FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1922, Page 12

FARM AND DAIRY.

FENCING POSTS. A REVOLUTION IN DURABILITY. VALUABLE EXPERIMENTS AT ROTORUA. An extensive series of experiments of great interest to the farming community are being undertaken at the Rotorua plantations of the State Forest Service. To obtain good timber trees it is. of course, necessary to plant the small seedlings very close, in most cases, about five feet apart. At this distance 1200 seedlings will be required per acre, whereas the ultimate crop may only number 200 to 300 trees. The remaining 900 to 1000 trees are thinned out at various stages of growth, and ir is for the purpose of utilising these to the best advantage that the present experiments are being performed. Should it be desired to use these small trees for fencing posts, etc., it is usually found that the durability is poor, and the life of the timber only a ■few years. By the application, however, of an effective creosote treatment to the butt of the post, its life may be increased from 50 to 500 per cent., varying with the species treated. Where plantations are made for the sole purpose of providing fencing posts the same remarks apply. The experiments at Rotorua are being carried out by methods, available to every farmer. Two steel drums -are used, one containing heated creosote oil and the other a cold bath of the same-material. The posts, which have been piled to season thoroughly for many months, have their butts (dear from all bark) dipped in the hot solution, and they are left there for some hours. This drives off all surplus air in the wood cells. They are then quickly transferred to the cold solution, which thereby creates a vacuum and draws the creosote into the cells. The successful penetration of the wood by the creosote is the keynote of success. for the effectiveness of this oil in preventing decay has been proved beyond doubt. It is intended to give demonstration of this process at several of the agricultural shows this year. In the meantime farmers will be able to obtain any further information they may desire from the Director of the State Forest Service. This w’ork it may be mentioned is being carried out in co-operation with one of the largest producers of creosote oil in New Zealand and the results will be awaited with interest. COWS AND TUBERCULOSIS. ■ Lecturing on tuberculosis. Dr. George Hilton, of the Dominion of Canada, said: It is by far the most important disease of the cow, chiefly because uf its wide prevalence and the ease with ■which in some forms the germs of the disease find access to the milk, and may in this way be transmitted to man. Unfortunately it does not produce spectacular symptoms, 'but, on the contrary, is, as a rule, insidious, chronic, and progresses slowly. Often it can only be revealed by test. A dairyman who is keeping any cow which is tuberculous, whether innocently or not (sayS Garden and Field) is committing a crime against (1) himself, and (2) the general public and infants in particular. As for himself, he must remember that one cow so affected can infect a large number of other cows in the herd, and this may result, as it did in one case at Murray Bridge recently, in the destruction of practically all the herd. With regard to the public —public opinion is now being awakened to the danger of tuberculous milk. I>t must be remembered that it is not necessary for the cows to have udder tuberculosis for the germ to be in the milk. It can be conveyed to the milk from dung which has dried, and is lying about. Milk is an ideal breeding ground for the bacillus. Recently Park and Krumweide, in U.S.A., found that 75 per cent, of gland cases in children are due to -the bovine tuberculous bacillus, G 5 per cent., of generalised tuberculosis in children is bovine in character, and 18.2 to 26 per cent, of deaths from tuberculosis in children is due to the bovine bacillus. The British Royal Commission figures say that 37.5 per cent, of children under five years, 29.5 per cent, from five to 10 years, and 14.6 per cent, from 10 to 16 years have the bovine form of tuberculosis. Thus it behoves the owner to stamp out any suspicion from his herd. The tubercular test is sure and positive. and w’ell repays the slight cost entailed, even as an insurance against infection of the herd. THE NUTRITIVE RATIO. Feeders of stock often have great difficulty in ascertaining the nutritive ratio of a mixed ration, says a writer in the Journal of the British Ministry of Agriculture. The nutritive ratio of a ration shows the proportion existing between the digestible protein of a ration and the digestible non-protein substances. Thus, the nutritive ratio of 1 : 6 indicates one part of digestible protein to six parts carbohydrate equivalent. From a table of composition of feeding stuffs, giving the digestible protein and the nutritive ratio of the separate substances, it is quite easy to calculate the nutritive ratio of any mixed ration. The method is as follows: —Ascertain the amount of digestible protein present in each ingredient in the ration and multiply this by the nutritive ratio to get the carbohydrate equivalent. Do this for each ingredient in turn, add the digestible protein figures together, and also the figures obtained by multiplying by the nutritive ratio, divide this second figure by the first, and this will give the nutritive ratio of the ration.

