FARM AND GARDEN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 335, 8 February 1911, Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN.

TABLE MAIZE. Table maize or sweet corn should be gronw by everybody. It is an excelfent substitute for peas during the hot weather. Procure the best variety possible, and plant the seed in single rows about a foot apart. Sow in shallow trenches, and gradually fill up the trenches as the plants grow, but do not earth them up. Cultivate frequently, but shallow. The deeper the soil is prepared in the first instance the better it will encourage deep rootincr. DEHORNING BY CAUSTIC. Authorities agree that the operation is best performed when the calf is under five days old, and should not be attempted after the ninth clay. Caustic potash is poisonous, and care should be exercised in handling it. It should not be applied too wet, lest any of the stuff trickle down from the horn to the eyes of the calf and imperil its sight. For this reason one man should hold the animal while the other applies the caustic. Caustic potash is sold in sticks, which should be kept in stoppered bottles, other wise it will absorb the moisture from the air and liquefy. The stick should not be moistened too much, for reasons already stated, and also because if it only spreads to the skin unnecessary pain is inflicted, and sores may occur. The operator should also guard himself from danger by wrapping a piece of cloth round the chemical. Clip the hair from the top of the horn when the calf is from two to five days old. Slightly moisten the end of a stick of caustic potash with water - or moisten the top of the horn-bud—-and rub the tip of each horn firmly with the potash for about a quarter of a minute, or until a slight impression has been made on the centre of the horn. The horns should be treated in this way from two to four times at intervals of five minutes. If, during the interval of five minutes after one or more applications, a little blood appears in the centre of the horn, it will then only be necessary to give another very slight rubbing with the potash.

THE UDDER AS A GUIDE. There are good milker to be found in all breeds (says a dairyman in the "Farmer and Live Stock Breeder"), although some breeds favour milk production as a body more than others, and there are to to be found amongst crossbred and nondescript mongrels a great iri3ny specimens that may be termed ideal milkers, a very big I number of which cannot lay claim to ! the possession of anything approaching the required list of qualifying points, but they are good milkers, for all that, and what else can be required if milk production is the object in view? The most apparent qualifying point of such animals as these is to the observer an udder of the right shape and capacity to produce an abundance of milk, and surely such a point as this should count even where the cow selected lacks the approved head, neck, tail, and so on. Even with a full and correct list of rules to go by, the man who is hunting for a good cow may pass a lot of useful animals before he comes to one which, having, as it were, run the tape over, he takes on its face value, and not 'infrequently finds, after all. that the ! milk supply falls far short of what he I thought'he might justly expect after | his very careful selection. '■ In the selection of cows for milking j amongst those that have had two or three calves, generally speaking, there is not much to be studied beyond the udder. This is, of course, if they are healthy, but allowing that the subjects under observation are healthy, in fair condition just on the point of calving, or just calved, the udder will, as a rule, bespeak the good milker, however casual may be the glance given to other so-called qualifyingpoints. At this age and stage oi ! progress cows have, to all intents and | purposes, that about the general ap- ! pearance of the udders which gives one I the impression at once at; to whether I they are good milkers or are likely | ever to be such. At this stage it can i be seen whether the udder is one that will be likely to milk profitably for a good time after calving or whether the dimenisons of it will only warrant I a small supply of milk, and that most [ probably for a short period. If a J good udder be there the cow is a good | milker, but if the udder in appearnce is i not much moie then a slight drop of | the skin it is best to pass such a subi ject by if milk is required, for even if ! she have a good head, neck, and so on, ; it is too late in the day with her to ' hope for profitable developments. : Most buyers of cows like to purchase ; just before calving or just afterwards, for then it is quickly to be known whether their bargains will pay for their keep, and further a more definite knowledge of the standard of qualities i of the purchases can be arrived at at ! such times than is the case at any ! other period during the milking or i pregnant time. 1 The man who buys dry cows should : know of their past doings, and cows ! that have reached the aged stage even on the strength of creditable past are a very doubtful bargain. Overstock- : ing often deceives the purchaser of i the newly-calved cow, but when quiet- \ ly and carefully viewed, the distorted abnormal condition of the udder be- ! comes very apparent to the observant, and the discomfort of the cow whose i bag has in this manner been allowed i to become over-charged with milk to improve her milking the appearance ! is generally to be observed by the keen observer. The moderate milker j can by the missing of one or two miik- ' ings be made to look a prolific milker to the eye that is not sufficiently practised to discern distortion of the udder '■■ from advanced milking capacity. There is no better time to get assured ! of what a cow is doing in the way of . milking or is likely to do than two or I three weeks after calving, at which { time under ordinary circumstances the

udder should be in its normal condition, for apart from stocking some cows' udders about calving time are to a certain extent naturally distorted. The size of the teats does not count for a iot in milking capacity. Cows with very small teats often do great things at the milk pail, and in my experience the majority of those cows that I have handled which have been had very large teats, have given a splendid* account of themselves in the milk supply, but trust must not be placed in the size of the teats as to the governing of the milking powers. There must be depth of udder for a continued supply of milk.