THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 515, 6 November 1912, Page 7

THE RURAL WORLD.

GRASS AND HAY. An Engish paper, dealing with this subject, says: The enhanced value of stock, in consequence of the world's consumption having outgrown the supply, is focussing attention on the necessity of increasing the number of our herds and flocks. For this purpose a richer and more plentiful hay crop is an important factor, and thus we find that not only in this country, but on the Continent of Europe and in America, farmers are taking more interest in the improvement of: their hay land and pastures, while agricultural stations are showing by experiment the effect of the judicious empluyment of fertilisers. That there is ample *-oom for improvement in this direction is recognised. A crop well grown and manured should yield at least two tons of hay to an acre, whereas the average yield of the permanent hay lands in England is about 23cwt., and in America 21cwt. In Germany the average yield is a little higher than in this country, and in France the average is somewhat lower. If the hay crop throughtout the world could be doubled, what enormously increased agricultural wealth it would mean, and yet it would not be difficult to accomplish. In the United Kingdom there are about 6,000,000 acres of permanent hay lands and about 21,000,000 acres of permanent pasture land, in addition to about 6,500,000 acres devoted to rotation grasses. Every individual farmer should make an effort to increase the produce of the land under his control, as there i 3 every inducement, because goud grass lands are the foundation of a farmer's prosperity, enabling him to keep more stock and avoid heavy expense on articfiial foods, while the extra supply of farmyard manure will enrich bis fields devoted to cereals and root crops. LUCERNE. The American experimental tests, and most (if not all) which have been carried out in every country of the world, support the necessity of liming land on which lucerne is grown. The testimony is conclusive as to its possible effects. In many instances farmers report that for years they have been unable to secure a successful stand of lucerne, but when once they applied crushed limestone the improvement was immediate. From the Pennsylvania Experiment Station comes this report:—"When we bear in mind that the fUld experiments were on a farm that was notably poor and sour four years ago, thatit could be bought for next to nothing per acre, the case is different. That land possesses no advantage over most of the land in this State except in drainage. There was no difficulty regarding drainage, but there was serious lack of lime and fertility. In the first field seeded there was one narrow strip which was left without lime, and there was just such a failure as many farmers report. If we had applied lime and failed to meet some other one condition of success we should have had failure, but lime was supplied, and, likewise the fertiliser and bacteria, and the seeding was done at the right time and after a good seed bed had been made. It would have been unreasonable to expect success if each thing had not been done in the right way; and, on the other hand, it would have been unreasonable to expect failure when each condition of success had been fairly met. Even the fourth crop in this case came on so vigorously that are afraid to leave it, and so cut it rather high and put the crop in silo. We hear from many farmers the fear about leaving a heavy fourth crop for the winter test, as they say it smothers the rootß. With lime there is no reason for this fear. The standing stalks seem to afford a needed protection to the crown, and the coming shoots appear the spring. 5 ' THE COW'S RESPONSIBILITY. A full bench of judges in England have recently decided that the dairyman who sells milk deficient in the usual qualities of goud milk is blameless if it can be proved that the product is sold just as it came from the cuw. It seems that it is possible to feedcows that a large quantity of milk may be yielded, although the quality may be deficient. If further legislation is deemed necessary, as waß suggested, it will probably go in the direction of fixing such a standard of quality as will compel milkmen to select their breed of cows and feed them in such a way that that standard will be attained. Milk is an important and universal food, and great as are the milkman's worries alreadv, it is inevitable that means should be taken to ensure that the public are supplied with a real article. To tamper with the milk should not be a greater offence than to tamper with the cow, because apparently in both cases the result is the same to the consumer.

HOW MUCH MANURE DOES A COW PRODUCE?

Experiments that have extended over a long period show that the manure and urine from an average cow weighs about 701bs a day, so that the production for the year would be 12| tons. If you have a herd of 40 —why that's 510 tons of the best possible manure, isn't it? You would have to pay a lot of money for 500 tons of manure, and yet perhaps, you are not making proper efforts to save and utilise that for which you do not have to pay.

Manure should be collected daily, and either spread on the land at once or stored in concrete, covered-in pits or sheds. The old plan of leaving it in heaps in the yard is a wasteful way and an uncleanly way. Save every drop and every piece of manure for your land, and your farm will not be a squeezed lemon by the time you are due to hand it over to your son.