FARM AND GARDEN

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15359, 6 October 1923, Page 18 (Supplement)

FARM AND GARDEN

AGRICULTURAL EVENTS FOR WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 13. MONDAY. { Stock Sale at Ngatea. Stock Sale at Cambridge. Bull Sale at Matamata. TUESDAY. Stock Sale at Hamilton. Stock Sale at Waihi. Clearing Sale at Okoroire. WEDNESDAY. Stock Sale at Otorohanga. Stock Sale at Matamata. Clearing Sale at Cambridge. Clearing Sale at Pukeatua. Clearing Sale at Morriusville. THURSDAY. Bull Sale at Waihou. Stock Sale at Coromandel. Stock Sale at Hauroa. Stock Sale at Claudelands. Horse Fair at Cambridge. FRIDAY. Bull Sale at Hikutaia. Bull Sale at Ohaupo. SATURDAY. , Stock Sale at Te Awamutu. NOTICE TO FARiKERS. Recognising the importance of giving the farmer highly scientific advice, we have made arrangements for articles to appear weekly from the pen of a recognised authority on agricultural matters. • Farmers are invited to address any queries on farming matters to > • “Practical,” care of Waikato Times, and they will be answered in the succeeding week's issue. . ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “R.G.D.,” Cambridge.—The pasture you have described should be attended to without delay. Shut up the. paddock, and it should be ready to cut for hay about late December or early January. Go over the field and pick up any sticks, pieces of wire, or other obstacles which would get in the way of the mower. For 40 cows you should provide at least 35 tons of hay. That would mean shutting up about 22 to 24 acres of pasture, assuming that you get about a ton and a half of hay per acre. “Green Feed,” Hamilton. —The varieties of maize I would recommend are Hickory King and Ninety Day. The former is a white seed and is a good kind for green fodder. The latter matures early, as the name suggests. “Novice,” Morrinsville. —Your best plan, if you want quick shelter, would be to get seed of “Black Wattle” (Acacia decurrens, now named Acacia mollis) and Albizzia lophantha. Soak the seed in water brought to boiling point. Let the seed steep overnight. In the morning take -the -seed and mix it with dry sand or dry ashes and sow in prepared soil. --’Both, are growing trees. More permanent shelter may be sown also, consisting of gums, and such hedge plants as Cupressus lawsoniana or pines. Seedlings may be . procured at the State Forest Nurseriesat Rotorua.' - “Enquirer," Tatuanui. —The grass speciman is Sweet Vernal. When you chew a little of the leaf or stem it has-a characteristic flavour, due, to a substance in the grass called coumarin. It is -flowering freely . low. Its feeding valuers low. It Is unpalatable' to--stobfc-'' andv -tlieyi usually avoid it. It is a sign of a pasture being run out'- if .'there is much of it present, -'-It-is sown, I understand, in England, and gives the perfume to'new-mown hay. PLOUGHS AND PETTICOATS, (By “Practical.”) . The combination does ■ not seem a very promising one, but it may surprise many to know that even in this province there are some very successful women farmers. Why not? There Is nothing vetfy new about women making a career, on the land. ; I remember some, twenty years ago two young women in Neyy. S.outh Wales being forced through bad health to leave the city and take up some work in the open air. They agreed to try their luck at farming. They had a small amount of capital; between them, and started on a place SO miles from the city of Sydney. They grew vegetables and., flowers. Bees were afterwards taken up, followed later by poultry and a small area of fruit trees. The vegetables, bees and poultry, however, were the main source of revenue. After getting “on their feet” they were in the happy position of being able to get casual labour to do the heavy jobs, such as ploughing, etc. They did well and at the same time enjoyed much better health. Pluck was needed to take on the project, and business ability with steady application did the rest. I have come across a number of

women in this province who (with

help of casual labour usually) are v, farming as a means of a livelihood. They certainly show that farm work and the management and care of stock are not beyond them. Inside Work.

Usually the women’s place on the farm is considered to be connected with the inside or kitchen work. She may, of course, attend to the flower garden, or even cultivate and produce the vegetables. The poultry often falls to her lot. She certainly is expected to excel in the home industries. Apart from the cooking and general management of the home, she usually conserves fruit, makes jam, pickles and sauces. She may pre'serve eggs for periods when these are likely to be scarce, such as the winter. She may be asked to cure bacon, though usually this is the man’s job. Of late years the schools have devoted attention to domestic studies. This is a good move. The old idea that a certain instinct made it quite natural for women to know how to cook, how to care for infants, how to manage a home, and so on, Is regarded as a fallacy. Knowledge is necessary for women in this work as in other things.

Short Courses.

