FARMING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5335, 27 January 1906, Page 4

FARMING.

LIME. The excellent results produced on some soils by a dressing of lime have always been known. It is an element of plant life ; and the recent discoveries connected with the activity of nitrifying soil organisms have helped to throw more light on the reason ot its usefulness. It corrects acidity in the soil, warms and opens the soil up to the sun and air, and as an alkaline base, is essential for the nitrification of the organic matter, as well as being necessary for the transformation of potash salts into carbonate of potash, which is the assimilable form of this ingredient. ' As is well known, many soils are naturally so well provided with this element that it would be a useless e£-' pense to increase the stock by artificial means ; but in other soils it is essential to apply lime in order to grow good crops. A crop of turnips, tops and bulbs, takes from the soil about i iBlbs of lime, potatoes, 4olbs, red clover 77lbs, and all other crops a more or less important quantity. Lime is applied to the soil direct," and in smaller quantities in fertilisers, ' Thus bone meal contains about 30 per cent, superphosphate 20 to 25 per cent., basic slag 40 to 45 per cent., and farmyard 1 per cent.

THE SOWS THAT GET LITTERS.

Poor sows are likely to look very coarse and undesirable even if their general contour of body is uniform and the various parts of it are corelated. Hog men generally do not approve of coarse sows of great length and ungainly, because, they say, not enough quality is present and that such an animal matures too slowly. For that reason one is desired that is of the chunky order, that never gets very poor in flesh, and maintains a smooth- pony-like ap-' pearance. Usually the judgment is ■pretty sound in this respect, but never- ' theless it seems that the craze for little smooth chunks of sows must decrease or the growers go out of business. It is our opinion that the long, coarseappearing sow does the best business in getting good pigs, and many of them. It is her pigs that sell well as breeders, or that continue to make gains after they reach the 2oolb mark, and that cut out on the block. Her pigs therefore are what we want, provided they, are economical makers of extra gains, and remain smooth when putting them on. If" they do not do that, farmers who have, experienced their performance in those respects would not be so eager to buy them, nor would farmers who grew such and then the chunks be returning to their first love. It is true that many desire the chunky sows that look smooth and sleek, and no doubt the great number of such have led' many astray that were growing the profitable class. But those conservative men who are making money out of hogs by growing them for pork are the best guides. Look well, there, fore, to the real merits of the sow. If she appears and when poor, rather ungainly, she still can produce pigs which makes gains cheaply and money surely. Beauty is to be seen in everything, but to most farmers the hog that is capable of producing the most money is the one that seems to have the most beauty spots.