FARM & DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1915, Page 10

FARM & DAIRY.

The total capital employed by the United States firms in the meat freezing and packing industries in Argentine amounts to £2,000,000.

Finderne Pride Johanna Rue, with a milk record of 28,403.71b and butter-fat record of 1,176.401b, is now the champion cow in the world. /

In Mexico there grows a tree called the "tree of little hands." It is thus called owing to the fact that its five peculiarly curved anthers look like the fingers of a child.

In Canaßa the average price for factory butter in 1900 was lOd per lb; in 1910 it had increased to Is Id per lb; and cheese in'the-same period hail decreased from 5d per lb to 4J per lb.

Bulls may be lit for service at eighteen months old, but should not then be alowed more than two services per week, and not more than 15-20 cows for the first season. Later this number can be increased.

Let the calf get the first milk, and then do not milk cow entirely dry until at least the fourth milking, and if udder is hot or swollen do not milk dry until this condition has subsided. Milking dry Boon after the cow has calved increases the danger of an attack of milk fever.

It is estimated (says the Greymouth Star) that the butter and cheese factories in the Westland district will pay out about £35,000 to their milk suppliers during the season now commencing. This amount is a large increase compared with last season's payments.

Catch cropping is likely to be carried on in the autumn more frequently than usual. Catch cropping (really a stolen crop) is not usually carried on in the latter parts of the country, and is most freely employed as a means of obtaining maximum returns from the soil in the South of England.

In order to destroy Yorkshire fog there arc remedies which can be applied, the best of which is to buy good seed, to discourage the use of sweepings of hay lofts and to cut the plant down. Seeding is prevented, and a little change may be made in the composition of the grass mixture, reducing the number of sole grasses and taking the more robust type.

Basic slag, now so largely used as a manure, is a by-product in the smelting of iron. It is useless as a fertiliser unless finely ground. The standard lor fineness of grinding is tho proportion that will pass through a sieve with ten thousand meshes to the square inch. Thus, if the fineness of grinding is said to be 90, this means that 90 per cent, wiil pass through the sieve in question.

Hoose which is one of the prevalent complaints in calves and lamba, is a source of considerable trouble. It is due to a worm present in the bronchial tubes and air passages. This worm is known as Strongylus Micrurus. Its presence is most frequently suspected on badly drained land and soil, subject to flooding. It is particularly obtrusive among j calves which are kept late out in the autumn.

The treatment of husk and hoose consists chiefly in isolation and sending the healthy cattle to fresh pasture. Fresh salt or lime is recommended, and the diseased subjects may be submitted to fumigation with the gas of burned sulphur, which plan, however, is difficult to adopt. A mixture in which oil of turpentine and linseed are present is recommended for the diseased animal, and injections in the windpipe is a general system of treatment.

A recent visitor to the Upper Clutha district informs the Cromwell Argus that prospects throughout the various farming centres are the best known for very many years —in faet at this particular period of the year have never been better. The sight of beautiful green fields wluch greet the traveller at every turn is, in his opinion, one of which the equal could not be found in Australasia. The recent rainfall has done a vast amount of good.

Peat moss is being used by German farmers as a top dressing, owing to the scarcity of nitrates. Peat is placed with the manure heap, and soaks up the drainings. Cut into blocks and dried, peat makes a valuable fuel. Dried and "teased" into fragments, it makes good bedding for stock and an excellent material for covering the floors of fowlhouses. When it has served its purpose in the stable of fowlhouse it becomes a valuable manure.

It is a question of temperature and Che American dairy men are solving the same problem. They are looking for a system of treatment than can be carried on without ice, and after many experiments the dairy implement makers are offering a cold box or tank built somewhat on the system of the Thermos flask. The tank is Guilt with double walls and water from the well flows through these walls maintaining a low tempera.ture. The cream will keep sweet in the insulated chamber. Here is a chance for some inventive mind.

In recent years machinery has displaced manual labour to a considerable extent in haymaking, and in present circumstances farmers would wish that they could rely even more on mechanical contrivances. Perhaps the heaviest work in haymaking is in pitching at the rick but very little of this is now necessary. The elevator, or the mechanical hay-fork, is to bo found on most farms that are of medium size! or larger. Indeed, only those who have a very" small quantity of hay to stack can afford to be without these labour-saving appliances.

A well-informed estimate of the forthcoming maize crop in South Africa places it at about 3,000,000 bags. This i 3 50 percent, above the normal, which averages, .about 2,000,000 bags. The Government requirements are estimated at CO,000 bags per month, while the Union consumption probably will reach another nriiJiou: bags per annum. Making a generous allowance, therefore, for the iniliItary requirements for the next twelve months, the country should be in a position to export' 1,000,000 bags oversea.

The composition of bran lias been | found io be largely dependent on the extent to which the sfcin of the grain is capable to being cleaned of endosperm. In strong wheats with aliigh albuminoid content the percentage of albuminoids in the bran will be increased to a greater extent by a quantity of Hour retained than would that in a bran from wheat with a lower percentage of albuminoids. The composition of pollard, it is pointed out, is determined by the amount of bran, abstracted and the extent to which this is replaced by, flour,

A British Empire trophy for bacon is to be instituted at the next dairy show held under tho auspices of the British Dairy Farmers' Association, to be open to bacon-curera throughout the Empire.

