THE FARM.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16618, 24 August 1918, Page 3

THE FARM.

NOTES BY "K011ADI." WASTE NOT, "WANT NOT. Tile Edtior has passed on to me a letter from a correspondent who signs himself "One Interested." J cannot, do better than have the whole of tho letter inserted here. It runs: "I. would like your agricultural correspondent to give me some information on this question I am going to ■ ask .you. It may- seem a trivial one, i but I am interested 'in tho subject.' At what age on an average are lambs' . tails cut? Why I am asking is that I hove not "been connected with farming for nearly fifty yfars, and when I was .1 boy in Cornwall we used to wean the lanibs and cut the tails about rhe sanui time, and then we saved all the tails that were cut off, and scalded tne wool off them,, and cut them in .one or two inch lengths and put them in a pie, and cooked them, and I assure you, sir. that it is as great a luxury j as you cou'id eat, in fact I am longing to go Home again to have some lambs' tail pie. think eating it cold is tho best way. However it is so long ago I partly forget. We had perhaps about! One hundred lanibs in a year on a mix-; cd farm. I have often wondered what farmers and «| natters do with all|their lambs' tails in this country. I am well aware that they ;ire cut when the I lambs are younger in this country, hut l I think that any lambi; ovor a month o.'d would not be too young to have i the tails saved for a pie. At any rate ] where there are hundreds and thou-! sands to choose from I believe there! would be a let ot' them good enough' to be used. I would be glad to hear I of some farmer making a trial ofj it, | and if owners would not care to use them themselves, they might send me j a parcel of them care of Editor of your piper, and then it might save me from! longing to go Home to get some lamb [ tail pie. Among the millions of lambs in this country you would be a'ule to get thousands of, meals for families, I and I am sure if people once tasted them "they would never forget it, if j they lived to be a hundred". Hoping to hear from your farming correspondent l at his earliest convenience, as the lambing season will soon be on, and if they do not use the lambs' "tails already, perhaps there are some of the farmers, or Wen squatters, may t ,- y the experiment, and I am sure if they do "they will never be sorry for it." I have heard some of tho new comers to this country asking for lambs' tails for cooking purposes, -and they stated, just as tho above correspondent does, 'that tho tails properly prepared are a great delicacy. But probably none of the native born residents of the Dominion have tried the dish, and very few of the arrivals from the Old Cottntiy have bothered with it. Perhaps the reason is the meat is plentiful i here, and the preparation of the wis j for culinary purposes must entail a good deal of work. Our women fc<!k find plenty to do without looking tor extra work, indeed the majority of the women on. the farms havo more ; than they can do to keep tilings going decently Help in the. house has been, difficult to procure for a long time past, and the position is daily becoming worse. Where meat is scarce every available scrap is no doubt used, and one can imagine that in Great Britain to-day lam'bs' tails are made the mosti of, particularly if they are lef* to grew on the lambs till the youngsters are weaned. But I understand that this is not the general practice at Home, and that in many districts the tailing is done earlier than we are accustomed to perform it here. Lambs are tailed here when they are from a month to two months old, and six weeks would probably be about the average. It is considered by most owners that tho earlier that the job is done in reason the less effect it has on the lambs. It is true that lambs a few days old seem to suffer no great inconvenience wlien they are tailed. On the other hand lambs that escape till the shearing perhaps three mqnths after the lambing, do not seem t-» suffer a great deal from the loss of their tails at that time, though they may be big and fat. Indeed it is very seldom that one dies tinder the handling :it the shearing, though they are often treated under the most unfavourable circumstances. They aru usually done in the yards at the homestead instead of in temporary yards in the clean grassy paddock. If the season is a wet one the yards may be more or less muddy, and if, on "the contrary, the summer is a dry one there probably will be a good deal of dust uT)out. Yet, as I have stated, it is seldom that there are any losses among the stragglers that are treated •Jien. However there is tho happy medium in these things, and generally the tailing is done when the youngsters are five or six weeks old. As a rule the tails liavo very little on them •in the shape of nie:vt at that time, though there are certainly a few that are large and fat. T. have no doubt that "One Interested" could get a supply of lambs' tails at the proper season if he reminded some of his farmer friends of his weakness for lamb' tail pie. As a general rule the tails are buried out of the way at the spot where the tailing operation is carried out. They are counted over to see how many lambs havo passed under treatment, and then thev are committed {,q the ground.-

WEIGHTS OF CATTLE. One hears from time to time a good many arguments iu connection with the weight of cattle as reported from various parts of the world. The huge' weights that- have been recorded in some of the reports from other countries have often puzzled farmers and dealers and butchers in other parts, where a different system of reckoning the weight of beasts is observed. One hears that in America two year old bullocks go all the way to 1400 pounds, and even higher than that huge weight. In Great. Britain the figures are often higher than those of America, huge as these are. To tho v average fanner in the Dominion the weights that are reported to have been registcd in the United States and Great Britain seem to be exaggerated, but there is an explanation in regard to them that puts another complexion on the matter-. A visitor from Australia to America and i Great Britain went into tho matter, ' and he reports as fellows ; The solu-; lion lies here: In New South' Wales wo sell either at so much per head or at so much per 1001b dead weight. In' America they sell their cattile by tlie live'weight (on their legs), at so much, per 1001b. In the British Isles they I are sold live weight at so much per! hundredweight (1121b). Hero we speak ' ol' a bullock doing 9000I ! b, meaning the dressed weight. There a bullock going 300! b means one which will .weigh 9001b j as it walks on the weighbridge-. Ordinarily a bullock dresses 60 per cent, of bis live weight. If a beast has been j hand-fed all along, and kept growing vapidly, it'may yield 6-5 per cent.; ' but) 60 per cent- if. what- is generally counted on. Take 40 per cent, from tlio live, weight, and it will be seen that there; is not- such a. vast difference between j the weights there and hero,

