NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3245, 24 May 1916, Page 10

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

It is strange how few farmers go to, the

Dry Food for Sheep.

trouble of providing dry ford for sheep at this time of the year. No doubt

sheep arc wonderfully free from many diseases in this country which sheepmen have to contend with elsewhere, and * hence the laxity perhaps which has crept into well-reoognised methods in fattening sheep on confined areas. Still, the risk of loss taken is. over-great in these times of dear meat. Some provision should be made to provide dry feed for young and fattening sheep in the autumn and winter months when nourishing grasses are absent, and numbers are feeding on cold: watery foods. Good management and good farming go far towards preventing the appearance of those troubles in young stock —parasitic gastritis and parasitic bronchitis (lungworm). All stock intended for fattening or otherwise must be started gradually on new feed, and will do better if before turniping they are "broken in" on rape and provided with some good-quality hay. Nothing, perhaps, is. better than sweet, nutritious hay for sheep with delicately-constructed or impaired digestive organs. Ewes in lamb often go wrong in cold, wet weather if they have but cold, watery roots, and no dry food to prevent the_ ohillino: of the stomach and consequent urinary disorders. Even good oaten straw_ is better than no dry fodder at all, besides helping out the turnips. Pea haulms, too, are nutritious. Every effort should be made to keen the fattening animal, in these times of stress, steadily improving; and this can be best done by making provision of palatable foodstuffs, and by getting the stock to market in quick time, rather than sell all the cereal products off the farm.

Some more or less troublesome maladies

Horse Troubles.

affecting horses arc referred to by correspondents in the Journal of Agriculture, and

are touched upon by the Live Stock Division thus: —One is a case of a mare with a cold, with a thick, whitish discharge from the nose, running constantly also has a violent cough, blood being mixed with the discharge, and seems to have lost her wind powers. It is a catarrhal trouble, and has apparently affected her constitutionally, and she may have contracted that form of unsoundness known as "broken wind." Some linseed mash is recommended —not more than lib a day—in the feed and the following mixture, giving two wineglassfi'.ls in the food or drinking water threo times daily:—Extract of belladonna 2£dr, bicarbonate of soda 2J,oz, Foulcr's solution of aistnic soz, water up to one pint. Another case was that of a foal a month old becoming lame in one of its hind fetlocks. At the end of two days it became lame in the opposite front fetlock, and appeared to be in pain. In spite of local treatment it died in a few days. The opinion formed by the owner that it died from a disease contracted; through the navel is practically confirmed," and wherever trouble of this nature is known to occur it is deemed a wise plan to paint the navels of newlyborn foals with a little tincture of iodine. This simple procedure is of great value in preventing from the source in question The case of a hovse troubled with a little rr<] worm about gin long, which passes a few each day, is'cited. He is sooury. weak, and thin. It appears to be the palisade worm ,'Sclerostomum equinium), and is a dangerous parasite to horses. The embryos sometimes are found to. invade the larger blood-vessels, giving rise to thrombosis and frequently setting up attacks of colic. The adult worms inhabit the intestines, and are very difficult to get rid « of. Horses infested in this manner are constantly infecting the paddocks with the eggs of these worms passed out in the dung, and thus reinfection of the animal is constantly taking place by means of the food and water supply. Affected animals should bo moved to different pastures, and old pastures should be ploughed and cropped before being laid down in grass again. Efficient drainage and top-dressing with lime are also remedies which suggest themselves. Individual treatment of cases is best carried out by the administration, on a fasting stomach, of ldr of thymol dissolved in a nint of linseed oil for horses, 13gr of thymol for foals. Good quality of foodstuffs in ample quantity must be given to_ animals suffering from the affect of parasitism in any form. Improvement in the condition of the' subjecb is more important than medicinal remedies.

Investigations into the causes of the mildew

Mildew in Wheat.

disease in wheat and the resulting xsoor crop have shown in many cases that

the chief factor may be attributed to the too exclusive applications of quickly-acting nitrogenous fertilisers, stimulating the growth of die leaf, but producing small and wrinkled grain. Up to the present time no remedy has been discovered which lias proved satisfactory in practice; but it is possible to mitigate the attack by selecting a. variety of wheat not subject to the disease, and by the adoption of a judicious system of cultivation. The late varieties should be avoided, as they are most liable to attack, as from the month of December the spores of the disease are most prevalent. The. kind of manures applied to the crop also seems to exercise a considerable influence. The application of nitrate of soda without mineral plant food renders the crop particularly susceptible, ajid the grower who, on a, soil impoverished in phosphate and potash, attempts to force a big crop with nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, must not be surprised if Nature resents such unfair treatment, and inflicts punishment in the form of disease by weakening the stamina of the plant, so that the plant is badly laid by harvest time. It must be accepted as a rational principle that a nitrogenous manure should bo supplemented by dressings of phosphate of lime and usually potash if the best results are to be obtained. An experiment was made in England to contrast the result produced by an exclusive dressing of nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda against a complete manure. The complete manure plot yielded a good crop of heavy grain, while on the other plot the grain was so badly diseased and poor that it was only lit for feeding purposes.

To see cows feeding in the rain and wind

'A Dairy Note.

and taking- no notice of it is a. sight to give a cow-owner

great satisfaction. Windbreaks and shelter-places for cows in wet weather make a, terrific puddle, but with covers on, the cows can lie out where it is clean, irrespective of wind and rain. One of the early objections urged was that rugged cows would be apt to develop skin disease and other unhealthy conditions; but the remedy for this is a judicious taking of the rugs off at certain intervals during fine days, for instance, and putting them on again at night. As a matter of fact, no herds can be more healthy and more smooth and glossy in their coats than those that are rugged. AGRICOLA.