening at anything approaching ss. In the circumstances it will bo necessary for farmers to decide within the next few days when they will deliver their wheat to the Government agent for 55.” Since the above was written wheat in Australia has been offered at 4s 4d per bushel.

It is recommended to plant immature potatoes—that is, potatoes that

Hints on Potato • Seeding.

were dug before the tops died off, and also to plant whole seed, the size of a

hen’s egg. One explanation of the heavier returns from unripe sets is that, once maturity is reached, deterioration begins, the dying down of the tops being an evidence of this; but by lifting the tubers before that stage we arrest the process, and obtain seed potatoes at, the time of their greatest vigour. The Irish Department of Agriculture are strong believers in the above method, and their instructors arc firm advocates. In Scotland goed results have also been obtained, and, nearer home, Mr J. T. Ramsay, a potato export in Australia, in experiments carried out at the Lcongatha Labour .Farm, has got his heaviest crops from immature seed. In May, 1914, he duo - up Up-to-Date potatoes about a month before they were ripe, and for comparison purposes allowed certain plants to mature the tubers. The two lots were planted under identical conditions, and in the present year, from manured plots, the immature seed yielded eight tons 12cwt 561 bof potatoes, exactly throe tons more than the ripe set. Also, under irrigation conditions, it was proved that unripe seed yielded best, and the opinion was formed that, on an average, it will make an additional ton and a-half per acre when compared with ordinary methods.

For loading hogs (writes an American farmer) 1 use a crate with-

Loading Pigs with Crate.

out a floor. This I place over the hop or let in through the door in the

end. Two planks 10ft or 12ft long are used instead of a chute, one end resting in the end of the waggon-box and the other on the ground. I. then take hold of the crate and slide it up the planks, with the hogwalking backwards. As the crate touches his nose, he will back up the planks and into the waggon. I then pass a rope over the crate and fasten it down. If the hog is to be loaded into a car. I set one end of the planks on the waggon and the other in the car door, and slide the crate the planks into the car. I have loaded hogs alone in this way that weighed 6001 b. A crate used for this, purpose should bo made with slats close together so that the hog cannot get its nose between them. * AGRICOLA. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. By AnmcoLA. “Corio” has some river-flat land just fed off by sheep, out of turnips, and wishes to sow down in grass, and wants to knout whether rye, corn, or rape will give the best feeding, also quantity of seed to sow. It Is presumed that the ultimate requirement Is a good grass paddock. It would be unwise to endeavour to produce a heavy crop and so smother the grasses. _ Select your grass seeds with care, choosing some to givo an early bite, and, with clovers end Some lato grasses, assure yourself of permafnence of pasture for some years. To yout grass mixture add IRb of rape, 2oz Devonshire Gi-eystone turnip, 151 b of oats. Work the ground well, and after sowing, say, eomo pbosphatio manure, follow with seedling of the mixture, harrow, and roll.