NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 8

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Keep the horse hoo moving between the turnip drills up to the latest Farm Work possible moment, and so conserve moisture. Crops are ripening quickly, and one's best; efforts are needed to get them cut and stooked end kept stooked. Oats cut on. the green side make the bost of feeding, and ripen a good deal in the stook, and, in a lesser degree, the same applies to wheat, which heed not be left until dead ripe before cutting. A short stubblf should be left and the sheaves set up to catch the most of the sun's rays If the binder delivers ill-balanced sheaves there is trouble right through the harvest, and 'the driver of the machine should take note. Gorso or scrub for stack bottoms is recommended. All grass intended for hay should be safe ere this, as it ie not satisfactory to have a lot of seed shaken in the curing process—a sure sign of over-ripeness or undue weathering. The matter of providing some green feed may be considered. Old pastures would probably benefit if topdrcsied with . some fertiliser. Many of these old paddocks arc not destined to be turned up in the ordinary course of the rotation owing to war conditions, and the Government being so slow in guaranteeing a price for wheat for a .term of years. Stock are worth all the attention possible. Provide plenty of water and an extra bite for foals which rrray be weaned shortly, as they should be kept growing. Cattle" should have access to a salt '-'lick" preferably one with bone meal and iron sulphate. Provide shade and plenty of water for pigs, dressing them with kerosene emulsion or sulphur and lard if lousy. Secure some of the best of the cwo lambs, making a job of fattening all Down crosses and wether lambs. Don't waste good feed by putting undipped lambs on to fatten, as half the feed will do if the lambs are comfortable. The ew£ lambs selected to make up tho ewe flock' need not be done so well as the others, but just kept growing and healthy. Little can bo done with potatoes attacked with "blight" in tho way of spraying. The crops are eo ad-

vanced, and probably as good a plan aa any would be to bend over tho stricken tops, or, as tho writer Las successfully done, Bcytho off tho nearly-ripened shaws and burn them. Tiie distinction between the terms "butter" and "butter-fat" are at Butter and times not fully appreciated* Butter-fat. How much butter will lib of butter-fat make? is asked, Butter-fat is 'the fat in milk or cream; butter is the product manufactured froni tho butter-fat. The butter-maker churns tho cream to bring together into one mass the globules of butter-fat which are held, in suspension in it. There occurs in this operation a gathering of more or less water and casein or curd. Ae nearly all the butter-fat is churned out of the cream, the weight of the product (butter) will therefore exceed the weight of the fat in the cream. Salt is worked into the butter, so that butter consists of the butter-fat plus certain amounts of curd, salt, and water incorporated during churning. Ihe differenco in the amounts of butter-fat antf butter is termed the "over-run," and. will vary from 16 to 22 per cent. In other words, 1001 b of butter-fat will make 1101 b to 1221 b of butter.. In a large measure the amount of over-run is under control ot the buttermaker. When milk is tested by the Babcock test the amount of butter-fat —not of butter—is* shown. So that the weight of butter churned from an amount of cream or milk will be greater than the amount of butter-fat shown by the test, duo to tho over-run. In testing cows for production the -Babcock test of the rmuc shows the amount of the butter-fat contained in it. In order to know how much butter can bo made from the fat shown by the test, the over-run must be added. If one-sixth the amount' of the fat is added to the amount of fat, the result will about, equal the amount of butter. Thue a cow yielding 121 b of butter-fat in a week's test would be, on this basis, producing the equivalent of 12 plus "one-sixth of 12, or, 141 b, butter. / j '* ' i Of late years a fertiliser which has come Sip , into more or less prominence Basic is deserving of notice. It Phosphate. is something of 'the nature of Thomas phosphate, but differs in the degree of fineness of its particles, being coarser in the grain. It is made by mixing superphosphate with enough lime to .neutralise all the free acid, and practically lenders the superphosphate les3 soluble. That, however, may not matter eo very much. It will depend on rsrhat the eoil conditions-are at the tune of explication. Superphosphate, when treated with lime, has its phosphoric acid rendered citrate soluble in* lieu of being water soluble. Superphosphate, when applied to tho soil, undergoes a process of reversion, . and tho soil water will dissolve the phosphate and' fertilise those particles of soil within handy reach. So, too, aire chemical combinations formed with the lime, iron, or other oxides it may encounter, and revert to a less soluble condition. Superphosphate will, generally speaking, mix more, intimately with the soil than basio phosphate. And, again, it ie obvious that in a soil well charged with lime there would be little, if any, advantage accrue by application of the fertiliser—basic phosphate. * An ingenious way, of stopping holes in galvanised iron sheets, and Stopping Holes a plan which 'is said to give in Galvanised, satisfactory results, is reIron, corded in a late issue of tho Pastoralist Review. A few lumps of resin are melted into a'paste in boiled linseed oil. : Smear the paste round the hole, cover with a piece_ of linen (duck is better),'and smear a little of the paste on top, and you will not have trouble for a long while to come. But the correct way, it is - alleged, if you cannot work the. soldering bol£, ie to take thin* reeds fill up with melted lead (tubes niade of stout paper, and planted in the sand will do if you have no thin reeds handy). When cold cut bits of the lead long enough for the purpose, and rivet the holes in the iron, -and you have a permanent, lasting j ° b ' AGRICOLA. ' ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Imshi," Galloway, writes in reference to a cow which is developing tuberculosis, and wishes to know whether he can destroy the animal and claim half compensation, etc. pected case to the stock inspector of your district, and if in his judgment the cow is tuberculous he can have same and can authorise a payment ]of half /the current value 6i the cow, up to £l2, if not more than three years old.