FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 182, 6 September 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

£-100 A YEAR FROM 80 ACRES. HOW A WAIIJATO MAN DOES IT. "What is the secret of your success?" asked a writer in the iPastoralists' Review iu talking to a Waikato farmer who is making £4OO a year on 80 acres. "The beginning, the middle, and tlie end of it," answered the farmer, 'is economy and hard work. Nowadays it is all talk and write, and not enough work. People pay away when thay ought to be saving money. ; Sometimes,'' ho continued, '1 think I am very rica, lout it is all imagination. When I came here, many years ago, this land was covered with ti-trec, flax, and water. Now the Government values it at £3l ■per acre. But one takes out of the 'and very little money. Suppose I do well out of dairying one year, the money is required ucxt year for draining. Tlu r e is always plenty to do. During my tint years on this place I have sometimes gone out at night and cleared land after a day's work."

You have had very good results, I be licve?

"Yes, .pretty fair. Good results come from keeping the manure going. That has been one of the principal causes of Waikato going ahead. Many farmers take up too much land, and so cannot work it enough. If Ihey sproad out £5 worth of manure over a large area they can hardly see what it has done. I work al! my land thoroughly, and manure it constantly." Speaking of some magnificent crops of I "Sinclair's Cliampiun" cattle carrots an-!, swedes, the farmer said: "That is ull I through plenty of working and. keeping the horse-hoc going to kill the weeds."

A SIX-FOOT CROP OF KALE. "What do you think of that kale?" he then asked. Only one answer could be given to this question—it was magnificent. Much of the crop was over 6ft in height ('by measurement). Kale is a new winter feed to Waikato, and the farmer declared it was the best fodder he knew of for milking cows. These animals, also, were very fond of it. "Swedes arc splendid winter feed *or everything 'but milking cows," he said. "Pigs, sheep, store cattle, and horses all do well upon them; but they taint milk. Before trying the kale this season I believed in the swedes for all-round feeding; but now for milking cows I have pinned my faith to the kale. We use the horse-hoe freely for maize, potatoes, swedes, and mangolds. Indeed, one could not farm successfully on a small area without it. People call this intensive farming; but I call it 'hard-woik farming.' But we don't farm in New Zealand—we simply buy and sell. Farms are always hcipg chopped and changed from one to another, each man trying to let the other fellow in. It is simply a test as to who can make money easiest!"

HOW THE £4OO IS MADE UP. Askc.l how the £4OO was made up, he gave these figures:. An average of about £lO per year was taken from each cow. (Most Waiknto herds yield only £B.) His crops this year were very fair all through. Tlafr went'2 tons to'the acre; wlieat, 30 bushels to the acre; oaten elmlT, 2 tons; potatoes, 8 tons; mangolds, 40 tons; carrots, 25 ton*; swedes, 40 tons. "YVe arc constantly selling something—produce- of some kind," he said, "so money is always circulating with us." The farm carried thirty milch con-s, about twelve store cattle, six horses, and Ifty sheep. Its carrying capacity, I was told, varied somewhat; but that was the total it bore in the beginning oi June.

"This result," concluded the farmer, embracing the well-tilled farm with a sweep of his hand, "is the work of years. It was all done by my family and myself. I could not have -afforded to pay outside labor, You see those pipes," he said, pointing to a pile of the small tile variety. "Nearly all my land is honeycombed underneath with them. That is where the money goes. The only way to get a place in order is to keep" working at it, Each rear it must be cultivated a little more."

THE CHEESE OUTLOOK. CANADIAN OUTPUT. As Me great factor Tm determining the prospects of New Zealand cheese on British markets during itlie coming seasun 'is 'the ex.icnt of ithe present Canadian, output, (mil in a minor degree the volume of .the Home make, an endeavor lias been made in these columns ("New Zealand Times) to furnish some idea of the probable output in. Canada and Britain. At first it was s'ho'wn that Canada ant'ieipla.tcs a shortage in it= make, and that /the marking of cheese in l'Jngland was giving place to production of mill; for 'the city supply. More recently there was published a. statement that Ijiom private adVicc® I'cceived the ma'ke of Canada, would probably be quite ii]) to that of last season, owing to a. remarkable .recovery in conditions le\ding to increased milk production, and that the low yrice of meat at Home i,= inducing the mnsum.i'ng public to go off dices,, ni) to (lie Vower priced artWc of diet.

The la.Mc.r (endoaey is decidedly obvious. .As ,10 llio recovery of the Cana-<li.-m privlufJtJnii. wo have some liint 'of this 'in Canadian film to tad. One Ontario account says that the exceptionoily dime iivcMJier in June has changed the appearance <vf things and brigliitenetl prospects of ithe farmer and the business man to an extent scarcely considered possimV a Ifew Svceks since. Another district report says the cows were milking AiiiMwlpnflnHy. "The males of choose in live country is increasing under food pa stilling," ssi,ys a trad* review, •'and Hie desire of patrons to supply "all the milk they can ,at present high prices."

