NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.
Alon? the Main South road as far as Milton one is struck with. Crop the burnt-un appearance and rrospecti. whiteness of thß landscape. There is a dried-up snowy glitter even on the metal road. The grass on the hills w as dry an-d wiry-looking a« fencing wire, with no substance whatever ia it, and the grain, where standing, is white to ripeness in the fields. Binders and stookera are to be seen in all direo. tions, pressing on with the work and disregarding union hours— eight hours' straight chains is no use in harvest time. In a bad season it is open to question -whether Sunday also should not be utilised' in securing the fruits of the earth safely. Bub there is no occasion to do that this year-
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Here and there a heavy crop of short stuff with the heads bulging out from the banch, as large as the butts, and as hea\y as a payable crop can be, is to be seen, but generally the crops stook well, although the straw is only moderately long, and the prospects of a good return are cheerful. Every opportunity is being made use of to secure any grain which as ready for stacking. The dry, hot weather is ripening and maturing the straw and grain very rapidly, and a continuance of it will make a short harvest. Haymaking is practically over without a break, and the hay has been secured in perfect order. There are al-najs one or two hate farmers in any district, but no object can be gained by allowing the hay •to leniain uncut any longer. In a dry season like the present one the second cut of hay will probably be light; most of the grass will not be worth cutting a second iirre unless the rainfall experienced during this month is considerable. Any topdressing applied to increase the bulk will also depend for its, effectiveness on the same reservation. In an ordinary season 3cwt or 4cwt of slag and lewt of nitrate of soda would more than repay itself on the s;abble. The turnip crop gi\es promise of being 1 a good one on the heavy ground, but ia suffering badly anywhere c'sa. So far the late swedes have escaped the blight fairly well, but the earlier-sown crops arc badly affected. During some of the hot, closs dayc; experienced at the beginning of the week the atmosphere was full of the blight flies. Mangolds and kohlrabi have this year done better than swedes, and will prove useful to those who have been wise enough not to depend too much on the 6\verie. Tho watering o. stocT away from the river banks is becoming a serious business. Many drays may be observed with barrels attached making for the nearest point of the river. Dairy cows are driven as far as possible along the road lines to water at noon, the double object of a supply o* food and drink being secured in spite of the inspectors. To such an extent does the practice prevail with small farmers ehort of grass that young children can hardly get to school without being scared out of their wits. So f ar the potatoes arc healthy and vigorous. The main crop exhibits no appcirance of those dreaded patches which indicate the presence of blight. Rain is badly wanted for the turnip crop and tho grass, hut it w ill take a heavy, continuous downpour to do any good. The summer months are now within measurable distance of an end so far as the growth of grass is concerned, and artificial feeding ■will have to be resorted to much earlier than usual on account of the parched-up pasture. It has been such, a favourable season for haymaking: and there has Hakinf been so little Tank growth Id silage- that any attempts to make ensilage have been postponed for another season. In some respects this is unfortunate, for with a short supply of swedes and mangolds the ensilage stack provides a succulent bite much appreciated by dairy cows. There is always a certain amount of fear in using ensilage that the railk will get contaminated, but w ith precaution taken tlm need not press heavily. ' Experience has demonstrated that this difficulty ca.n be overcome. The essential points to remember are that a supply of ensilage is not kept stored about the cowshed, and that the food be brought after milking each time from the stack as it is required, also that the cows are not allowed near it for a couple of hours before milking. When these precautions are taken ensilage largely takes the place of roots, and is an available standby when swedes fail. There is usually more clover in the second cut of hay than in the first, and this takes such a lot of making and requires such careful handling that where there is bulk enough it might be made into ensilage with profitable results. The weather generally breaks before the second cut is secured," and one is more independent of ■ weather considerations when making ensilage The farmer who has scientific as well as practical knowledge at his The Utility finger ends is better equipped •f Soil for the battle of life than Analysis. the man who merely commands technical knowledge. Still, some farmers could bo named who, in spite of their want of education, ha-^e prospeied amazingly, and by sheer dojrgixl- ' ness and pluck made valuable properties of their holdings, and are now in comfortable circumstances. What might such mon have cone had they possessed a scientificknowjedge of the principles of agriculture? This knowledge cannot be acquired in a. few 'weeks, or months even, but requires the training of years; and only after such a training and patient investigation ."or year 3J3 the scientist entitled to spoak with authority and lay down the law definitely. His method is first to observe closely and persistently all that can be learned about his subject, then by experiment and derluc tioD he arrives at the knowledge which counts, and so is able to resolve the farmers' difficulties. The farmer knows nothing about the methods which have been em- ; ployed by the scientist in arriving at his : decision, "but appreciates the fact that improvement has been offectad on >••« pvac- i
