FARM & DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

FARM & DAIRY.

NEWS AND NOTES,

Many ail error in wool-selling has been luade through not taking advantage of good price#. The best business men sell at the moment they consider the price is right, and do not indulge in vain regrets if the market rises a bit afterwards. On the law of average, they come out the best when one season is balanced against another.

The late Dr. Gustav de Laval, recently deceased, the inventor of the continuous working cream-separator, was born on May 9, 1845, in the Swedisli province of Dalecarlia. He was a descendant of an ancient French warrior family of Hugenots. who, after the massacre of St Bartholomew, left France and settled in one of the small German Stated.

One of the many troubles the cheesemaker has to overcome is a spongy curd, and this is caused by the milk being badly contaminated with the types of bacteria that produce gas. The germs in the warm curd become very active and charge the curd with gas, which causes it to swell up and be of a spongelike consistency. The only remedy for this is to employ nothing but pure, clean milk for cheese-making.

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 whe re sown on the raw furrow or by the time of planting. Salt, however, should not be mixed with superphosphate, and should be applied at the rate of five to six hundredweight per acre when given to mangels, and four hundredweight to swedes or potatoes.

Whenever possible cows should be milked at intervals of twelve hours apart, in order to produce milk of comparatively uniform quality at each milking. In most cases the night's interval is long and the day's interval a short one, and the milk obtained in the morning is then poor in quality—often below the legal limit for quality. Sometimes it is not possible to milk at fairly even intervals apart, but it should be practised whenever feasible

Cows should always be managed in a careful and gentle manner where the ■best results are to be .secured. A cow which is treated in a kindly manner and is on friendly terms with the milker will give her milk freely. When cows are subjected to any rough treatment on the part of the milker,they will hold up their milk and this will cause some difficulty with the milking. Many cows are spoiled through being milked by inferior milkers.

During the past week there has been a good response from the farming and country community in answer to the call for men for the reinforcements. The harvest prospects are good, growing crops look very well just now, and farmera are more than a little agitated regarding the labour question. I feel confident that our senior scholars and our women folk will be equal to the occasion. None in the Empire have risen to the demands made by this war as our women have, and they will not be beaten or dis mayed by a little bit of harvest.

For prompt returns when used alone, use rotted manure; for most lasting benefit and maximum returns, use fresh manure. Well-rotted manures are better soil improvers on sandy soil than the fresh material, while on the heavy clay loam this condition is reversed. There is, however, always danger of losses by leaching when rotted manures are used on- sandy Boils, hence they should be supplied shortly before the plants are io make use of them. There, is little danger, however, of material loss when more retentive soils are manured.

Mr. Saunder fjpencer, an authority on pigs in the United Kingdom, deprecates the use of very large boars. His experience. is that a neat, compact boar, with plenty of muscular character, is better than an extremely large boar, which lasted a shorter time and was less prolific than the compact sire. For commercial purposes he preferred the first cross of any pure breeds. Too many breeders of purebred animals studied appearance rather than utility points, and too much attention was devoted at shows to fancy points, and too little to [Commercial pigs. As a general type he believed in the large white sow crossed with middle white boar. For a five to ten-stone porker a cross of a Berkshire I with the middle white was, in his opinion, the best.

There is a loss in two ways in not milking cows clean. Not only does the owner lose the milk, but the cow will soon have a swollen udder, which may result in the loss of a quarter or ruin the whole cow as far as milking is concerned. And, besides, if a cow testing 4 per cent, butter-fat be milked,- and the first fourth of the milk be tested, It will probably only teat about 2 per o-nri rfc even may be a little lower. | The second fourth will test between 3 anf 9 set cent,, and keep on increasing, <Hnd t"he- very last milk or stoppings sometimes test.' as Mgh as 12, and even 15 per cent. iTence the importance of getting the strippingg.

There is no excuse for weeds being present ill any soil being used for purposes of agriculture. Waste and neglected In mix soon show a prolific growth of weeds, because nature has a very large assortment of weeds, and wherever climatic- conditions are favourable to growth f>' any kind, one or another of these robber plants will surely make its appearance. But if the land under crop or grass is in the condition of fertility Hint it should be, weeds cannot thrive there. All weeds seem able to dispense wiiii one or another 4 of the mineral plant foods essential to the growth of useful plants, so that the method for killing weeds is to practise complete I'mNiifirisince all the essential foods are provided and one or another of the minerals i« poison to the different kinds .if weeds (example, the action of lime "ml potash 011 sorrel), and yet provide rood "for valuable crops.

Although farmers will have their sup- • lies of potash salts for fertiliser curtailed owing to the chief source being or, oil by the war, thev can still increase their crop yields by u«j ng dynamite. It ■'* <!Niy miring the past few years that explosives have been used on the farm, but the practice m one that is growing daily. Dynamite, bv breaking up the subsoil and the plough soil, aliows plants to root more deeply than under ordinary conditions, and also to absorb nitrogen and other plant food, besides under-lying moisture, which they have never before been able to reach. Actual tests in the United States have shown that corn planted in dynamited land gave an increased yield of from 50 pel cent, to 200 per cent., while cotton seldom gained Mm tbftg 100 j,w ofg£,

