THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 558, 12 April 1913, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD.

CROP ROTATION. While all of the causes of low yields of the small grains cannot be removed, practically all that are of immediate importance can be controlled in large measure by a wellplanned system of crop rotation. When crops are grown in rotation and proper tillage mehods are followed, they will suffer less from dry weather than when they are grown continuously. Crop rotation is usually of more importance than the methods of tillage used in this respect, although both are important. In moat rotations more roughage is produced than can be disposed of by the work sto:k on the farm. Hence, more animals must be kept and more manure produced to return to the land to keep up the supply of organic matter. The organic matter in the soil may also be maintained by growing grasses and legumes, clover, lucerne, peas, in the rotation. Inasmuch as not enough manure can be produced on a farm to keep up the organic matter no system' of cropping is complete unless it contains one of these crops. The legumes have the additional value of being able to increase the nitrogen content to the soil on which they are grown.

POULTRY NOTES. The average farm flock can best maintain vitality by the buying of new males in the autumn of every year. It is much more satisfactory to purchase a sturdy cockerel in the autumn than to try to rane the fresh blood through a setting of eggs each spring. Having found the sort of! bird that you require, I would go back each autumn to the same man. I would not try a new place each year, rather depending on the reliability of some one poultryman. New blood for producing your pullets each year should cost about £l. At less than that you are truly getting a bargain, and at a higher price you are spending too much of your money. Insist on shape, vigour, quick maturity; but care little for "comb, lobes, and shafting,"

Some of the neighbours may wish the new blood that your bunch of cockerels can supply. If not this year another year will show the desire for birds of your sort. At eight or ten shillings there is a bargain for the neighbour and a profit for you. A few of these sold now for breeding will give you more than the price of the cockerel or cock that you are seeking. 1 would refuse to sell any of the pullets even though the price offered is atractive. Good pullets are in demand this year, and you will be tempted to sell. Don't do it. You need them to fill that house with its one hundred layers; you will need them to produce tha winter eggs at high prices; you will need the very ones you are entreated to part wtih for your own breeding. Sort out the pullets, putting those that are slow growing off in vitality points, by themselves. Feed these carefully, and and if you sell arty let it be these that are below the standard of your ideal of health. Even these pullets may be better than he average run of your neighbourhood, and not long lack a buyer. Failure to supply grit is a fruitful source of financial loss in the poultry business. Unless the fowl has grit in its gizzard it cannot properly digest the food. The gizzard is a grist mill propelled by powerful muscles, and inside the mill a process of fine grinding is in progress —reducing the food into a condition to be taken up by the blood. In a gallinaceous fowl all digestion has its source in the gizzard. Unless the gizazrd is full of coarse particles of mineral matter —pebbles, etc.—digestion is faulty and bowel trouble frequent. Hens on range glean much of the grit required, but hens in confinement —unless the yard is a gravel bank —need to have grit supplied.

Fowls fattened on food mixed or moistened with skim milk instead of water produce white flesh and a superior flavour. There is no ration better for fattening poultry for market than sweet potatoes and maize meal. Cook them, and just befors removing from the fi*e, add maize meal. Feed when cold. About a pound of maize meal to a half peck of sweet potatoes makes a good ration. Two things would help greatly in the poultry business: The discovery of the law of sex, and the ability to distinguish sex as soon as the chicks are hatched.

Four things that you may have on your plant with but little trouble: A patch of maize; a small plot of clover; a field of oats.; a few rods square of Hungarian or millet. These cost little in money or in labour and they keep down feed bills to beat the band.

Did you ever think what an economic waste there is when you break up a broody hen? God Almighty implanted the instinct of incubation, and He implanted it for a purpose. The hen that is allowed to sit and bring up a brood of chicks will be healthier, happier, and will lay more eggs than the one in whom the instinct has been thwarted. 1 expect my mother hens to lay right through their moult, and they seldom disappoint me. One of these days there wil! be a poultry farm started along Btrictly natural lines, and it will be a success, too. The farm will be located near a good market and the owner will combine poultry raising with market gardening or small fruit growing. He will not attempt more than he can dc Hens will be used to hatch and rear the chicks, and every broody hen will be set except in midwinter and midsumer. —Exchange.