NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4039, 11 August 1931, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Keep the Soil Young. Old age is fast removing many soils from use in the world as Nature removes humans, according to E. A. Norton, of the University of Illinois. Nature and man are both contributors to the ageing of soils, says Mr Norton, and man is the greater offender, as he has removed the protective covering of sod and allowed the rains to gully the land. Removing crops continually from the land has depleted the fertility and moisture-holding capacity. Good management of soils prevents their ageing, and, as in man, it preserves youth. Old age in soils is shown by grey soils, acidity, well-defined surface, sub-surface and sub-soil, and scanty supply of plant foods. These soil characteristics compare with grey hair, loss of activity, and conservatism in man. Sir Harry Lauder’s Opinion of Farmers. Sir Harry Lauder proposed the toast of “The Judges” at the Dunoon (Scotland) Agricultural Society’s Show luncheon in June last, when he had many flattering things to say about the agricultural community. “ We’re a great lot, us fermir folks,” said Sir Harry. “We lauch at the simplest things in the world. If you want to give me an audience, give me an agricultural audience. Give me the farmer and the farmer's boy and you can keep the city so far as I am concerned. Give me the beautiful fresh air and the man that makes the world, that rises in the morning with his cattle —and goes to bed with them, too, sometimes —(laughter) — and that lives natural all his life.” To exhibitors he said that they could only get value for what they produced. They could not expect any more from an honest judge than an honest opinion.— (“ Hear, hear.”) “ I wish to repudiate a statement,” remarked Sir Harry. “ I never was a farmer; I was an agriculturist. An agriculturist is a man who puts all his money into the land; a farmer takes it all out. (Laughter.) Some o’ ye know that A’m no’ tellin’ ony lee,” added the famous comedian.

Power Farmer and Motor Transport. The following is taken from the Pastoral Review, and as motor tractors and vehicles are limned as the_ “cause of our economic troubles ” it is well worth perusal by farmers in New Zealand. The pamphlet is entitled “ A Review of and Solution to Australia’s Economic Troubles.” and was broadcasted by Mr F. W. Wright in Western Australia last year under the joint auspices of the Optimists’ League and the Primary Producers’ Association of Western Australia.

Mr Wright is nothing if not original in ascribing Australia’s economic troubles to the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse as a means of motive power. He says: “ No one seems to have realised that by supplanting the horse on the farm and in the city with the tractor and the motor truck the modern world has robbed itself of its biggest consumer of wheat. It is estimated that since 1919 America has cut out approximately 10,000,900 head of working stock (i.e., horses and mules), and that the amount of grain that stock would annually consume, but which is now available for human consumption, would be 750,000,000 bushels, as well as 15,000,000 tons of hay. . . . The estimated total requirements for 1930-31 of all the importing countries in the world (ag set out by Broomhall’s Corn Guide) is only 636,000,000 bushels. If this is the gigantic result produced in America alone, what then is the aggregate result right throughout the whole world ? With such an increased supply and such a reduced demand, can we expect anything but a tremendous glut in the market and values below cost of production ? ” Reverting to Australia’s position, Mr Wright said that whereas in 1919 we cropped 9,000,000 acres and possessed in the vicinity of 2,500,000 horses, in 1929 we cropped 19,000,000 acres and had less than 2,000,000 horses. Had we increased the number of our horses in the same proportion that we increased our cultivated acres we would have had nearly 5,000,000, “ That is to say,” he continued, “ with the reinstatement of the horse would come a demand for our produce practically equal to two-thirds of the whole of that produce at present available for export. The value of that local demand to us would be equivalent to the amount now sent out of the country in tractors, trucks,

spare parts, and fuel —approximately £30,000,000 each year.” Mr Wright concludes : “ There is no use in shutting our eyes to facts, and those people who contend that reverting to the horse is a retrograde step must realise that a retrograde step must be taken for a time at least in some direction. Either the world must restrict its acreage under crop or we must recreate cur own markets for our own products. Surely restricting the acreage would be a bigger step backwards than simply using our own resources and the fuel endowed us by Nature ? ”

Dairy Produce. The amending regulations governing the manufacturing and export of dairy produce have been gazetted and are now in force. The main purpose of the regulations is to prohibit the manufacture and export of other than whole-milk cheese. At the same time the opportunity has been taken to promote additional amendments to the present regulations in order to ensure a cleaner milk supply for the manufacture of butter and cheese, to improve the quality of the manufactured product, and to bring about greater maturity in cheese prior to export.

The power conferred by the principal regulations to manufacture and export other than whole-milk cheese—that is, standardised cheese or cheddar cheese—is revoked. For the purpose of ensuring a cleaner milk supply- for butter and cheese manufacture clause 5 requires the occupier of dairy farm premises to provide an adequate water supply and plant adjacent to his dairy for the proper cleaning of the dairy utensils by steaming or scalding them with boiling water. Under the principal regulations milk must be cooled on the farm premises to 65deg Fahr. By clause 6 of the amending regulations it must now be so cooled that its temperature on arrival at the dairy factory does not exceed 70deg. The clause enables the temperature of the milk to be checked on arrival at the dairyfactory instead of on the farm, as hitherto. The amendments made by clauses 7 and 8 of the regulations are designed to effect greater maturity in cheese prior to export. Under the main regulations all cheese was required to be held at the dairy- factory for 14 days before packing and removal. This period has been extended to 21 days in the case of all cheese manufactured during the months of August and September. It is also provided that the temperature of the curing rooms containing any cheeses which are to leave the dairy factory within one month after manufacture must be maintained at not less than 55deg. _ Similarly, the temperature of cheese in the grading stores must be maintained at not less than 50deg nor more than 55deg instead of at 45deg, as hitherto.

Under the principal regulations the testing of milk samples for the purpose of ascertaining the percentage of butterfat must take place at intervals not exceeding 12 days except in .the months of June. July, and August. Clause 9 extends the period during which, the testing at intervals not exceeding 12 days shall not apply to the months of May to September so far as the South Island is concerned, in view of the shorter dairying season in that island. AGRICOLA.