THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 564, 3 May 1913, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

RUGS FOR COWS. Dairymen, now that the winter is approaching you will have to see to Beveral things for the comfort of the cattle, especially their rugs, aB these things get out of order so quickly, and several of them are bound to be wanting attention. Some of our farmers do not believe incovering their cattle, but we are convinced if they once try it the result will more than satisfy them, especially on the farms that have such ecant shelter that the cows present only a shivering mass on a wintry day. Cows that are milking during the winter want plenty of good food and also good shelter. Keep them up ear the shed if there is no other shelter, bo that when the cold is too severe they can go inside or stand on the offside from the cold winds. No cow will attempt to eat food when the cold is cutting through her; so, farmers, for you own benefit as well as the cows' comfort, provide them with good rugs. Surely she is worth it.

THIRTY-EIGHT COWS ON*THIRTYTWO ACRES. This iB how a Canterbury dairyman who keeps thirty-eight cows on thirtytwo acres feeds them: —The cowb are feeding, on the whole, seven hours a day in the stalls. The rest of the time they are on the pasture, each cow with a good cover on her. This dairyman never buys any feed; be grows it all on his own small farm. The daily bill of fare is:—Hay for breakfast, ensilage for dinner, hay and mangolds for tea. That's all; but ever* cow is given all she will eat up clean, an 3 consequently the leisure of the cow is occupied in resting and making milk. She never has to hustle for her tucker. Need we repeat this is the methud of a man who never had any practical experience of the work until he set to work on his present farm. Before that he was on the road as a commercial travellar, and earlier still was an apprentice to the engineering business. Now he makes rather more net profit than two 'commercial travellers off thirty-two acres of land. Need we say that he reads all he can lay his bandß on that refer to dairying, and that he has bought all the books on the subject that he can buy?

STOCKING PASTURE. It has always been found that the ability to guage capacity of the pasture and keeping the stock well within the capacity yields the most handsome returns. Stocking on the farm in cultivated fields for fattening purposes is quite a different business altogether. The herd or flock being prepared for the butcher is kept in a healthy state by the equivalent of an ample range, viz., frequent changes of pasture. Sometimes it repays the expenditure to subdivide the fields so that such an arrangement of the stock can be carried out. When fattening cattle and fattening sheep are kept on the same farm their numbers can be arranged so that the cattle preceed the sheep and get a full bite, and the sheep follow up after the pasture is too short for the cattle, but just rieht for the sheep. Heavy grass land is liable to get sick of continuous cattle-grazing, as it does of clover growing, and a change of stock help to remedy that <svil and keep both land and stock in a healthier condition. Many of the obscure diseases of cattle, like some of the most recent in the North Island, have their origin from con tinuous stocking of one class of stock. Grasses also differ to some extent at various Btages of their growth in their composition. If eaten down rapidly, and thus secure a good topdressing, they come away freely and make a luxuriant growth, and are more digestible. When overgrown, they require a large expenditure of energy for their diaeßtion. The differences of composition are comparatively small as measured by analysis; but they are of extreme importance from a commercial point of view, because the quality and allembracing term, is affected by that difference. The supply of moisture and the prevailing temperature are the main factors in determining both the yield and the quality of the grass, but the manner in which it is grazed iB also material, in order to get the greatest return from it. Where grass is frequently renewed, as on a mixed farm, there is little danger of cattle sickness, and less still where they are rotated from one field to another, but Blight stocking should also be avoided. Where grass i 3 beyond the succulent ■tage and the cattle can pick and choose, all the coarse spots are left, and these seed and prevent any possibility of the clovers and finer grasses coming up. Enough stock should be put on at once to make certain that the field is eaten down level. There is more than appears on the surface in adjusting the number of the stock so as to make the most of the pasture. Mr Sutton says that young grass "should first of all be topped with the scythe, and afterwards rolled to consolidate it, and give the young plant a firm grip of the soil. The more frequently the pasture is rolled during the summer the more rapidly will the ground be covered with verdure. No one gives his grass a chance like that in thiß country, but the nearest approach to it is to feed it off rapidly with cattle when it will carry them, followed by sheep, and then strip it altogether till the process can be repeated again. Where cowa and young stock have been grazed for many years without restorng the loss of the phosphates removed from the soil, the application of superphosphate or slag Would be more than repaid. Such a toprdressing would also help to minithe evil effects of the past wet season.