ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XL, Issue 4, 22 April 1930, Page 289

ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES.

IN order to ensure reply to questions, correspondents must give their name and address, not necessarily for publication, but, as a guarantee of good faith. Letters should be addressed to the Editor. - DOG WITH SORE FEET. “ Kuri,” Kohuratahi : I have a dog twelve months old which has had very sore and cracked feet for a few months. He has done very little work and has never been on a metalled road. The paws are quite dry and swollen. I should be grateful for information as to a cure. - ■ - The Live-stock 'Division :

The condition you describe may arise from interdigital eczema or from interdigital cysts. Rest and cleanliness are important factors in bringing about recovery. The dog should be provided with a comfortable bed of straw in a clean kennel. ' Rest should be enforced, the dog not being allowed to pull at a chain, as young dogs are accustomed to do. The feet should. be dressed daily with olive-oil, and afterwards protected with, some covering. Dressing and rest should be persevered with for some weeks. •••'. KIKUYU-GRASS FOR NORTH AUCKLAND . CONDITIONS. A. Hensley, Taheke, Hokianga : •• Would you please give me some information about kikuyu-grass." What kind of soil does it require? Is it liable to spread from paddock to paddock and become a nuisance ? How does it compare with paspalum ? : The Fields Division : • ; Kikuyu-grass is a native of South Africa, and requires a warm climate and freedom from frosts to do well. The grass has an enormous root-system, and will grow on almost any class of soil"provided the climate is favourable, r During.the early'years of establishment the grass throws a large amount of feed in the late summer and early autumn, but it’ soon becomes sod-bound, and when. in this condition produces very little feed. Kikuyu' is not nearly as useful for your conditions as paspalum. The grass does not seed and must be planted out, using small pieces of the root for this purpose. Kikuyu will spread fairly readily from one paddock to another, and when planted on slips and on the higher hills, floods may carry the roots of the grass down on to the good land on the flat, and it may later become rather a nuisance in the drains and on good flat grassland. - .

■ l ' ■- LAME pigs.- ’' “ P," Palmerston North : - ' ' About six of my bacon pigs are more or less lame. I have been applying bluestone and have also tried butter of antimony. The pad of the foot (one toe only) swells, then cracks and turns septic. The pigs have been fed on skim-milk chiefly, with some green food also. They are all confined in fattening-pens with boarded floor, except one maiden sow which has been running out on grass. Advice would be appreciated/ ' ■ ’ q"y: ..t

The Live-stock Division : . It is rather , difficult to state the cause of the lameness without an examination of the premises. - The infection may gain entrance through some injury to the foot. It would be advisable to thoroughly clean up and disinfect the' feeding-pens, or change to a new site if possible. If the old site is retained a liberal use should be made of slaked lime to kill the infection, which would’ appear to-originate from the-soil or from the fattening-pens. ' Attention should be paid to drainage and sanitation? ■ Skim-milk is not a satisfactory diet, even with (green food -added. Upon such a diet pigs are more liable to infection than would be the case were the diet better balanced and more liberal. - ■ - /■ ■ ■