FARMING NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11936, 25 March 1914, Page 6

FARMING NOTES.

(By "Agricola.")

What is a Hogget,

In reply to a question as to the age at which lambs should be called "hoggets," a practical authority says:—"lt ts not so much a matter of a°e as of circumstance, but as a rule the name hogge's should be given to lambs when they are from ten. to twelve months' old. They are. called hoggets to them from the next year's lambs. For iiij>tauce, when lambs drop in .Inly, then the previous year's lambs must be called hoggets, or else be called Mast year's lambs.' As soon as hoggets are shorn they are called 'two-tooths,' so that the word hogget is only used for a few months. The inquirer says he linds great diversity of opinion upon this matter in his district even among sheepowners of experience. In his part they often shear the lambs before they are weaned, and he states that some slice] , farmers maintain that shorn lambs are hoggets even while sucking their mothorsT Others, again, maintain that if Jambs are not shorn in the autumn they should be called lambs until after the spring .shearing. They will be then about fourteen months old, and are

really two-tooths. If they call them lambs until that, age, they have no use for the name 'hogget' at all, but in that case they will for some time have two lots of lambs on the place, the newcrop and the previous crop, and how do they distinguish between them. , For our part we begin to call lambs hoggets about the beginning of use the name until they are shorn."

Sheep and Fertility. A mill-owner tells me thai he can always tell by the- sample and the way the grain is running when he is threshing on a farm whether the place has a regular llock of sheep running on or not. There is no doubt that sheep improve the soil and the crops, we have instances of this all over the Masterton district. Continuous cropping without the rotations necessary to keep a (lock Of sheep, with breeding and fattening operations compined, soon begins to tell on the land. The grain returns go down, in spite of the best of tillage, and the application of artificial manures. Professor W'rightson, a recognised authority on sheep matters contributes a striking article to the "Live Stock Journal," which, although written for the Old Country has also more than a grain of truth in it for us. In the bourse of the article the Professor says: "The profit, or rather the advantage, of sheep cannot be reduced to a cash statement. There is the benefit accruing from the ewe flock itself, but there is "also that of the close folding of ewes and lambs. It is impossible to reduce these items to a monetary standard . Still, if anyone will consider what his sheep are doing for him in r.v jipect to his whole system of cropping he will find something like the following rough estimate to approximate the facts. With the aid of sheep poor land which could not produce more than twenty bushels id" wheat per acre may yield nearer forty. Similarly the barley crop will be increased from twentyfour to forty-eight bushels; the oat crop i:p to about sixty, while hay and all tinroot crops will be inconipara Idy belt'-- , . It would be a mistake to attempt io reduce these gains to figures. it is siifJi'-ient to show how inextricably the ilock is entwined with the interests of the farm. It is at once a lnndpres-=er. a lawn mower, a fertili.-er, and a manure distributer i;i one —trimming rouv;h herbage that no cutter could reach, lev-γ-irm" pasture in spring, and preparing for ploughing itl iuituinn—:u-tin K us a .-c.avanger of waste herbage all tlie summer, and gathering up the fragments and hollow" shells of swedes and turnips all the winter. A flock makes short work of clover dodder, and at once proceeds to demolish many flouring weeds. It may be used to firm land for young wheat" and to check the exuberant growth of winter-proud grain crops."

Broken Horns. Those Masterton farmers who have io •leal with cattle know that occasionally a boast will have a horn broken oil. There does not appear to be mm-h use tryinir to net the horn into ]• •..-11 n>11 i.gaiii.' It will not hold, am! th- broken piece lias to come off. often di<!iguring the animal considerably. in the .summer time J'ies are a continual nuisance to beast suffering from a. dehn-,-,•----ing accident, and maggots are 'liable io be found there. The following treatment is recommended:—lf the horn is badly broken the best plan is to remove the 'broken piece, using, if m-cessary, a small saw iur this purpo.-e The 'Xposed horn substance should then b" veil washed with Lysnl. solution —one tablespoonful of Lysol to a pint of water, taking can' to clean oil' all blood, clots, etc., which will only attract llies. Then the stump of the horn should '■•:- dressed with Stockholm tar. The won.id should be examined daily for the presence of maggots, as. in splits of ihe tar dressing, these sometimes make their appearance in the crevasses of the I'orn core. They should be cleaned away with the Lysol solution, and a fresh dressing of tar applied.

