FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1922, Page 12

FARM AND DAIRY.

WHY APATHY IS SUICIDAL. ■Sw,.,. That steady united effort—effort on the part of stockowners themselves as well as on the part of the Government —is the only measure potent to eradicate the cattle tick is a truth that the chairman of the New South Wales Tick Board of Control makes the subject of a forceful article in the current Agricultural Gazette. And what he has to say should be read carefully by every stock owner in Taranaki. He writes:— Dairy farmers who are still unaware of the serious losses inflicted by the pest, of the future dangers that its presence involves, and of the urgent necessity for extruding it from the State have only to consider tne losses caused by the pest elsewhere to be convinced that the campaign against the tick should go on until the area has been absolutely cleaned up. The loss from deaths caused by tick fever in Queensland alone has been estimated at over £7.000,000, to say nothing of the losses in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The decrease in the value of leather production in Queensland amounts to over £lOO,OOO more, and the additional losses- caused by tick worry, the reduction in natural increase'? poor growth, loss of condition, diminished yield of milk, butter, meat, and so forth, quite apart from the cost of efforts -at control and consequent disorganisation of the cattleraising business, must bring the toal to a huge one. Though not all the worst features of tick infestation are to be found in New South Wales, those which directly affect the cattle-owners of the north-east quadrant are probably quite enough to represent a very startling sum if they could be ascertained in full. Happily, the measures of control always enforced have been sufficient to protect farmers from the worst consequences of the presence of the tick, but the fact has to be faced that while the tick remains on our soil it constitutes a continual menace. THE HARM DONE BY TICKS. The ill-effects suffered by cattle which are at the mercy of ticks fall naturally under two heads —(1) serious loss of condition through. the constant severe irritation and attendant loss ot blood, which may become so severe as to result in death, and (2) diseases transmitted by ticks. Tn connection with No. 2, the cattle tick is the carrier of a dangerous germ, which it transmits to the bloo’d of cattle causing a disease known' locally as tick fever or redwater. Without the tick there can be no red-water, and the surest way of preventing that very fatal disease is to eradicate the tick.

Fortunately, at present, the ticks found in New South Wales do not harbour the germ which causes red-water, but, as one infected living female tick may be sufficient to re-in feet a large district, it is clear that nothing short of a system which would annihilate the very last individual tick could have any hope of complete success in preventing loss from red-water. While a small number of ticks on a cow will appreciably reduce the quantity of milk given, a large number will cause her prduction practically to cease, while a heavy infestation will cause death from acute anaemia, the animal being bled white by ticks. b NORirt-EAST DANGEROUSLY HOSPITABLE. In the dairying district of the. Northern Rivers of New South Wales the most favourable conditions are present for tick life. Owing to the warm temperature and moisture which exists all the year round, the process of egg-lay-ing and hatching is never interrupted, though it is, of course, slower in the winter season. While every farm is stocked up to its full carrying capacity, the majority are overstocked, and the number of ticks increases in direct proportion to the number of hosts found on the arm. Thus, the more stock there are the more the ticks will increase, and under such conditions they may become so troublesome that, quite apart from their role as carriers of disease they may do an enormous amount of damage by the withdrawal of blood from the stock, and by causing irritation generally known as “tick worry.” Put it briefly, ticks (a) cause redwater, (b) reduce the milk yield of cows, and (in heavy infestations) even stop it entirely, (c) prevent cattle from fattening for the butcher, (d) ruin hides, and (e) make it necessary to impose quarantine restrictions in districts where they exist. All these disabilities can be got nd of in a few months by the farmers uniting with the Government in a campaign against the pest. BREEDING RESEARCH. An event of no little importance is the vote of £5OO by the directors of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Great Britain, as a grant to the joint Committee on i esearch in Animal Breeding. The Government (says Dalgety’s Review) will, provide a sum equivalent to twice the amount raised ’by voluntary subscriptions, so that already £l5OO is assured for this most important object. 'Seeing that Britain rightly claims to be the home of practically’all the world’s best breeds of livestock, -it is amazing that so little has been done to utilise the skill and ingenuity of scientists to make the methods of breeding less haphazard and less subject to error. In the history of most breeds there have been three or four pioneer 'breeders who effected great improvements, and to whose stock some of the best families trace back. We do not know all the secrets than any they possessed, and is finding explanations for difficulties that always puzzled them. Between the best and the worst of th'e British stock is a gulf that is far too wide, and while it may, no doubt will, be possible to improve upon the best, it is urgently that the worst stock should be graded up more rapidly. Perhaps the most urgent need of the moment is the discovery of some tests by which a valuable sire can promptly distinguished from a bad one. At present a bull must be kept until his daughters have calved before his breeding value can be definitely known. Some of the cleverest breeders of our time have made costly mistakes by using a bad bull in' their herds, and not realizing the fact, while in thousands of cases good bulls have been slaughtered before their daughters were old enough to show the rare potency of their sires. It is well within the bounds of probability that light can be thrown on problems 'Bl SWft

