AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13655, 25 July 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

IN THE PADDOCK. The open pasturage system. »r paddocking of P% s ' «« prattle when J™°micallv linked wrth feeding on V»)*°T< cereals, and other availabte starchy food*, or the bv-products of the da.ry, wntes Mr H. W. Potts, of the Hawkesbury College. New South Wales. Ample shelter, shade, and a good water supplv are useful adjuncts. All young -pigs do best on pa.slur.ige, provided tluy are - permitted to become accustomed to H from birth. A young animal thrives better, and develops franie and muscular energy to lay the foundation of a carcase, that "can be readily fattened in the f-tye at a later stag*-. Small paddocks have their drawbacks in various directions excepting where special fodders or grasses are especially grown and cultivated. Pigs fed "on gnus in combination with other foods invariably provide a class of bacon or pork with a distinctive palatable flavour and firm texture. Possibly the most serviceable of all grasses in our climate is the conch. Under favourable conditions it provides all the elements for maintaining a -healthy growth, and is highly relished' by pigs of all breeds and ages. The creeping stems run underground, and are fleshy, sweet, and nutritious, and afford good food for pigs They cannot eat it out, seeing it is perennial in habit, and sturdy. In fairly good seasons five to eight pigs may be grazed to the acre.

SEARCH FOR ROCK PHOSPHATE. The Government offers, for a new discovery of rock phosphate, £SOO if on Crown land, and £250 if on freehold, on condition that it is reasonably accessible and can be worked at* a profit, that it is sufficient for the needs of the country for five years, that it. can be sold at a price that will pay the fanners to use it, that it will average not less than 50 per cent, of tricalcic phosphate. Poorer phosphates may be granted a reduced bonus. In order to assist young geologists, the Government has hpecimtns of such rock, kept at 'he offices of the stock inspectors throughout the country, where it- may be seen and a leaflet obtained describing it, and explaining a rough mode ■of testing. The chief chemist has also a few specimens for free distribution. The Milburn phosphate had laiu in boulders in full view of trained geologists and. others who had visited the quarries for 20 yeans, yet none of them had discovered what it was. At) both Milburn and Clarendon the material is of a dir'y yellowish-white or light-gray colour, and some patches have tinges of pink. Hometimes it is crystalline. It usually resembles amorphous limestone, but effervesces very little on addition of dilu'e hydrochloric, sulphuric, or nitric acid. . It is also harder and heavier than limestone, but softer than felspar or other rocks likely to be mistaken for it. &xme specimens exfoliate (or shed their fragments in layers) when struck with a hammer.

The Government chemist sums up the appearance of phoxpbatic rocks as follows,: —(1) Phosohates may have almost any tolour —usually whitish, yellowish, grayish, greenish, pink, or black; (2) softer than felspar or qnartz. but harder than Jiniettone; (3) heavier than limestone or quarts; (4) usually non-crystaUin?. but may be crystalline; (5) do*.& not cfftrvi.6iv with acid.

Th's Clarendon quarries have already produced 15,000 tons of fertiliser, which, at. 60 per cent, analysis and Is per unitvalue, has been worth £45,000.

LONG V. SHORT LEASES. Is the Scottish 19-year lease a good system or a bad one, is a matter that ha.-t come np for discussion in view of the new Agricultural Holdings Act, eays the Farmer and Stockbreeder. The answer is, of courses that* it is Both or neither according to circumstances. In bygone years the long lease was held to be one of the chief causes which led to the development of Scottish farming; a fanner at the beginning of his term was encouraged to lay oat capital in imploring his farni, because he was assured that he would reap some of the benefit before the.expiry of his term, and thus in the course of generations an improving type of farmer was developed. But when the slump came in prices then a long lease was a millstone round a man's neck, and in-many cases meant ruin where the landlord did not release the tenant from his contract- Th : s means, in other words, that the long lease was only possible when prices kept at a steady level over a long series of. years. It also meant that during the last years of a term a tenant's best policy was to let his farm run down considerably, because if he* kept it in good condition he would either have to give a rise of rent on his own outlay to see his farm taken "over his head" by" somebody eke. In England the yearly tenancy has been the rule, and though in theory it might have led to a frequent change of tenants, in practice the ; same family has often held the same fanrr for centuries. On the other hand, the fear of a notice to quit has debarred initiative, and we find the yearly tenancy has not developed an improring race of fanners. All this, however, will be altered by the new Act, and a fanner can" improve in future in spite of. his landlord, and claim the unexhausted value at the end. He must, of course, be able to prove that bis outlay really is an improvement to the farm, and that it has a residue valne, but the point that matters now is. that in future, with uneasy and irregular markets, - the yearly tenancy will be the best. The writer has tried both the long and the short methods, and prefers the latter.

