FARM & DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1921, Page 12

FARM & DAIRY

GREEN MANURE.

Writes our Urenui correspondent:— With the bottom knocked out of the market for most grazing pursuits with the exception of dairying, it is only natural that more landholders will turn their attention to the production of but-ter-fat, and as it is equally probable that the high prices that have for the past few’ seasons been ruling for cheese and butter will decrease to a certain extent, it is absolutely necessary that none but. the best animals should be milked, and also that these should be made to give the highest possible results. To do this, however, it is required that plenty of good and nutritious grass should be provided, and as it is generally acknowledged that dairying takeß more out of the land than any other class of grazing, it would seem imperative the soil should be repaid back all that is taken out of it. One means of doing this—and perhaps one of the surest—is by green manuring. In a recent issue of the Farmer, a cheap and efficient means of doing this in light land, is recommended by growing lupins. It states that the blue-flowered lupin is the most generally grown as its seed is easily obtainable, it germinates freely, and the plants grow to a considerable size. The yellow-flowered variety produces rather the more foliage, and its stems are less woody, but the seed sometimes fails to germinate well. As a fodder crop lupins are not of great value, as they have a bitter taste, and no kind of stock care to eat them; but its chief use is as a green crop for ploughing in. It is a leguminous crop, with very active powers of absorbing nitrogen from the air through the bacteria in its root nodules, and it will grow’ upon poor light soils upon whyjh few leguminous plants will flourish. To do well on the poorer soils, however, it must be supplied with a certain amount of mineral plant food for which purpose dressings of P/ 2 to 2| cwt of super and 1 to 2 cwt of kainit per acre are usually given. On soils very deficient in lime, 5 cwt per cwt of ground lime might also be added with advantage. Wijjth such manuring, crops from 10 to 15 tons of greenstuff per acre can be grown and it is reckoned that the nitrogen gained to the soil by such a crop ploughed in is very nearly equivalent to that of as many tons of ordinary farmyard manure. The land should be ploughed about 4 to 5 inches deep, harrowed and the seed drilled about 12 to 15 inches apart. About 1% bushels of seed per acre are sufficient, but if sown broadcast, 2 bushels may be necessary. After harrowing and rolling, no other cultivation is required. For best results as green manure, the lupins should be ploughed in just as the flowers are beginning to show. The plants grow’ very slowly at first, but when once established come away rapidly, and no amount of drought seems to injure them.

NEW ZEALAND’S RIVAL. THE FAVORED ARGENTINE. The Argentine, according to an Arne rican observer, appears to be a close runner-up to New Zealand in possession of those attractions that prompted Mr Seddon to name the Dominion “God’s Own Country.” A writer in The Chicago Breeders’ Gazette, in describing a recent visits throws some interesting light on the climatical and agricultural conditions of the country. “Cows suckling calves lose but little flesh in the. Argentine,” he says. “I have never seen so many fat cows. They keep in this condition without grain. One breeder told me that he had to sell his Berkshire sow’s because they got so fat on grass that they would not breed. The seasons are warmer than in U.S.. The winters, which are short, are like our November. Grass stays green all winter. There is never enough frost to cause trees to shed their leaves, which are pushed of! by the new buds. Alfalfa (lucerne) grows everywhere the same as blue grass in the States. I travelled over fields where it was as thick as the hair on a dog. There are thousands of acres of level land round Buenos Aires, where the water is but twenty feet down, making it the greatest natural alfalfa country in the w’orld.”

MILKING HINTS. Where a number of cows are kept it is particularly advisable to go over the whole herd beforehand, rubbing the udder and teats with a damp cloth, specially kept for the purpose; and, if in extremely cold weather, this cloth should be wrung out in tepid water. Where custom dispenses with the use of this cloth, the teats and udders should be rubbed gently with the hand in order to reassure the cow, and to encourage her more readily to yield up her milk. A great many people sit down and seize any pair of teats that take their fancy, and commence pulling away as if for dear life. This is not correct milking. The proper way is to take a firm but gentle grip on the rear and front teat with one hand and the rear off teat with the other. The milking should at first be commenced at rather a slow rate, increasing the speed when the cow has become quite accustomed to the manipulatation of the fingers, and is responding thereto in the proper manner. This should be continued until the two quarters are emptied, and then the remaining teats should be milked in the same way. It is absolutely essential that a cow should be milked out thoroughly well, for this after-milk, or “stripping.” is the richest portion of the cow’s milk, often testing at six times more butter-fat content than the foremilk.

Tn Great Britain, the country that we look to, and rightly, as the source of the purebred stock of the farm, a recent return collected by the British Ministry of Agriculture, reveals the amazingly small proportion of pedigree stock in that country. Pedigree cattle form but two cent, of the total cattle population, sheep three per cent., horses three and a half per cent. This works out at two and three-fifths per cent, for the whole of the purebred stock in that country. Even if as many unregistered stock ex'ist as those entered in the books of the breed socities the percentage will barely exceed five. It may 'be asked if any of our own breed societies have yet sought to know the proportion of purebred animals that are registered to the stock of the Dominion.

Fresh air is most beneficial to horses, but draughts are prejudicial to their health. A horse can stand quite a remarkable amount of cold, and if time is permitted nature will provide him wirh a coat that is impervious to almost any weather, but nothing will resist