A Strange Happening. On two successive mornings recently,

\, Clutha fanner found two of his best calves lying dead in a paddock, stiff and .swollen up to great proportions. Concluding that cither the cows or the calves were getting access to some poisonous matter, which, however, a careful soarek. failed, to discover any signs of, anil not looking for further inroads by way of losses into his herd of GO calves, he shifted them and the cows into another paddock. A repetition of the experience a couple of mornings after, when, two more of his best calves were found stretched out dead, gave things a. serious look, and a veterinary mirgeon was immediately telegraphed for. An examination of the dead calves disclosed a very simple explanation, rare in its way, but none the less, wellknown to veterinary science. At the time it was bright moonlight; the cows and calves lay down for the night, but the bright moonlight put them out of their reckoning, and thinking, after an hour or two that daylight was breaking, they got up, roved about, and. had a good feed of dewy grass. Before settling again the calves sucked their mothers. This, ou top of a stomach full of grass, and being an extra, after the usual good feed for the night, caused the formation of gases and resultant swelling, which ended fatally. The experience is rare in New Zealand, but ; ti the Old Country, in the south of Scotland .particularly, it is not infrequent and shepherds pay particular attention to their llocks on bright, moonlight nights, foir the trouble aii'ects ewes and lambs as well as calves suckling the cows. If there is a touch' of frost ou the grans the risk is greater." If the trouble is noticed in time, medicine may be given, or the gases in the stomach may be liberated with a trocar and canula, or an ordinary pocket-knife, or a packing needle. The biggest calves may be weaned, as they ;ire the greediest, and are the most likely to suffer. Another preventative is to yard the cows and calves for he night. or to put them in a bare paddock.

Value of Experiments. The value of experimental work carried (nil on practical linos is being recognised more and more by leading ngricultiirists. Experiments that require , a special knowledge of chemistry or biology cannot easily be undertaken by ordinary farmers, but there are many experiments that are well within the power of every practical farmer, ami Professor Boerke in an interesting paper, "'What is Scientific .Farming? , ' suggests that such easy experiments in dude seed tests, quantity of seed, small or cracked grain and especially selected grain; catch crops; depth of sowinc; pickling wheat with Milestone, formalin or hot water tests; or hot water treatment; manure tests, as to quantity and variety on experimental manure plots. It is so easy to waste money on chemi(al manures that the first, thing necessary is to think about the matter. To put pounds' worth of fertilisers into the land should not be the objective, but to spend the money to the very best and most profitable advantage. There is plenty of literature on the subject---enough to confuse one, in fact. Every iirni o!" manure morchantssupply full directions for using its particular brand of manure, and every State Agricultural Uepurtment and experimental station issues numerous reports on the subject. The more one reads the more complex* tile problem may appear to be. After mastering the elementary fact that no plant life is possible unless the soil is sufficiently rich in nitrogen., phosphoric acid and potash, the inquirer is confronted with the dillirulty that the amounts ot these requirements and the proportion they should bear to each other vary as greatly as do the soils ;u different localities, and the kind of crops whicii aro urown in them. Multiply the number of classes of soil by the number of different crops grown, and the total will P-- | resent the number of different maii'ire mixtures that it is possible to use. One D.ay be excuse!! for fearing lie may never hit upon the right thing; and yot, in the absence of a. suflicient supply of ij:i tiir;i 1 manures, the cons: i> "

must be supplied by means of ehem icals. Xo treatise on the subject -';r

inform (Hi! , exactly what kind and what '|u:uitity of fert: lix-r the s«>i! requires

-•tin* Miliar in , found out by experimi'iit. '['lit , first axiom in manuring is that v,':- must return to the soil an equivalent for that vvhi-'h we take out of it; ami the chemists can help us here, for analysis will give the exact quantities (it .riic different 'dements which a crop contains. Tlie basis of the experiments iiil'.st !r.' the use «)i" a. complete matin v, that is, (in' , containing Hie same t>: , "re.ilvr amount of niir'g<-i, phosph.ni ie arid ami potash which a ton of hay or wheat, for instance, will remove from

a given ai-ea of 3;111< 1 .Let the experiji.ental manure plots be at least half an acre in size. On Plot 1 use a complete jnnnuri—i.e., one thai contains nitrogen, phosphoric acid ami potash. Tlrs plot may give μ-oou results. On Plot, 2 omit nitrogen, if equally good resul's are obtained as from Plot "I, it -will show that, money spent on niti ogcno-.is manures is therefore thrown away. On Plot •". omit, phosphoric, acid, lint lisa nitrogen. Or; Plot ) omit tiie pota :h only. So that; there shrill lie no mist.ike leave an unmanured plot, to separate each of the others. The result of those experiments, if properly measured and recorded, will tell the farmer more than a ton of literature would, '['his one series of plots will not give all the information required. In another set of experiments the amount of: manure used .should be increased to see whether it will pay to put more on. In some eas"s there is a certain, maximum requirement, and anything above that produces no increased results; it is waste in tho case of nitrogen, but phosphoric acul will remain in the soil as a permanent enrichment. The experiments may further be varied by using nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia to supply nitrogen, Thomas's phosphate or .superphosphate to supply phosphoric ocid, and sulphate of potash or muriate of potasli to supply tho required potash, and by applying them to th<v soil at different time.s of. tho season.