FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 351, 31 March 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

DAIRY EXPORTS. > The Shaw, Savill and Albion steamer Tainui, which left Wellington on Thursday last for London, took the following dairy produce:—

The cheese totalled 10:1 tons, and the butter amounted to 776 tons. INTERESTING FACTS. Raise but one breed and cull closely. Pure, fresh water is necessary at all times. The early spring pullets should be laying soon. Uniformity in the flock always adds to its beauty.

Longing for distant fields, we miss the treasures in those about us.

Plenty of fodder and well-selected cattle mean much dung, big crops, much .profit. The disposal of even one unprofitable cow may save in a -single year the entire cost of testing apparatus. Employ the best farm hand you are likely to have to pay.

Do not ask either the men or the horses to do more than a fair day's work; treat them well, and they will serve you well.

A good sow will produce until she is ten years old. and, if she is class enough, may be winning prizes at shows all the time.

On the first suspicion of mange in a horse, isolate him, and do not use any of the brushes on others. Disinfect the stable at once.

Nearly every spot on the farm can be made to return a profit if the sheep are properly placed. The important step in the development of strong and vigorous dairy cows is the proper feeding and handling of the calf.

To-day the skilled plant-feeder knows his soil and what it will do as a driver knows his horse, and treats the case intelligently. Working horses fed on exceedingly dry food are liable to indigestion of colic; a little linseed added and a moistening of the fed will operate to prevent this.

Experience has proved there is nothing better for starting lucerne than wood ashes; these contain lime, potash and some phosphorous, all of which the soil needs.

A large acreage of land is now heing skim-ploughed, and quite a large number of farmers on the medium quality lands ares owing oats for winter feed. There is no room for agument about the facts—live stock, tillage, the sowing and ploughing in of leguminous plants. and systematic crop rotation will keep the land hearty. Calves will not scour after they are weaned if they are watered from a trough in which a double handful of lime has been thrown. Renew this lime every week. It will make your calves sleek and healthy, and thus add a good deal to their selling value. Mouldy hay is one of the worst things which may be fed to horses. Apart from the possibility of meningitis being set up, mouldv fodder has invariably a disastrous effect on the wind. Smut from barley grass is not likely to affect other crops than barley, as the fungus is entirely distinct from that which attacks wheat and oats. Good butter and bad butter are the result of the bacteria—the fermentation •of\the milk caused by time, temperature and cleanliness, or otherwise. Do not be afraid to give your brood mares moderate work on the farm; moderate work, remember; too much work mav mean the lo=s of the foal.

A good carter never has to hurry his horses to make up for lost time, nor does he rush them through a hard; pull.

There '.<• more lienefit derived from silage bv feeding it to milch cows than bv fedim? it to anv other kind of stock. Take-all fumrus cannot live on oats, and the cropping of the land affected with, this cereal will effectively clean it.

No other occupation makes greater demands upon the judgment and knowledge oi those engaged in it than fanning.

The waste of nitrogen from the soil may be made up, in some degree, by the planting and ploughing in of leguminous crops.

Shyness, when confirmed in a horse, is a vice. Ged rid of a shyer; he is one of the breed of babies which the other fellow may as well carry. It is the regular thing to find in British and foreign papers such a paragraph as this: "Heavy horses are good to sell, but difficult to find." Never iiy to make an ill-fitting collar right by putting a pad under it. Have the collar made to fit the horse. Do not try to make the horse fit the collar. Swine fever costs American farmers

£8,000,000 a vear. Dr. M. T. Reynolds •ays it would'cost £40.000,00!) to eradicate it over there. l

Try coaxing with the colt. If he will not go into the stable at first, be patient; there is no sense in Imllocking him in with a swingle-bar. If the colt sweats too freely after work, it may be advisable to have it clipper; it will be necessary to keep it rugged up afterwards. Fillies are, as a rule, more sensitive than colts or geldings; they aro more easily affected by harshness and rough usage and language. Canadian experiments now confirm the conclus'on that the yield of chee«e is not in proportion to the fat in the milk. Adding the factor two to the percentage of fat, however, makes a fairly reliable basis for payment for milk at cheese factories, although a trustworthy casein tester would give a better result. The pound of cheese to a pound of casein havfc been found to be very regular throughout several seasons. Tests also indicated a distinct variation in the casein content oi milk from different breeds, the average of a number of samples of Holstein milk being 2.15 per cent., in Ayrshire milk 2.39 per cent, and in Jersey milk 2.56 per cent. In the Holstein'milk 0.631b of casein was found per pound of butter-fat, in the Ayrshire miTk 0.611b. and in the Jersey milk 0.531b. It was further found that 'lthe variation of the. percentage of casein in milk does not appear to be so great as is the variation in the percentage of fat in milk . Generally speaking, milk with v high percentage of fat contains also a high percentage of casein, j but the increase of the casein is not re-1 la'tively so great as the fat."

Crates Boxes From Cne?t-e. Butter. Dunedin .. 830 22 Bluff .. 4501 Auckland .. .. 278 11.813 Lyttelton .. .. 1004 883 Wellington .... .. 2038 6412 Patea .. 4296 2572 New Plymouth.. .. 191)0 9328