FARM AND GARDEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 12

FARM AND GARDEN.

MILKING MACHINES. KEEPING THEM OLEAN. At the annual meeting of the Kaupokonui Dairy Company. Mr. Bourke said that this year they were looking to the directors to do great things, and it was as well to advise shareholders that they were going to pay attention to milking machines. They would not expect a good article from bad milk, and it was quite possible to get clean milk from milking machines, but there were some dirty machines. Mr. Bennett said this showed how essential it was to. have experienced men on the stands.

The manager said that during the season, it was his intention to inspect the machines of any suppliers whose milk was faulty, as reported by branch managers.

A supplier said that good hot water should be supplied at the factory. The manager said that the biggest evil of milking machines was that plants were allowed to be manufactured without being compelled to have a hot water service installed with them, at present it was a choice of two evils —either give them hot water at the factory, which was nearly cold when it got home, or , allow them to use cold water. He had spoken to Mr. Cuddie on the matter, and he promised as soon as things settled down to have legislation introduced making it compulsory to’have hot water services installed. Mr. Ruskin said that the man who waited till ho came home to wash his machine was on the wrong horse.

WHEAT GROWING. Our Wai-toi-toi correspondent writes: The present spell of fine weather is enabling farmers to make good progress with ploughing operations, and* teams may be seen at work turning over the swede and other paddocks. In all probability there will be a fair number of small areas of wheat grown in this district during the coming season. Those farmers who have tried it in former years have found that it is a paying proposition—more especially where poultry forms a side line to the profits of the farm. The high price to be obtained for eggs practically all the year found makes poultry farming a good investment when the wheat for their maintenance is grown on the spot. Any surplus above home requirements can easily be disposed of at a good figure, whilst the cattle are very partial to the straw in the winter months. RED-WATER PREVALENT. Several cases of red-water have been reported in this district during the past week or sb, and in one or two instances pretty severely. For the oenefit of any farmers who may have cows suffering from this complaint, it might be mentioned that lib of table salt, mixed up as an ordinary drench, has been tried as a cure, and has given most satisfactory results. Another cheap and effective drench, which will assist cows who have trouble in getting rid o-f their cleanings, is one pound of brown sugar mixed with a pint and a-half of warm water. POTASH SUPPLIES. According to the Scientific .American, Germany will no longer have the monopoly of the supply of potash for the world’s requirements, as sufficient of that very necessary adjunct, to fertilisers used by farmers can ’ 0 manufactured in America to last for ;l>p next thousand years. In an article, which mads more like a romance than solid facts, it is stated that purest potash can bo obtained from a dark material called green sand, vast deposits of which extend from the neighborhood o-f the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, far down into Virginia, and is easily obtained from the surface. It would appear that dur-/ ing the period when this green sand was formed a great number of prehistoric animals inhabited the earth and sea. and the remains of these animals occur in the material which is now being converted into potash. Indeed, one authority says that the sand is nothing more , than accretions or deposits that were built, up during the decay of countloss billions upon billions of microscopic animals, which, as they died, fixed the potash for a future age to use. Skeletons of numerous reptiles, together with fossil shells and the remains of the micro scopic animals give the searcher of today a picture o-f the teeming life of those past ages. After the death of the minute organisms their shells were slowly filled with the fine potash-bearing mud in which they *vere deposited. The p<>tas]i from the mud and the sea water accumulated in the shells, which finally disintegrated and became decomposed, until the phenomenon of green sand appeared. which eventually was raised up from the sea bottom to dry land, forming what is mineralogically called green sand, or glauconite. Immense works have been erected at New Brunswick for the purpose of manufacturing potash, and the article gives a most interesting description of the process, also mentioning that millions of bricks, which have stood exhaustive tests as to quality, and have been used to build some of the buildings, have been made out of the residue.

AUSTRALIA’S LIVESTOCK. “It is an extraordinary thing,” said Sir Joseph Carruthers in Sydney, “that Australia, which should be the leading stock-producing country in the world, is among the most backward. Were it not for the official figures, who would credit that Great Britain, closely settled as it is, and small enough to be lost in the vacant spaces of this continent, contains more than twice as many pigs as Australia? The United States, a land the same size as the Commonwealth, con-

tains 80 times the number of pigs. Everyone knows what a tremendously profitable animal the pig is, yet that is how he is neglected here. Even in little Ireland there are more pigs than in this country. Italy has two. and ahalf times as many pigs as Australia; Spain, four times; Germany. 13 times; tiny little Denmark has almost as many. Th' l figures for cattle are almost as striking. Australia, with its 1,740,000.000 acres of Idle Crown lands, contained in December, 1918, 1'2,738,852 head ot cattle, within a few thousand of the number in Great Britain and Ireland. The United States contains 5J times the number of our cattle. Germany, which was supposed to have been starved into subjection during the war, con-

tains four million more than Australia. I suppose Australia should run a thousand t’mes as many sheep as Great Britain, but actually we have only four times tha number—87,086,236 as against 21,534,249. In the face of these "facts, am I not justified in proposing that we make it our great objective to fill up the vacant spaces. There are in Britain and other white men’s lands sheep farmers, cattle-raisers, and pig-breeders who would be glad to settle under our southern skies. It is our duty to make our Crown lands available to them, and that is. in short, the kernel of my proposals.”

A Canterbury sheepfarmer who failed for over £ll,OOO, in his statement said:—l could see no possibility of carrying on without getting still further involved, and had no option except to file. I am a married man, recently married, with no family, and have not lived extravagantly, nor do I gamble or drink to excess. I attribute my present, position to the shrinkage in values which has taken place during the last eight or nine months.