Farm arid Garden.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 85, 5 June 1908, Page 4

Farm arid Garden.

In breeding for improvement, the milk record of the sire's female ancestry is of just as much importance as that of the ancestry of the cow with which he is mated is of more importance if the sire's ancestry has a better milk record. .And the good dairy sire, pure bred, is almost certain to have a line of dams with a superior milk record ; they have been bred for that very thing. Whether or not these dams have been tested, so that the actual figures can be given, they are far more likely to have been high producing cows than are the dams of the grade cow. One of the very greatest things to secure for the heifer calf is the inheritance of a large capacity for milk production, and this comes from the mothers in both line of ancestry. The calf will be much more certain of getting a high degree of this quality through an improved sire than from a grade mother. A high milk record in the sire's ancestry affects all female progeny, ali the next generation in a common sized herd. But £uch a record in the cow's ancestry can affect but one calf a year (and not that many unless they are all heifers).

It is the practice of many farmers to throw the horse manure in heaps at the side of the stable, where it heats and loses a large part of its nitrogen, which escapes as ammonia into the air. Also a large part of the fertiliser value is leached out by water passing through the manure pile. It is a conservative estimate to calculate 50 percent, of the value of the manure wasted between stable and field. The method I have adopted (writes a farmer reader) is one which I am led to believe saves the manure and economises labour. I draw the manure direct from the stalls to the field where it is to be applied. It is spread over the ground as evenly as can be, and left to sink into the soil. By this method there is no loss from heating, and as the manure decomposes it is readily taken up by the soil, and held until needed by the growing crops. Where manure is spread over grass or a crop, it affords protection as a mulch, as well as furnishing plant food. The farmer who does not take care of the stable manure cannot afford to buy commercial fertilisers, and the one who does take care of the manure should use the-commercial fertiliser with a view to increasing the manure supply. By doing this the farm will increase in productiveness from year to year.