THE FARM

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 8

THE FARM

Agricultural events for week ■ ENDING SEPTEMBER 9. I MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4. ■ Stock sale at Cambridge. S»ch- sale at Hikutaia. sale at Mr R. Gregg's, i. SEPTEMBER 5. stock sales at Ohaupo. Te SEPTEMBER in putting the nature and other circumstances ■iring on the subject, as e. leader," Tamahere.—ls Qg of unploughable hill wgeous? What is the ock such land, when to ■ remove stock, treatment in meantime I to revive growth, and when to return I the stoek to the area ? I The fact that much of the hill ministry of New Zealand is rapidly deterior- ■ a ting emphasises most emphatically ■ the necessity for periodical rests. Con- ■ stant, and very close grazing with ■ sheep will ruin any pasture sooner or ■ later. The best time for resting the I land is between the end of winter and ■ spring, and the period of rest may ■ vary from a month upwards. The in the meantime will depend I on the extent to which the land is ac- ■ cessible. If chain-harrowing is posI sible, it will be of great benefit; also I topdressing with phosphatic manures, I but in many instances neither is posI sible. If the paddocks are comparaI tively small, the best plan is to close I ene at a time completely for several I months, and if the resting period sug§r gested is net convenient, it may take 1., place at any time of the year with I good results.

STRAY JOTTINGS. Milk fever, paralysis and kindred ailments are causing the dairy farmer a great deal of anxiety just now (says the Hawera Star). The number of cases this season appears to be abnormal. One man in this district is said to have had over twenty cases, another has already lost six cows, and so it goes on. W : hen regard is had to the priees that have been paid for cows this Beason, it will be realised that the tetal loss is very great; for if the cows do net die they often take a considerable time to return to their normal production. By some it is thought that the exceptionally mild winter, followed by a sudden celd snap, may have something to do with it. One hears numer- ' oiis suggestions as to preventive measures, in the matter of feeding, etc., but the only one that appears to be recognised by veterinary authorities is to give a good drench before calving. In making rennet extract the best vessel to juse is either one of gl??.e,] earthenware or an enamel-lined dish. Before using the vessel must be thoroughly cleaned and scalded; cut the veils into fme shreds, and place in the Vessel; then add 1 gallon of water, which has been boiled (and then cooled), and also 1 Jib of fine salt to every four veils. Allow to stand for 10 days, stirring frequently meanwhile; then strain off and bottle. The straining fc*»ery important; several thicknesses of cloth should be used, and the liquid poured through several times. If the .veils are partly filled with salt when preparing them, it is not necessary to add nail to the water when making te extract. The extract shouUl be

dark in colour, hut not cloudy. II should have a distinct, brine-like smell, but should not be offensive. Rennel

extract made in this way will be on the average about half as strong as commercial brands of rennet extract. TWO HUNDRED KINDS OF CHEESE. How many kinds of cheese are there? Most people could give the names of half-a-dozen off hand, but a report of the United States Department of Agriculture describes 200 kinds, made in different parts of the world. Among them are: .lack cheese, trappist cheese, gex cheese, potato cheese, hopfen cheese, gerome' cheese, sassenage cheese, septmoucel cheese. Jack cheese is made in Galifornia, in 6ilb rolls. Carraway seeds are used in making potato cheese in Shuringia. It ripens in 14 days. Gerome cheese lakes from six weeks to four months to ripen, and it is sometimes flavoured with aniseed. Gex cheeses, weighing 141b each, ripen in four months. They are made exclusively in south-eastern France. Trappist cheese is made in a monastery in Bosnia, and under the name of Oka cheese is also made by Trappist monks at Montreal. An English dairy expert declares that the number of different cheeses is almost countless. In England, which heads the list, we have at least 16 or 17 different kinds, including:, Cheddar, Stilton, Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Wensleydale, North Wilts, Moonraker, cream cheese , Blue Dorset, York Gream, Caerphilly, Leicester, Little Wilts, cream cheese, Derby, and lessknown varieties. France comes next as regards the number of varieties, and then, probably Italy, Holland, Norway and Sweden in the order named. In our own country • the cheeses are all made from cows' milk, and without any admixture, save in Hit' case of "loaf" Cheddar, which is sometimes flavoured with sageleaves, and which impart a nice twang to it. Roquefort is made from sheep's milk, and Gruyere from goats' milk at Emmonthol, in Switzerland. Another weU-known Swiss cheese is the Schapziegar, a small cylindrical green cheese, used for grating on bread and butter, and valued us an aid to digestion. It lias a very powerful and unpleasant odour. Gameuibert is made in the Carbom district of France, where the grass is particularly rich, and allows the cows to be milked three times a day. The Italians are also great experts in cheese-making, their best-known being Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Reggiano, and Cacciao-Cavallo. The last-named is made up in the shape of flagons and bound together with straw plaits. The Italian troops carry these cheese strung across their saddles in war time, as they are very compressed and hard and a little goes a long way.

PREVENTING CLOVER BLOAT. When first turning cattle on clover it should be clone graduallv until the i digestive organs become accustomed to the change. The safest way is not to permit them to eat fresh clover for longer than twenty minutes or half an hour the first day, and increase the time of feeding each day until the full crazing time is reached. It is not safe to turn cattle on fresh green pasture until the dew or frost is gone. Another method is to give the cattle some dry feed, and when the stomach of the animal has accommodated itself to the change from dry to green food the animal may consume large quantities of green food without bad results. We are now conducting studies which will determine the value of various substances as preventives of clover bloat, and hope to have, in the near future, some valuable information. For acute bloating we strongly recommend drenching the animal with 1 quart of a 1A per cent. solution of formalin, followed by placing a wooden block in tho animal's mouth, and gpntle exercise, if the animal can get up. Formalin is a trade name for a 40 percent. solution of formaldehyde gas in water, and may be obtained at any

chemist's. Half an ounce of formalin in 1 quart of water makes the proper solution with which to drench the animal. When an animal has once bloated, great care should he used to avoid a second bloating, as such animals are often peculiarly liable to bloat again. We have now used this treatment for three years, and so far have not lost a single case.—Breeders' Gazette.

