FARM & DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 October 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

FARM & DAIRY.

j FERTILISERS FOR NEW ZEALAND. Now thai our farmers and our Agricultural Department are looking around for dependable sources of phosphate supply for New Zealand's soil (remarks the jLyttelton Times) it may be as well to offer the suggestion that the Pacific at our doors should receive more attention before turning to Algeria and other far-off parts of the earth for fertilisers In the equatorial Pacific there are islands with enormous quantities of guano and phosphate rock, and some of these could be worked continuously for many decades to come. Some of these are French, but most are British; most are in the hands of private firms and companies, which ship very large quantities of fertiliser to all parts of the world, and it is upon these concerns that New Zealand now depends chiefly for its supplies. Some may be mentioned: Makatea Island, which lies 120 miles northeast from Tahiti; Ocean Island, almost exactly on the equator in-169.35 east; the islets around Caroline Islands, 400 miles east of Penrhyu, one of New Zealand's possessions; and Maiden Island, a short distance south of the Line. There are other deposits, no doubt, waiting for scientific prospecting and analysis. Ocean Island, probably, offers the most attraction as a source of supply; its superphosphates have been described as the richest in the world. It may be that the New Zealand Government would find it profitable in the long run to buy one of these islands outright, as a State fertiliser reserve for its agriculturists.

j CO-OPERATION IN DENMARK. | The first co-operative dairy opened in Denmark in ISS2, to be followed in but a few yejirs by hundreds of others. Today there are 1200 co-operative dairies, owning more than 1,000,000 cows, or SI per cent, of the cows in Denmark. There are only some 222,000 cows which are not co-operatively owned. The chief points in the Danish system are: (1) The small farmer obtains the benefits which inevitably follow great production; (2) he has a regular weekly settlement from the dairy to which he sells his milk, and therefore contracts no bad debta, and is futhermore not com- j pelled to be a merchant as well as a farmer; (3) he has a strong and direct inducement to produce as much milk as possible; (4) he receives a share in the profits of distribution, being part owner of the factory and sells his milk or makes it into butter; (5) from the point of view of the consumer, the middlemen's profits—often amounting to as much as 120 per cent, on dairy produce —are saved; and (6) the system lias been found to be valuable from an educational standpoint. One keen observer, who has specially noted this last point, declares that among "the indirect but equally tangible results of co-operation I should be inclined to put the development of mind and character among those by whom it is practised. The peasant or little farmer who is a member of one or more the these socities, who helps to build up their success and enjoys their benefits, acquires a new outlook. His moral horizon enlarges itself; the jealousies and suspicions which are in most, countries so common among those who live by the land fall from him. Feeling that he has a voice in the direction of great affairs, he acquires an added value and a healthy importance in his own eyes. He knows also that in his degree and according to his output he is on an equal footing with the largest producer and proportionately is doing as well. There is no longer any fear that because he is a little man he will be browbeaten or forced to accept a worse price for what he has to sell than does his rich and powerful neighbour. The skilled minds which direct his business work as zealously for him as for that important neighbour "Again, being relieved from all the worry and risk of marketing and sure that whatever lie buys from his society, be it seeds, or foodstuffs, or implements, is the best obtainable at the lowest rate compatible with good quality, he is free to devote himself altogether to the actual business of his life. Also, in any great doubt or difficulty he can rely on the expert advice of his control society; all the science of the country is in fact at the disposal of the humblest worker of its acres. The farmer who, standing alone, can be broken across the knee of tyranny, extortion, or competition, if bound up with a hundred others by the bond of a common interest is able to mock them all."

Each co-operative dairy has on an 'average 164 members with 963 cows, and possesses buildings and plant worth about £ISOO.

NEWS AND NOTES. Constant out-cr<fssing will destroy the line of decent and result in mongrel cows of limited milk-producing powers. A Shorthorn bull, which was bought for £I3C 10s in Scotland, is reported to have been sold for over £3OOO at Buenos Ayres.

An abundance of humus makes a soil friable, and thus permits the roots to penetrate easily in search of moisture and'plant food.

The most economical way of applying nitrogen to the. soil is by growing leguminous plants, such as clover, lucerne, peas, etc.

Start with a purebred bull, with a dairying pedigree, and breed steadily to that line, selecting first-class bulls for every generation and thus eliminate the mongrel.

Many farmers will cheerfully spend money oil implements and improvements, but don't see the necessity for spending any on their soil.

By constantly introducing pure sires of milking strains into the dairy herd, and culling out the passengers, in a few years the production will be doubled.

The farmer, to be successful, must be an educated man, whether he starts well equipped from an agricultural college or whether he educates himself.

It would not be necessary to use preservatives for milk and cream if .everything from cow to receptacles for those products could be kept free from dirt.

Middlings are one of the offals of wheat. The various offals are known as bran, which 13 the coarsest, then pollards, sharps and middlings.

On milk farms for every 10001b of whole milk sold, the fertility will be reduced by 5.81b nitrogen, 1.91b phosphoric acid, 1.71b potash. An up-to-date iarmer will restore these plant foods to the soil

Advico from Winnipeg estimates the grain crop in the Western province 3 at 565,689,508 bushels A 90 per cent, crop has been harvested. Farmers are disposed to wait for better prices.

