THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 624, 3 December 1913, Page 2

THE RURAL WORLD.

WESTERN WOLTHS GRASS. j I Since its introduction ir. to New /lea- , land a year or two ago the variety of rye grass known at Western Woifcbs has .received considerable attention. The results shown on small plots which have been cultivated in cliiTecent \ centres all go to sustain its high rep*:- j tatlon as a fodder plant. A contribu- j tor ta the Manswatu Standard gives I the following partit-Tihsrs a? ilie experience of Sandon growera ;\where th:< 3 grass has been sown fairly extensively during the past year. [line writer states that rmmerous enquiries are being made both by dairymen and sheep farmers as to its general qualities and the mode of cultivation adopted, and it is evident that it will be largely utilised for winter feed for sheep and cattle. Mr W. E. Pearce and Mr ! Thos. Gifiord, who are both farmers of | repute in the district, grew Western Woith3 this year for winter feed, ana where it was cultivated under favourable conditions some splendid results were obtained. Mr W. S. Pearce and Mr T. GifTcrd were very successful in their initial efforts at growing this crop, and speak very highly of vi:. Both of these gentlemen pronounce it to be auperor to any other fodder crop for winter feed that they have sown. Mr Pearce, who kept an accurate account "of grazing and various date?, etc., supplies the information that he sowed his crop on 19m March and commenced grazing on Bth May. That the [crop was fully 'sis inches high when the grazing commenced shows its vigorous growth during [vths short time it was growing—only about seven weeks from the time it was sown The grazing commenced at various periods till 12th October, when the paddock was closed to permit of the development of the grass with a view to the harvesting of the seed. During the whole time from the Sth May till 12th October, including the days the sheep were not in the paddock, the carrying capacity averaged nine sheep to the acre. Considering that the grazing was during the severest monthß in the year, this is vary satisfactory. It grew well, and its growth was unchecked throughout the winter. Even the severe frosts did not have any detrimental effect. The manure applied was two hundred weight of basic slag per acre. It is noticeable that in the small length down this paddock no manure was sown, and the result is as usual in fodder crops where manure is omitted —no crop and plenty of weeds. The amount of seed sown to the acre was 2Slbs, and if anything "it was rather on the thin side, so a few pounds above this is advisable. Mr Pearce also tried his milking cows on this crop, and the result was that not only was there a greatly increased yield of milk, but th? cows greatly relished this feed, and were ever in the vicinity of the crop and gate ready to be turned in. Although Western W 7 olths responds most readily to rich soils —and the land on which the jabove crop was sown was rich — the past history of the paddock shows that soma exhaustion must have taken place, and this must have been against better results. The pravious crops were six in succession—the first being turnips, then followed : oats dogßtail, and oats. The rotation is, no doubt, vury exhaustive to the soil, but it affords evidence to show that even the poorer soils can give good returns, with a liberal supply of manure. A noticeable comparison 'between fodder '• crops, both sown for sheep feed, was that of the above Western Wolths and a crop of oats in an adjoining paddock. The oats were up before the Western Wolths was sown, but the latter was not only grazed first, but it was grazed about three times as much as ; the former. It is also noticeable that in an instance where this grass and ryegrass were sown alongside each other in the same paddock the sheep would always bare the Western Wolths down before they commenced on the ryegrass. "DRY" OR "WET" MILKING. Discussing the question of "dry milking" and "wet milking." a dry expert recently pointed out that the latter was ''certainly iha natural one, but, owing to the necessity for cleanf liness a very wet method of milking cannot and should not be adopted. "The moistening of the hand 3 with a little preserved vaseline is really the cleanest and moot preferable method." It is not conceivable that a cow would give more milk or butter by being milked with a perfectly dry udder than if both were slightly moist. MACHINE MILKING. ITS EFFECT ON THE FLOW OF MILK. The New York agricultural experimental station has been making a study for the past four years of the effects of hand and machine methods of milking on the flow of milk. On an average, about eleven cows were milked by machine and an equal number by hand. The total time required for preparing the machines, milking twelve cows, and washing the machines was 4.034 minutes per cow, and for hand milking 7 minutes per cow. The influence of machine milking upon the flow of milk was found to be too small to be measured, even when other factors were eliminated as fully as possible. There were also observed no objectionable local effects upon the sows or the flow of milk when the degree of vacuum used was varied. It was considered by the station officers that there is till room for improvement in milking machines but their success at the present time depends a great deal upon the operator. INSECT THAT DESTROYS WOOL. How closely the work of the naturalist is interlaced with that of the man of commerce is shown by the fact that there is an insect which destroys wool

after it has been scoured, baled and exported, says the Sydney Sun. Last year the Australian Commercial Commissioner in Japan reported that a package of woollen tops shipped to Japan were found to he spoiled by the larvae of certain injects, which were in cocoon? rio,nt round the bale. The insect was, not known in Japan, and nuturally to-,m i'os-i was made about the matter, aa it was sot desired that the pest should obtain a settlement there. The fuss wns only partly justified, for in Japan a near relative of the infect is i'mimi already in great numbers. It was a beetle to be exact, which bad laid the orrs that turned to larvae that spun the cocoons and turned to pupae before re-emergence at? a beetle, and its name is the red-legired hum beetle. Air Frosjeat. Xow .South Wales Government Entomologist, ideal ib.ed the larvae, and announced that it belonged to a class of destructive carnivorous beetles. In til- Paebie Islands it is known as the copra ian,' and it swarms in ships which carry copra. Probably the vessel which took the woollen tops to Japan also ['carried copra. beeiuse close examination of the premises at which the tops were packed .failed to reveal the presence of. any of the beetles, |No evidence of the creatures having eaten the wool was obtained, and Mr arrived at the conc 1 u?iai; that i hey had invaded the particular bale from the ship's crevices in order to have a pleasant place to pupae. It all goes to show how necessary it is that ships and j stores should be frequently fumigated | and cleansed.