FARM AND GARDEN

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 13 (Supplement)

FARM AND GARDEN

AGRICULTURAL EVENTB FOR WEEK MARCH 6. MONDAY. Bheep Fair at Matlere. Clearing Sale at Tahuna. TUESDAY. she«p Fair at Taumarunul. Sheep Fair at Ohaupo. Rtook Sale at Matamata. WEDNESDAY. Btook Sale at Te Kultl. -Stock Sale at Waihl. Clearing Sale at Ngaruawahia. THURSDAY. Stock Sale at Hamilton. SATURDAY. Stock Sale at Te Awamutu. IMPROVING GRABB LANDS. IMPORTANT MANURIAL TESTS. VALUE OF BASIC SLAG. At a recent meeting of the Farmers' Club In London some important information was given by Professor D. A. Gilchrist on the queslio».of improving grass land. The value of grass depends as much on its treatment as the value of any other type of crop, and Professor Gilchrist's wide experience enables him to speak with special authority on the subject. Extended Testa. The principal tests described recent work at the Northumberland Agricultural Station, Cockle Park, where the pasture r&sults on the different fields were as follows:—The tree field extends to about 84 acres. The soil is of a poor, stiff character, lying on boulder clay. The plots, each about three acres in area, were fenced off in 1897; sheep have been fed regularly each summer on the different plots, and their live weight increases ascertained. Deducting cost of the dressings the average annual gains per acre for the six years 1912-1917 yere:— From feeding decorticated cotton cake to sheep, an annual loss of lis 9d; from one dressing of lOcwt an acre of high-grade basic slag, applied for the first of six years, an annual gain of 27s sd; and from two dressings of scwt slag, an annual gain of 2-is. When however,' lewt muriate of potash was added to each of the two slag dressings, the gain was reduced to 17s; when one ton of lime was added to each, the gain was reduced to 16s 6d, and when lewt of nitrate of soda was added the gam was reduced to 13s 4d. Application of Basic Slag. When dissolved bones were used in two dressings, containing the same amount of phosphates as in the slag, and about the same amount of nitrogen as in the nitrate of soda, the annual gain wa3 reduced to 8s lid. In the first nine years of treatment four tons of lime, applied In 1897, resulted In an annual loss of about 10s an acre. The lime did not develop clover, nor materially improve the herbage for nine years after its application. These are striking results in favour of the continuous application of basic slag, and they show that neither a potash mixture nor a nitrogenous manure nor lime helped the slag to Improve the pasture, but the reverse. It should be clearly understood that the soil of this field has a low content of lime (.69 per cent.). The Hanging Leaves pasture fields extent to 57 acres. These were originally poor pasture like that of Tree Field. Four plots each about 10 acres in area, were fenced off in 192. These have each been treated continuously in the same way since 1903, and grazed s with a mixed stock of cattle and sheep, instead of sheep alone, as in Tree Field. On Field 1, where basic slag, lOcwt an acre, wa-s applied for 190.3, and oewt of the same for 1906, and every third year thereafter, the average annual gain "for the three years 1915-17 was 49s an acre. On Field 2 the same basic ■lag has been applied as for Field 1, and, In addition, 3cwt an acre of rough cotton cake has been fed annually to the grazing stock. Here the gains, were reduced from 49s to 18s 3d an acre In the same three years. In Field 8 the basio slag, lOcwt an aore, was applied for 1903; thereafter no further slag was used, but the oako was fed annually as on Field 2. In this case, In the same three years, there was an annual loss of 2s 5d an aore. Striking Object-Lesson.

A walk over these fields during the grazing season provides most striking object lessons. The pasture Is undoubtedly of the best quality .and contains most olover herbage where basic Blag has been applied and cake has not been fed. Where oake alone has been used since 1903 the pasture is of a poor and benty character, and Is rapidly deteriorating in value. When the fields were fenced off in 1902 the whin or furze bushes which were present all over, were cut down. On Field 3, where baste slag has not been applied since 1903, but cake fed since that time, the furze bushes have reasserted themselves, but they have not done so where basio slag continues to be applied. It is probable that the slag has made the young growth of the furze more nutritious and succulent, and as a consequenoe it has been closely grazed by the grazing stock. On Palaoe Leas meadow field, old land hay has been continuously grown since 1897, Sixteen plots, each halfacre in area, are regularly manured in various ways. On the untreated plot the average orop for 22 years is 19} owt of hay per acre, where lewt an acre of sulphate of ammonia has.been applied annually the hay has been reduced in value from 80s to 72s a ton, and there is a net annual loss of 15s 8d an acre. The average crop of hay where 3001 b of high-grade basic slag alone lias been applied is 26icwt. Its value has been increased to 93s a ton, and the average annual gain is 33s 7d. The addition of 1501 b an acre of sulphate of ammonia to basic slag and a potash manure on plot 13 has increased the hay by only -iiewt, but decreased its value rrom 102 s to f-9s a ton, and the net gain from 33s to 15s per acre. The results on that field show that dung and complete artificials, as well as nitrogenous manures, considerably reduce the quality of the hay; that dung alone rather improves the quality; and that phosphates greatly improve the quality, especially when a potash manure is added. When an old pasture becomes dead on the surface and the herbage is not eaten by stock, this organic matter gradually accumulates and kills out the more nutritious grasses and clovers, the final result being a matty pasture of low feeding value, or, in the oase of old land, a dead and matted turf on the surface, which effectually prevents the growth of nutritious hay crops. Old leys, with such an accumulation, should be ploughed out. In dry seasons it is striking how this dead majter prevents the passage of rain water to the soil, and how dry the soil Is of an old pasture in a dry summer covered with such a mat. This is especially the case when the land is lying in old ridges, as the rain water is shed to the furrows. At Cockle Park most satisfactory results in the manuring of old land hay have been given by applying about fiewt an acre of high-grade basic *iag

