FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1920, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

14,500 GUINEAS FOR A YEARLING, RECORDS BROKEN. Jealous competition among rich men for young bloodstock at the Doncaster sales set up various new records. Sledmere, the famous Yorkshire stud so long maintained by the Sykes family, offered its usual batch of blue-blooded youngsters, and it was over these the competition rose to such frenzied heights. Lord Glanely, who last year gave 11,500 guineas for Westward Ho! —a record price, eclipsing 10,00!) guineas paid for Sceptre—now remorselessly beat down all rivals in the case of a Tetrarch colt from the dam of Blue Dun, one of this year's distinguished three-year-olds. He went to the record price of 14,000 guineas. Five thousand'guineas was the first bid for this colt. In a, breath lie stood at 10,- ! 000 guineas. 'Agents for Lord Astor and Mr- -las. White retired thereabouts, but a fresli bidder took it up and carried Lord Glanely to the fabulous sum mentioned. Captain Bewicke, the trainer of Blue Dun. who would be acting for her owner. Mr. F. Straker, appeared to be tho defeated bidder. Mr. White's trainer went to 0(500 guineas for a lialftfother to tie Cln-mpagne S-akes winner Lemonora. This was another youn.y Tetrarch. Lord Lasedles sans 0800 guineas in a daughter of Charlee O'Malley and Stolen Kiss. Four-figure lots were common enough. Thirteen yearlings comprised the Sledmere lot, and they realised a total of 54,0,10 guineas—an average of just over 4200 guineas. Last year the average was 3155 guineas. Until this sale the record average stood to the credit of the Fa ton Stud, broken up after the death of the late Duke of Westminster. It was there Mr. Sicvcr gave the then unpr.."cdented sum of 10,000 guineas fo'- Sceptre, who even at that proved a magnificent bargain, winning over £20,000 in stakes for him, and being then sold to Sir W. Bas, for 25,000 guineas. The average for the Westminster yearlings was 3008 guineas.

Westward Ho! the record yearling of last year, ha? yet to see a racecourse"

aW,? ANT) NOTES,

Consular reports show that there are in Mongolia 20.000.000 sattle, 75,000.000 'l'.eep, and 2'>,OOOAK» horses. The Canadian Government has set aside three iis'a>•;).= in Hudson Bay as a breeding ground for reindeer' and nui3k ox.

An evtraorii'ttsry valuable discovery of inexhaustible iVposits of nitrate of potash has been made near Prieska. This is expected to bring about % reduction of the fiuure cost of aitificial manures in South Africa. i'i.e number'- of sheep in Spa : n in IMS was esti;:...;..M at 15.700,0.i!i, compared with i",.5a,0.-,-t three years preuously. The clim.it? it- the 'north-west provinces is moist, but the other parts, whore sheep raising j= mostly carried on are t'rv.

Without saying that the prices obtained were any better than those recorded of late, the general tone of the store cattle market on Tuesday was much better than has been shown in the Wallacetowii yards for some months. Springing heifers showing any quality at all were very keenly competed for up to £lO 10s.

By. using machinery and participating in agricultural improvement 'a farmer lias been able to produce 50 bushels of oats, on the average, by one day's labor of 10 hours. In 1830, a time of hanri. labor his average was (i bushels, or one" jiinth as much. says, the United States Department of Agriculture. The Chicago Breeders Gazette states that the following are tli? averages of stud cattle sold in the United States during 1!>1!>, and reported in the Gazette:—Sl2s Shorthorns at OS2 dollars, say £130; 5428 Herefords at 770 dollars, say, £155: 214 Polled Hereford', at 835 djtlars, equalling £107; 2100 Aberdeen Angus at 039 dollars, say, £134 each.

As a succulent feed for cattle, mangolds are highly commendable. They are palatable, create an appetite, and produce better digestion, and in general tone up the aystem of the animal. Some 20 to 25 pounds of sliced mangolds daily can be given with advantage to a dairy cow. It is best to feed this allowance with a sprinkling of bran or ground oats or some other concentrate.

