Agriculture.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1109, 29 July 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agriculture.

THE CHEMIST IN THE DAIRY.—No. 11. By R. W. Emerson Maclvoe, F.1.C., F.C.S. ACJHOE OF “ THE CHEMISTRY OF AGRICULTURE.” According to Villeroy cows of different breeds yielded per 108 lbs. of bay consumed; the following quantities of milk expressed in quarts : —Dutch, 28*92; Jersey; 26*33; Yorkshire, 27’45; Devon, 19*13: Hereford, 15*97. Lehmann considers the shorthorn to be a very superior milch cow;. and states that an Aryshire dairy herd, consisting entirely of shorthorns, gave 625 gallons of milk annually per head. Professor John Wilson, F R.S.E., University of Edinburgh, mentions that the largest recorded yield of milk was that produced by a shorthorn cow at Lervis in ' Scotland, and which amounted to an average of 1210 gallons per annum. A liberal and good diet is necessary for a full yield of milk ; and numerous efforts have been made to add to the richness of milk by peculiar methods of feeding the cows. Green fodder favors a large produce, particularly lucerne, which also improves the richness. Poor watery-grass, however, yields a moderate amount of miik of low quality, and the addition of oil-cake increases both the quantity and the richness of the milk. It is remarkable that the alteration in the composition of milk occasioned by the use of different kinds of food is merely an alteration in the total amount of solid matter; the proportions of butter, casein or curd, and sugar are scarcely, if at all disturbed by the nature of the diet. The amount of food given to a cow should vary with the yield of milk, the object being to get as great a produce as can be realised without faltering the animal. Struchmann, who fed dairy cows on a great variety of dietaries, found that the maximum yield of milk was obtained, when the animals were fed on a mixture of 5| lbs. of rape-cake, 25 lbs. of oat-staw, and 36 lbs. of mangels. He also found that one pound of rape-cake gave 1.2 pound of milk. It is well-known that the character of the butter is much influenced by the diet, some foods producing a soft and others a hard butter. “ oats, and wheat bran are considered by Danish farmers as first-class foods; barley as secondclass ; and linseed cake, peas, and rye are placed as third-class. The first-class foods produce a soft butter, the other foods a hard butter.” Mangels constitute a better diet for milch cows, than any other root crop. It is worthy of mention, that as milk is a product much more nitrogeneous in composition than the increase of carcase obtained when an animal is fattened, and that, for this reason, cows yielding it should have a rich nitrogenous diet. Lucerne, clovers, and young grass are, therefore, good for milch cows; and when straw, hay, and roots constitute the bulk of the food, it may be found advantageous to use in addition, rape-cake or corn. Milk, when it leaves the cow, has a specific gravity of from 1028 to 1032. On evaporation, it leaves a residue of dry matter, which, under extreme conditions, varies from 10 to 15 per cent. The following analytical statement will serve to show the composition of ordinary milk in 100 parts :— ~ J .Water .. .. .. 87*0 x ** * Ash 0-7 1000 The dry residue of milk has a very high feeding value, owing to the proportions of fat and albumenoids present, and its perfect digestibility. CREAM. When freshly-drawn milk is set for cream, it should be cooled as rapidly as possible. Schrodt, Kirchner, and otners, have shown that the shallow vessels best suited for creaming, are those made of tinned iron, and that wooden vessels should not be employed, being with difficulty kept clean. The depth of milk in the vessels should be about 3 inches, and the time required for the separation of the cream, varies from thirty to forty-eight hours. Under these circumstances, a large surface is exposed to the atmosphere, and the chemical changes wfiich take place, include the partial decomposition of the albumenoids, the conversion of lactose or sugar into lactic acid, and the perceptible curdling of the milk. The cream thus obtained, contains casein or curd, and also various, more or less, stronglyflavored products of chemical change, which affect the quality of the butter. In Europe, numerous scientific methods of creaming have come into extensive use. Swartz’s plan consists in placing the milk in mftal pails, 16 inches deep, and sunounded with ice. The cream is completely separated in twenty-four hours from the time of setting, and is perfectly sweet. It is free from curd, the cold to which the milk has been exposed, having reduced decomposition to a minimum. Another method is that of De Laval, who has invented a machine in which the milk is submitted to rapid horizontal revolution, whereby the fatglobules are forced into the centre of the revolving mass. The fresh milk enters the machine in a continuous stream, ann is immediately separated into cream and skim milk, the former leaving the apparatus through a pipe at the top, the latter by another pipe from the side. Dr. Voclcker, chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, recently examined the cream and skim milk from De Laval’s centrifugal separator. The composition of the fresh and skim milk may be seen from the following table:— Fresh. Skimmed. Waler . a .. 87*72 90*51 Fat . 3*15 0*22 Casim .. .. 3*12 3*31 Sugar .. .. s*ll 5*12 Ash .. .. o*6o 0*64 100*00 100*00 Two other samples skimmed by this process, gave 0*46 and o*3l per cent, of fat; whilst milk skimmed in the usual way, showed 0*75 per cent., and the cream 25 per cent, of fat. The cream obtained by De Laval’s plan, was, of course, perfectly sweet, and consisted of: — Water 66*12 Fat27*69 Casim .. .. .. 2*69 Sugar 3*03 Ash .. .. .. .. 0*47 100*00 It is to be hoped that this centrifugal separator may early find its way into the colonial markets. Cream varies very much in composition. When of good quality, it may contain 55 to 65 per cent, of water; from 30 to 40 per cent, of fats; from Bto 12 per cent, of albumenoids; and from Ito 2*5 per cent, of ash and sugar. In sweet cream, the curd may be said to be about one-tenth of the fat; in cream which has soured the percentage of curd, will be much higher. < CROPS WE MIGHT PRODUCE PROFITABLY. ’cotton. By Angus Mackay. Some years since it looked as though cotton were to become one of the great exports of the colonies.. Since then there has been a woeful falling off. Now there is a revival, and more than a casual prospect of cotton becoming an established crop amongst us. There are many reasons for desiring that such should be the case. Amongst them being that cotton is one of the most easy and least exhausting products of the soil; that where the seasons are at all suitable, it is a hardy crop, that can be developed to the greatest perfection; that, when fit for market, it does not occupy great bulk; and that there is always a ready market for cotton. In this latter respect, cotton is like wool. And like the latter also, it would be all the more beneficial to those who grow it, if others went into the business. It has been amongst the drawbacks of cotton in the