VALUE OF THE BIRDS. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITHOUT THEM. Suppose the 13,000 kinds of birds living on the earth to-day were suddenly wiped out'of. existence. . What wonid that tact mean to you? You would miss their song, yes! But what else? The city i would say, "Thank goodness, no more noisy sparrows !" The farmer would rejoice to 'think of his corn safe from the-small birds that he. is now destroying., and his chickens eafe from hawks. But how long would the fanner rejoice? He would sow his grain, and'— The first thing the farmer would notice would be the thousands and tens of thousands of caterpillars and maggots which find food in abundance and which know no enemy in life. These insects grow quickly to maturity, and, in turn, scatter their nntold millions of eggs. Tha first year the croj» would, perhaps, be of* fair size, although every pod, every ear, ivould be damaged by weevil or grub.With the finst warmth of the following srrrir- the insect plague would break out anew. The seed grain would be poor and wormy. From the ploughed fields, choked with weeds which crowd every furrow new terrots would arise—mice would overrun the earth, the grain would be levelled and wkii the crop was gone theytwould kill and eat one another. Every well of water would be deliled, every stream would be polluted with their deald bodies. Xature would strive to regain the balance; larger insects might slay nosts of smaller ones. But the quick snapping of beaks, the sharp eyes of the feathered beings of the air, would find no: substitute. In just how many years the ;end would come no • man could say ; but come it surely would, and quickly. With every sprig of vegetation devoured by J", caterpillars, worms, and grubs, our

domestic flocks and herds would perish miserably. There would be no milk, no egge, no. beef, no meats of any kind. Finally, Mother Earth would bow her head in helplessness, and mankind would perish from starvation, or, for ;l %imc, cko out existence on a diet of fob. And yet farmers and orcbardists in all countries are, by various means, gradually exterminating (hi birds, not having yet realised, as they surely will when (he work of destruction has advanced more, that the birds are really the farmers' friends, uot his foes.

MAORIS AND FARMING. Maori fanning, agricultural education, and certain aspects of the native land question were discussed at the Maori Congress last week. The topic was introduced by Mr Ngata, M.P.. who spoke of the great improvement in sheep-farming which had become apparent amongst the Maoris of Waiapu and Cook Counties. There were, he said, now nearly 120.000 sheep owned by Maoris in those districts, numbering froni 800 to 9000 in each flock, and intelligence was shown iu the selection and care of sheep. There could be no better proof of this than the increase from 4JIb clip per sheep to 7|lb effected within the last ten years, and there had been an increased area of land brought under cultivation, equal to one and a-half times the area that was in cultivation a decade ago. At Totuwai, continued Mr Ngata, there was splendid progress being made in agriculture, and recently the natives sent away from there 6000 sacks of maize. Ruatoki, in the Urawera County, was a centre where excellent dairy work was being done by the Maoris. There was £2OOO worth of cheese stored there, and when he last visited the place the Maoris had clearly proved their ability to do dairy farming, and it was desirable that the Government dairy experts should visit the Maori centres, and give them the benefit of advice and So far he had never known that to be done. The Maors in the North had'been handicapped by the distractions and temptations of the billiard saloons and hotels around the gum diggings. There was a new snirifc moving all the Maoris along industrial lines, and the chiefs now took off their coats and worked with the view of inspiring their people to emulation. Touching on the native land question, Mr Ngata expressed the opinion that itwould be better to keep the Maori lands (even if locked Tip) than sell them, for he hoped that the new; spirit amongst the Maoris would set up a strong demand for these lands amongst the young Maori men. He advocated communal farms, sav, 2000 acres, to be worked by one or two hapus, at which the Government would give instruction. How to deal with the virgin areas was the question most material to the Maoris.

