On the Land

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 56, 28 May 1927, Page 20 (Supplement)

On the Land

Elimination l APPLIED TO FARMING

IN the race for success the former must travel light. Every hindering factor must be thrown by the board and the predominating aim should be the elimination of unessentials and the lower grades. Only such a policy will ensure true success.

( 4NE of the greatest trouble-savers ” is elimination. Yet, few put it into practice in its entirety. Effort is needed and that, to the man of to-day, is only used as a last resource. The man on the land is no exception, and much of the trouble experienced today is due to following the way of hast resistance. Few farmers work for fun. They tire out for profit. Yet, on every hand, deterrent influences are at work and it is only as the farmer learns to overcome and cast these by the board that he can hope for real success. Elimination should be every man’s contra! idea. Note carefully the things that are holding you back; see what is

wanted to cut them adrift; then act. For'the man who would travel to success there is no alternative.

“Sounds good,” says the sceptical man on the land, “but high-sounding phrases like :hat are of little avail when it comes to milking cows and farming for profit.” That man is foolish. If the farmer paid more attention to elimination and forgot, for the time being, to follow the line of least resistance, there would he less reason for all this pessimistic talk of hard times so current in the Dominion to-day. To a small extent, many farmers practise elimination. They call it culling, however, and the term is applied to stock. AIMING FOR THE BEST

Every farmer’s aim should be for the best. This can only be secured by consistently eliminating inessentials and building up the top grades in all departments. Take, for instance, the dairy herds of the countrv. Many progressive farmers in the Auckland district have built up herds which now average an annual return of over 2501 b of butter-fat. This is considered nothing out of the way, for many averts© over 300, all as a result of systematic culling. Yet, the average return for the milking herds of the Dominion Is below 20Cfb—surely a striking testimony to the need for the practice of elimination in our dairy herds. An annual increase of 101 b in the Dominion's average, it is estimated, would return to the country at least £, 1,000,000 extra profit. When it is realised that many men have doubled the productive

powers of their herds within 10 years the amazing possibilities of systematic dud-cow elimination can he realised. Everything must be worked on a system, however, and two main avenues are open to the man who would build up his herd; firstly, through testing, and, secondly, through breeding. Dovetailed and helped by regular culling of the lower grades they must bring results. Far too little attention has been paid to herd-testing in this country in the past and, even where it has been practised, farmers have failed in many cases to profit by its revelations. They have failed to follow it up by drastic culling and the introduction of recognised milking strains into the herd.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SIRE No man would be wise in buying a whole pedigree herd to start with. The average dairyman couldn’t afford it. Much can be said, however, for the idea of a foundation herd —up to about 10 young pedigree heifers of a recognised milking strain run in with the balance of the herd. With these to work on, the natural increase will provide ample scope for drastic culling each year, and gradually the robber and unprofitable cows can be eliminated. The first essential to such a scheme is a good bull. He is half the battle, for it must be remembered that each season’s calves will represent half his strain.

The stock certainly represents the greater part of the battle on the farm and on their productivity depends the biggest part of the farmers’ profits, but there are many other avenues in which the process of elimination could be practised with success. Get rid of the useless things that take up your time and cause you worry. Eliminate all useless moves. If you have disturbing influences on your farm, such as an employee who is continually wasting time and causing friction, eliminate that employee. He is holding you back. Eliminate every factor that holds you back, every move that, is unessential, every footless idea that crowds your brain.

Eliminate and build, remembering always that it is only by continued effort and the casting aside of unessentials that success can be gained on the land to-day.

