FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 23, 21 July 1911, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

NEWS AND NOTES. Over-kept, fermented and scoured foods tend tn produce acidity and other changes in the milk. The Japanese Government recently purchased some stud Hereford cattle in England. It is the first time Japan has been a customer. The animals are intended f'ir use on experimental farms. In comparing the live stock of Great Britain during the past two decades it is shown that there has been a decrease of 839,024 sheep in the last ten years over the preceding decade, or 3.11 per cent., while an increase in cattle has been recorded of 356,322, or about 8 per cent.

An average sample of mare's milk contains about 90 per cent, of water, whereas the average proportion of water in cow's milk is about 87.5, and in the milk of the ewe about 81 per cent.

It costs less to raise two pigs weighing 2501b each than one weighing 5001b. The rate of growth decreases with the size and age of the animal, and the amount of feed required for maintenance increases.

The horse is always picking up good habits while he is contracting bad ones, and it requires a knowledge of the horse to make these habits permanent and develop them into further usefulness. Experiments show that it is only one,fourth as expensive to raise a . calf on skim milk as whole milk. Two pounds of grain, with the proper amount of skim milk, equals lib of butter-fat. Buttermilk or whey may profitably be fed to calves. i.'

Often when horses are poof in flesh and not doing well, the trouble is worms. If such is the case give a tbnic—powdered sulphate of iron and gentian root in equal parts. Give six drams twice a week till his condition improves.

It is false economy to breed from the poor cows; better 1 'sell three of them and buy one good animal with the proceeds.

Don't feed horses too much when they are idle in-' 'winter. Their ration can sometimes be cut down half to their benefit

Use your farm animals so that they will be gDod-natured. It is a characteristic that has a distinct money value.

A colt once stunted never fully recovers from the effects. It is quite necessary, then, that the colt should be kept growing steadily, even if it requires special care and attention. The difference between good and bad driving is not so apparent in the handling of working horses as in those used for faster work, but even in them faulty handling shows itself. If there is anything a sow with a litter or pigs dislikes thoroughly it is the Hindue interference of the herdsman and i disturbance of her habits. I Aerate and cool the milk as soon as it is strained. The cooler it is the more J souring is retarded. If covers are left I off the cans cover with cloths.

The man who will not, take the pains to breed a good mare to a good sire must expect to put up with a poor colt as a result of his carelessness.

If colts are handled rightly from the time they are foaled, there will be no trouble in picking up their feet and working them as long as it is necessary to put oil shoes.

Horses fed irregularly often get into the habit of pawing in the stable. Feed them regularly, and if not driven or used every day turn them into the yard for exercise.

Everyone should know that the hand —a tei'iii ifttiimorily used In describing the height of a horse—is one-third of a foot, or four inches.

Avoid too heavy shoes when shoeing young horses. It tends to make them awkward, and is an unnecessary burden for them to bear.

A sow will bring forth a litter in about 112 days from conception. At farrowing time each sow should be in a pen by herself, placed in her new home long enough before farrowing time, so that she will become accustomed to it.

j The horse-breeder wishing to breed the best should refrain from grazing his in-foal mares and young stock on pastures which have been continually and recently grazed by horses, once wrote Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Preference must be given to fields in which horses have not fed for the last three years, and for longer if possible. Thus the dams and youngsters will obtain fresh, untainted food. The number of animals should be strictly limited in accordance' with the area of the stud farm, which should be sufficiently extensive to allow periodical changes to fresh land; one yearling to every five or six acres is the desideratum* The theory of fresh grazing has been tested among Shire-horses by placing a certain number of mares, oil their return from service by the best sires money could procure, upon land where the pasture was not fresh; in the following year the number of mares, served by the same sire, under identically similar circumstances, have been placed on pastures which had 'been freshly laid down, or upon old grass land on which horses 'had not been grazed for several years. The produce in the latter case have been to an extraordinary extent superior in bone, muscle and constitution to their brothers and sisters of the previous year. Sir "Walter attributes the superiority to nothing else than their "'Nature's'' feeding. These tests of the fresh-grazing theory have not been confined to one year with next, but have run over several years. Is it too much to assume that a method which has been productive of sueh remarkably good results with Shire horses would be equally applicable to blood stock?— Live Stocfc Journal.