FARM & DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1915, Page 10

FARM & DAIRY.

THE RUSSIAN HARVEST. IA very important factor in this war is the question of com crops. The Russian crop this harvest is above the average. The area of Russian territory in the occupation of the enemy is, in comparison with the extent of the Empire, less than a little finger-nail of a whole hand, and is therefore negligible in idiis respect, particularly as the loss of in these regions falls upon enemy Germans, to whom most of the produce is normally exported from these frontier districts. Among not the least of the taska before the Russian people is that of duly harvesting Nature's bounties this year. The matter has long Ween organised, and hearty co-operation everywhere was afoot. Over enormous areas the village elders decided that lands belonging to the country's defenders at the front shall have precedence over all others in the harvesting, as they have had in the sowing time. Women, at the best of times do a great part of the field work in Eussia. Agricultural schools, colleges and universities turned out in corpore to help practically with the harvesting, and many classes of the population joined them. [THE EFFECT OF MANURES. Phosphate of lime acts on the ripening and proper development of the seed, and therefore a plentiful supply is particularly essential for cereals, especially for barley. Its effect is also to advance the maturity of the crop. Potash promotes the healthy growth of a plant. Its application has been found to render plants less liable to disease. Its action ia especially favorable for the development of the leguminous plants. The indirect action of fertilisers on plant and soil also claims consideration. If nitrate of soda is applied in large doses it may cause cereals to lodge and may injure the quality of malting bailey. Kainit is known to prejudice the quality of potatoes. Both nitrate of soda, and kainit, if applied often to the same soil, may cause the working character of the soil to deteriorate. Such indirect action of valuable fertilisers is not an argument against their employment, but is an indication that they must be applied diseriminately, THE SMALL FARM. "I 'believe in the small farm and intensive cultivation," said Mr. Carnegie to an interviewer recently. "In agriculture everything tends to a more complete distribution of land among the many. Industrial development, on the contrary, has tended up to now to a concentration of ibusiness in the control of a few. I remember telling at a banquet of a ranch with a furrow so long that the ploughman -who left after breakfast did not get back until dusk. Those 'big farms are breaking up into their units, as they should. In 1850 there were only 1,500,000 fawns in -the United States; in 1880 there were 4,000,000; and in ISIO of the 6,361,502 farms about 2,500,000 -were between 100 and 500 acres, 1,500,000 between 50 and 100 acres, and about 2,000,000 between 20 and 50 acres. Land in America is free for sale or purchase, and it is lightly taxed when it is taxed at all. The entire gloibe may be searched in vain for equally large numbres of farmers and their wives and children living under suoh favorable conditions. The few who rent have the opportunity to own their farms soon. In marketing their .product, as in the case of the Californian fruit-growers, they can act in unison to advantage. But one who knows them and their true state of mind would pause for a considerable period before disturbing conditions that give the State such model, thrifty and intelligent citizens by the installation of socialism. It is unthinkable." A PLANT'S SUPPLY OF NITROGEN. The question of a plant's' supply of nitrogen is one of the most interesting problems connected with agriculture, and at the same time one of the least understood. A large proportion of the dry matter of all plants consists of nitrogenous material, and this portion of its structure is of fundamental importance to the plant. Furthermore, it is, upon the nit. rogenous matter of plants that animals depend for their r.ivjteid material, Wood, flesh and such things.'' Tlie ultimate source of all this nitrogenous matter is the free nitrogen in the atmosphere. The plant may absorb its nitrogen in two ways, either by means of its leaves from the free nitrogen or from the ammonia or the nitric acid in the air, or by means of its root?. The quantity, however, taken in by the leaves is small and rather doubtful, but by means of its roots the plant absorbs nitrogen, either in the form of nitrates, nitrites or ammonium salts dissolved in the water of the soil. Green manuring, then, under pertain conditions will recommend itself to most fanners, but a man must judge for himself whether it is applicable "to his requirements and conditions generally. ITEMS OF INTEREST. Give the milk cans a i-un bath as well us a water bath. Whitewash the cowshed. It makes It healthful, clean, light una cosy. Keep the calves of an ago together. The calves will do better by themselves. The best dairy temperament in the world cannot find much nutriment or inspiration in corn stubble. Cows differ In their capacity to consume feed, and in their power to elaborate milk. Feed the sows well, and keep all pigs growing. Skim-milk is worth more to the pig just before and alter weaning than at any other time. A mixed lot of cattle do not look well, and it is believed that they actually do not thrive as well as when separated in lots, according to size and age. Professor Frazer, of the experimental station or Illinois.' U.S.A., reports that in a test made of a large number of cows in that State he found that twenty-five [ of the best animaU actually returned i more profit than the 1020 poorest cows he came across. Coltsfoot is one of the most troublesome weeds. It throws out a horizontal stem at a deptli of two to three feet. It is very tenacious of life and very difficult to etxtirpate. There are special shoots which make flowers and reproduce. Its seed is equipped with a tuft of hair, which causes it be windi. borne and thus disseminated.

