On the Land

New Zealand Tablet, 5 October 1916, Page 59

On the Land

GENERAL. Lucerne is one of the most nourishing animal foodstuffs, as is indicated by the analysis of the plant. When it is coming into bloom it contains the following percentages:—Albuminoids, 18.47; fat, 1.14; carbohydrates, 64.04. There seems to be a fairly good market for draught horses in South - Canterbury, and during the last few weeks one Southland buyer has sent forward a goodly number of draughts, with, it is understood (says the Times) a satisfactory margin of profit. The Mataura Dairy Factory opened for the season on Thursday of last week, when 1200 gallons of milk were received. The unseasonable weather of the previous week retarded the growth of grass, which (the Ensign states) is very backward in the district, but with a fine spell will soon come away. What is considered a record price in New Zealand for a big line of sheep was put up last week (says the Taranaki Herald when Messrs. Dalgety and Co. sold 1570 wethers to two leading Dunedin butchers at .£2 per head. These sheep were sold on behalf of Mr. R. Acton-Adams, and were grown on his Wilden estate at ITeriot. In a natural state, animals live on green fodder ; it is their natural food, and, as a consequence, they thrive on it. Rut when animals, as in present-day farming, have been domesticated, the case is a little different. Care requires to be exercised in changing the diet from dry to green food. It should not be done too suddenly. The green stuff should be fed in combination with old hay, the green fodder being gradually increased and the proportion of hay reduced. The country, with the exception of Maerewhenua and Duntroon, is looking rather dry just now (says the Camara Mail). Autumn sown wheats on the ridges and the tables are looking very well, but autumn-sown crops on the flat are of a somewhat unhealthy color. The ground is very hard. A team of seven horses was observed to have its work cut out to work a double furrow in a paddock only a year* down in grass. A faimer who had his ewes at stud in Southland has had the unenviable lot of seeing all single lambs so far. Ihis he puts down to the lack of substance in the pastures there. At Addington last week there were mo derate entries of fat stock and good entries of store stock. Store sheep sold well at late rates, but fat cattle were rather easier. Fat sheep opened at firmer rates, but the maiket eased off to below previous week’s rates. New season s fat lambs sold well, but store cattle were somewhat easier in consequence of a large yarding. Pigs weie in keen demand at high prices. New season’s fat lambs, 28s 6d to 335. Fat Sheeji.—Extra prime wethers, to 48s; prime wethers, 31s to 40s; others, 25s 4d to 30s; extra prime merino wethers, 27s 9d to 35s 6d • others, 14s 9d to 22s lOd ; shorn wethers, 21s to 22s 7d; extra prime ewes, 41s; prime ewes, 30s to 35s 6d ; medium, 25s to 29s 6d; others, 22s to 24s 6d ; hoggets, sto s . Fat Cattle.—Extra prime steers, to £24 ss; prime, £ls to £2O 10s; ordinary, £l2 to £l4 10s; prime heifers, £l2 to £l4 15s; ordinary £8 15s to £l2; prime cows, £lO to £l4 15s; ordinary, £7 5s to £9 10s. Pigs.—Choppers, £5 to £6 10s; extra heavy baconers, £5 10s; heavy baconers, £4 12s to £5 • light baconers, £3 15s to £4 price per lb 7JR to 7 £d; light porkers, 48s to 545; heavy porkers, 5 4 to # 6O s —price per lb, BJd to 9d; large stores, 48s to 58s 6d; medium, 40s to 475; smaller, 33s to 395; weaners, 20s to 255. f

Burnside Stock Report: Cattle.—224 yarded a large yarding of fairly good quality. Competition was fairly keen, and prices were much about the same c% P ?n V 1 T S ™ k ’ S rateS ‘. Quotations: Best bullocks, i]l 1° 3 extra prune heavy, to £23 i medium, £ls to £l6 10s; light and unfinished, £l2 to £l4;

best cows and heifers, £l2 10s to £l4 10s; extra prime heavy, to £l7 12s 6d; medium, £9 10s to £ll 10s; others, up to £B. Fat Sheep.2s2B penned. A fair yarding, comprised chiefly of light-weight wethers, a few pens of prime heavy wethers, and ewes. There was good competition for all classes, a good proportion of the light and medium quality wethers' being purchased by the graziers. , Prices, taken all over, were on about a par with previous week’s rates. Quotations: Best-wethers, 35s to 38s; extra, to 42s 9d ; medium to good, 29s to 33s ; others, up to 275; best ewes, 28s to 32s 6d; extra heavy, to 395: others, up to 265. Lambs. Three new season’s lambs were forward, and sold up to 335. Pigs.—There was a small yarding of fats, and these sold under keen competition, previous week’s prices being maintained. One exceptionally heavy chopper realised the very high price of £9 11s. There was a large yarding of stores, but the demand was equal to the supply, and a good sale resulted. Quotations: Prime heavy baconers, to £5 ; good, to £4 10s; best porkers, £3 to £3 10s; . others, to £2 10s; slips, up to £1 15s; suckers, 18s to £1 6s. PRODUCING CLEAN MILK. A number of American medical experts and experimenters in hygiene made a study recently to determine the most important factor in the production of clean milkthe dairy or the dairymanand have come to the conclusion that the dairyman is the chief factor and that the dairy is of secondary importance. The clean dairyman may be transported from dairy to dairy and can make clean milk wherever he goes, CHICKENS IN SUMMER. I am a great advocate of having large numbers of chickens on a farm (writes a correspondent of the lowa Jfomeslead). Then I have found the single colony coops and colony houses are both indispensable. Grow to near maturity some fifty, more or less, of young chickens in the coops, then as cool or freezing weather approaches, place them in the quite large colony houses, allowing some eight to ten dozen to each building. Have both the coops and the colony houses clean and well ventilated at all times. Summer as well as winter demands clean food, pure water, and strictly sanitary surroundings, and the air at all seasons must be plentiful and pure. All coops and colony houses, I find, must be so constructed that there is the best of ventilation, and yet for most of the time avoid direct draughts. The first summer is the hard one for chickens. I have found that hen mothers are the thing out on the farms. The flocks learn to range. The chickens get exercise, green food, and many insects. After they are old enough to wean they range about from habit, and then I prefer the food that is given them be such things as wheat in the sheaf and German millet thrown to them in the bundle. They scratch out the grain and seed and eat only what Nature craves. Such feeding is easy, healthful, and reasonably economical. I have also found that wheat, rye, oats, and German millet cut when fully ripe and stored in a convenient building in the sheaf are all very fine winter as well as late summer foods. They give a change of diet from on© week to another, and the fowls having to scratch and pick out the grain, they get much exercise, a thing they need. I am writing advice to farmers who have abundant room for large flocks of chickens and can grow most of their food. There is room, too, for large lots and as many colony houses as will accommodate several hundred. I find there is practically no limit on a large farm to the number of chickens one can and should keep. Nothing else pays better if all the conditions of proper food, shade, freedom from lice and mites, thorough ventilation of coops and buildings and keeping strictly sanitary surroundings are observed.