FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1916, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

NOTES. A return of tlie live stnok in Victoria in March shows that there were decreases under every heading., The total number of horses was 493,770, decrease on the year 58,274; dairy cows, 451,088, decrease 150,429; other cattle 392,516, decrease 150,500; pigs, 102,002, decrease 51,194; sheep, 10,545,032, decrease 1,50f>,. 053. Those heavy losses through the drought will take some little time to make up.

Probably the true secret for tlie continuous improvement in the island-bred Guernsey may be attributed to the fact that only the best of qualified bulls are eligible to registry. It is obligatory to breed to the best bulls. Two of the rules governing tlie use of bulls on the island are:—(l) "Ho shall not be less than 15 months old." (2) "He shall be approved by .judges appointed by the Herdbook Council." Young bulls are presented at the local shows in company with their (lams, and the merits of the dams are rated in determining the qualifications of the son. The service for all qualified bulls is limited to ss.

In the cutting and tailing of lambs the sheep require to be quietly yarded into a small yard and then allowed to cool. The lamb should be held with one fore and one hind leg in each hand on a rail about 3ft high. The tail should be cut off short, and in the castration of the ram lambs the top of the purse should be cut off, the testicles being grasped and pulled out with thr'teeth. A small quantity of kerosene should then be poured into the purse, The animals should be put down gently and kept away from the sheep. Cutting and tailing should be done when the lambs are two or three weeks old, a warm day being selected. The knife is preferred to the searing iron, and it is important that the lambs should not be unduly worried for a week after treatment.

The farmyard manure produced yearly in France was calculated bv the late Professor Crandeau to be worth about £00,000,000, but by faulty and careless management more than one-si.vth of its most valuable constituents, or over £ll,1)00,(100 a year is lost. Dr. Dyer, in his handbook, "Fertilisers and' Feeding Stufl's," writes that, basing his reason" in? on the quality of straw produced and utilised in agriculture, he has calculated that the annual production of farmyard manure in the United Kingdom amounts to some 40,000,000 tons, worth, at 5s a ton, as much as £ 10 0 000,-' 000. The probable annual loss of nitrogen alone by careless treatment is as much as would be contained in from 230,000 to 340,000 tons of nitrate of soda, costing, at £lO per ton, £2,300,000 per annum, of which loss a very large proportion could be saved.

For all practical purposes, the milk of a healthy cow may be considered quite sterile (that is, ' entirely fre,e from germs). As soon as it leaves the udder it is liable to contamination by bacteria, and it depends entirely on the'eonditions under which it is drawn and treated subsequently what sort of bacteria may get into it. The reason these minute forms of life can bring about such- changes and do so much harm is because of their rapid •cproduction. Warm new milk forms an excellent medium for the growth and reproduction of a large number of varieties of germs. The lactic acid germs, ivhich bring about "ripening," take what they require from the sugar in the milk, go that in this way the sugar is converted into lactic acid. AGE AND MILK YIELD In some experiments earripd out under the auspices of the Leeds University and Yorkshire Council for Agricultural' Education it was found that the average yield per head increased definitely each year up to the fifth ealf, vising from an average of 350 gallons for the first period of lactation to 710 gallons during the fifth period of lactation. After the fifth ealf there were signs of a falling oil' in the output. The records also furnished evidence that the time of calving exerts a considerable influence upon the total milk yield. The.tests gave effect to the theory that cows calving just after the grass is at its best will not, as a rule, maintain their yields as successfully as those which cake late in the season