The. Sydney Mail says: Speaking erencrally, the drought may be, said to have extended from January, 1918, to the end of May 1020. Now' that it is all over it is freely admitted that it ,m« the worst period ever experienced in the history of New South Wales. On all hands strong men went down under its ruthless blight: yet the number who, with heroic courage, clung on from day to day. particularly during the past six months, hoping against nope that the end was at hand arc now rejoicing in the wonderful prospect ahead- A few there are who, on the eve of rescue, have been suddenly thrown in to the vortex of another extreme. Their lands are under water, what remained of their stock have been washed away in company with their buildings and fences. Their plight at the moment is desperate, but they shall survive the 1 latest onslaught of tiie elements as they have been carried through the former—and, fortunately, their number is not very great. A writer in the Sydney Mail, referring to (lie picture of a cow suek'ing a full-grown pig, says: ''The photograph/ in a recent Mail of a pig suckling a cow reminds me of a cow owned by a neighbour, a Queensland dairyman, which always came home dry al milking time for several weeks. As the cows were running on unfeneed country, sundry stray poodies were charged with the offence. After beiht closely watched, however, ihey were* honourably acuuittcd. The cow herself was the culprit, for she was seen to lie down, and stretching her neck as far as possible, she deliberately sucked herself. Various contrivances were tried to prevent her getting her head | round to the milk. A necklace of light battens, running from shoulder to near the jaw. .strung on wires, successfully fenced off the supply, she wore this the whole milking season, but paid for her misdeeds by being sent to the butcher as soon as she got fat."

Mangolds will grow on any land that will grow potatoes, corn, or any oilier grain crops; on fields lhal are easily drained, and on soils that contain a reasonable amount of fertiliser. It is essentia! that the ground be fhorotHily prepared and the field disced and harrowed before planting. The seed is usually sown at the rate of about 51b to the acre. When the plants germinate and nliiqtt*! (m hj« seen in the

row, harrow lengthwise of rows, tilting the teeth of fine tooth harrow way back so as to lightly stir the soil and kill the weeds.

The United States Government is leaving' no stone unturned to foster the trade in stud stock with the South American Republics. Two officials, representing respectively the Bureau of Markets and Bureau of Animal lndi"--try, have recently been sent on a six months' trip through Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. They are to continue the work opened up by ollieers last year, with a view to promoting the trade in stud stock. In addition, it is quite on the cards that the Government will establish a permanent otiice in South America for the same object shortly. A crop of DO bushels of wheat removes from the acre on which it is grown 3311> of nitrogen, 141b of phosphoric acid, and Ojlb of potash; while a crop of 22 tons of mangolds removes 871b of nitrogen, 341b of phosphoric aeid, and 2231b of potash. If, then, mangolds were sold, what, a huge loss in fertility ,the farm in general would sustain. Pdtatoes, again.' are a crop that are invariably sold off the farm. Now (i tons of potatoes, an average yield of an acre, removes 4711) of nitrogen, 21 Jib of phosphoric acid, and 76Jlb of potash. These examples showplainly enough that a crop is exhaustive or not according as it is or is not sold off the farm.

A return has been prepared showing the number of live stock per 100 acres of cultivated land in the United Kingdom and other European countries. Tho total cattle per 10 acres in the United Kingdom is 25, as against 41) m Belgium, 38 in Holland, and 32 in Denmark. There are 0 dairy cows to the United 'Kingdom's 100' acres, as against 20 on a similar area in Belg'ium 20 in Holland, is in Denmark, and 15 in Sweden. There are S pigs, as against 30 in Belgium, 23 in Holland, 2] in" Denmark, and 20 in Germane. The number of goats in the United 'Kingdom is so small that it is not expressed in figures Switzerland is said to keep G to tho 100 acres, Germany 4, and Holland 1.