every third year, with the addition of about 12 tons of dung an acre, also every third year. The crops of hay produced by this treatment are of a most satisfactory character, both as to quantity and quality. Native clover plants are abundantly developed by the baslo slag, while the dung does much to maintain the bulk of the hay. Grazing Season Prolonged. Bv the Judicious use of basic slag at Cookie Park, the grazing season has been greatly prolonged, the grass land has been more than quadrupled in value, the bulk of the old land hay lias been increased and the quality Improved bv over 20 per cent. The effective way to enrich the soil of a pasture In nitrigen is to encourage leguminous plants by the Judicious use of phc-sphatic manures. In Tree Field phosphatie manures have increased the soil nitrigen by the equivalent of about 50cwt nitrate of soda an acre. \Mien nitrogenous manures are added to the same the increase in soil nitrogen is reduced to what is contained in about liewt of nitrate of soda an acre. 11 is probable that few old pastures require potash manures. There is no loss of potash from a pasture field, as grazing stock retain practically no potash in their bodies, and water passing through the soil does not remove potash. When laying down new pasture on light soils deficient in potash, a potash manure Is found to be helpful. At Cockle Park dressings of basic slag are regularly applied to the seed hay for one and three years. On both light and heavy soils, dressings of lime have been applied in addition, but in no case has lime been beneficial within the following three years. Heavy dressings of lime on poor clay pasture in Tree Field gave little result for nine years thereafter, even though this soil is comparatively poor in lime. The advantages of early mowing are: The hay is much superior In feeding value and very little less in bulk; the aftermath is greatly increased in bulk and in feeding value, whether used for grazing or mowing; the hay and aftermaths of the following years are greatly improved In bulk and in quality because the plants have not been allowed to exhaust themselves by becoming mature and producing ripe seed; the weeds are effectually checked for reasons already stated as to thistles and yellow rattle, and because weeds are checked when their seeds are not allowed to mature. Sheop, Cattle and Horses. When a pasture is grazed with sheep alone rough and benty herbage is developed, owing to the sheep grazing onlv the fine bottom and rejecting that of a benty character, and what they do eat they bite very closely. Cattle cannot select the finer herbage and leave that of a benty character, and they do not graze so closely. They are, therefore, more even mowers, and not so close mowers as sheep, and their heavier treading is also a. great advantage for the pasture. At Cockle Park similar pastures, treated exactlv alike, produce double the llve< weiff' I gains from a mixed stock of cattle and sheep than from sheep alone. Horses form large areas of "middens" in pasture fields to which they confine their droppines. They do not graze these areas, but only the remainder of the pasture, and this latter is grazed very closely by them. A horse pasture soon therefore, becomes unsightly, and coarse in parts and very bare in the parts where they graze. Horses should never be the only grazing stock on a pasture, and should nj)t be grazed in the same fields year after year, but should have a rotation of fields for different years. While in some cases too heaw "grazing of a pasture may be practised, harm is much more frequently done by not grazing the pasture as closely as it should be. The ideal pasture has a sweet bottom of grass and clover herbage like the pile of a Turkish carpet. Whenever pasture is allowed to develop too much herbage it becomes choked because the fine grazing herbage is choked out.

