THE RURAL-WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 526, 14 December 1912, Page 3

THE RURAL-WORLD.

WHEN TO WATER HORSES. A boraa should be watered before feeding, and never given a large quantity of water after a meal, for the simple reason that the water will wash the food out of the stomach before stomach digestion has taken place, and the food will not be well prepared for absorption; and, besides. it is sometimes the cause of colic. There is a popular idea that a warm horse should not be allowed to drink, unlike a great many other popular ideas, there is a little truth in it. If you water a warm horse in the ordinary way letting him, drinkall that he will, you are likely to have a foundered horse on your hands. This is especially so if, at the time, the hcrs3 is fatigue'!. Nevertheless, it is always sare to allow him from six to ten swallows, no matter how warm be is. If this be given on going into the stable, and he is allowed to stand and eat hay for an hour, and is then offered water, he will not drink nearly so much as h 6 would had none been given him before. ■ The danger is not in the first swallow, as we often hear it asserted, but in the excessive quantities that he will drink if not restrained. The most dangerous time to give a horse a full draught is when he has cooled down from fatiguing work, and has partaken of a meal. ECONOMICAL CALF-RAISING. A number of members of the Royal Agricultural Society recently paid a visit to the Woburn Experimental farm, and inspected the results of a number of agricultural experiments which are being conducted there. One of the series of observations which have been made refers to the most economical plan of rearing calves from birth. Twenty calves were divided into five lots of four each, and were at the time of their purchase two or three days old. Dr Voelcker reported the following results as to the average gain in weight per calf, and the cost in pence per puund of flesh gained in weight in nine weeks: Fed on ' whole milk, gain 12.831b5; cost per lb, 5,39 d. Separated milk and cod liver oil to make good the fat—gain, 9.61b5, cost 3.33 d. Separated milk and a purchased calf meal, 8.61b, and cost 2.77 d. Separated milk and a gruel of linseed and oatmeal— 8.29!b5; cost, 3.47 d. Separated milk and crushed oats —13.31b5; cost, 2.62 d. It is clear that the last diet was the most efficacious in putting on flesh at the lowest cost per lb.

MOTTLED BUTTER. What is the cause of mottled butter, and how can this fault be remedied? Butter which is full of mottles, or white specks of hardened casein, is due solely to the process of manufactured being at fault, and the cow cannot be blamed for this trouble, as she is sometimes when the butter is tainted. If the cream is properly ripened, the butter sufficiently washed, and good salt • employed, mottled butter does not obtain. Churning sweet cream is often a cause of white specks in butter, but this practice is fast declining except in a few caseß where sweet cream butter is demanded. In the ripening of cream it is the lactic acid which dissolves the casein, but if the cream is got much too acid the casein gets precipitated and hardened. In this state much of the casein gets incorporated in the butter instead of passing away with the buttermilk or washing water. Where the cream is judiciously treated previous tu churning, mottled butter is then caused by the cream being over-heated in the churn, or the butter grains not being sufficiently washed. Overheated cream cannot be churned to butter grains and therefore the butter cannot be properly washed. Dry-salted butter is more liabie to go mottled than when brined, as in the former case it is difficult to get the salt evenly distributed throughout the butter. Always employ a good brand of dairy salt, as inferior salt causes mottled butter and also affects the flavour of this commodity.—C.W.W.T. in the Agricultural Gazette.

LUCERNE AFTER MANGELS. Farmers whose mangels have been grown on land suitable to lucerne, and who have by inter-cultivation kept the land clean, will find that after the bulk of the mangels are removed, if pigs are turned in to consume the remainder, that such a system is an excellent one for the preparation of the land for .lucerne growing in spring, provided that lime manures and suitable cultivation are brought to bear upon the preparation of the seed bed. Experience has shown the bedefit of early ploughing by exposing the soil to the influence of air, moisture, sunlight and frost, for a short time before the land is finally prepared for the seed bed. Not only by doing this is a large amount of food stored up in the soil in an available time, but the soil becomes weathered and pulverised for a considerable distance below the surface, enabling plants to feed over a large area; and by giving the tilled land time to settle the connection between the tilled soil, and the broken sub-soil is re-established, and in addition by improved texture the crop is re'ndered less likely to suffer from droaght. By exposure, grubs, spores, and many parasites are killed, and weeds are stopped from obtaining possession. Among the stiffer classes of soils, in unfavourable seasons, a va3t number of discings and harrowings become necessary to fit the soil when it has only recently been ploughed.

lowed, very little work is necessary to prepare the seed bed after the cross ploughing, and three furrows in cross ploughing could be as easily turned as two furrows in the first ploughing, thus considerably lessening tne cost. But there is another advantage gained thereby, and that is on land so treated weeds are practically exterminated under a suitable rotation. COOL MILK WITHOUT ICE. To keep butter and milk cool take a box 12 inches deep, 24 inches long and 24 inches wide.make a door secured by two hinges and a hasp, tack two or three thicknesses of scrim on the outside, making allowance for the door; after setting the bottom on end set on the top a deep vessel filled with water and in the basin put strips of scrim or woollen goods about three inches in width and of sufficient length to reach well down the sides of the box. ,- Secure the strips to <he bottom of the basin by a weight; shelves may be placed in the box. Set outside the house where the winds can pass over the box. The cooling resulting from the rapid evaporation of the water reduces the temperature within the box. The hotter it is outside the harder the wind blows, the cooler it will be inside the box, as long as the pan is kept full of water.—Exchange. BREVITIES. Purchase all you require on the cash principle, and obtain discount. Read up-to-date agricultural literature.and try anything new tentatively Study the markets, and take advantage of them, whether buying or selling. A colt's education should begin the first week of its life. Then its disposition is formed better than any other time.

Skim milk is a cheap food for calves, but should be fed carefully in limited quantities, and only while it is warm and sweet.

Too much must not be expected from heifers after their first calf, and a large proportion of heifers may cause a low yield in a really valuable herd of cows.

A natural state, or as near a natural state as is obtainable, is necessary for brood mares, if a man would be a successful breeder. Above all things is room necessary.

In these days when there is a tendency for people of limited experience to embark their little capital in the land it is well to give a word of warning on the subject of overstocking. The present is essentially the time of the specialist,and it is a matter of amazement that a greater number of,our farmers do not engage more extensively in the breeding industry. Of all overstocking, overstocking with sheep and horses is the moot farreaching in its effects, entailing the heaviest loss at the time and in many cases disastrous after consequences.

Mr Jospeh Bowden, of Cortober House, Cootehill, Ireland, owns a ewe of Roscommon type, that has produced eight lambs within the past twelve months—four last year and four this. In his Border Leicestar flock, five ewes produced sixteen lambs. When many horses are bred in a confined space disease of one sort or another is not long in putting in an appearance. Or if it does not put in an appearance at first, when it does come to the front its consequencs are disastrous.

Some cows appear to emulate ostriches. A cow that died in Ireland was found by post-mortem examination to contain a purse holding four sovereigns, one half-sovereign, a halfcrown, threep°nce in coppera. and a railway tickets. Also a brass door knob, th"ee cartridges, and a quantity of black glass.