THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 547, 5 March 1913, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

LUCERNE.

Regarding the needs of lucerne we could almost sum the matter up in four words—lime, drainage, humus, and inoculation. Ferhaps we have given these in the order of their relative importance. Lime is necessary on soils not naturally of limestone formation or filled with" limestone pebbles. The importance of this is impressed on us more and more each year; in fact, we believed to-day that there have been more failures throughout the United States on account of insufficient lime in the soil than from any other cause. Then as to drainage; there is no use in planting lucerne on any soil where water may ordinarily be found at a depth of less than three feet. The lucerne may grow all right until its root-; strike this water, but then it will die. Fertile soils contain enough humus. Impoverished soils may be so deficient that special preparation must be made before lucerne can possibly succeed. Where stable manure- is net available, on impoverished soils we would recommend preparation for lucerne one or two years in advance, growing such crops as crimson clover, mammoth clover, cow peas, Canada field peas or soya beans, and preferably turning them under, or else pasturing them off so as to give the soil the greatest benefit possible from them. We recomend inoculation, not that it is always necessary, but it is an inexpensive process, and in five cases out of eis it will actually pay.—lrrigation Age, Chicago.

THE CASEIN MARKET.

Of course, the profit in the manufacture of casein as against feeding calvea and pigs on skim milk will depend upon the market for the article. Upon this point there is not much satisfactory information available. The European market threatens to be over supplied from Danish and German sources, but an opening provided by the United States may tend to secure a ready sale for the article. At the present time (says the Australasian), the manufacture of casein is not carried on to a very large extent in Victoria, pußsibly because the average dairyman finds that he can dispose of all his skim milk in a profitable manner by giving it to his pigs. That there is a market for this commodity, however, is proved by the fact that the American Consul has received an intimation from the Union Casein Co,, of.Philadelphia, stating that they are on the market to purchase for £1,000,000 to £2,000,000 worth of casein in Victoria during the coming year. The compnay is offering six cents per pound, c.i.f., Mew York, and a sample of the claas of casein which it is prepared to purchase has been left with the Director of Agriculture (Dr Cameron).

SOIL FERTILITY.

HOW TO PRESERVE IT. ! "Any soil which was once rich can again be made rich," is a declaration made by Professor Alfred Vivian, acting dean of the College of Agriculture, Ohio State University, in a recent address. The principal factor concerned in the restoration of soil fertility, according to Professor Vivian, is organic matter. "The destruction of organic matter by cultivation and otherwise, is largely responsible for the depletion of out soils," said he. "This organic matter must he restored if we expect our farms to be productive. What does organic matter do? It increases the power of the soil to absorb and retain moisture; improves the physical or mechanical condition of the soil; helps to control soil temperature and is a storehouse of plant food. How can organic matter be restored to the soil? By saving all animals manures and putting them on to the land; by making use of all crop residues —that is, putting back into the soil everything not used for feed; but turning under green manuring and catch crops.' Professor Vivian pointed out the loss sustained by burning straw stacks and other crop residues, and •declared that, the difference between the careful saving of this plant food and its wanton destruction was "the difference between the salvation and damnation of our soils.

CARE OR THE DAIRY CALF.

Mr E. H. Dollar, a prominent breeder of Holstein cattle and a farmers' institute lecturer of New York, has the following to say concerning the care of the dairy calf:

"In the first place we must consider the calf as an infant, and it must be handled and fed very much the same as a baby. I believe that it is safe to say that 90 per cent, of the calves that die at less than six weeks of age die from one of two reasons: indigestion caused by over feeding, irregular feeding, or feeding milk of a lower temperature than that to which the calf is accustomed; or from infection caused by feeding from dirty pails. How many times we go into a calf barn and find the pails turned bottom up on the floor, and there they remain from one evening to another, from Monday morning until Saturday night, and from one month to the next. Is there any wonder that a calf a week or two old, fed from such pailß, becomes sick, and after a few days dies? ■ And the infection passes from one calf to another, and many times the entire herd is lost.