RENNET. What it is: How to make It. Rennet is a liquid or powdered preparation used in cheese making for the purpose of coagulating the casein in milk. The casein when coagulated encloses most of the fat globules, so that the original milk can be separated into two distinct parts, the curd and the whey. The active principle of rennet is an enzyme, called chymase or rennin, which is produced in the stomach of all animals, and is commonly obtained from the fourth, or digestive, stomach of the sucking calf. The rennet enzyme is found in the folds of the lining mebrane of the stomach, and is largest in amount after a full meal has been digested. Home-made rennet is best obtained from a calf three days old, and three or four hours after a full meal. The stomach is emptied, sprinkled with salt, and stretched out to dry. The skins are then cut, and the rennet extracted repeatedly with water. In the manufacture of commercial rennet extract, the dried stomachs are cut into small pieces, macerated in a five per cent, solution of common salt, and stirred and pounded every day to facilitate solution of the ferment. After a week the liquid is drawn off and the skins returned to a fresh solution of salt, and soaked as before for another week. The liquid extract is then filtered through clean straw, charcoal and sand, and should be of a clear dark colour. By adding excess in salt the rennet is precipitated as a rennet powder, which consists of the active ferment, organic matter, and a considerable amount of salt. On the addition of rennet to milk, the casein is split up into a dyscaseose, the calcium compound of which is insoluble and forms a curd; and a soluble caseose, which is in much smaller proportion and passes off in the whey. The insoluble curd carries down with it a large proportion of the fat. Rennet acts only in neutral or acid solutions. In alkaline milk it would have no effect, while the greater the lactic acidity up to the point of curdling, the more rapid the coagulation. Temperature also controls the action of rennet, the optimum temperature being about 105 deg. F. Before rennet will act properly, soluble lime salts must be present. Normally, milk contains sufficient lime salts for this purpose, but milk which has been pasteurised has its lime salts partially precipitated and does not give a proper coagulation. Hence if pasteurised milk is to be used in cheese-making, some soluble lime salt must be added.—N.Z. Dairyman. SUBSTITUTE FOR RENNET. The scarcity and high cost of rennet appears to have turned a much more general attention among cheesemakers to the use of pepsin as a substitute. The Montreal Trade Bulletin prints a letter from the Davies Bros. Cheese Co., of Plymouth, Wis., in which they say: "There is a revolution in the cheese-making in this State, owing to the fact of the use of pepsin instead of rennet. It coagulates the milk, better, it is of uniform strength, and the test of the whey shows that thereis less butter-fat and solids in the. whey. The price of pepsin is very much cheaper. "We have cheese on hand made with pepsin that are four to six weeks old,, and the curing process seems to identical. The factories are using about | to i-ounce of pepsin dissolved in warm water at about 90 deg. temperature, then emptied into a bucket of water and put into the milk the same as they have always done with rennet. This use of pepsin will materially relieve the situation on the scarcity of rennet, in fact we believe that in the future pepsin will be used instead of rennet."

DON'T KILL THAT HEIFER CALF. The man who kills his heifer calf Does what he hadn't ought; A calf is reared much cheaper than A cow can now be bought. Don't kill that heifer calf, my friend, Regard the public weal; The products fed the fatted calf Cost more than choicest veal. ! A good cow's calf is like the cow, A chip from off the block; A calf like that is worth good cash To All your old blue sock. \ Oh, give that heifer calf a chance To prove her dairy worth! Or else some day, of good milk cows There'll be an awful dearth. And if by mischance you should have' To sell that heifer calf, Some near-by farmer will dig up The price with joyous laugh. And when he finds he's got a cow That is a bargain rare, Through all the countryside he'll shout Your praises in the air. Your neighbours proud from far and near Will haste to congregate; And with a heifer calf of gold Your breast they'll decorate. THE CALL OF THE LAND. (By Lewis R. Freeman.) "Millions of folk will not go back to their commercial life when they lay down their arms, but to the land. Never will the call of the land have been so insistent as after the war."— John Masefleld in.recent interview. It throbs through the moontide crushes Where the gaunt street canyons yawn; It thrills in the traffics' hushes In the dark before the dawn; Now vibrant and tense with pity, Now ringing with sharp commaid, Summoning souls from the city— Hark to the Call of. the Land I "I have fed your mouths from my bounty Since the days when you toiled alone, And turned up my virgin meadows With your spades of wood and bone. 1 have watched your eyes grow restless, , I have seen you pause an<J part, Drawn from your ancient mother By the lure of the court and mart. "Engulfed in the sordid eity, And deaf to my warning cry, I have seen you reel and stumble, I have seen you faint and die; I have heard your sobs and anguish, I have heard your groans of pain, And I raise my voice to warn you, I reach you my arms again. "Are you broken in heart and body? Are you shrunken in mind and soul? Hasten back to me, your mother, And my touch will make you whole. Are you shaken in faith, discouraged? Are you buffeted, bruised and sor«? Creep out to me from the gutters And I'll make you men once more. '''Come out to me from the trenches, From the dark where you cringe and grope; ILet your thews grow hard with labour, While your hearts grow great with hope. Y'ou shall stand with your heads in the sunshine, You shall stand with your feet on the sod, And your faith in me shall lead you To a surer faith in God."