OUR KEMICAL KOWS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 257, 11 October 1928, Page 7

OUR KEMICAL KOWS.

FARMER HODGE’S VIEWS. Paying fox- New-fangled Notions And what think you of all this modern talk about feeding and breeding and concentrated chemical manures, Farmer Kodge ? Farmer Hodge looked at me, evidently trying to decide whether .1 was attempting to take a rise out of him. The scrutiny seemed to satisfy j him that I was in earnest, and somewhat fearful of the drastic departures from the ways of my forefathers. “ My opinion, mi lad, is that we’re | going to pay dearly for all these new- i fangled notions,” he said. “ Bless mi blucher boots, they’re stuffing -he cows so full of chemicals that we’re j drinking chemical milk, eating ehem- i ical butter and beef, and chemical . cheese, too. They talks about the tons of manures they use in this ’ere Waikato, but they don’t tell us that we use more deodorisers here than anywhere else in New Zealand—to get thim darned chemicals out again! And they don’t harp on the fact that the butter championship of the world was won two years ago by a little factory at Rangiwahia, so well stuck up among the hills that top-dressin’ could not be done, ’cause it would all j wash off into the creeks.” ]

“ And how' about the cowS, Farmer Hodge? They seeni to give vary high butter-fat returns?” Mebbe they do, but they also give a durn sight more trouble with demnition diseases such as X never heerd tell of in my young days. They’s bred so fine and so stuffed with chemicals that they’s got no constitootion left, and can’t stand up against the mis .'ablest germ in the hatmosphere. In my young days old Rose and ’Brir.dle and Daisy ate rough grass,

which got no manure 'sept what they - put on it theirselves; but they ’ad no F bellyaches or dictionary diseases. We j think we’re awful smart in this young | country, but in older lands they keep to farmyard manures, that do not ex- j haust the soil, and they farm intensively. Take it from me, lad, we’ll 1 have to git back to the old safe and j solid methods by and by, wen we’re l finished tryin’ to teach grandmother how to suck eggs. After listening to f’iend Hodge’s forceful Anglo-Saxon speech I | thought there might be a substratum j of truth in his old-fashioned views, j but having seen the old “ kerridge ” j give place to the motor car, and the j ■ airplane era ushered in, I much doubt I whether we will start reversing the J direction of the clock. But I have j also noted that in countries like I Denmark, where they use artificial j fertilisers as we do, they also feed i the cattle solidly, or. linseed and ! other nutritious preparations. How- 1 ever, I suppose we will beat our “ harmony of discords ” as a prelude, music out, even if we do have a To build up the cow’s constitution and increase fertility the feeding of minerals, not necessarily concentrates, is, Mr. Dayus, M.R C.V.S., considers, j of primary importance. He states j that mixtures containing calcium phosphate ate of the greatest value. A suitable mixture is : Calcium phos- , phate in the form of steam bonemeal, ! lewt ; agricultural salt, 501 b ; sulphate of iron, 41b. Mr. Dayus states that this is cheap o'd has good j results. ■ -- j —-Matamata Record.