FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 5 October 1907, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

FACTS AND FIGURES FOll FARMERS. Canada is taking the lead in organised cow-testing. In Canada the.number of cows under test approaches 5000, and is rapidly increasing. Care should not only be exercised in feeding, watering, and stabling of dairy animals, but at milk-time care should be taken not to leave any milk in the udder. Milk, as in the mammary gland of the cow, is practically free from micro-organisms, but it is far from being so when delivered to the custom <'i and particularly if not promptly cooled. The most profitable horse to have on the farm is a good brood mare. She will raise a foal each year, and it will sell for a snug suin. With a little extra care the inare will do as niucli work as any horse. This is the kind that the average farmer wants and is the best kind he should get for his own benefit. Have at least one good brood mare on the farm, raise your own horses, and some to sell. Although in some parts of the Wairarapa the death-rate among lambs has been abnormally great, the Alfredtou district appears to be the exception, A Wairarapa Daily Times reporter, conversing with a sheep farmer from that locality, states that the season, though wet, has been unusually mild, and stock | have thriven well. The prospects generally with regard to stock and the wool clip are good. Perhaps the sturdiest toiler in the animal world is the brave old carthorse. That he sometimes drops in his chains is evidenced by the following from the Manakau Herald:—Mr Len Bray, carrier, Onelnmga, had the misfortune to lose a valuable horse recently. It was pulling a heavy load along a bad piece of road in Auckland when it broke a blood-vessel, and died in half an hour.

The question sometimes arises:—ls it desirable to put lime on wet land? The answer must pretty much depend on circumstances. A standard rule is that neither lime nor anything else will do much good on wet land, and that the first improvement must consist in draining the soil, when it will pay to do the other tliinas. But draining a field is a order, and we have sometimes to go ahead with Ahe ground as it is. A wet soil is sour from the presence of humic acid, and the application of lime "sweetens" it by uniting with this acid. Again, a, certain amount of limo is necessary for the growth of a crop as a plant' food, whether the soil is wet or dry, and the sum total of the whole matter is that if a green field would require lime if it were dry it needs even more in the undrained state. A point for consideration is whether lime in the burnt or un burnt state is best. Recent experiments have shown that limestone rock is almost as effectual as burnt lime if it is ground fine enough; quicklime eventually returns to the carbonate state—as it was before burning—wlien put. in tile soil, and the grinding up and application of the pulverised rock is often as effectual. The Dairyman hears from various sources that butter buyers are making higher offers to factories than seemed likely a few weeks ago, influenced, no doubt, by reports from the Home market. In view of this, consignment may be less generally favored than was expected. The output of butter in the Waikato in the past season totalled 4,029,1301b, as against 3,194,0581b for the previous season, an increase of 835,0811b. "You never see a broken-winded horse in Norway," said a horse doctor. "That is because the hordes are allowed to drink while they eat, the same as mankind. Our horses, let them be as thirsty as can be, must still eat their dry fodI der, their dry hay and oats, with nothing to wash them down. But in Norway every horse has a bucket of wa/ter beside his inangcr, and as he eats he also drinks."

The Mataura. correspondent of the Southland Times writes: —Since the drought in Canterbury and North Otago occurred and the large importation of turnips from Southland began, there have been enquiries for farms in Southland. The fact of about 0000 tons of turnips being spared without leaving any shortage here has Northern farmers as to the capabilities of Southland land. Where sorrel is troublesome a method that has proved successful in minimising its growth is to apply a good dressing of liine to the soil. This should be harrowed, not ploughed ill, as sorrel generally grows in the first few inches of the soil. For a light soil a dressing of 30cwt to the acre, and for heavy wet soils up to three tons has given good' results.

The Dunsandel correspondent of the Christcliurch Press writes that the weather during recent days was fine. The ground had dried on the surface, and farmers had been able to push along with their seed sowing.

A TYPICAL DAIRY COW. A good dairy cow should show health, vigor, activity, and undoubted constitution. It should be large-barrelled, deepbodied, and show wedginess when viewed from the side, rump, or spinal column. The body should be capacious and show room for the storage and digestion of large quantities of food, well sprang, deep, and the ribe well apart. Wedginess signifies the true dairy type. Quality is indicated by fine hair; the skin sliould be soft and mellowy to the touch, and possess a good, greasy, yellow secretion. The whole body should show a general leanness of appearance, with no pretensions to coarseness or beef. The head should be rather long, wide between the eyes, with a mild eye, large muzzle, and a fine, clean neck, evenly set into the shoulders. A spinal column prominent from the shoulder to the rump was a sign of good nerve force. The loins should be wide apart, with high, lean, and prominent hipbones, not covered with flesh. The pelvic arch should be high and roomy, the thighs thin and spare, and incurved with plenty of room between them and the tail, but at the same time set wide apart to leave room for udder expansion. The hind legs should be set wide apart when viewed from behind, and the escutcheons should be of good quality, wide at the thighs, fine and soft, anil running up to the vulva. The udder when full should present four uniformly developed quarters, and should extend well up toward the tail, filling the space between the hind legs, and going well forward along the belly line, with four evenly-developed, lmndysized teats, preferably of a brown color, and squarely set on. The forequarters should he connected with good, large, tortuous milk veins, running well up under tlie chest, and entering the body through each of the milk wells. The hair should be fine and silky, and too much daylight should not show between the tody line and the ground. _ The udder when milked out should lie in numerous folds, and not remain large.