TUBERCULOSIB IN CATTLE. The Pasteurian Institute in France, so well known throughout the world as the source of many discoveries in curative and preventive methods of dealing with disease in men and animals, announces that the sub-director, Professor Calmette, and a colleague have prepared a serum that they are satisfied is curative for tuberculosis in cattle, and that it is also possible that it may be proved to be effective in a still larger field. The greater number of farmers are aware that tuberculin Is used as a test in the determination of the presence or otherwise of the disease in an animal- It was also used as a curative agent; for that purpose It Is now seldom availed of. Tuberculin is a vaccine, not a serum. This is entirely different. As the terms vaccine and serum have become comparatively familiar to the farmer and stock owner, it may interest them to be advised of their different nature. A va&cine Is the result of broken down or emulsified organisms In a saline solutfon. A serum is the watery portion of the. blood of an animal, and when used as a curative or preventive agent, it is that part of the blood of an animal that has been previously infected or inoculated with the virulent living organisms of a disease and has become immune. There is the instance of this serum, of which we •often hear in the antitoxin for diphtheria. A treatment, curative or preventive, for tuberculosis in cattle would afford an Immense relief to the grazing, and particularly to the dairy industries. In the announcement that is quoted we may indulge in at least well-founded hope, for the institute of the late M. Pasteur is purely scientific, it has nothing to gain in the monetary aspect. There will be still no doubt a considerable amount of experimental work to be undertaken before a serum treatment for tubercle in cattle can be permitted to come into veterinary practice, and we may be assured that whenever it is offered for service it will be effective, or if it fails to respond to expectations it will not be offered at all, unless all the conditions of efficiency combined with safety are fulfilled.

THE LIFE OF A COW. A contributor to the English Live Stock Journal says:—The average actual life of a cow is eight years. The possible productive life of a cow is 20 years. The writer's best cow is the thirteenth calf of her dam. An Ayrshire cow once gave In the writer's presence. 13 cjuarts of milk in one day, with her firieeiilli calf, and, at the same lime she was too old for age lo be indicated by her horns. A Jersey cow dropped her best calf, now a cow, when she was 10 years old. Now what a loss there is in wearing out cows al ten years old. A cow properly cared for is then in her prime and may compare witli a man 40 years old. At such an age a man has 20 years of vigorous, useful life at least before Jiim, and by husbanding his powers ten years more may be adde. A cow may just as well add six years morn to her eight, and will, beyond a doubt, if she

la well used, and still yield * wwr profit to her owner than a four-year-old cow. Thus the productive life of a cow may be actually doubled by good care and usage. But how Is this lengthened period of usefulness to be gained? In the first Place longevity. Is a hereditary characteristic, and careful selection and breeding are required to secure it. Then constitutional vigour favours it. This is secured through breeding and early training. The sound healthy calf must be well cared for, well fed, and care must be continued, and the cow's vital forces well nourished and husbanded. Exposure and Irregular feeding, not to mention actual semi-starvation during the bare ? ison, which is for too common, 1 ids greatly to shorten the useful and o-

ductlvo life of a cow. It pays b Unto preserve a good cow than to roar a second-class one; and if one lives 10 years and has 12 productive years, she will have been worth more to her owner in the end than three cows eight yoar old would have been. For there will be ten fully productive years In the old cow's life against ten partially-productive years In that of the young ones.

CATTLE AND HEAT STROKE. In connection Ith the deaths of several Queensland cattle at Homebush, the Chief Inspector of Stock has made available the report of Mr Max Henry, M.R.C.V.S., who attended at the yards and made a post mortem examinationMr Henry points out that in most of the consignments In which deaths occurred the cattle had been dipped and trucked the same day. In one case six cattle died out of a total of 140 head. These, however, were loaded at Clifton on January 6, dipped, and reloaded at Wallangarra on the following day, and arrived in Sydney on the 9th, thus spending nearly two days in the train. On arrival all the animals appeared in srood condition, but the weather was hot and muggy on Monday. The cattlfi did not show the typical symptoms of arsenic poisoning, but analyses will be made of stomach contents. "The animals," Mr Henry stated, "appeared to be suffering from heat stroke, as it was only during the close muggy hours that cases occurred, and swimming apparently greatly hastened recovery. I may add that in 1909 I investigated an exactly similar mortality In cattle at Flcmington which had never been through any dip." JOTTINGS. Sales by auction of iheNmlmals at the last exhibition at Palermo, Buenos Aires, represented a total of ovjr £OOO,OOO.

The Consul General for the Argentine Republic notifies that an International Dairy Exhibition will be held in Buenos Aires In May, 1921. In addition to entries of live stock, exhibits of dairying machinery, of which Australia has supplied large quantities to the Argentine in years past, are invited. "Stock inspectors are the friends of the farmers," remarked a prominent Waikato agriculturalist to the writer- " They are out to help the farmers all the time if farmers will only properly co-operate with them." He added that the inspectors wore always readyto give any assistance in their power and would advise farmers how to treat their stock and what physic to give to sick animals.

Dairy cow prices are reaching mammoth rates. In the Melbourne market in December last the record of £SO was obtained by Mc'Phail, Anderson and Co. for a splendid type of utility cow, the property of Mr Wm. Rogers, of Warrnambool. Prices have been rising for some time, but surely this must mean the high water mark.