NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 10

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Harvesting will be fairly, general during this month and is coming Farm Work in fast, although not many (or March stubbles have yet been oleared. Once the sheep have made good such pickings and stubble there may be, no time should be lost in _ ploughing, or, if opportunity permits, discing the stubble, and so "spring" the surface weeds, and feed them off, or plough under the growth. Areas sown in barley, rye,_ or oats sown this month will, with any fair sort of weather, provide some useful feeding, and later on could be shut up for cutting or a crop for next springsummer.- Olean any land intended for lucerne, and lime ready for sowing in OtagoSouthland in November next. Secure grain stacks from rains, and rake down hard all straw stacks. See to all stock, as _ grass will soon £0 off from now on, and is not of much feeding value, when greatly "weathered," for foals and young cattle, which ara made or marred at this stage. Provide a "lick" and so help to make more palatable the roughage of old pasture. See that milkers have a succulent bite and good water. Keep the pigs free of lice, and see that they do not suffer from the cold weather. Attend to lambs in good feed, and dip and crutch them. Wean all lambs so that the mothers get a rest period of seven or eight weeks. Mark a number of ewe lambs o'f similar type to join up later with the owe flock, in ' place of old, done sheep. See to the ram's feet without delay. It is too late when they are required to turn out with the ewes. It is also well worth while providing them now with some extra food. A sluggish ram should be moved on, boiled down, or altered. Closely

examine all bought-in sheep for ticks, ahdl dip them if necessary; and ''ware" stragglers j

It has been a good enough season for killing weeds in arable land, The Carifornian but that bane of pastoral Thistle. acres—Californian thi&tle—is flowering strongly at the present time. Many incline evidently to Mr J. Banks's (a retired farmer of Siirley) opinion. Writing in the. Lyttelton Times a short time ago, he says, inter alia: "Having watched closely for the last 12 years the growth and increase of the Californian thistle, I have come to the conclusion that the present Act is useless, and worse than useless. At first sight it seems reasonable to suppose that cutting down the stalk to prevent seeding would be the right course to pursue, but it is not so. By cutting the stalks we cause the roots to make a vigorous growth. The roots spread underground, and from these roots the next season wo have about three stalks for one cut down. If allowed to grow, strange to say, less than 2 per cent, of the flowering heads contain seeds. This can.' be easily proved by anyone, and will be found to be correct. If thistle is allowed to grow, when fully grown it dies from the top and withers gradually away down to root and kills root to first joint. Why is'it. that our riverbeds and reserves, where the thistle is never cut, are not smothered with it like the lupin in the Rakaia riverbed ? For the reason that, though new, patches may come, the old ones, being allowed to flower, die out; it is Nature's remedy. _ I have seen large" patches of thistle in our riverbeds five years ago where now there is not a single thistle left. If the thistles had been cut the patches would be larger and as strong as ever. By having to out the thistle on their own farms, farmers have been debarred from finding out the truth _ of this assertion. Why it is that America and Britain, where it is common, do not try to destroy the thistle by cutting it as we do ? Because they know better. _ They know it is no use flying against Nature, and they only cut the thistle when it is in their way, like other weeds. A friend of mine was for two years in the western agricultural' districts of Canada and the United States of America, and he said the farmers look no heed of it, no more thati they did the Scotch thistle or other %veeds,My experience is that patches, *if allowed to flower, will die out in from three to five years.; The heavier and more loose and friable the land, the longer it will take. It took me nine years of close study to find out that the present Act was wrong and doing an injustice to the farmers and the country, and I have taken another three years to prove the correctness of my statements. So certain am I of these that I ask anyone concerned to go to the riverbeds and reserves to prove it for themselves. Go to- the Ashley, Waimakariri, Selwyn, Rakaia, Ashburton, and 'Hinds Rivers, as I have done, where the thistle has not been out, and. one would expect the islands in the riverbeds would be an ideal place for the growth of thistle. Youi will be greatly surprised to find infinitely less in the riverbeds than in the surrounding farms,' where the thistle is always cut and is always increasing. The present Act is wrong. Cutting the thistle does not stop its growth; in fact, it increases it through its roots, and it is not counterbalanced by the very small quantity of seed found in the thistle. The growth from seed is far less dangerous than the growth from roots when stalk is cut, and if cut,the patches will never die out, but only increase in size, while if allowed to flower the patches will most certainly die cut." The suggestion is made that, if the Act was done away with for five years, there would be no occasion for troubling one's head about the Hhistle. The writer knows of land on the Otago Peninsula, which once was thick with thistle, but it has practically disappeared; indeed, the owner looked upon the thistle as equal to the feeding value of many haystacks during' a hard winter; but I don't know; whether he succeeded in making the inspectors think similarly. Possibly they lacked! imagination. Until people show a disposition to save" there is little chance of We Must conditions changing in reSave, spoct to increased supplies of commodities or of pricea: easing. People in many walks of life—? not all, of course—never bought so freely or did themselves so well as at the present time, and this must be checked and people do without the* non-essentials before production will increase. The time has come when those who have the means should live more simply. <Hle farmer, of course, is concerned at the cost of food, but is naturally nervous when he _ sees that the demand is ever for a reduction v in the cost. That hits at him. Tke farmer Has to pay more for everything he buys, and of course is entitled to greater returns for his prof ducts. Very little good will be accomplished in making the cost of living cheaper by Government or any other agency until the people generally show some evidence of curtailing extravagance and waste, and realise that, while they are "playing the' fool," hundreds of thousands of humans are starving. What class of stock will more rneaf:' in so short a time and at The Economical loss cost than the pig? As pig. an economical consumer of feeding stuffs, no farm animal can equal him. More attention should be given to the important industry of supplying pork by producers. As pomted out a short while back, _ there were_ far l more pigs 25 years ago in the Dominion than to-day, some 70.000 more; or, in other words, the pig supply to-day is less by 23 per cent. We ought not to have to depond for our breakfast rasher upon what Australians find unsuitable for themselves. Our new settlers should attend to the humble pig and give him a chance to prove his worth. Get a breeding sow, and do her well when she is carrying her pigs, and see that there is warmth as well as ventilation. Keep the little ones always making headway" and provide ample feed after weaning them. They should, when a couple of months old, be_ eating fairly well. A farm without a pig is no farm. What about the. rent? AGRICOLA.