FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1917, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY.

)p——- / \ KKWS AXD J3OTES. j v. Saturating the trunk and 'branches of a tree with a solution of suit and water will destroy the lichen. A winter wash jecommended for the purpose is made from euistic soda, sulphate of iron, lime, paraltin, and water. This clears oil moss, lichen, etc., and destroys insect and fungus pests. A group of fanners in Clay County, Minn., U.S.A., lias found that it .paid for them to all grow the same kind of potatoes. These farmers planted seed true to type ol good quality, free i'roin disease, and they carefully treated the seed before they planted it. With a population of 100,000,000. people, who, according to Government statistics, consume more meat per capita than any other nation in the world, and with loss than 50,000,000 sheep, growing only one-lialf of the wool required to clothe these people, the United States of America are up against a grave problem. The quality of the seed which a farmer sows on his land is a good indication of the carefulness, the progress, and the thrift of the man. If good crops are to he obtained, it is of the utmost importance to sow large, plump, sound, vital, well-matured, pure seed, free from disease, and of the very best varieties. According to a writer iu "Concrete and Constructional Engineering," "concrote is becoming more of an everyday building material in one form or another, and when the war is over everyone will be on the alert for a good, substantial, and above. all, cheap material, and no doubt the concrete block will play a great part, especially for small houses, cottages, farm buildings, etc. It has . been stated time after time that it requires a skilled man to make satisfactory blocks, but all it requires is a good, reliable man in charge of the job to make the blocks." What has the agricultural chemist done? He has taken the grass and fodder plants of the farm, the hay, straw, grain and oilcake, and analysed them. He has shown the great, difference in the feeding value of such materials, revealed the properties in each that go to the making of ffesli and fat and milk; prescribed rations for our working horses, the growing beast, and the milk cow; shown that there is a science of feeding as well as of manuring, and explaining its principles; taught that the usual method of feeding is a most wasteful one, and shown how it might be replaced by a more economical one; has, in fact, shown the farmer that there is a rational treatment for the stock he raises us well as the soil ho cultivates. Lands of a peaty character, rich in organic matter, are specially benefited by applications of slag; and as it contains a small quantity of free lime, its action on heavy, stiff soils is very beneficial, as it helps to disintegrate the soil, and make the soil more friable, at the same time tending to liberate a small proportion of the natural stock or potash in which most of the clays abound. On all kinds of hay lands and in poor hill pasture it can be used with great advantage. On soils subject to "linger and toe'! it should certainly be given the preference. It has also been found to produce good results on grass land resting on chalk—»n unsuspected resuty. Tho potato belongs to the Solanum family, which includes the Deadly Nightshade, or Belladonna, as well as the useful tomato. Solanum tuberosum, as tho the potato is botanically called, originated in America, and the Spaniards first found it cultivated near Quito, in Peru. Sir Walter Raleigh is generally credited with introducing it into Ireland, and it was at any rate first planted on Sir Walter's estate, near Cork, about 1580, and from there distributed to his friends, mainly as a curiosity. The potato soon liecame an article of food in Ireland, but did not find its way to England till nearly one hundred years later. By the end of the eighteenth century ,it was established as a leading farm crop. Where the Shorthorn will live and thrive well it seems to be the best allround cow. But climate, situation, and quality of soil have much to do with tho production of rich and copious milk, and, as with the different breeds of sheep, where one would fiourish another •would starve. Hence the usefulness of all.