SOUTHERN JOTTINGS

STOCK DOING WELL (.From Our Own Correspondent .) WELLINGTON, Friday. Sheepmen are pleased at the way their stock interests are progressing l and sheep, everywhere, are in the pink of condition. Ewes are winteringvery well, and it will not be very long now until some lambs begin to show up. Wqnl is growing well and if there is no set-back there should toe dnother good clip. The dairy farmer is much elated at the recent advance in prices for his produce, and tile increase should make an appreciable effect on his cheques. In the Wairarapa, Taranaki, Manawatu, Oroua and Wanganui districts, the increase represents a very bigtotal. It will be a splendid finish to a remarkably good season for production. HERD-TESTING IN MANAWATU The Manawatu Herd-Testing Association returns of Group No. 3 are now available, and the results are very gratifying, despite adverse conditions in the early part of the season. The group average of 1,282 cows is 255.07ib butter-fat in an average of 2So days,while the highest individual cow in the group produced 489.441 b. butter-fat in 310 days, and the lowest 114.781 b but-ter-fat in 209 days. The returns are illuminating and clearly demonstrate the value of putting the “acid test” on the herd. The highest average herd was that of Mr. A. Griffiths, 36 cows which averaged 319.301 b butter-fat in 266 days,' while the lowest herd of 41 cows averaged 184.931 b butter-fat in 218 days. DRESSING LAND Farmers in the Wau-oa.district were greatly interested ,in a" lecture on dressing land, by Dr. D. L. Freeman, Government Agricultural Instructor. The lecturer stressed the necessity of a general treatment of the grass lands of the Dominion, that the best possible results could be secured from them. The management of grass lunds, he said, was bound up in national fertilisation. When the grazier manured his land he fed the plant lifts and the stock depasturing thereon. Those lands that were not manured deteriorated, and the productive capacity went down. Now, however, the most advanced pastoralists admitted and practised fertilisation, and the unprogressives would soon follow suit. The speaker showed what followed when pastures were not fertilised, or were improperly fertilised. The most nutritious grasses dwindle.d and the poorer ones became dominant. The 'poorer the pasture the poorer the stock. In the case of dairying, fertilisation increased the milk flow and the'percentage of butter-fat, as well as improving the health of the stock. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE There has a good deal of unrest among those in the Manawatu on the agricultural college being a future educational institution of the district, anxiety being caused by the option over Mr. McHardy’s property expiring. However, the matter has been settled to a certain extent by the Government assurance that the complete university will be established at Palmerston North. The option has been extended for three months, and by the time of expiry Parliament will have had an opportunity of discussing the position and arriving at a definite decision on the point at issue. This has removed a certain amount of anxiety' experienced, and it is hoped that authority will be given by the Government to go “full speed ahead” .to provide the North Island with the agricultural college it so much needs.

PRIMARY PRODUCE

DECLINE OF ENGLISH PRICES DAIRY ASSOCIATION’S OPTIMISM Observations on the serious state of export prices and an expression of optimism in the improvement of the market are contained in the annual report of the South Island Dairy Association. There had been a marked decline in the values of both butter and cheese during the year, as the following figures, taken from the High Commissioner’s reports, showed: Butter. Cheese. 1927. 1926. 1927. 1926. cwt. cwt. cwt. c-wt. Jan. S* .. .. 168 s 170 s 94s 100 s Feb. 5 .. ..* 174 s 176 s 94s 104 s March 7 .. .. 166 s 170 s 88s 101 s April 9 .. .. 154 s 174 s 76s 9Ss “This is a matter of very serious moment to the dairy producers of the Dominion, and calls for the earnest consideration of everyone concerned with the welfare of the industry,” states the report. The slump in prices has been attributed to a number of causes, such as (1) the large accumulation of stocks carried forward from the previous season and held in store in London on account of factories speculating for a rise in the market; (2) the general strike and prolonged coal strike in the United Kingdom, with their consequent effects on the purchasing power of the people: (3) the general economic position of that country; (4) the increase hi the importations of dairy produce irom this and other countries; and (5) the hostility displayed by the trade in England towards the policy of the Control Board, especially with regard to price fixing. NOT POLICY OF CONTROL “We believe that the fovir reasons first named have been strong contributory factors in the decline, but are of the opinion that the policy of the Control Board has not affected the position to any appreciable extent, as produce from other countries not under control has depreciated in value to the same degree, including Danish butter. We are pleased to note, however, that present indications give grounds for the belief that the position will be considerably improved in the near future. ‘ It was gratifying to note a considerable improvement in the quality of both butter and cheese. MLich of the credit for this was due to the payment by the Control Board of an extra premium for finest grade, and also, in the case of butter, to the system of compulsory grading of cream and differential payments to SLippliers according to grade. Of the total quantities shipped under control to March 31 last the percentages of finest grade (93 points or more) for the four Sotith Island ports were: Butter, 78.95 per cent.: cheese. 64.80 per cent. The averages for the whole of New Zealand were: Butter. 75.55 per cent.; cheese. 57.14 per cent.

TANNING SKINS

WHY AND WHEREFORE

DEVELOPMENT OF PLANTS INTERESTING PROBLEMS Farmers as well as gardeners cannot fail to be interested in plant problems which have been discussed in a recent issLie of “The Field.” Though the gardener of the past is sLipposed to have worked by rule-of-thumb, his modern successor is certainly not content with knowing how and when to do a thing—he wants also to know why it should be done at all or in some particular way. So in the cultivation of ordinary vegetables as well as of flowers he has perpetually to be looking for reasons. Why for instance, do carrots often run prematurely to seed? Why are some tapering and other stump-rooted? To find the solution of such problems as these we must go to the origin of the plants concerned. The garden carrot has been obtained from the wild plant. The latter is an annual with a long woody root and a pungent flavour. It would therefore seem to be a very unpromising subject for cultivation; yet by sowing the seed too late for it to flower in the same season and by compelling it to keep on growing by supplying it with an abundance of food and water it has been converted into a biennial, the nutritious material which it had not been able to use in the prodLiction of flowers and seed being stored in the root, which has conseqLiently become thick and fleshy and quite free from the objectionable qualities which it formerly possessed. Even now, however, though the carrot has been cultivated for very many centuries the -change cannot be said to be fixed, for if the conditions are relaxed—if the seed is sown very early and the plants are -starved or allowed to get excessively dry—they are liable to revert to their original state and become annuals again, flowering in the same season and having hard thin roots which are useless for cooking - . THE CARROT

