FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 19

FARM AND DAIRY

COWS WASHED TWICE A DAY. DAIRYING IN HONOLULU. In Honolulu dairy cows are washed and scrubbed twice a day, dried in the sun, fed by hand, sprayed with an anti-fly preparation, and milked by machines. And the best milk costs Is. 3d. a quart! Few cattle were raised for meat, and those were poor specimens, Mr. F. C. Wade told a reporter of the Christchurch Press on his return from the Hawaiian Islands recently. He visited, however, one particularly fine farm of between 300 and 400 cows. The herd was divided into two groups —Guernseys and Friesians- —for the milk of Guernseys commanded a price of 30 cents a quart, -while that of the Friesians was worth only 20 cents. “Regularly, twice a day, the cows are taken into a yard, hosed down with water,, and scrubbed, dried, and brushed, and. then squirted all. over with some preparation they have for keeping the flies off,” said Mr. Wade. "They arc milked by machinery and. hand-fed. Little, grass, grows in. the islands, and most of the fodder has to be imported. The cows are fed partly on pineapple husks. I need hardly say ' that the dairies and sheds are kept in perfect cleanliness. All the milk is bottled for distribution.” VALUE QF FERTILISERS. INCREASING PRODUCTION. The sown grassland of. the Dominion is about 18,000,000 • acres,. and the area is being slightly extended. These grasslands are. responsible for -an annual output of about 250,000 tons of meat, 70, 000 tons of wool, and HO,OOO tons of dairy produce. This works out at about 301 b. of meat, 91b. of wool, and 171 b. of -butter-fat an acre. With normal prices, the annual value of grassland products is in the vicinity of £55,000,000, and it is anticipated that this figure could quite easily be doubled by the more intensive application of scientific grassland management. AH over the world the value of such management is fast becoming recognised, not only by farmers, but also by other interests. Of the 18,000,000 acres of sown grassland, about 5,000,000 are used for dairying and 13,000,000 for sheep and beef cattle. However, a very large area of the dairying land is in a more or less unimproved state. If, therefore, 4,000, 000 acres is taken as the area used for dairying, the average yield is about 70 lb. of butter-fat per acre. When it is considered that under the present conditions yields of over 3001 b. per acre have been Tealised, the potentiality for an increase in dairy products ia quite evident. In fat lamb production, highly topdressed farms are now carrying six and seven ewes to the acre, which before top-dressing did not do better than two. When we take into consideration the fact that fertilisation and special grassland management is only in its infancy as far as New Zealand is concerned, the outlook for both our dairy produce and sheep is exceptionally promising. ■■' ‘ j Extensive inquiries show that the cheapest production of butter-fat per acre has occurred where the larger amount of fertiliser has been used. For instance, dressings of 3ewt. of "super” an acre give a far greater ration of profit than dressings of lewt. per acre.

While the need for fertilisation cannot be stressed too strongly, the necessity of proper fertilisation to suit particular types of soil must be closely watched. Proper fertilisation may mean one treatment under one set of conditions, and a wholly different treatment under a different eet of conditions. In general, the less exhausted the soil, the greater the acreage of responsive soil to be treated in proportion to the size of the herd, and the less the need for additional grazing the less intensive will be the treatment required; while the more exhausted the soil, the smaller the acreage of responsive soil to be treated in proportion to size of herd, and the greater the need for additional grazing the more intensive will be the treatinent to be used. Mere application of fertiliser —even of just the right fertiliser—is no guarantee of profitable results, as proper management is of equal importance. FARMYARD MANURE. ARTIFICIAL METHODS. Considerable use is being made in various parts of the Empire of the Rothamsted process for making straw and other plant residues into artificial farmyard manure. This is. done without ithe .use of animals 'and by. qncouraging jibe'decomposition of .the material by the .micro-organisms already present. . The chemistry of the process (says the annual report of the Rothamsted Experimental Station) is slowly being worked out. The first constituents of the straw..to be decomposed are the hemicelluloses, then t'he : cellulose goes, excepting in .so far as it is protected by a resistant layer of lignin; it is interesting that cellulose, while fairly resistant to chemicals, is easily broken down by certain micro-organisms. These, however, do not appear to attack the lignin, so that this constituent is left mainly undecomposed, but not altogether unchanged. The ration of cellulose plus hemicelluloses to lignin seems to be the dominant factor in determining the rate of decomposition of the straw, provided sufficient available nitrogen be present. The xylan associated with the cellulose is not unavailable, but is decomposed only as fast as it is exposed by layers. The small amount of pectin present in straw is not removed during normal decomposition, but only if acid conditions set in.