NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3890, 2 October 1928, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

It is customary to undertake at this

season the rolling and t harrowing of cereal crops, while the feeding off of too generous growth of

farm Work for October.

grain crops is not unusual. The cold weather, however, will effectively cheek precocious growth. If the crop is fed off it is unwise to wait until the knots are visible on the young plants. The feeding off should be done with a big mob of sheep and not just a few allowed to nibble as they please. All grass paddocks intended for hay should be cleaned up of sticks, stones, wire, etc., and the land well Harrowed in order to scatter the droppings, while the spreading of any spare liquid manure or soluble phosphatic fertiliser may be undertaken with advantage. The mangels and potato crops will be planted this month. Leave ample space for intercultivation, bow some field carrot seed or drumhead cabbage for feeding to dairy cows in the autumn. All land intended for rape and turnips should now be got ready. The sowing of a few’ pounds of oats with the rape is a good plan, as they are usually in the milk stage W’hen the rape is at its best for feeding off. The sowing of glasses and clovers w’ill now- engage attention. See that both early and late grasses and clovers are provided. Feed working horses generously from now on. In-foal mares may continue in light work. See to all dairy cows, and especially those likely to get milk fever. Feed all calves their milk at blood heat. A cupful of water in their milk occasionally will serve as a tonic. Be sure all pigs are kept clean and warm. Dag all sheep before shearing. Skirt all fleeces lightly, i etnoving stained pieces, and class to qualities. Clean up the woolshed of all sacks, skins, etc., and disinfect .shed and holding pens. Note all lame sheep and dress their feet. Cull sheep when in the wool, and, if small lots, they may well be roughly graded ere filling the shed, it the fine and coarse-w’oolled sheep are run into the shed separately it helps at shearing time. See that all sheep are turned out in a workmanlike way—culled, branded neatly, and ages and numbers, etc., noted.

Our best farmers have got to know some-

Educating the Farmer.

thing about the sciences. There is no dodging them, and every opportunity should be taken to

. . make use of the facilities and assistance which the Government of the country now offers through its experts. It may so happen that some farmers know as much, nay more, than the expert, but the majority will assuredly not appreciate -the findings of the expert’s experiments unless they have a nodding acquaintance with the fundamentals beience alone cannot lay the foundation of successful farm practice. The essential foundation is sound training in the business of farming. Too much stress can be laid on the value of the sciences, and the agricultural student may well be led to believe that scientific knowledge is allimportant. It certainly is so far as ■’college-examinations are concerned—that is perhaps a fault in our system of agricultura! education,—but the surest basis foi the education of the farmer is sound practice. Every would-be farmer who has not been bred on the land should spend at least some months (if possible a lound of the seasons) on a good farm after leaving school before he enters an agricultural college. Then the teaching ot professors means something to him He is able to realise the significance in business life of the sciences he is-taught in lecture room and laboratory. Men learn scientific truth readily when it profoundation for practice with which they are already familiar.

Now’ that the export of calves is assum-

Calf-rearing System.

mg an importance little dreamt of a few years ago, it is necessary that

, , , ~ additional care should be taken of those we elect to save from slaughter in their teens. Economy must also be observed. To this end the writer draw’s attention to the methods adopted by , a Home farmer. Under Mr B’s system of rearing and feeding the newly +n° P j A 1 a lhrwed to remain with the dam for 24 hours. At the end of 12 hours any teats not drawn by the calf ar, n, e ? S< ;? a the cow is not milked dry until the end of the third c A A er , the calf has been removed and fasted about six or eight hours- it is fed with the mother’s milk, six quarts per day being given at three feeds. Some calves may not need quite so much for a day or two, but a strong calf will take the full amount. At the end of a week half separated and half new milkl six quarts a day, is fed, night and morning. At this period a little' treacle is introduced, a tablespoonful being scalded with one pint of boiling w’ater and added to each feed. Through the second week of c v , calf should have the chance of a little sweet hay placed in a hamper or skip in the calfshed. Some feeders,

however, would not permit access to hay so early, but Mr S.’s view is that if the natural craving is not satisfied at this time the calves will probably eat litter or other material liable to cause trouble in the near future. He has often seen calves that had been dropped at grass and running with their dams chew the cud from the twelfth to the fourteenth day, and dozens of pail-fed calves chew the cud on the sixteenth day. It is a mistake, he says, to bunch up the hay or tie up the youngsters with manilia or any kind of ropes. Eight out of ten calves were once lost through eating manilia fibre. Though the calves are far better running; they should be tied up when being fed, and then released to their fodder or hay half an hour after the liquid has been served. If milk becomes scarce, gruel or dry feed can be substituted. A first-class gruel is made from a mixture consisting of lewt of best ground linseed cake, lewt of oatmeal, and 141 b of arrowroot well mixed. One pint of this compound, to which a large tablespoonful of treacle has been added, should be scalded with sufficient water to make one gallon, either to compensate for the deficiency or for use as follows:-—Two quarts of whey, two of gruel, and one quart of buttermilk. Each feed is for calves about six weeks old after they have had a good start on mixed milk. The treatment of a calf up to a fortnight old has been described. Supposing a farmer desired to rear a batch of 10, he would pour into a tub seven and a-half gallons of warm separated milk and add to this two quarts of buttermilk and half a pint of treacle (lOoz) scalded with two quarts of boiling water. This form of feeding would continue until eight weeks °hh In the next 18 weeks the ration should be as follows:—Ten gallons sepa? rated milk, one pint of cod liver oil, and one pint of treacle, the treacle to be scalded with two quarts of boiling water The ingredients should be well mixed. Uns feed, sufficient for one meal for 10 calves, in analyses and albuminoid ratio very nearly approximates to new milk at one-third the cost. The trouble of mix, mg the oil and ridding the utensils of the smell prompted Mr S. to leave out the oil and return to treacle alone.

A matter that needs serious considera.

Weight of Bales of Wool.

tion from all sections o the community, not onb those more intimately connected with the woo

industry, is the continuous decrease m the weight of bales of wool (says the Textile Argus, Bradford), The question may be divided into two sections:—Firstly, the light-weight, viz., a bale which is regarded as being under the shipping weight, and is therefore shown in a special section of the cata. logue, in many cases missing the xompeti. tion of the bigger buyers. Secondly, and more important, is the consistent falling off m the average of the weights of the bales constituting the Australian clip, which this season has touched the lowest point of 3041 b——that is, of course, net as the weight of the pack, 111 b, has to' be added. During the appraisement period the average net weight of the bales was 3301 b, and the difference, representing in round figures some 10 per cent., is an economic loss to that extent to the industry. One cannot help feeling that the cynical attitude of shed hands and labour generally towards any national question has a good deal to do with the falling off in the weights, but grow’ers should also pay more attention to the packing of the clip. In the first place, woolpacks cost practically double what they used to do in pre-war times, and in addition any cost in handling the wool at any points in the passage from the producer to the consumer has to be eventually borne by the former. Oversea charges are in some cases levied at per bale, hence any reduction in the weight is' a handicap to buyers, who naturally take such into their calculations when estimating their values. What should be aimed at is an average for fleece, in merinos at least, of, say, 3201 b, and in pieces and oddments 3501 b. This would represent an increase of some 10 per cent, on this season’s average, and ’would not in any way deteriorate the value of the wool itself. If some improvement is not effected, it will probably result in a revision of Australian handling chal-ges, as the labour involved therein is by far -the largest proportion of the cost. AGRICOLA.