FARM NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 81, 25 March 1908, Page 4

FARM NOTES.

During the next few days a State Bauk, to render financial assistance to ] settlers, will lie established iu Tasmania, i One or t«o small consignments of frozen lambs have been sent out from llobart and Lauiiccstou to London. During 1!K)7 about 774,578 tons of potatoes were shipped from north-west coast potts of Tasmania to Sydney. A summer school for the State -clio:il teachers of Tasmania was conducted, for a fortnight at Longford, the experts attached to the Agricultural Department being the lecturers. Harden and cereal plots are to he established in the grounds of country schools. The currant grape crop in s..nlh Alls, tralia this season is exceedingly large. There is also a good yield of wine grapes. Owing to the shortage' 01 fat entile in Victoria, resulting from the continued spell of dry weather, quantities of frozen beef arc being imported from (Queensland and consumed in Melbourne. At a meeting of Tasuianian hopgrowers, it was decided to fix the price of this season's crop at from !>d to Is per lb. wholesale, according to grade. A number of dairymen in the Mullimbimby district (New South Wales) are disposing of their herds on account

of the impossibility of procuring labour. The Victorian rabbit export trade last year showed a tailing oil' of CIOO.OOU. This is said to be not due to a fallingoil' in the number of rabbits, but to a disorganisation of the trade. Live stock statistics published in the last Gazette show that for the year 1907-8 horses in New Zealand increased by 10,108, cattle decreased by 35.-151, swine decreased by 114.3, and sheep increased by 875,301.

Don't allow your cows to lie chased by dogs or hurried when going to or from pasture. ■Have a wire screen for each vessel, so as to " air the cream" and keep out flies and insects. " Clean " cream, '• cold " cream, and "rich" cream are the three words which tell the secret of producing sweet cream. Buttermilk does not differ essentially in food analysis from skim-milk, and is worth just about the same for pig-feed-ing. Milkers must be free from siispicioa of communicable disease. Their hands must be washed immediately lwfor" milking. The cow must be kept warm in sonic way. When shelter is neglected, tin turns food that should go to milk into the needed heat.

It is little use trying to cool milk with water up to 00 or 70 degrees. To he advantageous the temperature should be below 60 degrees. To use brine for salting butter is not feasible except when very light salting is! wanted. . It takes the salt itself !o make good marketable butter. Even if a farmer cannot afford a purebred herd of cows, he can afford a purebred mill, and, in time, with the right selection, he can have a good herd.

The flavour of milk is very readily affected by the character of the fee.!, as, for instance, by turnip-', garlic, wild onions, mouldy hay, and grain, or damaged silage. The South Australian lamb export season has closed. During the year 205,331 carcases of lamb and mutton were exported. These are record figures, and considerably larger than las; year's, which were '234,01(i.

Milk will keep when covered if first it is aired and cooled. A pantry or a living-room is not a good place for keening it, as it would surely absorb taints. All of the many ingredients of milk me said to be chemically mixed except its fat or butter. *

Ivord Raylcigh, besides being a famous scientist, is notable as one of the largest dairy farmers in England, lie farms for this purpose alone more than 2000 acres of land, and 1000 cow's graze <m the meadow round Telling i'lace, his seat in Essex. Milk is liable to considerable flueluitions in its composition. There are always striking variations between the first and last-drawn portions, and frequently between the morning's and evening's milk, and the milk yielded just after calving and several months after.

In washing dairy uteii-ils one. must caution every dairyman against the us.of common soup. The odour of the soap, as well as the caustic it contains)., is well-nigh impossible to get rid el', and anything with such an a (Unity for a stray odour as milk will be qiiickly -poiled. ■•» Milking should l>e done in a quiet, clean, and thorough manner, and at 1 Insame hours daily. Milkers should avoid handling the cows more than nccessarv. If the milk is bloody, stringy, or thick, or if it has an unnatural appearance, or if manure gets into it, it should be discarded.

At the hist meeting of the Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Association a resolution was passed and ordered to Ih< forwarded to the Agricultural Department urging the Government' to adopt a measure to provide that all skim milk sent out from dairy factories should l>o first pasteurised, with a vie.v to combating the spread of tuberculosis. The secretary of the Association lias received a reply from the Hon. It. McNau, stating that the question of the pasteurisation of milk at dairy factories is un-

der consideration by the Government, but it is thought that any additional expense imposed on dairy companies in that direction would be u hardship, and as the Department has other means of dealing with the spread of tuberculosis, the resolution regarding pasteurising milk cannot be entertained at the present time. The Jutland province of Denmark has for centuries been the greatest horsebreeding district of that country. The

pastures over large areas of Jutland are peculiarly good, and the horses bred have for long been in great demand in Germany. Of the 180 horse-breeding societies in Denmark no fewer than 110 are in Jutland, and the extent of the work done may be measured from the fact that there are about ;100.0UO horses of the recognised Jutland breed in Denmark, while between 15.UU1) and 16,000 are exported every year, the prices ranging from £2i to £X. They are light draught horses, and, though used for cart and omnibus work, being strong. liardy, fast at the trot, are able to thrive on very moderate diet. They are generally brown or bay; greys occur, but a black Jutland 'horse is seldom seen.

Of late years (says "Antiuua Ovis" in the Otago Witness) there has be..n a perceptible change with regard lo sowing grain. A few years ago none thought of sowing oats in the autumn or early winter. A little winter wheat was sometimes put in on exceptionally dry land. The growing of oats for pannage in the early spring is partly responsible for the change, added to which has been the wet and backward spring: weather experienced. It bus now been proved that the early sown crops have been invariably the best, provided the land lias good natural drainage. The advantages of early sowing under certain conditions are manifold. Drainage i- one of the necessary condition*. If stagnant water is likely to lie, better trust to spring sowing. The laud must be clean and free from weed*. Weed, will grow in the depth of winter while th e grain is sleeping and choke it. Given dry and clean land the earliness of the work is one of the chief advantage. Then it is probable that the yield will be greater and the harvest extended o\er a longer period, as has been the ease this season. This means niuvli when labour is so scarce. The oats will be all the better for being eaten oil', thu. producing a nice bite to the early lamb. The same conditions apply to Ill's sowing of grass. " [

The first shipment of Angora goats to lie imported into the king Country arrived at Te Kuiti the other day. The goats, which were obtained from ihe May of Maud, by Messr-. KonicrviHc and MuAdam, are intended fur Tokipoliuki. Te Kuiti, with a view to eiadiea, ing the blackberries which ale growing on portions of the propeily.