NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Ploughing should be in full swing now, the depth being deterFarm Work mined by the nearness of for July. the subsoil, as it is unwise to turn up more than, say, an inch of new, raw, harsh soil where weather conditions are mild. It is late now to sow wheat, and if the autumn season has been missed it is better to wait until the spring of the year, when the land has dried up a bit. The lifting of mangolds and some swedes for early lambing ewes and incoming cows should not be neglected. They will prove invaluable should there be a late spring. All potatoes should be lifted, and the ground ploughed and limed. As this area is usually easily cleaned, it might be as well to get it ready for sowing lucerne some time, say, in November. All gorse-grubbing, ditch-cleaning, draining, and culvert-sorting should now be attended to; while the sowing of lime and top-dressing of grass paddocks with fertiliser may well engage attention. The planting of trees for shelter purposes is a seasonal operation, and should not be neglected. All fat lambs must be marketed at once in order to be killed ere the freezing works close. All farm stock require more attention now winter has come. Their body heat should be kept up, so as to save foodstuffs. Old weathered pasture is poor tucker if fed alone to in-calf cows and young, growing stock. All milking cows require Borne etra feeding, and the pigs must he kept warm if the most is to be made of them, gee to all old ewes in regard to their teeth. Overhaul all stock on roots, and be satisfied that they have a dry camp and some hay, straw, or chaff. The hoggets on turnips are now teething, and must have attention or they will starve on frozen roots. Supply plenty of salt to ttock, and see to the farm and station stock regularly, and tidy up the holding as occasion offers.

One is apt to lose sight of the fact > of the artificiality of all lmTha Art of proved breeds of animals. Breeding. In a state of Nature no cow has any use for the marvellous lacteal equipment fastened upon her by man’s manipulation. The modern dairy cow in a state of Nature would soon revert to her ancient form, so also would the sheep. It is man’s handling of the laws of heredity, selection, inbreeding, outcrossing, etc., which permits of “improved” breeds of stock of the highest utilitarian purpose. The breeder of stock (or plants), if an enthusiast, directs the spark of life itself. Breeding is an art, and, as with artists modelling in plastic clay, there are both good and bad artists. Accordingly, the skill of the breeder is exercised in the mating together of animals whose respective qualities are such as it is desired to concentrate in one and the same individual. Once having secured the type desired, there follows a world of difficulty in maintaining the type established. Skill of eye, of hand, and of judgment must be continuously brought to bear upon the work, for, failing this, the herd or flock or stud wul soon show a falling off in quality. It is obvious, therefore, that farmers other than breeders of purebreds, if alive to their own interests, must give some thought to the ancestry of the stock they purpose grazing, and, so to speak, provide a somewhat similar environment for their bouglit-in , stock, otherwise there is deterioration.

It is not uncommonly held that the test of milk varies according Influences to the feed that is given Affecting 'the cow from day to day— Milk Tests. a mistaken view, of course, in the light of recent knowledge. Individual farmers and experimental stations have vied with each other in their efforts to find some way of increasing the test of milk through the feed. The value of such a discovery to any breeder in the tests that he could make with his cows is apparent. Now and then some breeder announces that he has been able to affect the test with certain combinations of feeds, but on further trial the claim is withdrawn. A / changes that have been made, provided the cow is getting sufficient to maintain her body, have always been of a very temporary nature. The situation is summed up as follows in “Feeds and Feeding”:—“The Jersey cow gives milk that is relatively rich in fat and the Holstein milk that is relatively low in fat. No kind of feed or care will cause the Jersey to give milk like that of the Holstein, or the reverse. Were a piece of skin, clothed with yellow hair, taken from the body of a Jersey cow and grafted on the body of a Holstein cow, we should expeef the grafted portion to continue growing yellow, Jersey-like hair. In the same way, were it possible to graft the udder of a Jersey cow on the body of a Holstein, we would expect the Holstein to give Jersey-like milk. It ia not the body of the cow nor the digestive tract but the glands of the udder that determine the characteristics of the milk from individual cows. That is what we should expect, for, if milk varied with each slight change in feed and condition, the life of the young, dependent on such milk, would always be in jeopardy,”

In a note dealing with the quality of beef Mr W. M. Tod. Th. Quality M.A., on “Farm Feeding/ 1 al laal. stresses a point which should appeal to those who believe in the reality of the cry for early-maturing cattle, and to butchers, who know the term “marbled" beef. He ■ays, inter alia: “It ie not always sufficiently realised that the production of beef of high quality it very largely a

matter of feeding. Reasonably good beef can be produced by the ordinary method of grazing store cattle on grass, with or without cake, or by fattening store cattle in the sheds or yards in winter on roots and cake, but in few cases is beef of the highest quality produced by these methods. This is due, not to any fault in the feeding during the fattening process, but to the fact that the animal has been at a previous period in store condition, or even possibly in poor condition. Prime quality in beef is largely a matter of ‘ marbling ’ —that is to say, the animal must not only be fat when killed, but the lean meat must be marbled with minute streaks of fat deposited between the fibres of the muscles. Beef of this kind is not only always tender, but has a most superior flavour, and is therefore classed as prime quality. Experience shows that this marbling is not always obtained in ordinary fattening, however well finished the animal may be. Jhq secret of the matter seems to be that if well-marbled beef is required the animal must have been kept in really good condition from the time it was a calf, and, more particularly, that it should have been in high condition during the first five or six months of its life. A calf running with its mother and kept in good condition produces this marbled flesh, and, having once produced it in this way, it would seem as if the tendency to deposit fat between the fibres of the muscles was retained throughout its life. On the other hand, it seems just as certain that if the calf is starved and is allowed to become really lean during the first few months of its life it loses this tendency to deposit fat afterwards between the fibres of the muscles to the same extent.” AGRICOLA.