MANURE FOR THE CROPS. It is now almost tlio iinivcr.-al rule io jnamiro the ant mini as well as i lie

spring crops, but of the two tile latter nerds artificial aid more than the other is dear, like a good many other commodities that t;he farmer has to use in the wort: of producing cereals, and all other commodities. But the fertilisear rhould never be withheld from the spring crops no inntter what its price. In fact it is useless putting in spring crop without artificial manure unless the iand is very good and heavy. Even then tho manure is useful because it gives the plants an early start, sending ■them away from tho birds and the weeds. Jt brings in the crop to harvest a fortnight earlier nt the very least than would otlienvi.se be the case-, and it does a good deal towards strengthening the straw, and thus enabling the plants to withstand the wind and the rain. Last year most ot the late oats went down at the last moment, and much of the earlier cereal crops, both wheat and oats, became iodged but last season was an abnormal one, and it is scarcely likely that we shall experience such a time again. In spito of manuring and good treatment the crops went down last year—in fact the better the conditions under which they were sown, the worse the crops were As a general rule, liowcver, it will be found that it pays to manure both autumn, winter and spring, and for Canterbury use the plionpliafcic preparations seem to be -the best One authority says that to strengthen the straw it is essential that tho plantshould liavo a liberal supply of phosphate of lime, and the matter is tlier. enlarged upon as follows:

This constituent seems to he the chief factor in thickening the cell walls of tho straw. Potash and lime applied nt the rtime time seem to have the effect of weakening the straw and nitrogen given in heavv dressings had a. similar effect. But the re-.ult s of the experiments do not seem to liavo "ocen of such a tmifonn nature as to permit of very definite conclusions to be drawn.

Hie only point clearly proved is that phosphate of iime is an essential factor io the good, and a second point which is fairly clear is that applications of lime seem to have an opposite effect. This latter point requires further investigation.

So far. the farmer may aceept the theory that heavy dressings of nitrccenotts manures tend to produce "lodging." while applications of phosphate r.f lime help the standing power of the straw.

LUCERNE FOR HORSES. It is to be hoped that the campaign in favour of the growing ol lucerne will be conducted vigorously in South Canterbury now that a commencement lias been made. It is a pity that the lecture given by Mr Macphorson on Monday evening could not be heard by all '.he farmers in the district. It takes a , good deal of persuasion to induce farmers to try anything new, especially in these times wlien it' is difficult I keep up tho ordinary course ov farm work. Wo are at a disadvanin tliis part of the Dominion in not having a demonstration farm "upon which experiments could bo tried. If it was proved that, lucerne could be profitably grown here, and that it was the best possible fodder for stock", per--haps farmers would try to grow Home" of it. And yet it is to be observed that :n the North Island, where tlie State farms have succeeded in making lucerne indispensable for all classes ot stock, neighbouring farmers havo not. -in all instances, taken to growing it. ' tbeys <see'2sheep,:■i cattle and pigs, 'and even horses living ,tnd thriving well on it, and the whole farm improved because* the lucerne plot allows the grass to be rested now and again. ' A good deal has "neen said first and <fist about the value of lucerne for ; Mieep and cattle, and .even pigs, but I it is not generally known that it is I very good for horses. Beports state ■tliut tlie suitability of lucerne huy for horses is undoubted. .Tn many places, , u ' displacing grain iu the ration of j working horses, and though it is hardly hkejy to be contended that it is preferable to oats, the experience of those who have tried it points to the fact that it is a good subsitute, and has dis- . tiuct advantages. In some of tho | wheat growing areas in New South Wales if, is almost exclusively used for feeding the draught stock. According to information supplied by the Department of Agriculture of that State, there are hundreds of horses doing ordinary farm work on no'thing but lucerne, hav. indeed, in New South Wales, there is a generation of horses that, does not know the flavour of I wheaten chaff or maize, and that scorns tho sweetest wheaten'hay. To ask a I Tamworth fanner, say the report, it j he believes in lucerne hay for working horses, is something like asking a shoemaker if he believes in leather. One wheat growing : farmer, who works forty horses, informed an officer of the* Department that if one l iorse was fed on hard feed and another on lucerne liay, ! he knew which wouid last the longer, jand evontually give the most work. : "All haulage front here to tlie siding, j 5-i miles away, is done, by lucerne-fed horses. They can go in and be back j for dinner. Sulky horses advent a bit more on it-, but it docs not seem to hurt them, and they do good work. Lucerne feeding makes healthy horses. There's no sign of worms here, and wormy • horses improve at once when i brought in. We can fetch in poor horses and get them fit for market at a profit in a few weeks. There seems some medicinal property in tlie lucerne." This fanner finds that for sheep lucerne is tricky, as it is likely to blow them. Several other have given the Now South Wales Department- corroborative evidence. Here are a few of tlie opinions of it in condensed form: "Lucerne feeding makes olea.ii farming"A poor horse will improve in eonditicn if taken off maize and put on lucerne." '"'l like lucerne ; 'eecauso it is the cheapest, and the J j best." "Use lucerne hay and suppleI mentary feeding there need be none."