colonies all along, that there has but seldom, in any one year, been enough of it grown to make for itself a feature in the English market. The consequences are that Australian cotton is sold very frequently with consignments of inferior American and Indian lots, and thus realises a much lower rate than it is fairly entitled to. Were the quantity shipped sufficient to make distinctive sales this drawback would soon disappear, and our colonial product would take a better place than it has done as yet. The extent of country available for cotton growing is much greater than is generally supposed. In America, it grows throughout an extensive belt from Virginia to Texas, within the influences of the sea breeze, and in which there are seven months of warm weather. -Seven months are sufficient to mature cotton, and all over the colonies within 100 miles of the sea, and not at great elevation. Where the season is sufficiently long this crop is worth trying. The seed is very hardy; it costs little. Where the fibre is being ginned or cleansed, it can be got for nothing. It can be carried any distance, and is as easily sown as corn. If it grows at all, and matures even a portion of the fibre, and it becomes evident after experiment that the location is not suitable for cotton, what is grown will most likely be sufficient to pay for the trouble incurred. There are very few substances, if any, which make cleaner, more comfortable, or more durable beds. Housewives, therefore, have an extra interest in having an acre or two put under cotton by way of trial. To grow the crop the soil preparation may be similar to that for corn, potatoes or grain. The land should be ploughed during the cold weather, and be ready for getting in the seed as soon as the soil heat is sufficient to start corn into growth. It is of no use planting earlier than that, as the seed will not grow without sufficient warmth. There are two decided varieties of seed, and many subvarieties, and each produces fibre having peculiarities, and of more or less value ; but for the general purposes, of those who may try cotton in an experimental way, to see if it will answer as a crop, the description of the two more prominent varieties may answer: They are the free-seeded sorts, usually named Sea Island cotton, and Egyptian, and the woolly-seede’d or uplands sorts. The latter are the more hardy and the more desirable for beginners. The seed is covered with short cotton fibre, which sticks so closely that it cannot be removed by the ordinary ginning machines. The free-seed sorts are dark brown or black in color, and are more or less pure in proportion to their uniformity of color and size, and the quantity of cotton wool sticking to them.