FEEDING DAIRY COWS. At the recent Town Bttttermakcrs' Convolition, an interesting address on the feeding of dairy cattle was given by Professor 0. L. Blackburn. Jn the course of his remark's he said:—'ln feeding cattle it must be remembered that they have a peculiar type of digestive tract adapted to the consumption of large amounts of coarse feed,'and because of this fact particular attention must be paid to the ration to see that it measures up to the characteristic desired by the cow. In order that she may handle large amounts of rough food, the cow is provided with four stomachs, the first two of which • arc large forage basins where the food passes "lien it is first ground and swallowed. The third stomach is smaller, and is provided with large leaves which hreak the food material up into thin flakes, so that much of the water can he extracted. The fourth, or true digestive stomach, reerots digestive juices and assists in the digestion of foods in much the same way as our own stomach. Food eaten by the cow takes the following course:—-the rough feeds, such as pasture grass, liny, and silage, arc chewed but little, are dampened by the saliva and then swallowed, passing to the first and second stomach, chiefly (o Hie lirst, as the second stomach is chiefly a receiver of the. watery portions of the feed. In the first stomach the saliva breaks down the starches and sugar, while bacteria break down some of the (ihery or woody portions. When the storage stomachs arc filled, the cow begins to chew her cud. That is, she passes back this food to her mouth, about 4oz at a time, and re-chews this food and then swallows it again; this time it passes on to the third stomach where the water is separated from it and it is prepared for the real digestive stomach. In the case of grains eaten, the food passes chiefly to the fourth' stomach when first chewed and swallowed, and is. not regurgitated to bo chewed in the form of a cud. It Is because of the peculiar type of digestive tract that a ration for a cow lias to measure up to certain requirements of hulk. In feeding Vhe dairy cow it must he remembered that she' is a highly specialised animal, capable of most economical production when she is liberally fed in a properly-balanced ration. The following is a list of characteristics which a good dairv ration should have:—Payability, digestibility, good effect on digestive tract, bulk,"balance of nutrients, variety and economv. If a oow is to consume a large amount of feed, it must of necessity be a palatable feed, a feed which the 'working cow is always anxious to receive. Palata'bilitv can be secured by selecting good, clean, well-cured roughage and grains that have not turned rancid or mouldv. The roughages which are the most palatable are the legumes, bays, silage, c(c. It is very important that the cow receive a feed that is as digestible as possible, because she is greatlv taxed bv .having to handle such a large amount oY feed. In this connection it is especially important that the roughage a cow receives contain as much available food nutrient* as possible, and not be a great mass of woody material such as timothy and straw. Special attention should be given to the effect which a feed will have on the digestive tract of the cow, inasmuch as the dairy cow, unlike manv other types of livestock, works the entire year, and for a number of years.

'FOOD VAU7KS. Sir T. IT. Middlcton says, "The body lmrns food as a stove burns coal anil our energy is generated by that combustion just as a furnace produces energy for a locomotive. The unit of energy value is tbe ealorie—that is, the quantify of heat needed to raise one kilogramme of water from l."> decrees ('• to Id degrees 0. A man doing very light work requires about IBf>o calories per day: a man whoso work involves a normal amount of exercise SIIO.OO (o Si-nil) calories, ivhile a person in bard traiumg may feed .MiOO or more. Before the war the average amount of food pro. vided per man in the I'nited Kingdom would supply about 1.1.'1i1.000 calories per head per annum for (he whole population, or in round figures 1000 000 calories per person. The total encro-y value produced from Britain's soil during the four years before (he war was 17,000,000 calorics, or deducting three'quarters of the value of imported feeding stuffs, 10.H00.1100. At (hat period 31i.000.000 acres were devoted to producing meat and milk, as against ■' fl.iO - 000 acres to the growing o} wheal.''anil" potatoes. Examination of the pner«y value of thv products raised will show that stock farming produced only '>2 million calories per acre, while.' crop ('arming produced 2.57 million calories per acre. On the same calculation the. milk produced per 100 acres under crop would supply energy .for twentv-two persons for a year, while loo' acre? w .^

der wheat and potatoes would supply 2a'/ persons. On the average yield of our crops, each ]oi) acres under crop would provide energy for the following numbers of persons .--Wheat, about 200 potatoes 400, oats 150, mangolds converted into meat 111. meadow hav "so converted 12 to l"l. A farm worked on a six-course rotation would produce per 100 acres energy for .about lf,n persons; whereas average grass land, half producing , n i|k, wolll(1 ]niM \ uce energy for only fifteen to twenty people.