FARM NOTES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3928, 19 July 1937, Page 2

FARM NOTES

NEW HERD DISEASE. WAIKATO OUTBREAK. Farmers in the Waikato are very much concerned owing to an outbreak of brichomoniasis, a contagious disease affecting dairy cows and bulls. Two herds are reported to have been affected, one near Paeroa and the other near Hamilton, while a case of infection in a single cow has been noted at Gisborne. Twenty cows were affected in the Paeroa herd, and several of the animals had to be destroyed. Referring to the disease, Mr. T. A. Blake, Government veterinary surgeon at Hamilton, said that it was first noticed in Italy by Mazzanti in 1900. It occurred in most Continental countries, in Japan, and in the United States. There was an outbreak in England in 1933, when seven farms in three counties were affected. I Mr. Blake said that now the disease had been found in New Zealand, he feared that it might soon become widespread. The economic aspect was fairly serious, one owner in England losing £2OOO through its incidence, while German investigators had attributed most of the sterility occurring among many herds in Germany to the disease. “Every effort should be made to stop the spread of the disease before it becomes general throughout the herds of New Zealand,” said Mr. Blake. DECREASE IN AGRICULTURAL WORKERS. During the last five years the number of regular agricultural workers in England and Wales has decreased by 50,000, or some 10 per cent. Last year’s returns showed a sharp decline in the number of workers under 21 years of age. These figures, says an English agricultural journal, and the difficulty in most parts of the country of obtaining competent skillL ed workers, cause concern about the

future. The position is not common : to England and Wales. A wave of industrial prosperity is raising a farm i help problem everywhere. The training of workers is important, but will i not remove the difficulty. It is strange, but true, that work in the most essential service—that of food production—gets the least recompense. The writer adds: “As a nation we cannot afford to let our agriculture be crushed out by cheap labour in other countries, and the industry must be put in a position to attract the workers it requires.” DISEASE IN CROPS. DUE TO CHEMICAL DEFICIENCY. VALUE OF BORON. Though perhaps not quite so prevalent as in recent years an examinetion of root crops entered in the North Taranaki field competitions reveals a certain amount of disease. In some districts it is worse than others. Mr. A. G. Elliott, of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, who officiates as judge of the competitions, has pointed out that certain diseases are due to a shortage in the soil of a chemical known as boron. Fortunately experiments during the last few years have shown that a shortage of available boron in the soil can be readily made good and freedom from certain diseases ensured by the application of about 201 b. of borax per acre. The borax, says an English authority, may be included in the ordinary artificial fertiliser dressing or may be given separately, in which case it should first be mixed with a filler to give sufficient material for even distribution. The borax is usually best applied a short while before sowing the seed, or may be given later to the growing crop. Applications at the time of sowing may also be made in the case of mangolds but is not always to be recommended with swedes and turnips where close contact of the seed i with the fertiliser may cause some ■ delay in germination. j The borax may be safely mixed with

all the ordinary fertilisers except sulphate of ammonia (and other ammonia compands.) It may be incorporated, however, in mixtures containing sulphate of ammonia by mixing the borax first with the potash and superphosphate and then adding the sulphate of ammonia. Heart rot has also been practically absent from crops of sugar beet when borax has been used and growers and observers also formed the very defied.