EARLY AGRICULTURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 31

EARLY AGRICULTURE

ENGLAND IN 1260 COMMERCIAL FARMING Early agricultural literature is discussed by Mr. G. D. Amery, M.A., Oxford University in the “Journal" of the Ministry of Agriculture. He tells us that for the beginnings of English agricultural literature we must go back to the middle of the’ 13th century. About 1260 there appeared a little handful of agricultural treatises of which the best known is that of Walter of Henley. The agricultural industry of that time was of self-suffic-ing character and in its organisation differed materially from present conditions. The arable land of the med-

iaeval village was arranged in two or three blocks, each block being divided into a considerable number of strips varying from an acre to half-an-acre iu extent. All the farmers of the village, from the lord of the manor down to the cottar with his small holding of seven or eight acres, had their land distributed in scattered strips in these “open-fields.” The large land-owner possessed shares in the land of a number of village communities, and upon these shares he grew the corn and fed the cattle that were necessary to maintain his household during the year. The villagers also maintained themselves out of the strips they cultivated, paying an insignificant money rent and performing labour services upon the landlord’s strips as < the main form of rent payment. The rotation, which was rigid, was based upon either a tali or three years* course—corn, pulse crops and fallow. The farmer and his family were almost independent of outside economic activities, making their clothing, household utensils, etc., and only acquiring by purchase or barter the two commodities not susceptible of home production, iron and salt. Agriculture as practised in mediaeval times was entirely traditional and varied but slightly in its general practice in the different parts of the country. There was, therefore,, little demand for an agricultural literature, and the explanation of the appearance of these 13th century works is to be looked for in the increasing need of the land-owning classes for money. The .cost of living was rising and taxation was changing from a system based upon services and payments in kind to one based upon money. The land-owners, therefore, were finding it, imperative to exploit the moneymaking possibilities of their estates and hence a demand for books which would tell them how to farm profitably.

BAD TIME FOR JOURNALISTS Books to be circulated iu those days bad either to be passed from hand to hand or laboriously copied out. by the pen. It is not to be supposed, therefore, that their influence was at all great. Two extracts from Walter of Henley will show that few ideas are really modern. He works out a cost account for wheat as follows:—“You know surely that an acre sown with wheat takes three ploughings. except lands which are sown yearly; and that, one with the other, each ploughing is worth sixpence, and harrowing a penny, and on the acre it is necessary to sow at least two bushels. Now, two bushels at Michaelmas are worth at least twelvepence. and weeding a half-penny and reaping fivepence, and carrying in August a penny, the straw will pay for the threshing. At three times your sowing you ought to have six bushels, worth three shillings, and the cost amounts to three shillings and three halfpence, and the ground is yours and not reckoned.” This is followed by directions for

! carrying out an experiment in the ' yield of wheat seed as between that produced on the farm and imported seed. “Change your seed every year at Michaelmas,” he tells us, “for seed grown on other ground will bring more profit than that which is sown on your own. Will you see this? Plough two selions at the same time, and sow the one with seed which is bought and the other with corn which you have grown; in August you will see that I speak truly.” FEEDING YOUNG CALVES REGULATION OF RATION Some dairy farmers have considerable difficulty in feeding their calves by hand, states an Australian dairying journal. Often calves are overfed and for this reason do not gain weight as they should. While there are no set rules for feeding calves by hand to take the place of experience and judgment, it is a fairly safe rule to feed one pound of milk a day for each eight or ten pounds of live weight of the calf. Judgment must be used in this respect, and a weak calf should have a little less than this amount, and as a general thing not more than three to five pounds of milk a day should be given to the calf that has been removed from the cow soon after it was born. For the first three weeks the following can be taken as a safe guide for feeding dairy calves:—Jersey, 451 b to 551 b weight at birth, Gib to 71b milk a dayr Guernsey, 501 b to 601 b weight at birth, 61b to 81b milk a day; Ayrshire, 651 b t.o 751 b weight at birth, 81b to 91b milk a day; Friesian, 801 b to 901 b weight at birth, 101 b to 111 b milk a day. Some farmers make it a practice to feed the dairy calf only twice a day. Experience has shown that calves will do much better if they are fed three times a day, at least until they are two or three weeks old. There is considerable danger in overfeeding the calf when it is fed only twice a day. In order to get best results the milk should be given them at the same temperature that it is drawn from the cow, which is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and as a general practice it is a very good plan to use a thermometer for taking the temperature of the milk.

Calves should be fed in such a manner that they cannot “rob” each other, or in such a way as to prevent those that drink their milk more rapidly than the others from preventing the slow feeders getting their full allowance.