THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 464, 11 May 1912, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

~ , * HUMUS IS VEGETABLE SOIL. It is during a dry season that the grower, whether he be farmer, orchardist, market gardener, or amateur has the importance of humus in the soil brought very forcibly lo his notice though there are perhaps some compensating advantages in the cause which result in the almost universal shortage of humus.

What is humus? Humus is decayed vegetable matter, and is the prime agent in promoting fertility in the soil. In its absence lands rich in all the elements of plant food fail to produce good cops. Analysis may show the soil to have more phosphoric acid and potash in it than could be exhausted from it by a long series of crops, and yet it will fail to produce, nor can it be induced to do so by the application of fertilisers of any kind, unless and until it is filled with humus.

■Leave a piece of land which has been rendered unproductive by constant cropping, without the return of any plant food, uncared for and unworked. and nature will set about its renovation by the restoration of humus. Weeds and the lowest forms of plant life will commence to grow, young forest trees will get start, and the dead leaves and vegetable matter will each year be Raided to the soil. These in process of time will restore the fertility of the land. The process i 3 a slow oi e. but it must be imitated by man if the soil is to remain a profitable one. _ ■ In experiments conducted in America, it wes found that continuous cropping for eight years caused an annual osa offover 20001b per acre of humus, due tn the fermentation and decomposition of organic matter in the soil. This loss of humus changed the physical properties of the soil, causing it to be less retentie of moisture, lighter in colour, and heavier in weight per cubic foot. One of th<=! great objects served by humus is thit of forming a home for the millions of bacteria upon which it is now krown depends largely the available food. In the absence ot hurrius these forms cannot exist and multiply, and without them plants cannot get their food. Another object served is the formation of humic acid, which is a powerful solvent of the mineral plant food, either naturally existing in the soil, or applied to it in the form of fertiliser?. A third object is the keeping open of the soil so that the oxygen of the a'r can penetrate it, and carry its lifegiving properties to the plant roots. The humus being then of such importance in restoring and maintaining the fertility of land it is of the highest moment to the grower that he shall know how to secure it. It may be done in several ways. If his land is near a city he may buy manure from city stables as most vegetable growers residing near cities do; but this is a costly method and is not capable of adoption on a large scale. A second method that most farmers can employ is that of carrying bush leaves and decayed foresS matter on to the crop and and there mixing it with the soil!. A third method of adding humus to the soil is by the growth of green crops, and particularly leguminous crops. This method can and should be generally adopted, and where it is systematically followed there will be no soil exhaustion.—Exchange.

BATTLE OF THE BREEDS. A rather dehatable point at all times among dairy farmers is the respective merits of the different breeds of dairy cattle, and while the admirers of a special breed can seldom be persuaded to admit that his favourite stock is not all that it should be under varying conditions, the confusion continues. With sounder knowledge, however, of the relative importance of milk of varying degrees of richness for cheese-making, it is certain that more importance will now be attached to dairy cattle giving a large ilow of milk of a moderate degree of richness. Hitherto, the value oE milk for cheese making has been determined according to its butter fat content but while it is a fact that the richer the milk, the richer the cheese the consumer does not buy and pay for the manufactured article, according to the percentage of fat it contains. He pays more attention, in fact, to the flavour and appearance. Ail the trade demands is that the cheese shall be a well made and palatable article, and therefore, all the cheese maker is called upon to do is to meet this demand. While it is not desirable, in the general interests of the trade, as well as in that of the particular brand, that the cheese should be manufactured entirely from very iow testing milk, it is obvious that in making a product from a rich milk the farmer is marketing a richer product than is either desired or appreciated, and for which he does not receive an adequate return. In these days of increasing cost of production, the primary producer following the arduous occupation of milk production of forced to consiner the question of augmenting his returns in every way. Just as the makers of butter have in creased the moisture content of their product from 10 up to even 15 per cent , so the men concerned in cheese manufacture cannot be blamed for considering every factor which will addto their profits. Cheese making is not what it used to be. Many a factory at one time ran its whey duwn the nearest stream. Now-a-days, cheese companies have found that by making the residual fat in whey into butter the whole cost of manufacture can be paid for, while it is possible that the milk sugar can also be profitably extracted from whsy all these things, combined with the better outlook for cheese, are forcing dairy farmers to look to cattle which will provide the most protfiable milk for cheese making. They see in deeper milking stock, which provide a milk of but average quality, the most economical animals for their purpose. It is the bulk of produce they desire rather than butter fat. In this con_r.°ftinn a fact to often overlooked is

