NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3312, 5 September 1917, Page 10

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

This month should witness the completion of cereal-sowing which is Farm Work intended to be harvested. for September. All turnip ground should be turned over without delay, and sown in oats or other foodstuff. The harrowing or rolling, or both, of autumnsown grain may well be undertaken. Frosts have not been very severe, and plants may not have lifted much; but the tillering of cereal crops is eiicouraged by stirring. Each paddock should be considered and worked accordingly, and a vigorous growth encouraged. The harrowing of pasture land on farms, and eo spatter the droppings, is advantageous, as well as liming, to hasten the grasses in spring and benefit clovers. Linseed should bo sown this month in clean ground. The cross-ploughing or grubbing of laid-up ploughed furrows may bo undertaken for lucerne-growing. Early potatoes may be planted once the ground is ready, and_ then get land ready for mangolds. Work among stock will be now "in full swing. Breeding animals are in good fettle this season, and ewes and early lambs and hoggets will benefit if getting plenty of mangolds and swedes. In the case of hoggets, roots should be disced or broken in some manner if such animals are to, thrive. Old horses and young growing animals require some crushed oats or hay in order to safeguard them against purging on the young spring grass. Cows, too, will welcome a dry bite. Save the calves, and keep them improving with milk warmed to blood heat. Pigs are money-makers, and well repay charges on straw and warm quarters. Feed the twin Jambs and mother particularly well, and endeavour to get them away fat with the single lambs. If no extra feed is on hand, it is better to make a job of one lamb, and bring the other up as an " orphan," or mother it on to a ewe which has lost its lamb. From the time that the seed of a plant is placed in the soi] its struggle Plant for existence begins. NumcrDiscases. ous hostile agencies are lurking around, always on the alert, ready to seize the first chance to fasten on any part of the system of the plant that, exhibits a weak "spot. If the plant is delicate from hereditary causes or from want of proper nourishment or moisture, it will succumb, unless helped to combat successfully its insidious foe. Some farm plants are more liable to attacks than others, and among those most subject may be classed the potato and turnip. The best preventive against disease is to prepare the soil thoroughly,' with due regard to the importance of drainage, the working of the land as a general thing when not too wet. to see that good seed of high germinating capacity is put into the ground, and that the plants are supplied with a sufficiency of the different constituents of plant food.

One-sided manuring produces a decided tendency to disease. It is said that treatment of turnip 6ecd9 by soaking the seed in Effect of Turpentine or paraffin proTurpentine and vents to some extent tho Paraffin on attack of turnip beetle at Turnip Seed. £l lc critical time when tho plant reaches the seed-leaf stage ; but it was thought not unlikely that the- germinating power of the seed might bo impaired. To discover whether there wa3 any foundation for this idea, an experiment was made with the following result: —■ Seeds were soaked for from one to 20 days in water or paraffin or turpentine, and each sample afterwards germinated. Both paraffin and turpentine retarded germination as compared with water, but increased it as compared with the germination of seeds not soaked at all. The length of/ time the seeds were allowed to soak did not appear to affect germination, although apparently a soaking of five or six days in turpentine and two days in paraffin gavo tho best results as regards rapidity and evenness of germination of the seeds treated. Before the introduction of commercial potash salts from the potash • Wood mines in Germany, the Ashes'. A'alue of wood ashes was so well known at Home as a source of potash that there was a regular demand for them, and during the coming season they should be saved and spread on the land. Good wood ashes that have not been exposed to rain contain from 5 to 6 per cent, of potash and a little phosphate of lime. Exposure to the weather, if rain should have fallen, may be considered to have reduced the value of the ashes by at least one-half. AGRICOLA.