When a farmer was fined lOs at Cockermouth for allowing two cows to stray on the highway it was said that he had been influenced by a letter in the newspapers pointing out that by the grazing of the roadside herbage we should be avoiding one form of national waste.

With the appreciation of meat there has also come a higher price for hides. There is a general shortage of hides in animals bred in England which is supplemented by importations. .The prices have increased considerably, and 11 id is quoted per lb at the preeejlfc moment, whereas in former times 7d would have been a good figure. OSiick Mdes are much esteemed and the care V'Hli which hides are marketed has a good deal to do with their ultimate value.

Some very high prices have been received for stock at Ballarat, Victoria, lately. A pen of 72 crossbred wethers bred and fattened by Mr. W. 0. Read, of Warleigh, Collac, averaged £1 10s per head, and reached a record of £5 2s. Three pigs realised a record price of ,£9 4s fid each at the Ballarat market on August 25th. They were White Yorks, eight months old, bred and fattened by Mr. R. Longmire, of Hoorookyle.

Co-operation as applied to dairying has a great field ahead of it. In England there -are 33 co-operative dairy societies, and the total turnover of these was £455,000. The combined supply of milk was estimated at 20,000,000 gallons. 11l 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.

With, the appreciation of meat there haa also come a higher price for hides. There is a general shortage of hides in animate bred in England which is supplemented by importations. The prices have increased considerably, and lljd is quoted pel- lb at the present moment, whereas in former times 7d would have been a good figure. Thick hides are much esteemed, and the care with which hides are marketed has a good deal to do with their ultimate value.

The thousand-headed kale is being largely grown in Oregon as a cow feed, and the Oregon bulletin says: ''lt is a very hardy plant, standing a temperature of lOdeg. above zero, which makes it available the entire winter in the Valley under ordinary conditions. The plants grow to some 4ft in height, with a wide spread of leaves, a single plant often weighing 301b. A yield of 30 to 40 tons of green kale to the acre is not Uncoinmno." The Cliou Moellier, or Giant Kale, is another heavy bearer and drought resister. Grown in the Botanic Gardens, Capetown, a Giant Kale was well over Oft in height.

Referring to potatoes the Cape Times says the tops can be cut and used as forage just before the tubers are gathered. The results of a recent feeding exneriment with dairy cows showed that the yield of milk and the proportion of fat and dry matter were at least as high as when good meadow hay was fed. If well harvested and made into hay or artifiically dried, the tops were found to lie quite unobjectionable for feeding purposes from a hygienic point fo view. When properly prepared they were also found to form good silage, which was willingly eaten.

At the Government Experimental Farm at Ottawa, a number of pigs, of mbout 601b each live weight, were hurdled on a given area of growing rape, and these were given, in addition to the rape, maize, commencing with lib per day and gradually increasing until they consumed 51b each per day. An average of only a.bout 2 l-31b of maize, in addition to the rape, was consumed for each increase of lib in the live weight of the pigs, ajid as a further proof of the success of the experiment over the period during which they were fed on the rape and the maize, the pigs made an average increase of 1.271b per head daily, or rather more ♦lian lib of pork per day.

The loss of live stock by wild and predatory animals in the United States is enormous. Mr. Hugh Sproat writes the American Sheepbreeder an instructive article on the question. During 1914 the large sum of £IOB,OOO was paid in bounties by the various States and counties in the Republic, and the writer says as much more was paid by private individuals, He estimates the loss to stockmen west of the Missouri River at £3,000,000 per annum, and the loss of lambs 12 per cent., with old sheep 3 per cent. Under the name of predatory animals are the wolf, coyote, wild cat, lynx, bear, and cougar. The latter attacks young colts and calves, which are more to his tiiste.

The Mark Lane Express deals with the first sale of mares cast from the British Army at the front, and returned to Kngl&nd. The fourteen lots offered had all seen service with the Expeditionary Force, and were sold solely for breeding purposes oil condition that they were not at any time to be exported. They were warranted to have passed the Mallein test for glanders, and to be quite free fi-om infectious or contagious diseases. They had been kept at the cattle-te3ting station, Pirbight, for the previous month, and were sent into the sale-ring in firstrate condition. The bulk of the mares vrere of the hunter type, and there was quite a brisk demand for them, the whole consignment being sold for £452, an average of £33 each.

In an experiment with ten cows at tlie Kansas Agricultural College it was found that for the first five (lays after dehorning the cows lost an average of {lb of milk a day. At the end of tho fifth day they began to satnrn to their normal flow, and in a few days eight of them were giving a substantial increase. The greatest gain was with tlie cows that had been hooked and driven away from their feed previous to the dehorning. The two that did not increase in production were the "boss" cows of the herd. Cattle that are dehorned before the coining of warm weather and flies usually heal without trouble. Much time and trouble is saved by dehorning the calves with caustic potash. This should be done before the calf is a week old, or a stumpy horn will develop, which will have to be removed later with clippers or saw. Scrape tlie buttons or young born with a knife until it is red. Then moisten it and nib it well with a stick of caustic potash, or with household lye, being careful not to get it 111 the .'kin around the liorn, aa it is very irritating to the calf's tonder skin. This should bo repeated in a few days if a >deep scab does not from in the centre