FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 264, 17 March 1911, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

1 NEWS AND NOTES. I A good I-ook of sheep i-. the most of- [ L.nl' scavtl.gcr 111-It fill! ill' placed lipI (ill a farm in 'destroying' weeds and saving grass. Every individual in a wcll-earcd-for herd should lie under its keeper's eye. In case of a ealf it is advisable to take it away from the cow at once. The breeder-should not anticipate miracles in the laws of breeding, but rather anticipate their ordinary operation along the lines that "like produce like." The longer a breed is established the more fixed are its. characteristics, and the more prepotent may we expect the males to be in stamping their good qualities uii their progeny. Soundness should always be insisted oii in purchasing a horse. One can usually buy an unsound horse much more cheaply than a sound one, but such practice's often poor economy. , The horse that is sound is ready for a, full day's work every day; the unsound horse seldom, if ever, can do his full quota, and is a source of discomfort and annoyance to his driver. Cows are like humans —it is not often you will get a lot of them together without finding,one which wants to boss the show; it is for the cowman to say how nnich of this he will permit. A way to discover the merits of dairy cows that is shirked by the great majority of ordinary dairy farmer's is the systematic weighing of the whole of the milk produced throughout the year. All manure and liquid should be removed from the stable or milking-shed immediately after milking is finished. To facilitate easy and thorough cleaning, the floors should be constructed.of concrete. , In France • and Italy young soldiers have to attend a course of simple agricultural lectures, and farms are attached to garrison towns.. The result is that soldiers, when they leave the colors, go back to the land. Food is of.value in proportion as it properly digests, and its constituents become properly absorbed in the system. Liberal feeding is necessary to fatten a ,pig, but liberality must be combined with judiciousness. When fillies attain the age to be relegated to the stud, the fanner should carefully weed out such as, possess any marked imperfections, and breed only such fillies as show superior attributes of soundness and conformation. Testing cows shows that good cows are born, and that poor ones are never re-built into good ones. Good cows are not accidents. In the language of Ame-. Rica, "a- poor cow is a consuming fire by day, and a walking pestilence by night." Nitrate of soda and .superphosphate of lime should never be mixed together or used at the same time, as their union gives rise to an extremely poisonous principle. If both, must be used, they should be applied at widely different intervals. Every milk vessel must have a mouth wide enough to admit the hand and should after each use be thoroughly cleaned with a wet cloth and rinsed out, and finally scalded with boiling water.

The practice of killing calves from three days to old has been a common thing among the packinghouses of America for several years, but some of the Western States are prohibiting the practice of killing any more calves under loin weeks old. *

The care and development of a foal or other young animal i, a race against time. A month jost means a serious set-back and a permanent reduction in the size ultimately attainable. Keep it growing—not hog-fat, but loose skiuned and thrifty. It pays.

~ Every word that is used in connection with the handling of horses should have a meaning, and the first thing to be done is to teach a horse the meaning of each word used while working him, and the next thing is to make him obey each word to the fullest extent.

As a rule, when cattle are tied up tc feed the-y are given such a meal as happens to be at hand, or whatever feeding stuff happens to.be cheapest on the market at the time. An intelligent selection of food for animals being prepared for the butclier is very important, but when flairy cows are in question it is even more so, because if a dairy farmer errs at all in the matter he is often throwing money away.

If the young pig is to grow and thrive ho must have his frame furnished and for this purpose nothing is better (writes the Live Stock Journal) than a small portion of sulphate of soda daily added to the sow's foods, as well as the ashes of burnt thorns and bru-hings, as these are rich in phosphates and potash, and the partly-charred stick furnish the carbon, which is also conducive to health. Green food of various kinds is also of great importance to the nursing mother and her family, as it is to all other pigs. It happens occasionally through the loss of a sow, or an extra numerous litter, a number of young pigs arc deprived of the ordinary means of sustenance. As a rule their existence is but a short one, and yd. with a little trouble, they may be readily reared by hand, and it is singular that pigs, rea'red altogether upon cow's milk, often grow faster than when suckled by their dam. A little coarse brown sugar and a few drops of linseed or cod-liver oil should be added to the new milk and given perfectly fresh at first every two hours, and in a short time they may be taught to take it out of a teaspoon, and in a day or two out of a saucer, after which the trouble is but (rifling.