FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1916, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY.

itfOTES. • Last nonih chaff in Western Australia was worth up to £4 7s fid per ton, while good clean samples of potatoes were readily selling at £l4 and £l4 10s per ton. Dr. E. X Dillon, the well-known authority on Balkan affairs, states in a recent issue of the English Review, that Germany some months ago purchased the whole of the 1915 Rumanian harvest. Germany and Austria combined only had sufficient cereals to last until May,' 1910, and this purchase will give tlio Central Powers bread" to carry them on until next harvest. A remarkable price lias been obtained at Buenos Aires for a fat bullock. The champion Hereford' at the Palermo fat stock show was sold at nearly £O2O. The owners were Messrs. I)uggan, Hemanos, and the bullock was purchased by the La Plata. Colst' Storage 06. Froia a fat stock point of view this sale is regarded as the most important ever. effected in the Argentine. At the same sale .two Shorthorns came close behind, one realising £B3O and. the other £750. These prices are not as high as was paid for Shorthorn bullocks at the same show a few years ago. About two months ago (says the Australian Meat Trade Journal) 7000 fat, v,-ethers bought in Queensland by Messrs B. Richards and Rons, were seized by the Government. The official statement is that a cheque for £5154 was paid B. Richards and Sons. That would workout at 14s (id, although another report says that only 14s per head was paid. The skins were sold for 3s 7d. The sheep averaged 411b. That would mean that the mutton coSt about 3Jd. Allowing liberally for expenses, the tatal cost would be put down at 4d. The mutton was retailed at 7Jd. No wonder the Australian Labor Governments have their eyes upon commercial undertakings. • Tests at tile Ontario Agricultural College to ascertain the difference in the amount of bufcter J milk from cream containing different percentages ef fat shewed that the average of 44 churnings, ranging in weight of cream from IBOlb to 1514 I b( and in percentage of fat from 28 to 41.5, was 1.471b of butter-milk per pound butter, or 29401b per ton »f butter. For each increase of 1 per cent, fat in the cream above 28 there was produced on the average 1581b less but-ter-milk per ton of butter.

The Shorthorn Dairy Society (Ifngland) gives records of"l 40 cow's, all of which have a yield of over 89081b of milk during the year. Rose 44th lieads the list with 12,8091b milk for 305 days. Blushing Maid 2nd, Lady Clara and Primrose 3rd gave over 12,0001b of milk; and with the exception of Lady Clara (317 days), were in milk the full year. Four cows gave over 11,0001b milk; 20 gave over 10.0001b, and 48 ranged from 90001b to 09791b. Eighty-eight of the cows were in milk over 300 days, and 18 ■milked the full year. A writer in the Yorkshire Tost points out that this is milking the cow to death. In a state of nature the cow gives sufficient milk to rear tier own calf. By breeding, feeding, and management, the period and amount of flow have been greatly ineseased; but heavy milking is a strain an the constitution, and the prolonged periods of lactation noted above are a great danger to the caws. ' In the matter of realising high prices for sheep. New Zealand does net stand alone. A paragraph In the Sydney Morning Herald recently stated:—Further evidence of the high price of sheep in Southern Riverina was demonstrated at a stock sale at Oaklands, when 8800 sheep sold at the remarkably high average of 28s, crossbred ewes selling up to 33s Cd,

LUCERNE FOR DAIRY CATTLE.

There is ii gratifying awakening te the value of lucerne for grazing by milking stock (says the New Zealand Farmer). Experience lias demonstrated that, when a well-established lucerne field is properly managed, there is nething ta fake its place for the feeding of'the dairy cow; particularly is it valuable in the dry summer, Green crops are an excellent insurancee against drought, but too often they are not available at the very time they are wanted, whereas lucerne is there the whole time. More particularly is lucerne valuable to the man working on the semi-intensive system, when by means of lucerne and small well-managed fields he can carry a large number of stock. It is possible for him to graze the lucerne for a brief period in the day and then turn the stock into a suitable fresh pasture, a system ensuring the very highest returns. It is only here and there that! the value of | the small fields—for the maintenance, of pastures at the very highest standardis being adopted, but no doubt the excellent results from this same system of pasture control will have the effect .of rapidly extending the principle. Grazing on lucerne is,apparently to receive a considerable fillip, during the. coming season. Many fields have been sown during the last few months, and, judging by the general method of preparation, advised by experts of the Department of Agriculture, the establishment of the lucerne should be satisfactorily accomplished. The recommended procedure .is to grow oats and tares in April and May, feeding the first growth, then let it eome away again, when it will be ready for cutting in November,. The aftermath is immediately ploughed in. The soil is then well cultivated, preferably "with a irlpod harrow, as this does not disturb the plonglicd-in green matter, and at the same lime consolidates the soil to a certain extent, thereby leaving it in the best condition for the lucerne seed, which is planted in December or January. The necessary feature of this method is to allow the weed seed to germinate and destroy this by the harrow prior to sowing the lucerne seed. As to the tiine of planting the 'seed, it would be necessary to sow earlier than the month stated in dry districts. In Taranr.ki lucerne put in in December is thriving particularly well. In the past, many farmers, in their endeavour to establish lucerne, have been disheartened at seeing weeds fighting the lucerr.e for possession, apparently so successfully that 110 lucerne is to be seen. There is no need to be alarmed. Many of the best lucerne fields in the Dominoii at the present time were just in sucli a condition at first, in fact, so bad that amateur experts had advised their abandonment. It was only the man of experience, fortunately called in, who recommended cutting the crop to within two or three inches, and subsequently cutting it at brief intervals. The result demonstrated how, when lucerne has once got a hold, it will live under a hard system of cropping which will kill out' weeds. It should bo more generally known that when lucerne ia ; firmly established harrowing in the winter months will strengthen the lucerne evcji under the roughest cultural treatment. It is not too much to say that when more experience is gained of lucerne in this country it will eome to be appreciated as an indispensable crop Ojl ,tUg d&jrv