The Hon. R. McNab, Minister for Agriculture, said he had been a close student of Maori history, and he knew that before the Treaty of Waitangi, before the British flag was first hoisted at Kororareka, the Maoris used to grow great quantities of maize and oiher products for sale to Sydney whalers. The Government had no" intention to discriminate between Maori and pakeha. The result of the inquiries by its experts as to progress in this and other lands would be made available to all, and the Maori would be made able to start straight away on a proper system of cultivation, instead of be;ng left to himself to. experiment and pojeibly waste his time and resources. He was impressed by Mr Ngata's proposals, and he would promise, on behalf of the Agricultural Department, that they would supply instructors for the young men, provided the Maoris would set aside a suitable piece of land. He wanted the Maoris to remember that the Agricultural Department was just as much for their benefit as it was for the pakeha, and when they needed information about agriculture, veterinary questions, or any other subject which the Department dealt in, they need only make their wants known. The Minister was desirous of se-eing the Maori regain all his capacity, for agriculture. x

DAIRYING. * The president of the Hawera branch of the Farmers' Union (Mr J. R. Coi rigan) recently read a paper on dairviug, in the course of which he stated: "Thafl dairying is only iii its infancy no one will deny, and it is only bv a combination and change of experiences "and ideas that the beet results can be achieved. It will pay any dairy farmer to go to the trouble of keeping a cample of each cow's- milk, say twice in a season, and get it tested. He can keep a spring balance in the shed, and every week or so weigh each cow's milk, and by keeping these records at the end of the season lie will be able to rjtid out which are his most profitable cows.

"I 'would also rceommend every dairyfarmer to adopt a system of grading his "cows. For instance, say be starts-with a minimum and keeps no* cow in his herd that will not test 3.8 in the flush of-the season and yield 600 gallons of milk for the year. After he has got his herd i up to this standard he can go on im- | proving, say another point, 3.9 and give 700 gallons of milk for the season. • I venture to say that if every fanner in Taranaki adopted this method and took the minimum grade that I have quoted, namely, 3.8 test and 600 gallons of milk for the season, there -would nofr be more than 33 per cent, of the cows that are milked in Taranaki -at the present time kept for dairy purposes. So you can quite imagine bow. much money <is lost to ibis province every year, just through farmers milking, anything that is in the shape of a coiv, irrespective of what her qualifications are. At the present time the average amount of butter - fat per cow per annum in this Dominion is something like 180ib.». If the cons could be brought- up-to .the standard I have quoted, and I don't -think it would be asking, 100 much, the annual return .per cow would be about 2401bs butter-fat. If this could be achieved it -would increase our returns per. cow- per annum. 601bs ' butter-fat. Put this at lOd per lb, and *it -would mean £2 IDs per cow. There are- about 100.000 dairy cows in Taranaki, so this would mean an income of £250,000 per year for this proviuce without having to increase our past ures. " The . first thing necessary for dairy cows is an abundance of feed. Cows are really only machines for converting fodder into butter-fat. So the sooner they fill themselves and lie down the better chance they have of manufacturing- it. At this period more than at any other it is absolutely necessary to feed your cows well so as.to build up. their constitutions ready to go on manufacturing, butter-fat for another year. If-this .is not done and cows are allowed to get low. iu condition, it takes them the best part of the next season to build up their constitution instead of manufacturing their maximum amount of butter-fat."