Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 197, 7 October 1909, Page 4

Farm and Garden

<i;.\ri: 1:; < ow.-. A :• ti' i >.i ]•■ feature among portraits •>■ j.riz<--wir.ning bulls and cows is thru th< y have a wide forehead, one which holds wk'c to the bone of the horn. One seldom gees a prizewinning animal with a narrow forehead. This of itself is one of the best indications of constitution, intelligence, and power to transmit quality to the offspring if a male, and of being a good producer if a female. Prize animals also show large open nostrils and massive under jaws. No cow of any breed is a good feeder and a good producer at the pail without a heavy under jaw. Neither is any cow strong and vigorous unless she has large open nostrils. Photographs of prize winners are the best verification of this. All animals of a dairy tpye, no matter what the breed may be, have practically the same form. There may be a marked difference in the length and shape of the head, but otherwise, were one able to imagine them all of one colour, there would be a marvellous resemblance in appearance. Some are larger than others but this would be practically all the difference were we to obscure the head, in which the chief difference is length.

PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN COWS. No subject connected with the management of cows is of more vital important- to the dairyman than the prevention of disease in his herds. Unless cows are healthy and vigorous they cannot prove profitable, and generally under other conditions they will prove a dead loss. The following is suggested by an old and experienced dairyman as a preventative of milk fever in cows: —

"Half a packet of Sykc's drench to be given a fortnight and another half packet one week before calving." Prior to using this remedy he had lost a number of valuable cows through milk fever, but since adopting this method some years ago he has not lost one.

STOCK AND TOP DRESSING. Probably few farmers arc aware that there is a risk of injury to live stock if they should happen to have access to pastures recently dressed with superphosphate. The danger is not very serious, but it exists, as may be gathered from the report of the chemist to the Highland and Agricultural Society. Some fowls having died soon after a dressing of superphosphate was applied to grass land to which they had access, a sample of the manure was sent for annlysis and Mr Hendrick states that a trace of arsenic had been found in sulphate of ammonia, and a heavy trace in superphosphate. The chemist adds that the manures which arc most likely to contain arsenic are soluble phosphates such as superphos phate; but hitherto no evil results have been noted, and there is further assurance in the certainty that the arsenic does not pai=s into the crops dressed with the manures

FEEDING POULTRY. The food requirements of a fowl are: Plenty of grain and green feed; meat food in moderation; grit, shells?, and pure water always. As in other matters relating to poultry simplicity is an important point in their feeding. In the confusion of "balanced rations" and exact proportions, we hear less of them now, the novice was almost afraid to let hi i fowls cat in the natural way, lest they over or under balance themselves. Give the fowls good food and sufficient of it and they will balance and proportion it to a nicety. Grains arc the most important food, with whe at and corn beading the list; but the local conditions must be considered and the kinds most easily and cheaply obtained should be used. With us, all kinds of grain are dear; barley usually being the cheapest. But barley when fed dry is not a good feed for poultry; when steamed, however, and used for the foundation of the mash, it is excellent. For this purpose buy the No. 1 grade of rolled barley. In feeding grains to fowls, let the morning meal be a light ration of wheat or some of the smaller grain, preferably wheat and cracked corn. A full crop of this and tender greens to dream on puts vigour into the fowls and money into their owner's pocket. Green feed comes next to grains in importance; in fact,it will to a greater extent nil the place of everything but grain, and an abundance of it will lesson the quantity requtred of that. The question is how to keep a plentiful supply of thi3 class of feed. In our long dry season, and where many fowls are kept,in all seasons, it is difficult to furnish them with sufficient fresh groen feed; and this causes more failures in making poultry profitable than any other one thing. Where there is the space and irrigation, one may always have an abundance of succulent vegetation. But some poultry raisers have neither for this purpose. Grass, young grain, kale, cabbage, nearly all kinds of vegetable tops, belong to this class of food, and are relished by the fowls in the order named.

IMPROVING FLOCKS Many a farmer who would be glad to improve the character of his poultry, but who docs not understand bow to set about it, should study the point. Let him make a selection of the best laying hens. He has, say, ten or a dozen. These be should confine, and buy from some other breeder one or more cockerals of the same breed —not show birds, but birds of a good laying strain. If he buys two he can mate each one to, say, six hens, and from his eggs raise bis future stock. At the same time he should kill off all the other males. His egg supply will not be affected, and bis feed will be reduced. The chick* hatched early from the new breeding hens will give him his next winter's supply of eggs, and the old hens can be disposed of. Next year the process can be repeated, mating again the best laying hens he has. Thus the flock will be graded up without any difficulty and loss

The older horses should be gradually replaced by young ones, which can be sold at five years old for a substantial sum, while more are coming on to be sold in due time. Thus the team is doing the work and gaining in value at one and the same time.