Those women who had not the advantage of any early organised training in home crafts, would undoubtedly, if given the opportunity, attend classes jwillingry. The success of short courses in agriculture for men and women teachers at Ruakura and for farmers likewise indicate that it could be taken for granted that similar courses for women in, say, poultry, bees, flower and vegetable gardening, preserving and bottling fruits, jam making, etc., would be equally successful for women whose work was .on the farms. A programme could be drawn up and made quite useful and attractive. The women’s work on the farm usually presents three main problems:

First, increasing the income of the farm; second, lessening the drudgery of housework; third, making the social side of her life (often.isolated as she is on the farm) more'attractive. There are already signs of- a demand for some instruction of this kind. There is little doubt that if the necessary organisation was set up, women off the farms would avail themselves of the opportunity of meeting together, discussing, their problems among themselves, and'getting lectures and demonstrations connected with their part on the farm; If the success of such short courses in other countries may be taken as a guide, then the inception of classes at a farm, like Rua-kura-would be popular and very valuable to those who attend. They are worth a trial. SOIL SURVEY. AUTHORITY FOR CONTINUANCE. MANAVVATU COASTAL SOILS; The. Government has authorised the resumption of the North Island reconnaissance soil survey, interrupted by the war and since delayed for financial reasons.. • in the opinion of the chemist to the Department of Agriculture :(Mr 8.. C. Aston),.a complete soil survey will, in time be made in New Zealand. In an interesting article in the current number of the. Journal of Agriculture, he says that much good'can be done in’the meantime by , means .of a reconnaissance survey, by which one may gain .a knowledge of all . types existing, and may describe; without being able to pay them. By such means a soil survey could be begun, and the', descriptions of the types should be Intelligible to the scientific officers of the Departments. Although it might not be possible for them to delimit the boundaries of types, and say just where one soil ended and another began, it should be possible in typical cases to recognise types. At present except in pressing cases, the detailed soil survey of New Zealand would be made to coincide with the topographical survey which the Lands Department was executing. Applying the American method of soil survey to the lands of the Manavvatu coastal area, as a hypothetical illustration, there would, he says, be: The Tararua series, consisting of the soil types—gravels, river-sands, loams and clays—— derived from the grey wacke rock of the Tararua Range,, and combinations of these. , The littoral series, consisting of the dune sands of the coastal plain, and combinations, with various amounts of organic matter. . The Manawatu series, consisting oi the clays and silts of the Manawatu River flo-od-plain, and combinations of these, with organic matter. The Otaki series, consisting of the terrace lands overlying the old Otaki sandstone; and The organic series, consisting of those swamp soils, the peaty nature of which has dominated all other constituents. All the rivers between Paekakariki and the Manawatu River, having their sources in the Tararua Range, would therefore deposit "mainly the 'Tararua series of sediments, .hutthe .Manawatu, drawing its suspended material from many other sources, and the material differing largely in nature, warranted Hie allotment of a different soil-series name to its flood-plain. WEST COAST, DEVELOPMENT. The productivity of the area lying between the ranges -and _- the West Coast has been the subject of reference by speakers who have been addressing gatherings In connection with the provision of a light railway to tap that region. In Waitehuna, Te Uku, Kauroa, Te Mata and Raglan the land has shown itself as capable of giving very high returns in crops and in hutterfat production, but there is no doubt that the reaching of the maximum heights in volume has been materially affected by the lack of modern transport facilities. Experience has shown that in the production of chaff and wheat very promising results .have been attainod, while root crops never fail on the country that is brought in there by the tillers of the soil. Wool, too, is another important avenue of production which offers unlimited possibilities in these districts, and the settlers encountered in the various areas have unbounded faith in the possibilities that lie ahead in tills and in slock raising generally. They are courageous developers of this new country who deserve the reward of up-to-dat transport facilities, which will bring them within more rapid and less costly toucli of the markets, both as regards the disposal of the products of their labours and in securing the essential requirements of land development and their own needs. THE JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. The important question of a national soil survey for New Zealand is now coming to the front, and a timely contribution to the subject is made by B. C. Aston in the current September issue of the Journal of Agriculture. The author, who takes as his title “The Ideals of a Soil Survey,” deals interestingly with various aspects such as the basis of classification and the mapping of soils, examples of American and European practice, together with suggestions for undertakings in this Dominion. A new series of articles on the Grasslands of New Zealand is commenced by E. B. Levy, the serial subject being ihe Taranaki back-coun-try, and ihe introductory article dealing with natural forest successions in that region, a matter which has a most important bearing on pasture-estab-lishment. As is usual with this writer’s articles the photographic illustrations are a feature. Nptes on last season’s operations and results at the Ashburton and Marton experimental farms contain much of practical interest to farmers. The series on the Testing of New Zealand grown wheats, by L. D.

Foster, is concluded with an illustrated article on baking-tests of flours carout at the Chemical Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture. Tests regarding the effect on germination of some seed-disinfectants used for the control of wheat-smut are set out by the experimenter, J. C. Neill. A paper communicated to the Board of/Agriculture by W. Perry, of Masterton, on Stud-stock Breeding,- with special reference to shows is-printed. Other articles deal with Bacterial Contamination of Milk and Cream (L. S. Barren) and Carrots for Sheep feeding (J. W. Deem). The Dairy-produce Export Control Act, as passed in the recent Session of Parliament, is reproduced in

full, providing a convenient reference for dairy farmers now called upon to vote on the question of the bringing into operation of that measure. The regular monthly featured of the Journal complete the issue.