FARM NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 722, 11 April 1922, Page 6

FARM NOTES.

FEEDSNG POTATOES TO LSVE

STOCK.

In the notes on “Feeding Stuffs for January” in the current “Journal of ' the Ministry of Agriculture,” if is pointed out that in several districts potatoes have now fallen to a price ajt which it pays the grower to feed them to live stock rather than to sell them, and the quantities that should be fed to the different classes of stock are given. ' For horses, potatoes may be fed, either raw or cooked, in amounts up to 171bs a day. For cows and fattening bullocks, the amounts may be up to 231bs per day. These figures may be regarded as maximum figures, which should not be exceeded. In the case of pigs the quantity is not significant; the main question is whether the potatoes should be fed cooked oh in the raw state; for breeding or store stock, they may be fed raw, but for small pigs they should be cooked;. > These remarks apply in all cases to potatoes of good quality. Green potatoes should be avoided, as they are distasteful to stock., Diseased and frosted potatoes should always be steamed or cooked if 'it is desired to feed them.”

CLOVER FOR EXHAUSTED SOIL. There are very few sections which have not fet the devastating effects of continuous cropping, and in accordance with our usual wasteful custom we cast aside the old when it weakens to take up new regions of virgin soil to exploit it in a similar manner. However, there is a limit to the North and a limit to the West. The East has been a special sufferer from soil 1 depleting practices, because of its nearness to the world’s greatest markets, which have willingly bought the last straw. With pride the old farmers may boast of having sold so many tons of hay, of their records with wheat, and when this no longer paid turned to rye, because the combination of grain and the straw added mere to the total income than any single grain alone. But they never seemed to know that they were selling the very heart and soul of their land and leaving a lifeless thing behind. This is why the cheapest farm land can be found in the Maritime Provinces. Most of the land then, as virgin I soil, gave abundant crops until robbed of its richness. Were 4-t not for the fact that this land responds promptly to “kindly treatment” the outlook would be anything but encouraging.

Necessity—that potent factor '* of progress—steps in. at this point and compels readjustment in the farmers’ programme. New ideas alone f

can break the bonds of the old habits and replace them with a consistent programme of soil-improving

practices. One of the hardest lessons to learn, however, is to place a crop primarily for soil improvement, and stick to the sacrifice until the benefit is reaped in a succeeding crop of improved yield. Many crops, such as clover, placed with the good intention of soil improvement have looked so good when the time came to plough them under that Mr Farmer lost his nerve, responded to habit, and the crop went the usual course of grain for market or food fer his own and other’s cattiie. '“There is a withholding more than meet which tendeth to poverty, and there is a scattering abroad which giveth increase.” Breaking from the “rut” presents a situation which will call for the greatest skill in management and planning so as to interfere with the living you are expected to draw from the farm at all! times. Financial demands may often interfere and cause the loss of a year of progress, yet gameness to the end will bring its own reward. Habit has played an important part in bringing about the state of soil depletion which makes for the “abandoned” farm and it will play as equally important a part in the establishment of a new course of practice, which is, to make “two blades grow where one grew before.”