tiee. But under'} ing tins appreciation there is always the re*er\afion that the scientist's work is to be regaicled with suspicion, as being more or le^s -visionary and impracticable. It is thi-. idea- that must be combatted, and requires ro\ lsion perhaps more in reference to the vvork of the analw than to any othor master of science. The following loiter, written by John Hughes. F.1.C., and published in the Mark Lane Express, bears on this point : — In the notice of the recently published leport on " Agncultxual Experiments in the Eastern Countries," which appeared in your issue of the 2&th ult.. attention was drawn to a paragraph stating that thefe experiments had " brought out the unreliable character or ordinary soil analysis as a guide to the treatment of the land with feitilisers." The grounds feu such an unusual statement being based upon the experiments carried out on two farms only, it seems desirable to investigate the crcumstances. It appears as though on one of these farms the soil was well supplied with phesphoric acid according to analysis, yet the experiments carried on for a period ot six years indicated that the chief leqiurement was available phosphoric acir). while the soil on the other farm, though shown by analysis to conta'n but little phosphoric acid, was, nevertheless, unimproved in fertility by the app'ication of phosphates There is, howevei, a very reasor.ab'e and probable explanation — namely, in the first case the phosphoric acid was associated with iron compounds, and therefore not readily available as plant food, whereas in the latter case the phosphoric acid, though present m comparatively small proportion, was not associated to any great extent with iron compounds, and was therefore in a comparatively much more available condition. It in one thing to make the analysis, and quite another to correctly interpret the practical bearing of the results obtained As an analyst of some 40 years' experience, I contend that soil analyses, when carefully performed, are capable of affording reliable information respecting the character of fertilisers that should be applied for the respective crops to be grown on such soils. Further, that soil analyses should always be made in connection with field experiments in order to affoid information respecting the chemical composition of the soils operated upon — indeed, the omission to publish the analyses of the soils on experimental plots renders the results obtained, however carefully cairied out. of merely local inteiest to farmers iv the neighbourhood, because withcut proper information farmers at a distance cannot foina any practical opinion whether similar results could reasonably be expected on their own particular soils in a different part of the country. Naturally farmers are cautious in diawing practical conclusions as to the real value of field experiments carried out under different climatic conditions, and probably on very different quality of land: to that 'of their own farms. Th} small birds have levied a heavy toll on the grain crops this Farmers' year. The sparrows, linnets, KriendK .and chaffinches whiten up -i and Eaemies. f. oid of oslU 01 . w} t before the grain is fit for cutting. The damage done at this time of yea- is much more noticeable than in spring, when they pull up the \oung plants and thin out the seeding. Sometimes this is rather aji advantage than otherwise, if , they would only co\er the ground regularly insteid of working on patches. The rapidity with which they increase in number is marvellous, and their debtruancness outweighs a hundredfold all the good they do. Taking the unripe grain is tho worst item that can be nrged against them, but in season they beg-in on the fruit budj of the g-oo«ebeny, currant, plum, apricot, and cherry, and thin them out, then later on devour the raspben les es soon as they colour. On the other side of the ledger, they feed their young for a time on daddy-longlegs and caterpillars, keep down aphis, and strip slugs off the vegetables In the garden they are not nearly so destructive as the small waxeyes, to which no fruit of any kind comes f>>niss. The principal scourges of tho , orchardist are blackbirds and thrushes. , These birds are cunning and difficult to get rid of, and consume a tremendous | quantity- of small and large fruit E\ery , i variety as it matures is patronised by them, j They begin with the blark and red cuirant<=, and finish up with late pears. Lite appk-s appear to be too Lard for them, but are almost the only exception. Chenics they strip to the stone \ oraciously. They breed eaily in the season, and flock in*o the gardens in great numbers. Time afier time they may be shot light out with bird shot, but very soon are as bid as ever. Some of my neighbours who have persisted have been successful with rat tiap< baited w'th ripe cherries or plunm, but this is only a temporary exp^diem. When surfeited w.th fruit and in the ear'y morning when the dew i> on (ho i grass, they visit the lawns and fo^d on ! worms shins, and insects. The sturhnQare splendid foragers in the grass fields. They seom to have sucli an abundance ot natural fcod that they do not attack the fi'uit in any way. Thov now shew a disposition to come in about the dwellinghouses and farm buildings more than thov did, and it is questionable if they should be encouraged in this respect. They make a clean sweep of wireworms and grub 3, and are valuable on that account. In my neighbourhood they live in the b'uetjum plantations, and come in millions, perfect rlonds of th«*n darkening thej "W Tkcif
flight resound 1 : like the ru>h of on oxpie^s train oi a howling gale blowing rhiough toll trees. In some districts at Home they threaten the utter destruction of small f»uii-., ard they arrive in such numbers that that is easily understood ; but in this count iv they have improved their habits, and so far keep out in the open. They may be seen at times picking the ticks off the sheep's back, and are not only tolerated, but seem to be welcomed. It is not an uncommon sight to see two or three of them perched on top of a sheep, which ia King down peacefully, and' evidently enjoying their ministrations. No doubt oui freedom from plagues of caterpillars and grasshoppers is due to the good offices of some of these small birds, and their complete destruction is not desirable ; but efficient steps should be taken annually to keep their numbers within reasonable bounds. This year the value of poultry supplied to the Dunedin market Rabbits for largely depends on the I*»Bltrj-- supply of rabbits available fcedi»s. to feed them with and the price at which their carca«os can be bought for tins purpo^o. This 16 quite a new and legitimate development of the rabbic industry. In other words, when grain is so dear as to be piohibitive for feeding fowls, poultry-owners fall back on meat foods of some kind, and trie rabbit yields the cheapest supply. Boiled to a jelly with swedes, cabbages, carrots, or potatoes, and dried off with enough pollard to absorb the gravy and moisture, an excellent morning repast is provided. And if some of these vegetables are supplied raw at noon, and a little gram — oats for preference — given in the evening, the fowls will get on remarkably well. The Milton poultry farm this year has a splendid lot of chickens of all breeds coming on, and w ill have about 1000 mixed kinds and sexes ■ for sa,le. The manager informed me that j he had some difficulty in securing supplies of rabbit 3 locally this year. If it was the ease that they are thinner than usual in the neighbourhood, this might be a matter for congratulation. Such, however, is not the case; the rabbits have been breeding all winter, and young ones are very numerous and getting troublesome. Not very far from Milton great numbers are to be seen along the road. As a rule young ducks, turkeys, and fowls are not supplied till after April 1. and settings of eggs from July to November; but any farmer can be =et up with a supp'y of purebred hens, and roosters arc available at any time. The plan adopted with laying hens is to keep them laying two seasons, during which lime their -apacity is thoroughly tested The breeders for the incoming season are then selected from them, and the remainder disposed of to anyone requiring them. The selected birds form a very small proportion of the whole; practically all the layers are avafable to make a choice from. Any farmer can set up his establishment with one dozen or more purebred fowls, and a purebred rooster to go along with j them, for about £2. Now, the=o hens have stood the test of drafting three or four tunes a year, and can be relied on as useful, serviceable poultry, true to kind, J and good enough to set up a purebred «tnd. In a dry season like this lire and vermin were troublesome, and &teps were taken to dip the fowls. For this purpose Quibe!l"s non-poisonous liquid dip was used, of a strength compounded of one and a-half Ireakfa-s'. cups in six gallons of water. This proved an effective insecticide. The mana^er states that his consignments to market alwav^ realise a little more than other peoplo"*, on account of their quality, and that his institution is being thoroughly well supported by farmers generally, who have repeatedly expressed great satisfaction with Ihe birds grown there and supplied to their orders. This is quite as it should be, and at the prices charged farmers are fortunate to have such stock available for them. It is gratifying to find I hat the management find it necessary to erect severa l new pens this season, and that their operations are being extended profitably.
AGRICOLA
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 6
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2,731NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 6
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