NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 8

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

The harvest this season will continue for a while yet, as there is still some.crop to be cut. Once the stubbles are cleared and cleaned up by sheep, no time should be lost in ploughing the ground, or perhaps first discing the stubble, and so “spring” the weeds, and feed off or plough under the growth. Any crop of the nature of barley, rye, or oats, if sown this month, may, under fair weather conditions, provide some feed and yet give a cutting later. The ground intended for lucerne should in Otago be cleaned and limed and got ready for sowing about next November. Grain stacks should bo made safe from rains, and all straw stacks at least well raked down, and made secure and the most made of the feed. . The stock, young sorts particularly, will require extra feeding from now on, as once frosts, commence, the grass has small nourishment for young foals and calves, and -1 this is the time to make or mar an animal, and all cattle are better off if provided with a lick, as there cannot bo the same relish in the roughage of a frosted grass paddock as the earlier months. The watering and the providing of a succulent bite for the milkers should be closely attended to, and the pigs must not be neglected. They love the warmth, but they

Farm Work for March.

demand some shade, and, if lousy, should be dressed with kerosene emulsion or sulphur and lard mixture. The lambs intended to bo fattened should be crutchcd and dipped before putting them on to expensive feed, such as rape, etc. It ie the limit of foolishness to “farm” the vermin on the fattening animals. The ewes require a rest of several weeks, and lambs should not bo loft too long on their mothers. Now is the time to mark a fair lot of ewe lamba to go into the breeding flock — lambs of a similar type, densely clothed with wool, and well-built, wcll-constitu-tioncd animals. Don’t neglect the ram’s feet, and try later on to patch them up. Do it now, and feed them some concentrated food, as a sluggish ram at this season is not worth his salt, aiid should be boiled 'down. See that all sheep on the farm are dipped, and leave no stragglers, and keep poisoning the rabbits. Milk contains, say, 87 per cent of water. If the cow is not given all tne water she needs ifle.ro will be a decrease in her milk flow. It ie unlawful and morally wrong for a man to add water to milk; but ‘it is right, ethical, and humane, says Hoard’s Dairyman, to give the cow all the water she will drink. Water is one of the foods that Hoover (American) does not ask to be conserved, and one that has not risen in price. No man can truthfully say that he cannot afford to give his cows all the water. they will drink since water costs nothing and it is so easy to obtain. There are many ways of watering cows. In the early days, beioro watering systems were installed, it was not uncommon to water live stock from a lake or river. Nowadays one sees drinking troughs, etc., provided on the wide-awake dairy-farmers’ lands. _ The manner of getting water to cows is comparatively immaterial provided the supply is adequate and get-atable under comfortable conditions. Too cold water should bo guardco against. Cows will not drink all the water they need under wrong conditions, and a supply should be handily available both day and night. Cows which are inadequately watered will, on getting all they can drink at any time, increase their production of milk 21b or more tier day—■ a matter, surely, worth consideration. It has been found by investigation that a cow will drink more water at night than during the day. So that if one can increase the production of milk 21b a day in a herd of, say, 20 cows by assuring an adequate supply of water, we have some 4gal extra milk daily—surely more than will pay for the outlay.

Watering Milk.

It is a most important matter selecting the rams for the season, as, alter ail, they are the dominating factors in the makeup of a. flock and in the size of the wool cheque. The ram should be true to type, with a bold carriage, and be well grower and with a good set of legs, indicating strength and fitness. The neck should be powerful and the head well set on, with the eyes bright and fair ly prominent, and no sleepiness apparent. Leggy and weak rams will beget their own class very likely, and provide the flock with a long tail. When it comes to selling, rams should be stronger in. the bone than the ewe, and the fleece dense, with character and body in it, of much the same density of fibre and quality all over the body as reasonably can be expected. Having secured the sort of wool you desire, don’t forget to look particularly at the animal’s frame, and note whether he can carry meat, as the export market is \yhat we are after, and meat and wool qualities are both of the greatest importance. A pretty sheep is right enough, in a picture, but not in a sire. __ It is an advantage ,to provide some extra feed for rams, which will have, after all, but a short season; but the work is arduous. With a small flock it is an easy matter to have every ewe wintering on the place in lamb. Finish up missed ewes with young rams, marking with ochre or raddle the breasts of the ram’s first turned out. With big lots of ewes the order of the rams and the “nick” of the ewes and “flushing” at tupping time will well repay consideration.

Selection of Bams.

Probably there is not yct_ any very great use made in the Dominion of lucerne, or, as it is known in America, alfalfa meal; • but the time is coming when more interest will'be taken _ in this fodder. It is greatly appreciated in California, and, according to an authority, is an ideal stock and dairy feed. The industry received quite a boom about eix years ago when someone invented a portable mill. Formerly it was necessary ’to haul the haV to the mill, resulting in extra labour ' and loss of the fine leafage. Now, the portable mill goes into the fielcr and grinds the hay from _ the stack, and has proved a means of saving thousands of tons which would otherwise have beep marketed at little or no profit. The meal is the whole hay ground fine enough, that the animal not only eats, but relishes, the coarse stems which are left when feeding the hay. * Professor Cottrell long ago pointed out that it took a lot of energy for an animal to grind corn in its mouth, and stated that the same was true of lucerne. “The meal is not only very nour- - ishing in, itself,” he declares, “but it adds relish to whatever other milled feed is given with it, thus enabling the animal to secure more nourishment from the same quantity than is possible when the milled feed is given alone.” Its feeding value ia generally admitted to be superior to good wheat bran. Quite often it is fed alone as a dry mash, but is usually mixed with other mill feeds and frequently with molasses. The meal is put up in 1001 b sacks, and in California it sells for from sdol to 6dol a ton more than the hay. It is exported to _ all parte of the world. The Allies are using a prepared food for their cavalry horses, the basis of which is alfalfa mcaf ground in a California mill. The meal and the hay are fed at the same time, for the meal does not take the place of the hay. The meal is a concentrate, and should be fed accordingly. Its milk-making qualities make it a valuable dairy feed. . AGRICOLA.

Lucerne or Alfalfa Meal.

Informations have been laid against a well-known Poverty Bay sheep-farmer, under the Stock Act of (1) failing to notify his neighbours he was mustering for sheading; failing to brand neighbours' sheep which he is alleged to hnve shorn. The der fendant will also bo charged with theft ol wool. The cases are set down for hearing on March 5 at Gisborne. Wolfe's Schnapps the blood of impurities which affect certain organs.