ON THE LAND

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 June 1917, Page 3

ON THE LAND

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

(From the Journal of Agriculture)

MILK FOR PIGS A.N., Rangataua—Many farmers in this locality make a practice of allowing separator milk to become sour before being fed to the pigs. Is there any advantage in this procedure, or do pigs thrive better when fed on milk fresh and sweet? The Live-stock Division — Sweet milk is preferable for very young pigs, but with i egard to older pigs it makes very little difference whether the milk is sweet or sour.

MUSTARD AND MILK-TAINTING

L.M., Dannevirke —Can white mustard be mixed with black barley and green oats be fed to milking-cows without tainting the milk and butter, as is the case with turnips ?

The Fields Division —A certain degree of tainting of milk will result from feeding cows on mustard and mixed forage.

CAULIFLOWER-SEED

F.S.M., Mount Barker — In May, 1915, I planted some cauliflower seed, which in due course produced plants. One of these I allowed to go to seed, and collected the seed. The plants now growing from this seed show signs of being cabbages. Can you please inform me how cauliflower seed can be made to produce the same vegetable ?

The Horticulture Division — Cauliflower seed raised as you suggest will produce cauliflowers not cabbages, but they may revert back to the cabbage type— that is, if they are raised from inferior plants. " Running out" is the term that is commonly applied in such cases. Probably this is what applied in the case of the seed raised by you. In raising cauliflower seed select the very best heads. When these run to seed cut away all the lateral seed-bearing growth, retaining only the main ' crown. Seed raised in this manner will be found to give satisfaction.

SPRAYING FOR GORSE DESTROYING "Gorse," Wyndham— Has your Department carried out experiments in the spraying of gorse ? It would be a real boon to settlers in many parts of the Dominion if some spray were found that would destroy it at a cheaper rate than the continual grubbing that has to be done where it cannot be ploughed, Was the American spray that was to destroy the prickly pear in New South Wales a failure ? The Fields Division —Spraying gorse with arsenic and soda has not given satisfactory results. However, if the gorse is well cut down and burnt, the spraying of the young fresh growth with this compound checks it, and if persevered in would finally eradicate the weed ; but the expense is greater than grubbing. The arsenious-oxide spray used for prickly pear has been a great success in Australia.

RENEWING A PASPALUM PADDOCK W.8., Tauranga—Will a paspalum paddock stand fire ? And what is the best means of renewing such a paddock when it has been down a number of years ? The Fields Division—Paspalum if it has been let get away in the summer, carries a fire fairly well, but generally the large amount of young growth among the older dried herbage stops the fire from burning rapidly enough to secure a clean burn. Burning does paspalum no harm ; in fact, it does it good. It is presumed your paspalum paddock has got sodbound, a condition regularly occurring in old-established fields. Some method of cultivation is necessary to open up the ground. If disking can be done it should be carried out, but in many cases if the turf is thick the disks will I not enter the ground, but simply ride over the clumps of grass. If disking does turn up the ground at all it will be found to give good results. If the ground can be ploughed at all satisfactorily and then worked down, a sowing of Italian rhye-grass should be made, using about 141b. There will be no need to sow any paspalum, as, apart from the old plants remaining," there will be an abundance of seed in the ground. The rhye-grass will provide valu-. able feed till such time as the paspalum has become vigorous again.