milk which determines the vajue of a cow as a producer of butter fat, but the total amount of butter fat she produces in a season. Only the other day a man took several samples of milk to a factory manager to be tested, 'i'he samples ranged from 2.8 to 4!i. The manager remarked in giving the owner the particulars of the test that he would not be surprised if the cow giving the 2.8 milk was not the best, and so it proved when the amount of milk she gave was considered, it was found that she gave the largest yield of fat. Take the supplies of milk of the four milk receiving stations of the Msngatoki Co-operative Dairy Company. The first named is nearest Mount Egmont and the last named thofurthest away, and, therefore, is in a locality having the richest pastures. In the centres nearer the mountain the tests are higher, while on the richer country they are lower, but the supplies of milk are greater in inverse ration. The result is that the cheque handled by the suppliers of the low-testing milk are easily the highest These facts are naturally inclining the dairy farmers of naki to favour the deeper milking breeds of cattle, and contrariwise to think less of high-testing cowa. Certainly, such a breed as the Holstein demands a large amount of roughage, and is most profitable in rich pastures, and where an abundant supply of milk-producing food is available. With the increasing attention being paid to cheese the Ayrshire is bound to come into prominence on lands'unsuitable to the Holsteins, but the" adoption of this breed will be comparatively slow, owing to the difficulty of securing the desired deep milking type. Fortunately, the Department of Agriculture is giving a lead in this connection by establishing a herd of Ayrshires at Mouahaki no Scottish milk record stock, and the Ayrshire Breeders' Association has decided to encourage the breeding of Ayrshires in this country, according to pedigree of (performance rather than on show yard merit. The society has come to realise that no class of purebred dairy stock will advance in the appreciation of the New Zealand dairy farmer, unless it has a guarantee of milking power behind it; that showing points of no utility value are at a discount, and that "handsome is as handsme does" is the motto of the presnt day milk producr. Present indications assuredly point to the "cheese" tow being the most sought after animal, and, it is the breeders who appreciate this fact who will score in the near future. Farmers' Advocate.

CALP-FREEDING. That half the breeding goes down the mouth is generally regarded as an axiom which is sound both in theory and practice with all classes of Ftock, but it has special force when applied to milk producing cattle. It is not too much to asy that failure to feed calves on a cumplete diet, either the whole milk of the dam or an effective substitute, mepns an annual lo3s of many thousands of pounds to dairy farn.ers and the country to say nothing of the disease which follows as a result of the consequent failure to build up the needed constitution in the young stock. All animals demand proper feeding and care when young in order that they may be fitted to withstand adverse climatic and other conditions when they attain maturity, and thereby insure a profitable return to the grower; but there is no domestic animai which requires greater care and attention in its young days than the cow, for there is no animal which has to stand the same drain on its constitution in its after life, or no animal which gives the same amount of produce in a season. A vigorous constitution is imperative if a cow is to give its maximum profit, and this constitution largely depen.is on the manner in which it is fed as a calf. While there should be no necessityto emphasise this palpable fact, it is interesting to one the results of an experiment conducted at the Weraroa Experimental Farm in this connection. The calves were divided up into four lots, one lot being fed on whole milk, practically direct from the mothers; another on a mixture of skim milk and linseed (about half a cupful of linseed jelly at each feeding); the third on Gilruth calf food and skim milk; and the fourth on Calf Oil Emulgent and skim milk. The result showed that the linseed fed calves presented much the best appearance, because of the finer condition of their hides. The true test of the experiment, however, was provided in the following spring. Then it was found that easily the nest lot was that which had been reared on whole milk. They had come through the winter in a much more satisfactory condition than any of the others. When weaned and before being turned out in the winter all the calves were in about the same condition. In the cold months they were grazed in a paddock having good rough feed, being nractically treated during this time as on the ordinary dairy farm. The comparison between the whole milk calves and the others was most striking. The latter were not in the same condition in the spring, and did not respond as rapidiy when put on to summer feed. The calves fed on the whole milk were on this diet for sixteen weeks. The experiment ! emphasized the fact that when a calf is well started on its existence and does not receive a check it comes rapidly to maturity and develops into a heifer capable of being bred from at an early age, and then gives every promise of its progeny being healthy offspring, while it comes to its full flow without undue loss of time. Thus, while it is a very bad policy to starve a calf, it is the best of all possible means of securing a sound and profitable, herd to bring the members of it to maturity in a thriving condition, and to do so there is nothinß to equal the natural food. Where calf rearing substitutes are employed the calf should be fed on its mother's milk for the first week at least, and then the change from the whole to the skim milk should be gradually brought