Every good milker should possess a well-marked milk vein. The milk yei» runs along the floor of the abdomen towards the udder. Uy passing the hand along it can easily be felt. The milk vein is one of the best evuenc.es of milk- j ing quality. Statistics show that forty-three years ago 15,830 mares were bred to Government stallions in Germany, whilst in 1910 the number of marcs had been trebled, reaching the total of 47,610, so that, as remarked, "there are plentyi of horses in the country." Many an error in wool-selling has been made through not taking advantage of good prices. The best business men sell at the moment they consider the price is right, and do not indulge in vain regrets if the market rise 3 a bit afterwards. On the law of average, they come out the best when one season is balanced against another. The reader may have noted that in the evolution of the dairy Shorthorn there is a gradual change in the formation of the bag. The old deep type of milk vessel is giving place to a long«r and rather shallower bag, more of the type of the Ayrshire and the Jersey. This is a move in the right direction, as the best type of milk vessel is unquestionably that which hangs squarely. There are many kinds of new forage crops which are worth encouraging. A correspondent suggests that millet should be used in this way, and he is evidently very well pleased with the results obtain. Our view is that no dairy farmer should. 'be without maize, which furnishes not only a very large quantity of luscious fodder, but it comes at a time when pastures begin to get dry and profitless for food. The following table shows the relatiTe numbers of different breeds of cattle In England:—Shorthorns, 4.413,040; il)evons, 454,094; Ayrshires, 440,000; Herefords, 384,877; Welsh, 248,041; AberdeenAngus, 193,960; Irish, 188,023; Lincoln Reds, 168,790; Channel Islands 101,233; Highlanders, 99,804; South Devons, %,■ 991; Galloways, 31,265; Red Polled, 27,232; Sussex, IO.tHSO; other breeds or descriptions, 37,164; total, 6,904,774. The colostrum, or beastings, which are the primary secretions of the cow after calving, are salty in taste. They have likewise a peculiar smell. They exercise a purgative effect upon the calf, and are regarded as Nature's medicine. Reuneted they coagulate slowly, but coagulate readily under heat and acetic acid. It is unusual in this country to feed fish to live stock, although fish food lias given excellent results when it is of a high grade. In India sardines wer§ dried and ground and fed at the rate of 31b per head daily to heifers for six months. No ill effects followed, and the animals did not seem to object to eating it. It did not prove in this form, however, to be a particularly good feeding stuff. Twenty aged cows and eight heifers under three years old were entered in a three-day butter-fat test at the last Illinois State Fair. Rosa Bonheur Dulcina, a Holstein owned by Derrer Brothers, Camp Chase, Ohio, who won the first prize, gave in three days 179.91b of milk, containing G.4olbs of fat. The second prize went to an Ayrshire cow owned by the Barclay Farm. She gave 1411b of milk, containing 5.181b of fat. A brown Swiss cow owned by J. P. AHyn won the third prize.' The use of salt on the soil must be tempered with a good deal of judgment. Given to certain crops, especially mangels, it invariably produces satisfactory results where sown on the raw furrow or by the time of planting. Salt, however, should not be mixed with superphosphate, and should be applied at a rate of five or six hundredweight per acre when .given, to mangels and four hundredweight to swedes or potatoes. A bulletin issued by the Pennsylvania Experimental Station contains some results of tests concerning the elFect of fertilisers on the color of apples. Various dressings were applied to the trees in order to ascertain their, respective effects upon growth of wood ahd yield and coior of fruit; Farmyard manure and nitrogenous artificial manure, alone or in combination, notably increased growth iind yield, but reduced color. The latter is attributed to "delayed maturity and a diminished light, supply to the fruit, due to an increase of the density of the foliage." It is added that expcriiiieti.j proved that exposure to sunlight al't«r picking increased redness by over SO ;:tr cent., while some of the same lot of fruit stored „i;i darkness showed prnclittiliy no deepening of color 'Vetches, or MIT--, l'..r;;i one uf the most nourishing crop.; for dairy 'cows, but on agricultural land they sometimes become a nuisance as a weed, through being allowed to seed down of themselves. If grown only for green fodder they are not likely to become a pest. There are two varieties winter and spring. Owing to their trailing habits they should not he sown alone, but with some cereal crop. The winter vetch may lie sown with either rye or wheat I at the rate of one- bushel of the former to one and a-lialf bushels of the latter, •.jpriiig vetches should be sown with oats or barley at the rate of one bushel of the former to one and a-half to two bushels of the latter. A ton of winter vetches furnishes 3001b of dry matter, 721b heing protein. "We have found thai the best ration for fattening cattle in winter,'' remarks Professor F. G. King, of the Purdue Experimental Station, U.S.A., "is one composed of all corn and corn silage the steer will eat. i'/.Ab of cotton seed meal per thousand pounds of steer, and a slight amount of dry roughage, either clover hay, corn stover, or oat straw. Steers fed on this ration have made a higher average profit than steers fed on any other ration. Steers fed on corn, cotton-seed meal and com silage have made cheaper gains than those fed on Urn first-mentioned, 'plus some dry '•oug'huge. \\ Idle silage is a wonderworker in reducing the cost of gains on fattening cattle, the cattle-feeder must understand that it is not a complete feed in itself. It is a roughage, and as such must be fed in connection with corn.