PUMPKINS AS STOCK FOOD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1482, 3 July 1912, Page 10

PUMPKINS AS STOCK FOOD.

SOME INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. The value of pumpkins for fattening stock has been proved in more than one quarter of late. Speaking at a rmmt Meeting of the A. ami P. A so-cial-ion, Mr. 11. J. Booth stated that several members of the committee hail visited Mr. Short's farm at Jtewa, and inspected tlu v crop growing there. Pumpkin growing, said Mr. Month, was a vcrv important matter now that fanners had such trouble with blight** when growing turnip?, and tin* experiment in question was going (o show them the way out. The Kewa crop went lit) to SO tons'to the aero, and the sloek ate it with avidity.

Mr. Short said he had put -G acrcs under crop, and four acres were a failure owing to the slugs getting 011 them. Off the first piece of 12 acres he fed 300 ewe hoggets and 40 bulls. The method of feeding was for a nun. to smash open the pumpkins and take out the seed, and thesa would pay for the experiment three times over.

Mr. Short added that it did not require good land to grow pumpkins. For his experiment the ground was turned up for the first time with the plough, and then disc harrowed. The seeds were esotvn a foot apart in rows about 11 feet apart. Two inches of soil was quite sufficient covering for the serd. Two boy*? and a man. could sow 20 acres a day. Some Hints from Australia. In the stock-fattening districts of liivcr--111a and the Upper Murray, some splcudid returns are being netted from the extensive cultivation of pumpkins for topping up sheep and cattle for the markets, says a Sydney writer. A few of the.vn returns tfjll justify the close attention of all who engage in fattening 1 stock. I

i Added to the superior valua of pumpkins for fattening sheep, cattle, and horses, as well as lor rearing lambs, pigs, etc., is the fact that stock as a rulo readily tako to. them just as they lie on the ground, no handling bei ig necessary if the right varieties arc prow n. Somo cattle will not oat pumnkvis at ?ri 'i > 50 cas<M are rarc ~ indeed. \\ hen stock are first being turned into a pumpkin patch the custom has boon to chop up a lew, and sprinkle tho needs with fmo cattle silt, llut even fhi* is unnecessary if stock will readily eat'the gourds whole. Hordes have fed on pumpKins with inoro polish than on greensrufi.«. f AmWor all these reasons tho extensive cultivation of pumpkins lias i proved a highly nutritious food, and ! such a, veritable standby in Australia during the recent dry spell, that the growers have been able to draft fat fheep and cattle to market as regular almost as they would in a normal season. Several Xcw South Wales growers, after this season's trials, intend to grow still larger areas next spring. "I topped tin HO bullocks on 50 acres of pumpkins says Mr. A. Thwaites, and made «X! 1 10s. profit oar'head in weeks, and then had .10 or 10 tons left." Mr. Thwaites gives another instance. At the Albnry market he bought 120 wethers (merinos in forward condition), at lis. Gd. per head. He put tl-.em on six acres of pumpkins, with half. rr. acre r.f ground for camping, and in six weeks ho disposed of the lot in the paddock for cash at 17s. Gd. per head. Two of three tons of pumpkins were estimated to be then left. For tho fa I. lamb trade pumpkins should be of inestimable value. Mr. Thwaites. says, "I have also weaned lambs at three months off old ewes, and made them prime in six weeks.*'' At Hawksvicw Station the manager (Mr. C. R. Breadmore) states that he has'topped up 2300 crowbreds taken out of grass paddocks this season on lb ceres cf pumpkins, yielding five tens to the cere The sheep realised as high as 19s. at Melbourne markets, or lfis. fid. on the average per head. These sheen had been previously bought in forward condition at an average of 12s. Gd. ner head, so that a gross profit of Is. per" head was made. The system adopted in fattening was to draft 1000 sheen from the paddock, put them into the pumpkin patc.V and a.s floon as the sheep were observed to get "sappy," which usually took three or four weeks, 500 cf the nrimcst would be drafted to market. Another 500 sbe-p would then put in with the remaining sheep to feed on the pumpkins. From seven to ten days later another draft of 500 of the primest would l>e ready for market, and so on in this wr.v were tho sheep fattened and marketed" The cost of cultivating numnkins is given as from 10?. to los, per acre by .Australian growers win l lavu grmril f ron ", 20 to 70 acres. Different methods of sowing are. in vogue, but, irrespective of how seeds are sown, it is o'sonthl tint and possessing retentive qualities should bo selected, and worked we'l in early spring One of the, most satisfactory methods is to make hills Ift. apart cr.ch way, apd deposit three seeds in each. Before the plants eoniinenrn to spread tli-< land can be scarified with facility, to keep down weeds. A more ej.ptditious method is to sow the seeds by means of a poison cart. drnpniii<r time seeds at i intervals of 10 feet, the r.)v,s bein" a . similar distance apart. The land should bo then harrowed. <