SALT FOE STOCK.

Patea Mail, 20 March 1882, Page 3

SALT FOE STOCK.

Amongst the many plans adopted in almost every department by Mr Firth, we noticed one which pleased us greatly during our recent visit to Matamata. We observed in every paddock where cattle or sheep were feeding, a number of small, rough, but strong boxes, placed at short intervals. In these boxes were lumps of rock salt for the use of the cattle and sheep. The boxes in which coarse salt was placed specially for the sheep, had a rough cover to protect the salt from the rain. Practically the open boxes had been found to answer better for the cattle, for though the rock salt is more or less subject to the effects of moisture in an open box, there is really very little loss, for the boxes, if water-tight, are regularly licked out by the cattle, and if not water-tight, any salt which may have escaped is greedily licked up by the cattle. We observed in the hay fields that coarse salt was sown on all the haystacks at the rate, as ascertained on inquiry, of about 4cwt. per stack. The splendidly healthy condition of both cattle and sheep on the Matamata estate is no doubt to a considerable extent due to the salt which all animals, including horses, have an opportunity of obtaining at pleasure. We are pleased to find that the course we have often recommended to our readers, that of providing salt for every description,of cattle upon the farm, has been adopted on a large scale by Mr Firth, and with the most happy results. Observing some of the old wheaten straw stacks only partially consumed, we inquired if salt had been put in them, and found that no salt had been used. Last year, however, Mr Firth applied salt in the same way to his threshed straw as he now does to the clover bajq with the effect that before the end of the winter all the straw stacks so treated were greedily eaten by the stock having access to them.—Auckland Herald.