HEALTH INDICATIONS. Cattle not in health have various ways of conveying the fact to their owners which are not always intelligible to the inexperienced, such as coughing and certain head and limb movements, lult there are a few which are displayed when at repose which are simple but pretty clear indications of certain forms of trouble, and which are most useful in a roufrh diagnosis before the vet. comes. These (writes ‘T.” in London Live Stock Journal) are well worth noticing, amongst which the way the animal lies when unwell is characteristic. If this is on the ri"ht side it generally means chest trouble, while the left means pain in other parts, the object in either ease being to afford ease to the organ effected. The way of standing, again, is sometimes very suggestive, and in chest trouble, the widely-opened front legs, with chest near the ground to aerate lungs, is symptomatic and appealing. Another and extremely suggestive ef internal trouble is grinding

the teeth. This. may., easily, he overlooked, but it is a most useful guide, as in cattle and sheep it- is an invariable sign of bowel or stomach derangement. Again, if -the spine is not fairly in a straight line from either end of the body when lying down, ill-health is indicated. ENGLISH HERD TESTING. . Herd testing is creating much interest among English dairymen. One dairying authority in the Old Country says:—“We were much impressed by the testimony of several large farmers that a keen interest in milk recording is taken by the cowmen and other farm workers who assist with the milking. After looking at the thing to begin with as being something of a fad, they have gradually become interested in it, and in the matter of the records of the cows in the herds there is something of a competition among the people who°do the milking. This is jus-t as it should be. because the record of a cow has something to do with the milker. If Daisy or Pansy begins to show a reduced yield at a time when this is not expected, the milker with the figures before him gets busy to find out the reason, and, if possible, remedy it. He would never have done this before the. milk recording came in, because the falling off would never have been noticed.” A SERIOUS PROBLEM. FAILURE OF SWEDE CROP. / (Specially written for the News.) Unfortunately many swede crops have developed disease this year to such an extent that the crop is practically useless. Dry rot and club root are very prevalent. The average dairy farmer largely depends .on • his swede crop to carry his cows through the winter. Some .farmers save a proportion of their best swedes and more or less sparingly feed them to the early calvers. This latter practice is generally discountenanced by reason of the taint imparted to the milk. The importance of the swede crop is very great and its failure by disease presents a problem not easy to solve. The immediate difficulty is of course to adequately feed the herd until the grass comes. It is advisable therefore for every farmer to inspect his swede crop critically and to estimate carefully what his available winter feed will carry. If his feed is going to be short he should promptly make up his mind on the question of what, stock he should sell. Every farmer has a few cull cows each autumn and very often there are a few yearlings which could be well spared. This surplus stock cannot yield much profit in any case and it is advisable to get them away off the farm and save their feed for the dairy' cows.

It is certainly hard to have to face : the music and sell a cow which has ’cost perhaps £l5. -for say. thirty shillings, but if she is no good as a dairy cow the sooner a dairy farmer is rid of her the better. Reluctant selling of such surplus stock often results in shortage of feed for the “dinkum” dairy cow, and of course a lessened milk yield. Where the swede crop has been so badly affected that there is very little feed value left it would be advisable to put the area into oats at once. These would provide some early spring feed and could then be left for oaten hay.

For the future it appears that we must not depend so largely on the turnip and swede crops. Fortunately -there are two good substitutes, viz., mangolds and carrots. Carrots thrive remarkably throughout Taranaki. They yield largely and cattle do well on them. The difficulty in growing them depends on hand hoeing. This certainly is a tedious job, but if the choice lies between a good sound carrot crop which has to be hand hoed and a rotten turnip crop the carrots should have preference. Mangolds thrive on al) the better quality land in the .province. They also need hand hoeing. With both of these crops good cultivation previous to sowing greatly reduces the hoeing problem. Mangolds will thrive on lea land, provided sufficient tilth has been established, but carrots do better on land which haf> been cropped during tlie previous season. Probably the best plan a dairy farmer can pursue in the future is to reduce his turnip and

swede crops and to extend in mangolds and earrots. TREE-PLANTING. Our Urenui correspondent writes: — The interesting article on the necessity for tree-planting, either for shelter or timber purposes, published in the News on Saturday last, recalls to .mind that the season for this purpose is fast approaching. Enthusiasm in the matter is being gradually awakened in this district, the increasing scarcity of timber for both fencing and firewood making it apparent ’ that some steps will have to be taken in this direction if the supply is to be maintained. Last season the visit of Mr. Page, of the State Forests Department, was productive of much good, his interesting addresses on tree-planting being listened to with interest by a great many settlers, many of whom expressed their intention of taking the matter up. As there is no time like the present it is to be hoped they will endeavor to carry out this good work. Mr. Norman Uren has also at different periods been in this locality, and no doubt will be around again during the course of the winter, and his advice and assistance is always at the disposal of those wishing to take advantage of it. The establishment of the Mimi school nursery is probably the first of its kind in the Dominion, Mr. Page having forwarded to the children several packets of seeds, which were duly planted, and are now thriving well, some of the seedlings having already been transplanted after the manner suggested by the Department. There is also a small area of some 1500 Douglas fir (commonly known as oregon pine), which is coming on nicely; whilst Mr. Sam Topliss. of Urenui, has a plot of some 30,000 trees of various descriptions, which, •upon his invitation it is shortly proposed to visit.