SECRETS OF FARMERS' ARITHMETIC

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 178, 18 July 1908, Page 4

SECRETS OF FARMERS' ARITHMETIC

WEIGHING CATTLE WITHOUT SCALES. Farmers have an arithmetic peculiarly their own. • This is essential, seeing that their conditions for buying and selling are totally different from those of ordinary tradesmen. Suppose, for instance, you wanted to purchase a farmer's crop of .turnips in a ten-acre field, the townsman would be at his wits' end to judge the weight of the roots in that field. The experienced farmer, however, would find it an easy matter to arrive at a correct calculation.

Turnips or swedes are usually planted in ridges 28in. apart. This, the fanner knows, means ninety ridges to the acre. Then he carefully measures off a yard from a row where the crop seems about, the average, pulls up the roots in tluit yard, ami weighs'them. Supposing they weigh Kilns., a simple calculation proves that the crop averages a little over twenty-eight' tons to the acre. _ Eleven pounds is equivalent lo nearly thirty-one tons, and so on. Alter he has found out the weight of one acre, it is quite an easy matter to estimate the weight of the whole field. When a man of the soil sets about planting im orchard he does not order so many hundreds of trees until he has carefully calculated how many trees will be actually required. This number will, of courso/depend on the distance apart at which the trees are planted. If they are set at- even distances of iai't., an acre will hold exactly seventy trees; if only 211 ft., 101) trees will be required, in Ibis way all waste is prevented. In regard to planting cabbages, strawberries, or any other small fruit trees in bushes, the distances apart are, of course, much smaller. It might be interesting to note that, if they were planted, a foot from each other, an acre of land could accommodate no fewer than 4;i,s(in plants. It is equallv essential for a farmer to be able to tell the weight of cattle without troubling to put them on tin' scales. The way in which be does this is to measure' the girth of the animal just behind the shoulder, and square the product. Multiply the result by the leiniih in feet from shoulder to juncture of tail. This is then multiplied by .23, .23. .2U. .3(1. according to the animal's fatness. The result will give the carcass weight in stones. Carcass weight, by the way. is much less than live weight. \inv. the novice ill attempting to buy a slack of hay would run a great risk of being swindled in regard to its weight. Not so with the farmer who knows bis leisiiu'ss. He would calmly tuke out his fool■ rule and measure the slack lo the eaves, and add to this number of feet half Hie height from the eaves to the rid"c. Multiply the result by the lenglh in'feet, and that by the width in led. Then divide by twenty-seven. This gives the total number of cubic yards in the slack A cubic vnrd of new hay weighs list., and of old'hay »st. Therefore, if he. multiplies the number of cubic yards in (he slack by six or nine, according to the age of the ha v. he will find Ihe eva.-t weight of the slack.

The. fanner's arillimelie is very useful to him iu checking the work of hn employees. Ife knows that an average ploughman can walk about eighteen miles a day. and lie. must therefore ba able lu ea'tiuiute how much land this walk will cultivate. It depends largely, of course, on the size of the plough. .Supposing the plough can out a 7in. furrow, a full day's work will mean the ploughing of an acre and a <|itartcv of laud, if it cuts an 11 in. slice, Iwo acres would he au average day's work; : and a, 15in., two and threequarter acres.