ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 43, Issue 3, 21 September 1931, Page 232

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.

TREATMENT FOR SCOURING MARE. “ Anxious/’ Lower Kaimai :

I would like advice regarding a mare that has been scouring for about three months. I have treated her with linseed-oil and turpentine, and burnt flour gruel for about three weeks, also given, her the liquid from boiled flax-root, but she is still the same.

The Live-stock Division :

We would advise you to give the mare i oz. of baking-soda twice daily for a, week or so in drinking-water or drench. You mention that you gave her the liquid from boiled flax-root; the effect of this would be to cause scouring, not to stop it. The karomiko is what the Maoris use for diarrhoea. . Give the animal some crushed oats and bran with a tablespoonful of steamed bone-meal and a dessertspoonful of salt twice daily. Keep her warmly covered, and give a ration of good sweet hay.

THE CURRANT BORER.

“ Currants,” Raetihi: —

What treatment can I adopt to rid black-currant bushes of borer, and wha-, is the life-cycle of the grub ?

The Horticulture Division :

The currant borer is the larva of a moth known as the currant clear-wing (Sesia tipuliformis), of black and yellow colour. The wings are about f in. across when expanded, a considerable area of which is transparent, which gives the insect its common name. Emerging at about midsummer, the moth lays its eggs singly, and they soon hatch out and burrow the stems, to pupate and emerge the following summer. The treatment usually adopted is to prune hard and burn the prunings, as they contain many grubs. If this is done in early autumn, and the bushes sprayed then with bordeaux plus arsenate of lead, the health of the plants would be better in this and other respects.