Ttoporflfnjr on the choose .position, the Montreal Trade Bulletin of 2nd July says: "The flush of the season's make is nW on, and it is thousrht by wel'lpoatod men in Ifhe trade that production cannot overtake that of 1007, in. view of ,the hot and dry weather in a. unmoor Of the nodtions.' Of course, this is the meriod 'when, hot ,and dry spells are experienced, and 'we do n'ot'rcmemlier a dime when .a isliwt make on account o.f clrouglit was speculated o„ aad money was lost in the cheese trade." On fop of this we have the information that the dry spell has broken, good minis having falle-.i in the principal cheeso-making rtenitoricß. Iso that there is some reason to believe that the private cable nrtvfcc refcrre'd to—wording an increase in the output—is quite co£ root.

AX FAT, Id SI I PvEPOPT. Tn an official report-on the Home choose trade i E .Tune it is stated that the ron-smimlioii for the uronth had been <-e.ry ,il'i----ioiioiii.!iii<r, a",id most of the merchants held some «lnek of Inst season's •Clnniidian .in 1 IviirUsh. . . . Tm■fO.i'ters were opermtiii/r viuitrinif'v, feeling that rvices were too high s.ihl that with a. fair make in progress a lower iiango of/prices imi'Ht rule in the near future. There 'iva,s. in was declared a large lrWe of EnglMi .choose hi pro-orcss—c-timatod to be fully equal to last yea.i's. the iiiiKorfsonablo weather having v-iirtailed the consniirpilhin of milk so tliwt increased quantities had been (ivailahlc far cheese and butter niiimnfihctiu'p.

fherc appears to be a, great demand by families for milking on shares in Cambridge district, largely due, the Auckland Herald thinks, to the healthy climate and excellent dairy herds. One settler, a few 'weeks ago, was inundated with applications. „ajid another dairy larmer who has milking-machines in us* received no less than 58 applications tram all parts of the Waikato. Some ot the replies also came as far as from Taranaki.

Lambing is now very general on Cheviot farms (Canterbury,), while in a 7 oase6 't is finished. One- farmer who has tailed works out his increase at llu per cent. Sir. Walsh, says our Feildrag contemporary, reports a remarkably quick cure or niiUc fever i„ a <.<>«• by simple lnca-is. On ■luesday night the cow went down. Air yas forced into the udder with a bicycle-pump, and the teat tied up. Next afternoon the cow was .lip and about again. The motto in dairying should be, "Nothing but ibe toest." A warm bed is worth many pounds of tood during a spell of rough '-weather. I ho public must be prepared to meet

all the cost of adequately inspecting the condition of dairy cattle. Nitrate of lime as a fertiliser has been used with great success in experimental trials in England and Scotland. ■ All the cans or milking pails, refrigerator and pan. churns, and utensils should be thoroughly cleansed and scalded. If the employment of fertilisers has iili-eiiilv been of striking benefit, it is eerlaiii that a still greater future lies before them.

Good dairy stock is raised by dairymen from dairy stock only. Usually every dairyman keeps the best he breeds for his own herd. Regularity in feeding, both so far as the hour of" feeding is concerned and the regular condition of the milk, is a most excellent practice. Considering the amount of capita! invested, if well cared for, there is no animal on the farm that will bring in <-o good a return as the brood sow. The law in Toronto province (Canada) is that after 1010 cheese and buttermakers in charge of factories will be required to produce a certificate of coat. petency. It is imperative, in the interests of agriculture, that dairy cows with adi vaneed or generalised tuberculosis, jt with tuberculosis of the udder, should be destroyed.

_ 'The man who rmiii a dairy farm an.l raises pigs will find that by good management the cows -will pay all expenses of the farm and the pigs will put money in the bank. Cows must not oi,ly have lih.-ral rations, but the right proportioned combination of feed, to produce n normal How of milk. The largest flow of milk is stimulated-by succulent rations.

If a farm will not pay when well farmed, it will certainly not pay when not fanned at all. So with a cow in milk; if she will not pay for fairly generous feeding sßic will not pay on short commons.

The really genuine farmer, the one who knows 'what he is about, is the man who grows big crops and at the same time returns a little more to the land tlian he takes out, so he can go on producing big crops indefinitely. As soon as convenient after a sheepskin is olf it should be washed with a solution to keep away the weevils. This little insect does a deal of damage. The longer it is allowed to remain a tenant the greater the damage.

If the frog of the horse's foot is kept from coming in contact with the ground, especially if it has been mutilated with a knife, it will dry up and shrivel away, the heels will become narrow, and a general contraction of the hoof will ensue. To obtain good results from feeding ■with whey, the calves should he fed at regular times, and eaeh calf should be fed separately with a measured portion. Cleanliness should be observed, and all feeding utensils washed every day. Numbers of calves are killed annually through inattention to small matters connected with the method of feeding.