PASTURE AND PADDOCK.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17353, 1 May 1928, Page 8

PASTURE AND PADDOCK.

INFORMATION FOR FARMERS. COMMENTS ON LAND. NOTES AND “SKIMMING 3.” A good use for horse-shoes is for pegging down wire-netting in between the posts. They hold down both netting and wire better than pegs. When fowls are troubled with worms in the eyes, causing blindness, dip a feather in a solution of iodine and poke it up the nostril to the corner of tho eye. This- will make the worm drop out. For gapes, twist two short pieces of strong horsehair together, and twist them down the fowl’s gullet. Keep twisting gently until, on withdrawing, the worm is entwined in the snare. The best nesting material for fowls is clean sand or small shell grit. There is less likelihood of vermin, and the hens will not scratch it out like straw or grass. Eggs are not liable to crack and any droppings can be easily removed, keeping the nest fresh. During moulting time fowls require a certain percentage of oil to help them in the shedding of the old feathers. The new plumage comes quicker, and is in better condition, for the addition of such foods as linseed meal or Sunlight oil cake. A little added to the morning mash is all that is needed, but do not give too much, as this will often turn the hens off the food, and check the layers in the flock.

When about to drench lambs for worms, try the mixture on a few and keep them in the yard for the night to se e if the arsenic mixture is not too strong. If there are no ill-effects carry on with the remainder, but should any of the first trial lot suffer lessen and weaken the dose.

A good tonic for poultry during the moulting months —March, April and Ma—can be made by dissolving 4oz. of sulphate of iron and four packets of Epsom salts in warm water. Add sufficient cold water to bring the total to one gallon. Then add loz. of diluted sulphuric acid. On two days a week add to the drinking water for each 12 hens half a cup of the mixture. When a barbed-wire gash or other wound on a horse refuses to heal, wash clean with a solution of bluestone in water and dry up the sore with, the ash of burnt willow. After a few treatments when there is no further appearance of proud flesh, leave off the bluestone wash, but persevere with the ash until a new skin has grown over the patch. Dairy farmers are sometimes puzzled by variations in yield or test from day to day. Professor Riddet, at Massey College, is investigating this problem. Mr. Q. Donald annonced this fact in a report to the Research Council., Hq also stated that the statistical investigations into the records of the Group Herd Testing Association were now well under way, and gave promise of some interesting results. A preliminary survey of the problems of heat utilisation in dairy factories had been made, and further experiments would need to be carried out in order to devise means of power and fuel economy. lODINE FOR LIVESTOCK. lodine is absent from the general run of feedstuffs, and it must be added to the ration if stock are not to suffer. It has a stimulative effect upon the secretions of the thyroid gland, an organ of extreme importance to bodily welfare. A lack of iodine may not make itself felt for generations, but eventually the deficiency will manifest itself in the offspring. Symptoms of a lack of iodine are, in human beings, goitre; in valves, big-neck; in pigs, hairlessness; and in chickens, lack of feathers. The stock-breeder, for biological reasons that need not be gone into here, should give small doses of iodine each day to pregnant animals; and occasionally to young and growing stock. It is best administered in the form of potassium iodideTwo grains of pot. iodide is the dose for a mare, a cow or a pig, or for 50 hens. If one ounce of pot. iodide is dissolved in one gallon of water, one tablespoonful of this solution will contain two grains of pot. iodide. This quantity added daily to the food or drinking' water of each pregnant animal will ensure the birth of noimal young, and will also be of great benefit to the general health of the mother. SOIL POOR IN VEGETABLE MATTER.-, “Ascot’s” mixture of fertiliser is open to two objections. In the first place no amount of fertiliser applied to “land poor in vegetable matter” can take the place of humus. Indeed, in very many cases most of the fertiliser would be wasted until a certain amount of humus is supplied by either animal or green manure. Secondly, it is a cardinal point in fertilising to fertilise for the crop and not for the land, so the fertiliser should .vary according to the crop sown. “Ascot’s” advice for “land poor in vegetable matter” should have been: Sow a leguminous crop after treating with lime (if practicable), fertilising with superphosphate . and perhaps potash. Plough in the haulms after harvesting (unless the crop has been ploughed under as green manure) and then fertilise for the next crop with a suitable general fertiliser. Land should be limed, of course, at least three weeks before sowing or fertilising.