FARMING NOTES.

Waipa Post, Volume VIII, Issue 377, 22 December 1914, Page 6

FARMING NOTES.

WORK FOR THIS MONTH. Writing further under the above heading, Mr Primrose McConnell says : In the earlier districtshaymaking will be in full swing. The best time to cut is when the plants are in the flowering stage — rather before than later —because when the seeds are allowed to ripen before the crop is cut the resulting hay is of inferior quality, much of the nutriment having passed into the seed. The coarser the material the less drying is required, and when the crop is light, the hay coarse, and the weatht-r good, cutting may be done on one day and the windrowing the next. Clovers and lucerne take much longer fielding, and it is a good plan to put the hay into cock as soon as sufficiently wilted. It is not often that hay is damaged by stacking it when it contains a little of its own sap, but it should never be stacked when it contains any rain water. Haymaking is work that is only learned by practice, and while well-got hay is of very great value, the badly got serves only to appease hunger, and if badly moulded may do a great deal of harm. Up-to-date implements make haymaking a light matter in comparison to what it was twenty years ago, and every farmer who makes hay in quantity should possess a horserake, sweep, and lift. Swede-sowing will be about completed this month, and in connection with the prevention of club-root or finger-and-toe in this crop account of interesting and valuable experiments carried out at Dalmeny Park, Scotland, by Mr A. L. Drysdale has just come to hand. After much experiment it has been proved beyond any doubt that an application of I ton of ground burnt lime per acre just before ploughing, and another ton immediately after, with a mixture of ground phosphates ,or other phosphatic manure not treated with sulphuric acid, 8 cwt kainit, and I cwt sulphate of ammonia, applied as manure, is an effectual cure or preventive, and acts at once. Mr Drysdale also recommends that no dissolved manures (such as superphosphate), nitrate of potash, nitrate of soda, or farmyard manure should be applied to land that is subject to club-root. The above formula will also be of much value in dealing with other fungoid diseases, as all such are stimulated by a condition of acidity in the soil. In no part of the world has experimental work been carried out on such practical and reliable lines as at Dalmeny Park, and, though Mr Drysdale occasionally ignores the text book, the great value of his work has been placed beyond any doubt,and his recently-issued book, ‘Greater Profits from Land,’ is one which may be read with profit by the greatest scientists. In studving this work, however, it is well to remember that the conditions in Scotland are much different from those obtaining in New Zealand. In connection with the dairy herd, everything possible should be done to prevent a decrease in the milk flow, because if there is a serious reduction now the lost ground cannot be made up. At Ruakura a supply of mangolds was available until the end of October, since when the cows have received a daily ration of green lucerne, and the writer’s advice to every dairyman is : “ Sow lucerne, and sow it in quantity.”

ERADICATION OF WEEDS. Mr A. Hughes writes in the Agricultural Journal as follows : The weed most dreaded by farmers in this Dominion is no doubt the so-called Californian thistle. This thistle is known by four names—the Canadian, Californian, corn, and creeping thistle. The first two are local names, add the last-named the correct one, but as it is more generally known as the Californian thistle it will be better to continue calling it by that name. It is a native of Europe, Asia and Africa, and, fortunately, is the only one of the true thistles that is a perennial. I have frequently heard it argued that the Californian and the Canadian thistle are different, and that they bear different flowers, one of a lighter shade than the other, and that there is also a difference in the foliage. The explanation of this is that one is the male and the other the female plant. Then I am met again with " Ob, I had a patch of dark-flowered plants which f cut, but they still increased.” No doubt they did, but from the roots and not from seed, and also by reason of the fact that they had been cut only once. To put it in a nutshell —the flower is dioecious —that is, those on one plant are male only, and those on another plant female only. The best means of eradicating this weed that I have come across

yet is a systematic cutting, and commencing this work early in the summer. The plants manufacture a large amount of food material in their leaves, and this is transferred and stored in the underground stems and buds, so tTat it becomes quite evident that to cut after this food storage has taken place has not the desired exhausting effect. The weed must be cut not only early, but be cut often. The cutting should te repeated as frequently as possible during the season. Perhaps after cutting the first time the plants will come up more numerous than before, but this will be from the underground stem, and in sending up these shoots the vitality of the plant has been weakened. If the stems and leaves, which are the breathing and assimilating organs of the plant, are destroyed as soon as they appear it stands to reason that exhaustion and death must result. The fault with too many farmers is that they think one cutting should kill the weeds, but this is not so except with annuals. Where the weeds are growing in a grass paddock the mower may be run over them several times without much trouble or expense. If ploughing be resorted to, the root must be collected and burned and the land kept under root crops and be maintained in a clean condition as long as the seeds show up. Continual hoeing in arable land is an effective means of control, as it never allows the plants to come away. Where the pest is found in the grain crop it should be attacked at once by hoeing early and late in spring, and pulling up by hand as long as it is possible to get amongst the corn. In the Old Country farm labourers—men, women, and children —are'sent into the cornfields armed with spades and hoes, and with leather gloves on, to eradicate the corn thistle, and this is done several times during the spring and early summer.

The flowers of the plant develop, unfortunately, just before and during harvest, and, if they are allowed to mature, the distribution of seed is assured during the process of cutting and carting. Several chemical methods of eradication have been suggested, such as sulphate of copper, carbolic acid, sulphuric acid, and arsenite of sodium, but up to the present I have not found any of these a success. The sodium arsenite is a poison, and therefore dangerous, as is also sulphate of copper, if sufficient quantities are used. Carbolic acid will kill the stalks, but will not penetrate to the roots. Agricultural salt (sodium chloride) when put on thickly has often proved effectual, but the salt must be used in large quantities and the stock be allowed to have access to it. Salt attracts the water from damp air and surrounding objects, and, when applied to succulent planttissue, it draws the water from this and produces an effect similar to drying or scorching. The advice given by the British Board of Agriculture is as follows: “Faithful systematic cutting with the spade or scythe in meadows or pastures throughout two seasons, or the growth of a couple of root crops in succession where the weed is very prevalent in arable land, are sure ways of getting rid of this most troublesome agricultural pest.”