A GOOD TEAMSTEIL

Southland Times, Issue 19540, 2 May 1925, Page 14

A GOOD TEAMSTEIL

THE NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS

A teamster should be a man of great patience, and must be prepared to study the temperament of his horses individually. The hours of work should not be too long, and should be regular, as far as possible, each day’s work being balanced with the previous day’s. A four hour’s spell in the chains is quite long enough for horses doing heavy farm work, but the animals may be saved a great deal of, strain by careful handling, and by putting each horse in the team in a place which best suits him. Horses in the yoke should never be hurried in turning. The teamster who roars and yells at his horses is never a good horseman. The proper and regular feeding cf horses is the most important consideration of all, but this does not mean that the other points should be neglected. The morning feed should be of not less than one hour and a half’s duration; in fact, three hours is better; while at noon the minimum should be set at one hour and a quarter. In the evening the time allowed should be two hours. Working horses should never be fed the whole meal in one lot. The horse, especially when tired, will only nibble at the food and pick it over, taking all the oats he can and leaving the chaff. A feeder should be small on the bottom, so that the animal cannot sort out the cats easily. However, if food is given a little at a time, (ho animal is induced to clean up the whole lot, and in this way will eat a good deal more. A horse cannot work continuously if he does not eat well. During winter months, if grass is scarce, a small ration of carrots will be found beneficial. In dry weather chaff should be moistened for working horses. Half an ounce to one ounce of Epsom salts in the feed every morning will be found to keep the animal free and soft in the coat. Salt is an absolute necessity, j and every manger should have some placed in it.

CATTLE AND ROOT FEEDING SOME USEFUL HINTS. As regards tbe method of feeding roots to the older fattening cattle. Scotch practice is largely in favour of giving roots whole and the straw unchaffed. In England, however, many feeders pulp the roots and mix with the pulp a considerable quan tity of straw chaff and part or the whole of the concentrates. Although the latter practice is often recommended, there is reason to believe that the foods are better masticated and ruminated if fed with less preparation. In an experiment at* Garforth in 1903-4, bullocks fed with sliced swedes and yellow turnips gained 2.071 b. per head per day as compared with a gain of 1.64 by a similar lot which received the same quantities of roots pulped and mixed with the chaff and meals. Similar results have been observed in practice with dairy cows. The “corn and horn” farmer grows roots for the main reason that his land requires a (horough working and cleaning once every four or five years; the root crop, especially turnips, allows of this while producing a return in food material to cover part or the whole cf the cost of cultivation. WORKING HORSES. BREAKING YOUNG DRAUGHTS. NEED FOR EARLY TRAINING. However well bred a Shire filly may be, she should be taught to work at two years old, even though she promises to be a prize-winner. This is the best age to I get a young draught horse accustomed to the | collar and to work with other horses. It is advisable that the animals should be halter-broken as foals, and taught to lead. They should also have their feet picked up, and their hoofs rasped into shape, so as to prevent them from cracking and breaking away. If this is done at intervals, the youngsters grow us tractable, so that the process commonly known as “breaking-up” becomes very simple. The usual plan is to put the colt or filly between two steady workers who will neither kick not bite their “new chum.” The traces may be hung on the neck of the “miller” in readiness, and the plough set in preparation for a few bouts without hindrances.

With a man to lead on either side, a start is made immediately the traces art hooked, and after a few plunges there is usually little trouble in keeping the colt in the furrow ; but, of course, care is required in turning for the first hour or two.

If the early training described has been neglected, the operation may be a little more ! lively, but still easy to accomplish by those ! used to the job. The youngster should i be kept on long enough to get tired, but i not too long; and if there are two foals on the farm they should be given half a day each. Used in this way, they come in useful for the spring work. They soon become quiet enough to draw light seed harrows after the drill or chain harrows on grass singly, if judiciously handled at the outset.

Many fillies were allowed to grow up without having had a collar put on (hem during the reign of high prices of Shires, and such animats are not a good speculation for the average farmer, for the reason that if they fail to breed they are . practically useless. In fact, the best and most valuable mares are all the better for being worked when not nursing a foal or required for exhibition. They breed better, and, moreover, earn their keen; and this is the kind of mare the modern farmer wants. A better price is obtainable for a Shire sold as a “good worker” than for one with no such character; seeing that if a draught horse has not been used to gears, or put into shafts until it is five or six years old, it is rarely as tractable and reliable as one used to all kinds of work from its youth. It is therefore obvious that the well-trained young Shire is a better 'lor and brings the vendor a higher price; while the purchaser is willing to give more for the reason that he feels he is getting value for his money. SOIL SCIENCE DISCI SSION OLD IDEAS DISCARDED Professor N. M. Coomber, of the Agri cultural Department, Leeds, England, opened a discussion on “Recent Developments in Soil Science” at a conference of horticultural organisers held at the Midland AgriContinucd on Next Page.)

cultural and Dairy College. The mental picture of the soil had changed, he said, during the last ten years. The old idea was that each soil particle was surrounded by water, but recent research had shown that there was a colloid substance round each particle, and in clays this colloid layer on the particles was much thicker that on the particles in silt or sand. This to some extent explained the difference in behaviour of the different types of soil. While all sour soils were acid, all acid soils were not sour. Owing to the difference in the thickness of the colloid layer on the particles, a small deficiency of lime in a sandy soil, as indicated by the lime requirement test was much more serious than a similiar deficiency in a clay sod.