AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8065, 27 November 1906, Page 1

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

It was formerly believed that the fat in the food was the maiu source of the fat in the milk. A good tow, however, will produce in a year a much larger amount of fat in the mi!k than she consumi s in the food, showing that the fats are in part produced from other nutriments. Investigations that have been made show that it is not possible to increase either the percentage or the total amount of fat in the milk for any appreciable time by the feeding of fats or oils. Where fats have been fed to cows even at the rate of two pounds or more per day of tallow, cotton-seed oil, cr other fats, the fat content of the milk was not permanently increased. The first por'.ion of milk given by any cow at a milking is poor in fat, while the last portion, or strippings, is very rich in fat. This, difference in fat contents suggests the importance of careful and exhaustive milks'- g, and also thorough mixing of the milk before taking a sample for analysis. The dairyman that is making the most money to-day is the dairyman that is reading a great deal and keeping up with the best methods of the times. Information passes from one person to another so slowly by word of mouth that if a man had ,to depend on that method of getting information he would continue to follow the methods of his ancestors more often than not. If word of mouth is depended on the ancestor had the advantage, and in the past this advantage has led to the young dairyman, following ,in the footsteps of the old dairyman. The dairyman that reads can gee out of the rats, and it is necessary many times to get out of the ruts if money is to be made by means of the cow and her product. In the dairy business the margin between profit and loss is not great, and by a little wrong method the cow-keeper can easily make a loss instead of a gain. If losses are continued from year to year it means a failure in the end. The farmer that reads seldom fails in the dairy business. Calves dropped in the fall are more easily raised and pushed. Spring calves do not receive much benefit from grass the first season, because for some time after birth the ruminating stomach is undeveloped, not to mention the effect of flies and the summer heat. When getting a good start, winter and dry food come, and the growth is checked. In the fall there is more time to be given calves. Fed mostly on milk, they are easily managed in bam or shed. When spring comes the fall calf is large enough to make good use of the pasture, and so of the dry food when the next winter arrives. The average cost of a strainer for fencing purposes is now something like seven shillings per post, and as this is an expensive item on a farm, the following method for doing with* out straining posts is strongly recommended. The present writer saw the plan in operation the other day, and was very much struck with it. The farmer whom he saw using the substitute for the big straining post said he had learned the method from a foreman "fencer" on a big Hawke's Bay sheep run. The method is as follows:—Twelve feet from the place where under ordinary circumstances a strainer would be sunk, and in a line with the strain to be made, dig a hole ten inches by thirty, and three feet six inches deep. Cut a piece off an ordinary fence post the length of this hole on the bottom, notch out in the centre of this a space to bold a double thickness of ordin-ry fencing wire, and then cut off from the coil of wire a piece of about twenty-five feet. Double this length of wire, then wrap it round the notch cut in the anchor. Then cut a sloping gutter from the surface of the ground nearest ihe post to be strained on down to within six inches of the bottom of the whole already for the anchor. This sloping gutter or trench is to be started about three feet back from the hole, and it is to finish six inches from the bottom of it. Lay the doubled wire round the anchor, place the anchor in position at the bottom of the hole; lay the doubled wire in the sloping trench, then ram the earth well home on both the anchor and the wire in the trench. You may then strain away on to the doubled wire until the crack of doom. It will never pull the anchor out of its positiop. Try this the next time you want to use a strainer.