ARE PRESENT-DAY YIELDS BETTER THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18443, 29 March 1922, Page 7

ARE PRESENT-DAY YIELDS BETTER THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Are crops being secured now through the adoption of better methors of cultivation and improved varieties of grain? If individual farmers were asked this question the replies would not show any general agrement on the subject. Those who are old enough to recall pioneer days are likely to think that presentday crops are not equal to what they reaped fifty years ago. Many others will state candidly that they do not see any change for better or worse. A report recently issued in England gives a review of the yields there since 1885, and draws some conclusions which are interesting though not very conclusive. In the first place it is admitted that the returns for individual years are so affected by weather conditions that it is difficult to make fair comparisons. In the case of wheat there is some small evidence of a Kigher yield in the period 1909-19 <>an in the period 18885-99. It is .fought that the gain is due not so mucu better cultivation as to the introduction of heavier yielding varieties. Many of these newer sorts give, under favourable conditions, as high as 45 to 60 bushels per acre as compared with the general average of 31 bushels. Turning to Holland it is seen that there is a decided increase since 1870 when the average was 24 bushels to the 35 bushels of the past few years. The yields of barley and oats in Holland, it may be noted, also show a tendency to increase. Nearer home the United States furnishes evidence of a steadily growing rate of yield along with an increasing area under wheat. For 25 years previous to 1890 the average was about 12 bushels per acre while for the ten years ending 1918 it was nearly 15 bushels. Statistics for all Canada do not go back far enough to permit any safe conclusion to be drawn. For Ontario, however, there are records of a 20-bushel average in the decade 1881-1891 and of 23.5 bushel average in the period 1902-1911. Good cultivation is no doubt one of the factors, but the use of better seed has probably had a greater influence.

HANDLING THE DAIRY BULL. On many farms the care of the bull is such as to amount to cruelty to animals. Often the dirtiest and darkest corner of the barn is selected for the bull’s stall, whereas the very opposite ought to be true, as he must be kept in the barn a large part of the time, and for this reason particularly, needs sunshine, light, and cleanliness. Even some stockmen are afraid of a bull and this is one of the reasons why so many good Pure-bred bulls are sacrificed when two or three year sold Right care and training will do much to combat this tendency. The bull should be halter broken r.s a calf and when about a year old he should have a two and one-half inch copper ring put in his nose.

This is a very simple operation, as the cartilage in the nose can be pierced without much pain to the bull, if gone about in a business-like way and the bull's head is well secured. The operation can be completed in less than two minutes and without the bull becoming excited at all. He should not he handled by the ring until the nose is entirely healed up and is no longer sore.

Then the bull should be tied with a strong bull halter to one end of the manger, and by this ring to the opposite end of the manger, and the two tie Places should be three or four feet apart. This will make it possible to approach him from either side without giving him an opportunity to catch you. As a rope tied in his nose ring becomes wet and dirty and soon rots, a chain made of about three-six-teenths inch iron links, or something equally as strong, with a large heavy snap to fasten to the ring, is the best way to fasten him on that side. The bull halter should be made of the best one and one-half inch leather well looped, and he should be tied with three-fourths or seven-eighths inch rope. THE BULL STALL. * A dairyman who has built a cement manger describes it as follows: “It goes across the front of his stall, which is about seven feet wide. It is about eighteen inches high and eighteen inches wide, and the bottom about a foot off the floor. In the front of this concrete manger, which is about four inches thick, I have put two upright gas pipes, two inches in diameter that are bedded in the cement about a foot from each end of the manger and that go to the ceiling of the stable. The bull is tied to these two upright rods and there is nothing that he can tear out or that will rot or wear out. There is no place under the manger to harbour rats and vermin.” The floor of the bull stall can be Jtept more sanitary and will be better for various reasons if it is made of concrete. It is hard to keep a bull stall reasonably clean because many of them will paw their bedding with their front feet, but this trouble can be obviated to quite an extent by using cut straw or shavings for bedding as they cannot pavz this back as readily as whole straw They should be thoroughly clean and they will greatly appreciate and do much better if given a daily brushing.

Whenever the bull is to be bandied it should always be with a good, long strong staff in his ring, and one that is so constructed that it will not easily unsnap and leave the caretaker at the mercy of the bull. Some of the patent staffs now advertised, especially those having a handle at the end of the staff, and with different contrivances that screw on the ring rather than snap on, are very desirable.

Treat the bull with kindness yet firmness, and so handle from calfhood up that he will always respect you as boss and never have the opportunity to learn that you are really powerless to handle him, even with a staff, if he knows his strength. Pet him if you wish, but never let the though leave your mind that he Is watching for an opportunity to gore you, and this caution is especially

needed if the animal is apparently tame, as nearly all the accidents with bulls are those that are quiet and therefore trusted.