Agricultural Affairs.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 5401, 13 April 1909, Page 4

Agricultural Affairs.

In ordor to got tho hay all eaten, stalks as well as leaves, many American farmer! soak it in water. This has proved satisfactory wherever tried, states one writer.

Keep all of tho heifer calves pro duced by your good cows (an authority advises) You cannot buy good cows, because no one is fool enough to sell them. You must raise them.

The Otago Daily Timas compares the prices now ruling for butter fat in Northern Wairoa and South Canterbury. In the former district is the price, and in the lattor 12£d.

Molasses are of value as feed for pigs, but the value does not lie so much in the nutrition it contains as in its making the food it is mixed with more palatable, and thus more readily acceptable and digestible. The Akaroa correspondent to the Lyttelton Times writes saying that this year the oocksfoot industry is “ dead.” In previous years during March waggons were daily bringing in huge loads for shipment, and tho steam launch Peraki and the punt were continually carrying loads from different bays. Just before a ship came in the wharf was almost blocked by sacks of seed awaiting shipment, the total running into thousands. This year there is hardly a sack. Only a few small parcels, belonging to contractors, have been quitted. Mr Fred Mayo has assured a repre sontativo of the Manawatu Daily Times , as tho result of his experiences, that ho was satisfied that u man with 100 acres of apples could net £7OOO a year in that district after five yours. “ What other industry can show that,” he asked. He bases his calculation on tho fact that ho could grow 150 trees to the acre, which, in full bearing, would yield £1 per tree per annum. His own trees easily do this, and ho mentioned tho case of a Levin farmer who regularly took £l7 from as many trees. Mr Mayo is himself planting 30 acres.

A local journal announces that harvesting operations are going on at Mutuura with a boom. The splendid weathor is holding out long enough to got all the heavy crops gathered in, and all available labour is used up meantime. That is one feature of the present harvest which is an advantage to working men, tho greator quantity of grain is making moro work, and although the price of grain is lowor tho farmers are getting ‘25 to 30 per cent moro grain, and can afford to pay for oxtra labour.

Speaking of tho caterpillar pest, Mr M. Murphy, president of tho Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, said, reports the Lyttelton Times , that from the experience of experiments ho had carried out this season, he thought that the pest could not bo successfully troated by any of tho ordinary methods used for the destruction of other plant pests. Ho was convinced that the diamond - back moth would never be controlled until a machine was invented for capturing tho moth, which, from tho insect's poculiar habit of flight, should not bo impossible. There were 270,000 acres under turnips and rape in Canterbury, and estimating tho damage done by this post at 5s per acre —and this probably was far too low—there was a dead loss amounting to £08,750; £SOO would not be too much to offer as a premium for an eflicient machine as suggested.

Under the heading “ Can we improve tho cheese-making industry ?” tho New Zealand Dairyman suggests:—“Tho first reform that seems to us possiblo is working two shifts during tho flush. Farmers have no convenience for keeping immense quantities of milk ovor night, and while it is being kept it is deteriorating. Tho obvious remedy, then, is a twice a day delivery and a night shift. This would cost a slightly oxtra amount for working expenses, but we are confident that tho results would far more than compensate for the oxtra outlay. We will now suggest an experiment that we honestly believe would be of immense vulue. Let all the members of the dairy staff and all the dairy inspectors in tho Dominion be got togefhor, say at Rivorsdale. Lot thorn takn churgo of tho factory for a week. Tho dairy service working tho factory, and tho dairy inspectors doing the milking.

They may use tooth brushes on the cow’s teeth (according to the very latest advices this is one of the plaoes where the wily microbe lurks), and then the result ought to be this ideal oheese that always beats ours by ten to twelve shillings per cwt. The phenomenally dry weather has left the dairy inspectors practically out of a job for the present, and a test of the kind we suggest would be of immense advantage. There would be no fuult to find with the milk, because it would be controlled and supervised and milked by the inspectors, while all the skill and talent of the commissioner’s staff would be available at the factory. Mr John Saxon, of Levin, writes to The Dairyman on the feeding of calves. He says that when calves are put on half new and half factory "ilk they should then have a small allowance of boiled linseed. When

b-dled for half an hour the seed should be straiued away before mixing the liquor with the milk, as the seeds tend to irritate a young calf’s intes tines. Boiled linseed was much used in England sixty years ago, and the Odlves reared on whey and boiled linseed grew into first-class cattle. But they must be carefully attended to when young, and be sure they have a paddock of clean grass to run in. This, I consider one of the chief things in rearing calves. My reason for advocating careful attendance is this : Tf I see any tendency to bud scour I scald one teaspoonful of Scott’s dried blood for each calf, and mix the same with milk. Usually a marked difference is seen after the first dose. But should the scour come on again, I repeat the dose. lam a believer in dried blood, and always keep it on hand. I have always shown hand-reared calves at the Horowhenua A. and P. Association Show, and have been successful in being placed first each year. I might add, my calves this year were reared on Qilruth calf meal, and I have come to the conclusion that the linseed is equal to the calf meal, but takos longer to boil.

In the early days of the North Otago district caterpillars were a greater scourge than they are in these days of the small bird pest, and a farmer in the district (according to North Otayo Times) determined to try a method he had seen in operation in South Australia. Ho noticed that for about a chain wide and several chains long myriads of caterpillars hud settled down on his crop, and were destroying the heads of grain. Ho took tho rope reins from a team, and he and his ploughman, stretching these across the affected part of the crops, at about 6in below the tops of the heads, murched along with the rope taut. The grain bent down as the rope passed along, and when freed of the pressure Rprang back with a jerk, throwing every caterpillar to the ground. Natural instinct warned the insects of danger, and they swarmed out of the crop and on to the road, where an opportune “ north-wester ” shrivelled them up.