FARM NOTES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2797, 31 May 1911, Page 3

FARM NOTES.

The indispensableness of the horse is thus pictured by Frank Fenwick in the " Rider and Driver " :—" By a thousand tokens the horse has proved his abiding worth. He is no- experiment, no toy

whose transient worth may wane tomorrow ; the horse has been on the job for countless centuries. He has been the contemporary of every age, and a servant of man through all these periods of growth, development, enlargement and enrichment ot life. When the bicycle enjoyed its phenomenal vogue of a dozen years back, people prophesied the horse would be little used, or completely abandoned, for riding purposes. How about it to-day ? And now they are telling us that power-driven vehicles will usurp the functions of the horse and kill him as dead as the proverbial door nail. But I believe it not at all. The horse will be on the job when you and I are gone." Writing of entires, the " Live Stock Journal" expresses the following :— " Much of the success or otherwise ot a stallion depends on the kind of treatment he gets trom his groom, therefore it is highly important that the latter should be a natural horse-lover with a kindly disposition. Nothing is gained by ill-treating a horse, neither are they naturally vicious and sullen tempered, therefore, when one sees a stallion which has to submit to wearing blinkers continually, it is natural to conclude that he has lost confidence in man. Any horse which gets a reputation for bad temper is certainly not fancied by breeders, so that it is of great importance that entire horses ot all kinds should be in good hands from their youth up." For three years in Berlin some working horses, during the greater part ol the year, have been fed with potatoes, without receiving cereals. The horses kept in excellent condition, although obliged to work hard. The rations suggested are 3olb. ot potatoes during winter and 4olb during spring, summer, and autumn. The potatoes are boiled and then mixed with cut straw.

The American Tariff Board has sent a man to Argentina to investigate the cost of wool production. Similar investigations have been liiade^ in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The cost of production m New Zealand, too, is being inquired into on behalf of the States. All these inquiries are understood to be lor the purpose of assisting the board in revising the tariff.

A writer in " Farm and Dairy," a Canadian paper, says that, "an explanation of the high test of the New Zealand milk is found in the fact that practically all the factories pay for the milk by straight fat test."

In view of the nght that is being put up in Australia against the spread of the cattle tick, it is interesting to note the success that is attending the work of eradication in the United States. Nearly 11,000 square miles ot territory was released from quarantine for Texas tever by order of the Secretary ot Agriculture, on March 15. This (says the " Country Gentleman ") is a result of progress made during the past year in the extermination of ticks which spread the disease. The total area released from quarantine since the eradication of the treks was systematically undertaken in the summer of 1906 by co-operation between Federal, State, and local authorities, now amounts to nearly 140,000 square miles, and includes territory in ten States.