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 longer 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 ?s unquestionably that which hangs squarely. If butter is overxvashed its colour and flavour are spoiled. The sole object in washing butter is to remove the excess of curdy matter, so that the colour of the finished produce will be quite clean and even throughout. It takes two, and sometimes three, lots of water at a suitable temperature to wash butter thoroughly. The last lot of water should be clear on leaving' the churn. Then more washing will only spoil the colour and flavour of the but if According to a report issued by the Department of Plant Pathology connected with the Agricultural Experiments Station of Cornell University, the result of Professor Stewarts'3 ten-years' experiments at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva and at numerous other places in the State, and the experiments of others, have demonstrated beyond all doubt that not only will spraying with Bordeaux mixture prevent the blight and rot during epidemic years, but also in dry years when this disease is not abundant, the yield from sprayed plants is enough greater than the yield from unsprayed plants to more than pay the cost of spraying

The growth of a calf from birth to one year old, as worked out in America, is shown by the following weights, and it is stated that they may be taken as reasonably accurate where calves such their dams:—At birth, 751b; first month, 1601b;' second month, 2101b; third month, 2701b; fourth month, 3301b; fifth month, 3901b; sixth month, 4501b; seventh month, 5101b; eighth month, 5701b; ninth month, (WOlb; tenth month, 7001b; eleventh month, 7601b; one year, 8251b.

INTERESTING POTATO EXPERIMENTS Potatoes are so easily raised in an ordinary season that the average fanner does not bother to make any special investigations concerning it. If it wa.s less responsive to the rough tillage that it receives, more than likely there would be a wider determination to carry out research work. In the * older countries, however, increased attention is being paid to the perfecting of a crop which for importance stands second to none. In Victoria during the past few years the Department of Agriculture has not been entirely negligent of the matter's importance, wilth good results. Tests have shown that immature seed has given better returns than ripe seed. The immature seed was secured before the crop had died down, and stored. The ripe seed was taken after the crop had withered away, and stored in the usual way in a shed with straw. Under similar treatment the immature seed was by far the most vigorous in growth, and gave a return of fully one-third more. Tests were also made with fertilisers and careful tillage, and in each instance these methods were more than amply justified. Farmers raising potatoes should carry out tests of -their own. It will always pay.

HIGH PRICES FOR CLYDESDALES. At the disposal sale at Seaham Harbour, England, of the last Mr. Robert Brydon's famous Clydesdale Stud, some remarkable prices were realised. Among the stallions was the famous Bonnie Buchlyvie, by Baron of Buchlyvie out of Queen of Beauty, a horse with an unbeaten sliowvard career, and winner of the Cawdor Cup, and one which has been remarkably successful as a breeder. He was knocked down for SOOOgns to Mr Kilpatrick, Craigie Mains, Kilmarnock. Another stalion, Pliillipine, by Bonnie Buchlyvie out of Denton Lady, witli a splendid sliowyard career, was sold for 2300gns to Mr. Ferguson, Elgin. Prickwillow, also by Bonnie Buehlyvie, went for 360gns to Mr. ICennaway, Cramlington, and Dandy Dick, by the same horse, sold at 250gns to Mr. Phillips, Carlisle There were eighteen brood marcs with foals at foot, and the top price for a mare was (Signs, given by Mr. Donald' son, Glasgow, for the noted Silver Bangle, by Bonnie Buchlyvie. Her foal made 215gns, given by Mr. Marshall, Stranraer. Other brood mares which j made good prices were Silver Queen, by Silver Cup, 510gns, paid by Mr. Johnson, Carlisle; Woodbine, 290 gns, Mr. Duncan, Udirig Station; Silver Blossom, 250gns, Mr. Brydon, Seaham; and Syringa, 250gns, Mr. Donaldson, Glasgow. Among the seven three-year-old filliep by Bonnie Buchlyvie, Mr. Johnson, Larbert, gave 435gns, and Mr. Cairns, Abercrombie, paid OSOgns for a, two-year-old filly. For a yearling fillv by Bonnie Huclilvvip, Mr. Aikenhead, Seaham, paid 250gns. Another made 4<)ogns, bping bought by Mr. Allan, Whithorn. Among the two-year-old colts Field Master, by Bonnie Buchlyvie, made 700gns, Mr. Fleming, Auchterarder, being the purchaser. The Home paper from which these prices are quoted had not worked out the averages, but they must be very higt

FOOD AND MILK YIELIj, A fact that has been conclusively demonstrated by actual experiment is that a healthy, soundly constituted cow will continue to yield her normal quantity of milk, at least for a limited period, notwithstanding a reduction in the quantity or quality of her food. Rather than allow the normal quality of milk to fill off owing to an unsuitable or insufficient diet, a healthy, heavy-milking cow will utilise the elements of nourishment that she has stored up in the flesh and fat on her body. An excess of food at any time helps an animal to accumulate this reserve store of warmth and energy, against such times as she may be in want of them. Despite the quantity of food given to dairy cows of a normal, healthy type, they will lost in weight for some weeks after calving. The butter-fat percentage of the milk will be highest at this stage, but will gradually diminish towards the end of the lactation period. If any attempt be made to improve the milk yield it should be by the use ol foods designed to increase the quality of the milk, providing, of course, that such foods will not impart any taint or undesirable flavour to the products of the dairy. Extra heavy milking allowances of concentrated food's will possibly have good effects, but such improvement is rarely commensurate with the extra cost incurred, and there is, moreover, a risk of putting too great a strain on the digestive organs of tlie animal, and so impairing its health. Under all these circumstances, therefore, it appears reasonable to conclude that any increase in the quantity of milk over the present normal standard is to be looked for more from breeding than frSS> feeding.