If the garden carrot has been so long in existence how, it may be asked, do we know its origin? This has been proved experimentally by growing it from seed obtained from the wild plant. By another series of experiments it was shown that the different forms Uif roots have been prodLiced by differences in the conditions, the stLimp-rooted being the result of growth in light soil. Here, too, the changes are not fixed. If a stumprooted variety is sown in light soil or a tapering variety in heavy soil there is often a mixtLire of the two forms. THE PARSNIP The parsnip has also been obtained from the wild plant, a native of Northern Europe and certain parts of Asia. Like . the carrot, it was cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Pliny speaks of its pungent flavoLir, so in his day it had evidently not advanced very far. Yet, as was shown by Professor Buckman in the middle of the last century, it is capable of being raised to its present* excellent level in a comparatively short time. He collected seeds of the wild parsnip, sowed them in rich soil, selected more seeds from the best plants and sowed again, and so proceeded for several years. By this means he sLicceeded eventually in getting a fine variety with a long straight fleshy «rdot, without any of its original PLingency. It was put on the market under the name of The StLident, and is still one of the best varieties. But the parsnip, like the carrot, slides backwards if it is not cultivated under the same good conditions as brought it into being, though, the wild form being a biennial, it does not. like the carrot, exhibit the same tendency to flower in its first year. Both being derived from native plants are hardy. The parsnip is even improved by a little frost. DEVELOPING CELERY Celery has been obtained from another native growing in marshy districts, for which reason it was formerly called merche. Another name for it was smallage. It was long regarded merely as a medicinial plant. Gerard, writing at the end of* the sixteenth centLiry, says it “is not woonted to be eaten, neither is it considered good for sauce.” But in the years that followed the discovery was made that the acrid principle in it could be eliminated by blanching, and gradually celery came to be esteemed one of the best vegetables. As its origin suggests, however, it must have plenty of water otherwise it is hardly worth growing. CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER The wild cabbage occurs near the sea in many different countries—in Britain along the shores of the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Like many other plants which grow in SLich situations it has SLicculent leaves. A French botanist proved that this was due to the presence of salt. He watered ordinary cress with a solution of salt and found that it became succulent, the change becoming more marked in subseqLient generations under the same treatment. The cabbage has a sort of bloom on its leaves, a very thin waxy film. This film serves a useful purpose. The cabbage, unlike most plants, has the' stomates chiefly on the upper side of its leaves, and the water which often lies on the leaves would enter or block the stomates if it were not prevented by the waxy secretion. The cabbage is remarkable for the many different forms which have been imposed on it. by cultivation, the most singular being the cauliflower. It is really a “monstrosity,” the inflorescence having been converted into a compact white fleshy mess. We are indebted for it to the ancient Greeks. As indicated by its origin, all the members of the cabbage; tribe are improved by a slight dressing of salt.

A LIGHTNING PROCESS A lightning process for tanning skins is as follows: Over two quarts of bran pour five or six quarts of boiling water, then strain. Make an equal quantity of salt water by putting into water blood warm as much salt as the water will dissolve. Mix the bran and salt water, and to each gallon of the mixture when no more than lukewarm add loz. of sulphuric acid. Then immerse the skins, stirring them occasionally until tanned. Rabbit skins will tan in 20 minutes, sheep in from 40 to 60 minutes and larger skins in proportion. When tanned rinse in water and hang in a shady place to dry. The skins, if dry, should be soaked in water before tanning.

PRODUCTION POSSIBILITIES

CONVINCING FIGURES Referring: to New Zealand’s exports of dairy produce to Britain recently, the president of the Poverty Bay provincial district of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr. F. S. Bowen, said that New Zealand exported 73,000 tons of butter to Britain and 23,000 tons of cheese. It took 2.2 S tons of cheese to make one ton of butter, so that the Dominion was exporting to Britain in dairy produce an equivalent of 108,000 tons of butter. The only cheese exporting country sending more cheese to Britain than New Zealand was Canada. Denmark, a small country about the size of the Wellington Province, had to import feed for its dairy herds. New Zealand export three or four times the amount of dairy produce if it were fully populated. He quoted these figLires to show New Zealand’s eminence in the production of dairy produce.