"Again we find a man who keeps his pails clean, but who is over generous. He wants his calves to grow fast, and so feeds them all they will eat, but feeds them only twice a allowing them to gorge their little stomachs with six or eight quarts of milk, when they should be fed on one or two quarts at a time and that four times a day. "Let us start with a calf at birth. We Will take it for granted that the

mother has been properly nourished and properly housed, so that this infant has been brought into the world in a strong, vigorous condition. The mother and calf are placed in a box stall, loose, and left there for a short time, varying from six to twelve hours according to the condition of the calf, but not longer than twelve hours under any condition. There are two reasons why the calf should be removed from the dam so early. We do not want the milk tak-n from the uddsr of the cow in too large quantities for at least two or three days after calving, because we have learned from experience that the heavy milking cow that has had her udder entirely emptied soon after calving is apt to have milk fever, or, at least, is more liable to this disease than she would be were her udder left well distended with milk. But the principal reason, so far as the calf is concerned, is that we do not want it to take into its stomach too much milk at one time. It should have a little of the mother's first miik—this seems to be necessary; but as soon as the calf be comes strong enough and begins to show a tendency to take too much of this milk, remove it at once to a separate stall, milk a small quantity from the cow four times a day or every six hours and feed it immediately, so that the calf will have the milk as near the temperature it came from the cow as possible. Of course, the amount fed must be regulated according to the calf* but perhaps should ndt exceed one and a half pints every six hourß. The I feeding pail should be sterilised or scalded every day; in fact, I believe lit more necesary that the calf pails be given the v.=ry best of care than !it is that the milk pails be looked after to the neglect of the others. This little calf, then, should be fed three or four times a day for at least two weeks. One of the greatest mistakes made by many calf feeders is that they ask the calf to go too long between feeding times, and then allow it to take too much milk into its stomach at one time. Calves should be fed very much as a baby is fed, and no one would feed a healthy child at 7 o'clock in the morning and then not until 7 o'clock at night. "After the first two or three weeks the calf should be gradually changed from a whole milk to a skim milk diet by adding each time a little skim milk direct from the separator, and it may also be fed three times a day instead of four. In this way the calves will derive nearly as much nourishment from the skim milk as from the whole milk. To the skim milk may be added a small amount of Sax seed to replace the fat removed by the separator. This is an excellent feed, and one on which calves do well. We feed milk to calves as long aa it can be spared many times until they are a year old, but at no time do we exceed six or eight quarts at one feeding. "Aa a grain ration to be used in addition to the skim milk, we have found nothing better than 2001b of wheat bran, 1001b of hominy, and 1001b of oil meal, fed all the calves will eat twice a day. With this is mixed a little salt and a liberal amount of charcoal. Charcoal is an excellent preventative of disease and an aid to digestion, and it may be fed every day. "In raising calves we endeavour to have them grow rapidly, in order that they may reach their maximum production, their highest yield of milk, at the youngest age possible. We believe that more can be done in the first year of a calf's life toward making it a profitable dairy cow, than can be done in any two years afterwards if the calf has been neglected. Grow the calf fast, feed it liberally, and get away from the idea that a cow must be night years old before she reaches her best."—Hoard's Dairyman.

STRENGTH IN WHEAT.

A strong wheat is one which yields a strong dough in baking, and English wheats are lacking in this respect. Speaking at a conference recently, in Cambridge, Professor Biffen gave some interesting particulars as to the efforts of the Home-Grown Wheat Committee to improve the strength of English wheats. Rating the best Canadian at 100 in strength, a good average wheat might be reckoned at 80, while ordinary English wheats could only be classed at 60. English wheat has, consequently, to be mixed with hard imported wheats in ordwr to get the desired strength; and it is stated that strong imported wheat may be worth 10s more per quarter to the inland miller than the Home grown. In experiment conducted by the committee it was found that neither soil nor manures can raise the quality of English wheats to the desired standard of strength, and that improvements mußt be sought in the introduction of new varieties. Of these many have been tested, seed being obtained from all parts of the world. In England the imported variety, however, has always deteriorated under cultivation with one exception—Red Fife which was found to retain its strength.