FARMING WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20635, 22 October 1938, Page 24 (Supplement)

FARMING WORLD.

Conferences For Farmers This year's grassland conference at the Ruakura Farm was very successful and it emphasised the necessity of having similar conferences for the farmers themselves. Of course, farmers are always cordially invited to attend such conferences, hut past experience has shown that they do not attend in any great numbers. The farming community ultimately benefits from conferences attended by officers of the Department of Agriculture because these men are able to pass on the information to them. However, it seems to us that much could be done in the way of providing some means whereby farmers could meet and discuss farming problems. At the last grassland conference it was noticeable that interest did not attach so much to the reading of the papers as to the discussion that followed them. It is during a discussion that the interesting and practical points are invariably raised and while field days and the ordinary type of conference are invariably interesting and educative something in the nature of a farmers’ forum would touch a novel note and may prove of greater educative value. Branches of the Farmers’ Union could do invaluable work in this respect and their executives would be doing much for the farming community by organising such gatherings. It would be advisable to get some authority to give a very brief address with the remainder of the available time devoted to questions and discussion. Eire’s Opportunity A notable increase during the next few years in the number of live stock in Eire will, it is expected, follow the agreement reached between the Governments of Eire and Britain. The great headway to be made can be appreciated when we realise that the value of Irish agricultural exports to the United Kingdom fell from £25,374,000 in 1931 before they were restricted, to only £13,466,000 last year. To recover an additional yearly turnover of £12,000,000 and perhaps much more, would make a vast difference to Irish farmers. Between these years, the value of live cattle fell by £6,000,000 a year, and it is interesting to find that Eire received thirteen times as much money for live pigs sent to Britain in 1931 as she did for those exported in 1937. At the same time the value of live sheep and lamb exports was more than halved and that of eggs reduced to nearly one-fourth. However, Eire cannot recover this lost trade merely by signing an agreement. Eire’s number of live stock has been heavily reduced and it must take time to restore them. The country has for many centuries enjoyed a rare reputation for stock raising which is admittedly due to a combination of favourable qualities in the climate, the soil and in the farmers themselves. Unrestricted trade with Britain is being resumed just at a time when the numbers of milking cattle and breeding pigs in England show a marked decline. It is plain, therefore, that the huge market there for farm animals is not being satisfied. Problem of Abortion No drug or combination of drugs has yet been found effective in the treatment of Bang’s disease, according to a recent report from the United

States Department of Agriculture officials engaged in combating this cattle malady. Results of recent tests of two alleged Bang’s disease remedies confirm previous experience with such products, states the Jersey Bulletin, of America. Conducted by trained investigators of the Federal Bureau of Animal Industry and the University of Wisconsin, the tests showed the products to be of no value as either preventives or cures. Chemical analysis of the alleged remedies also failed to disclose any ingredients likely to have any beneficial effect in combating Bang's disease. The malady is caused by a germ, known scientifically as Brucella abortus, and the principal manifestation is abortion. Before the true nature of the disease was well understood, American officials explain, it was natural to suppose that medicinal substances could be used to advantage in preventing animates from aboarting. This view was so widely entertained and advanced for years that it has been difficult to convince livestock owners ofits falsity. Testimonials relating to alleged medicinal cures or preventives have sometimes been so extravagant as to be alluring to the discouraged stock owner. Medicinal substances for the treatment of this disease have gained their popularity, almost if not entirely, because they were used and their value was judged at a time when the disease had run its natural course and abortions had markedly decreased as a result of an immunity acquired from the first infection. In an outbreak of Bang’s disease in a herd, the malady affects the pregnant cows and within a per! d of one or two years a large proportion of .cows abort. Some few cattle recover from the disease and thereafter remain immune or free from infection; others become carriers of the germ. The latter may produce normal calves or again abort, but n either case at time of calving may spread the infectious agent to susceptible cattle. Although no drug or medicinal compound has proved to be effective against the disease in America, steady progress is being made by systematic testing of herds, the removal and

By “ STOCKMAN.”

slaughter of diseased animals, and maintenance of proper sanitary conditions. This work is conducted cooperatively by cattle owners, State livestock officials, and the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. In addition, officials engaged in control work report promising results from calfhood vaccination and, in some cases, from the use of approved methods of segregation combined with testing. Placement of Fertilisers Writing in the current issue of the Journal of the English Ministry of Agriculture, Mr F. Hanley, M.A. School of Agriculture, Cambridge, states that the problem regarding the best position for fertiliser in relation to the seed has received much attention abroad, especially in America where very precise recommendations are made as to tlie exact position the fertiliser should occupy. In England, he says, interest usually centres around two major aspects of the problem—namely, (1) is it better to bury the fertiliser deeply by ploughing it in, or to leave it in the surface layer by simply harrowing it into the seed bed? and (2) if deep placement is not to be adopted is it better to broadcast the fertiliser and harrow it into the seedbed or to place the fertiliser in bands or pockets close to the seed by the use of some such device as a combined seed and fertiliser drill? The first of these two questions, Mr Hanley says, is bound up with a further point—namely, time of application, for ploughing is usually done some

time before the final preparation of the seedbed. The advocates of ploughing-in point to the large root development in the lower layers of

the soil, and their moister nature as compared with the top two or three inches, the maximum depth to which fertiliser broadcast on the surfaces of the grounds is likely to be carried down by the cultivations done in the preparation of a seed-bed for most crops. Against this must be set the possible loss of fertiliser by washing out, especially with a nitrogenous fertiliser, if the ploughing is to be done during the autumn or winter. This risk tends to restrict the possibilities of ploughing-in to fertilisers supplying only phosphate or potash.

Something About Animals Various animals have special organs and attributes to enable them to exist in the same environment. Some of them, may not have been noticed, and are worth mentioning. For instance, the sheep has a cleft upper lip, that it may spread the sections apart and get its teeth close to the ground for short herbage cropping. The cow takes its forage in a different fashion. Her tongue is rough, like a rasp, and with it she gathers between her eight incisor teeth of the lower jaw and the cartilaginous pad of her upper incisors, locks or tufts of grass which she then wrenches and cuts off for mastication with her molar or grinding teeth. In a time of drought when grass is dry and loose in the ground, the roots, with some soil attached, commonly enter the cow’s mouth with each tuft of grass; but the cow discards the soil and it falls from one side of her mouth. This is not done by the pasturing horse. The rigid teeth of the upper and lower jaw seize a tuft of grass and cut it off for chewing. If soil comes with the grass it is swallowed, and so much ‘ dirt'’ or sand may be thus taken in as to cause indigestion or colic, which often proves fatal. The horse’s tongue is long, slim and smooth, instead of being rasp-like, and the ridges of the horse's hard palate are also smooth, as is the lining membrane of the cheeks.