An acre of cultivation land Bin deep weights about 1000 tons. One hundred pounds of super, per acre, therefore, means lib to every 10 tons of soil. Yet smaller amounts than this produce increased yields.

The total quantity of milk produced in Great Britain, irrespective of that used for calf-rearing, is 1,208,000,000 gallons per annum. The amount realised for butter sold by farmers is £2,940,000; for cream, £590,000; for cheese £1,400,000.

A Westralian paper says this country has qualities in regard to soil and climate which enables it to produce at less cost and for a longer period of the year, with less risk of interference from pests or climatic depression, than probably any other country in the world.

In America where wild black buck are found, the common Cayuga is supposed to have been raised by the crossing of the wild black and the ordinary domesticated ducks. The breed takes its name from a lake in New York. It has not attained to any great popularity in England.

The thin tail is supposed to indicate the cow that milks well They allege that nearly all the good milkers are fine at the tail root Occasionally an animal large of frame will give the lie to this belief, but, as a general rule, the observation is accurate.

The official estimate gives the total area sown in wheat in New South Wales

this season as 5,238,000 acres, 1,000,000 acres above that of last season. The area sown in other grain is 4,262,500 acres, which is 1,550,000 acres above that of the previous year.

Two old working bullocks, one of them about the tallest beast ever seen in the yards were sold at Addington recently at £ll 5s each. They were little more than frames covered with hide, and the prices they brought indicates how dear meat now is. They were said to have come from the Chathams, and were bought for potting.

The Government Statistician show's that the prices of meat in Sydney in August were 51 per cent., and 6f other foods and groceries 25 per cent, above those in July last' year, while the prices last month were 9.6 per cent, above those of the previous month.

Horns are Nature's defensive armour to the bullock. They are often a picturesque adornment, and beyond furnishing cattle with a means of self-defence areof little use. In fact, they are sometimes troublesome when feeding bullocks together, and a plan which is often adopted is to disbud calves or to use a potash application, which prevents horn growth.

The buffalo is often regarded as a kind of wild type of cattle. It is divisible into two distinct groups—African and Indian, The former is found in the districts south of the Sahara, and like other kinds of bovine stock differs in size and colour, length and breadth of horns, according to the districts to which it is native.

To prevent smut in wheat various dressings may be used. One of the simplest is to dress the seed prior to sowing with copper sulphate solution as follows: —Dissolve half a pound of copper sulphate in one gallon of water. This quantity suffices to dress twenty stones of wheat, if sprinkled over the corn, spread thinly out on a clean floor.

Much depends upon the soil and climate under which the crops are grown as to the kinds and qualities of manures required, but there can be no doubt that it is a mistaken Business policy not to manure for fodders even on fairly rich soils, and it is absolutely imperative on poor soils. The greater the growth of fodder the greater amount of stock that can be turned off per acre, and the better the land will be for the succeeding crops.

Most farmers are familiar with Yorkshire fog, which is scientifically known as Holeus Lanatus. It is distinguished by a plentitude of soft, woolly hairs and by a stunted sort of growth. There is also a horn,which grows inwards and is concealed within a husk of glumes. Its wide distribution is explained by the lightness and hairiness which enable it to be windbornc.

Co-operation as applied to dairying has a great field ahead of it. In England there are thirty-three co-operative dairy societies, and the total turnover of these was £455,000. The combined supply of milk Ls estimated at 20,000,000 gallons. In Scotland the first co-operative dairy affiliated to the S.A.O.S. was established nine years ago. In Ayrshire there are four societies with an annual turnover of £BO,OOO,

In the construction of a dairy the two chief points are to provide for efficient ventilation and equableness of temperature within the building It is equally important to have the dairy well drained and free from contaminating influences. The dairy should be built on a higher level than the farm buildings, so tha-t it cannot be contaminated with drainage from the farmyard. Double walls are best for maintaining an even temperature in the daily.

We are familiar with the terms annual, biennial and perennial in referring to gardening, but they are not so much used in agriculture. The suede turnip, etc., are biennials, and, like the annuals, the most important of which in agriculture are the cereals, they are prolific producers of seed. This is a provision of nature for the propagation of the species, or it may be said that the effort of seed-production proves too much for the plant, which dies under the strain,

Reports are coming to hand daily (says the Chriatchureh Press) of losses of stock due to the long-continued dry weather and shortness of feed. One resident of the district, while pas-sing a paddock on the north side of the Rangitata, counted fifty dead ewes and over a hundred dead lambs. A number of farmers have also lost cattle, and one resident of Hilton had five cows and four yearlings die last week.

Some very hign prices have been received for stock at Ballarat, Victoria, lately. A pen of seventy-two crossbred wethers bred and fattened by Mr. W. 0. Read, of Wareigh, Oolac, averaged £4 10s per head, and reached a record of £5 10s. Three pigs realised a record price of £9 4s Od each at the Ballarat market on August 25. They were White Yorks, eight months old, bred and fattened by Mr. R, Longmire, of MoorookLyl©.