FARM NEWS AND NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 24 (Supplement)

FARM NEWS AND NOTES

Taint in Bacon. It has been found in New South Wales that fishy taint in bacon was being caused by the pigs being grazed on lucerne or clover pastures. Certainly pig flesh is greatly influenced by the food a pig eats. Carrots and barley are two foods which make for sweet flavoured bacon, while maintaining pigs -under absolutely clean and healthy conditions has also an influence on the flavour of the flesh. Calves’ Digestions. Two fruitful causes of digestive troubles in calves are, strangely enough, often overlooked. There are irregularities in feeding and cold milk. It is important that the feeding hours should be as regular as possible, as a calf kept waiting for its drink after the usual time will become voracious and swallow its milk in a manner which quickly brings on indigestion. As regards temperature, the milk should be as nearly as possible to blood heat, or 98 degrees. Dairying in India. The Government of India has decided to bring about an expansion of dairyfarming in India, and with this object in view is expending a sum of Rs. 5 Lahks (about £40,000) to start a creamery at Anand, Bombay Presidency, to provide a well-equipped laboratory .at Bankalore, and to establish extensive stock farms near Bankalore. The proposed expansion scheme is intended to ensure a continuous supply of good quality dairy produce. Grub on Kumaras. A huge grub of the caterpillar variety yips discovered on a kumara plant in a Gisborne garden the other day. It was of a dark colour, about 2jin long and nearly half an inch thick. A peculiarity was a red horn-like protrusion near the rear end. The caterpillar has been identified as the sphinx convolvuli, the common name of which is believed to be the hawk moth caterpillar. This moth is the second largest of the species found in New Zealand. Other big specimens of the same grub have been found in the Gisborne district lately, some of them being green in colour. One such caterpillar was recently discovered in South Taranaki, siin long and 5-8 of an inch in thickness. Canada’s Pork Quota. Whether Canada actually .obtained at Ottawa the enormous concession she did for the export of pig carcases to England, or whether an additional nought was added by a careless typist (as stated in London trade papers) is not known but the fact remains that Canada secured an extraordinary concession right under the nose of our own delegates. Canada obtained the concession, it is stated, by removing the surcharge from her tariff on British goods. The enormous advantage gained by Canada can be gathered from the figures for the preceding years. In 1932 she shipped to Britain the product of 300,000 pigs, in 1933 600,000 pigs, and she is endeavouring by 1937 to increase that quantity to 2,600,000 pigs or nearly ten times her 1932 shipments. Every effort is being made in Canada to build up production to that high point. • Mowing Young Lucerne. Lucerne stands established in the spring and summer months should not be mown in too great a hurry. The writer has seen more than one promising young stand of lucerne ruined, or impaired in vitality, because of being mown too soon. Unless the young plants have stooled out and fresh shoots are developing it is inadvisable to cut, as the plant can well do with extra time to establish itself more strongly and develop its rooting system. Prospects of Ohura. “People hardly realise what a splendid district Ohura is,” remarked a wellknown Ohura public man at a public gathering recently. ■ So far the district had only been scratched, and he believed that with better farming methods it would be one of the best districts in the North Island, as it responded wonderfully to top-dressing, even .with lune. With file railways now making it possible to bring in fertilisers at a reasonable cost the Ohura should b,e one of the finest dairying districts in the Island.