POTATOES FOR STOCK. Experience has shown that horses can very well be fed on potatoes, the method recommended being to supply them pulped in a raw state, and mixed with bran or crushed oats. At first only a very small quantity should be given, the allowance being gradually ’increased till the horse is getting above 101 b. per day. Even as much as 171 b. of potatoes per day have been fed to horses without unsatisfactory results. It seems unnecessary to cook them, and there is a danger that if the cooked potatoes are left for some little time before use, the animals may be poisoned by the alkaloid in the eyes of the potato skins. Twelve valuable horses were lost in this way three years ago in Lincolnshire.

Even dairy’ cows have been fed on raw potatoes with good results, and at one time a huge-sized tuber was cultivated specially in a few districts for cattle feeding. If a start is made with one or two pounds per head daily, and the allowance gradually increased, the cows will eat the raw potatoes with enjoyment and the milk yield may go up if there is a daily allowance of cake to •balance up the ration with oil and albumenoids. The maximum quantity of potatoes allowed must not exceed 281 b. per head, and probably 201 b. per neaa is safer. A heavy diet of potatoes produces butter of poor flavour. As there is a danger of cows choking when fed on potatoes - , it is advisable to pulp or slice them.

The high starch content of potatoes makes them essentially a fattening food, and cooking makes them even more so. But the cost of cooking 201 b. of potatoes per head per day for a number of bullocks would be prohibitive, and if pulped raw they’ will give results nearly as good. Fattening wethers and early ewes have also been found to make good progress on potatoes whenever they have been tried. THE SOIL OF A FARfih. The soil of a farm is not simply an inert mass of material containing certain mineral substances which plants utilise; it is full of Jiving organisms. Besides the numerous insects, worims, etc., it contains myriads of low organisms not visible to the naked eye, but capable of examination by the aid of a microscope. They are known as bacteria or micro-organisms and are so minute that a grain of soil may contain many thousands, increasing and propagating under ’favourable condituns with incredible rapidity. They exist in soils chiefly in the upper layers; a pinch of soil, so scientists tell us, may contain from several thousand) -.o several millions. Loamy soils, and soils containing much organic matter cuidain most; sandy soils contain least. The number decreases gradually from the surface soil downwards till about 3 feet where few or none are present. iLatm amerent kind of bacterium performs its own useful purpose in nature, out in the interests of economical cultivation It would appear that the growth of some of them has to be encouraged and the development of others to be checked. The subject, however, is nut at present clearly understood, and has to be further investigated by scientific men; for us the practical knowledge is that organic matter, increasing supply of humus to the soil, has been proved to favour the rapid growth of the kind of bacteria which convert organic ammonia into nitrates suitable for assimilation by the crops. We have, therefore,, to'see that we keep up in the soil, by the application of farmyard manure, the ploughing under of green crops, and other .suitable means, a sufficient supply of humus. DENMARK’S BEST COW. It may interest dairymen to learn that Denmark’s best cow for last season yielded during the 12 months 20,768 lb of milk, making 9581 b of butter, ©ne is a big, well-developed cow of the red Danish race of milkers, and weighed nearly 18001 b before her last calving. The prevailing idea of many rarmers that the Friesian cow is the favourite in Denmark is a mistake. Very few Friesian cows are seen there, and although they have been imported and .tried repeatedly, the red Danish milkers have been found to give the best results. JOTTINGS. By producing 2G45 gallons of milk in 284 days, the British Friesian cow, Brookside Colantha, has broken the British milk production record. When she passed the previous best she was still giving eight gallons a day, so that before the year of her lactation is ended she may prove to be Britain’s first 3000 gallon cow. Brookside Colantha is an eight years’ old dun and white cow, and has had five calves. Her present great yield follows a lactation in which she gave 2368 gallons of milk in 3G5 days, and in her milking career she has given in all 90,4.501 b, or about fifty times her own weight in liquid.