AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1746, 8 June 1895, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

The of Sheep. —ln : some sheep-feeding trials at Web urn in 1893 94precnrded by Dr Woeleker, the animals did better When fed steadily than when forced by extra quantities of linseed cake and barley Two. pens of twenty sheep were fed -on sweedes di libittirfiy. and Cake arid-barley in < q lal. quantities, the animals in the first pen, however, getting twice as much of the dry foods as the second IoV In a third the sheep had the same food as those in the second,- with; hay chaff ad libitum in addition. The last lot made the greatest increase in liveweight in a given time, and Dr Yoelcker cohclude's that these animals were most economically fed, the) second lot being next in this respect; It is to be noticed, however, : that he values the swedes at only os per ton, at which pried they cannot be grown. If they had hden valued at 10s a ton, which is more usual reckoning, Ren 3 would still havd stood first, while Pen 1 woiild have-been second in the point of economy; If th e manure were valued, it is questionable whethc T Pen 1 would hot have to be put in the first place. An experiment was. also carried out With bullocks, to deteiiilihe whether linseed oil mixed - with straw; chaff Would .take the. place of roots, cotton dake and gritted barley• being alike given to the aninlals which had T-iots and to those which had none. The linseed- eil proved cjuite a failure, and, when half the cattle fed dn it were given roots instead, they rapidly improved, while tlte other half .also im proved on-linseed cake ..instead of' the oil, hut not so rapidly as the beasts which had roots;

Wakefulness of Thick Si ii ynsro.— A very useful demonstration of the ■Wasteful Less of excessively;thick seeding has been carried out in Anglesey by the Agricultural Department .of Bangor University College, among the many experiments managed by Mr Thornhs: Winter, M.A., and Hr G. Bryner Jones. It is common in - the island to sow no less than eight bushels per acre of oats, under the strange impression that the straw is less liable to lodge with-thick sowing than when a smaller quantity of seed is used; the, converse being the rule unless the other extreme is practised.. The land of Anglesey is -generally good, and, therefore* an ektra quantity of seed cannot be as nedessary there as it is on very poor larid; Dew farmers sow more than four-bushels of the lightest oats per acre, add seme sow only three of fair weight In, order to •ascertain whether heavy seeding -was justified,by .results, trials or two, four, and six bushels pef acre, were,made in 1893; and of four, six, and. eight bushels in 1894. The yield per acre in the earlier season was ; 40£ bushels where two were sown, 39 1-Sth bushels from four, and 48 from . six; ' Las t season four bushels per acre sown gave 60.8, six bushets yielded 58.8, and eight bushels returned 42 9. In both seasons the best results were obtained front sowing four .busho’s per acre, and there was no difference in the lodgifig of the crops on the diff erent 1 plots, all being laid by rain;