For all situations except sandy loam soils near to the sea, the preferable course is to start with woolly seed. Any good corn or potato land is suitable for it, where the seasons will fit. This woolly-seed clings together somewhat closely in masses, and to get it sufficiently free for sowing purposes it is usual to rub it well with ashes; it then scatters more freely. But where seed is plentiful this thin scattering is not so necessary. On the cotton plantations it is common to scatter in the seed thickly, and to chop out the young plants until those necessary for growth are standing singly. The thick seeding answers for manuring tasomg ”witfi"'fheplough or hoe. On strongish land the furrows may be five feet apart. On poorer land four feet or little less may answer. Scatter the seed furrows Ms thinly as six inches apart if is scarce, and more closely when it is plentiful. When the soil is dry the soil put over the seed can be rolled or packed in closely. In damp soil this is not necessary. The seed has a hard shell covering, but in favorable soil it sprouts quickly, and in ten to fourteen days the young plants will be coming above ground. In dry soil the seed may remain during weeks or months possibly without growing until rain comes. The plants are strong and hardy when they grow freely. But during dry weather they may hang back and seem sickly. When the plants beigin to throw out leaves they£have to be thinned, always allowing the strongest plants to stand, even though the distance between them is not so regular. When they have reached about a foot in height, they should stand from two to four feet apart, in the rows according to the strength of the soil. Weeds and grass have to be kept down amongst the crop, and soil drawn up gradually towards the stems of the growing plants, in order to give them a firm hold. They branch out strongly, and unless well supported are liable to be blown over or to have the bark worn off near the soil. In the latter case they become sickly and die. When a height of three feet and upwards to six feet is reached—the latter height being very tall for cotton—the plants have so branched as to cover all the ground, and should so interlock with each other as not to be easily shaken by wind.

The flowers of the cotton plant are somewhat like those of hibiscus, and come out all over the branches. When they fall off, a green ball or boll, about the size of a walnut is seen. This gradually grows in size, and finally bursts open, disclosing a ball of beautifully white cotton fibre, with numbers of seeds bedded in it, near the shell of the boll. When the seeds become hard, the cotton is ripe and fit for picking. This is done by hand, and has to be followed so closely by picking over the field each day, so that none of the fibre will be lost in the event of rain, or strong winds setting in. It is best to pick while the plants are dry; but when damp, the cotton is dried by sunning it on a verandah, or under a shed, or indoors with fire heat, when continuous wet makes that necessary. When the seed and fibre are quite dry the cotton is fit for ginning or cleaning. This is done by passing it through a gin or cleaning machine, in which numbers of circulars saws, going at great speed, rip off the cotton, the seed falling into a separate part of the machine. In America the growers of cotton do their own ginning, or neighbours gin for each other; and this is a desirable process, the seed, being the heavier portion of the crop, has not then to be carried to port or away from the farm. This seed is very rich in oil, and, with proper treatment, it makes capital feed for stock, pigs, etc., or it makes rich manure. The cleaned cotton is baled like wool, and is then fit for export. In Queensland and Fiji, where considerable quantities of excellent cotton have been grown, mercantile houses purchase the cotton as it is picked in the field, with the seed in it. They then gin and prepare it for baling and for export. There are advantages in such an arrangement no doubt; but where the quantity grown ;is sufficiently large, and there are means available for ginning on the farm, it is better to do it there, and then to sell the clean cotton, either to the merchant at once, or to send it off to England on the grower’s account.

Cotton growing, it will be seen, makes no great demands upon the capital of the farmer. The seed is not expensive, and there is nothing very special in either the cultivation or harvesting of the crop. The picking or gathering is a slow process, and has been a good deal underrated. It was supposed that women, children, or anyone with hands could pick it—that the operation was more one of fun than labour. This is not the case. Cotton picking is trying work, and demands constant and intelligent attention. But if the picking can be attended to conveniently, that is, if the farmer has help of the kind available that would pick cotton, and the seasons and the land in his location are suitable, there are few crops upon which he could bestow some care and attention that are more deserving than cotton.