FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 6

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

STOCK SALE DATES. Waipukurau — Tuesday, September 29th. Stortford Lodge—Tuesday, October 6th. Dairy farmers in the RongoteaGlen Oroua district anticipate a record milking season this year, according to the “ Feilding Star.” Owing to the mild winter experienced there is an abundance of grass, and as the cows are coming in early and are milking well, their cheques should be larger all round this year. The authorities of the County of Kent (England) have brought into operation a jControl of Dogs Order. This provides that no dog shall be allowed out of the owner’s premises between sunset and sunrise without effective restraint. The first prosecution under the new Order was made recently and the owner of the dog that was the cause of the action had to pay for the damage caused by his animal. Some sheep farmers in this district would be glad if a similar provision were brought into force here. About a dozen cows, owned by Balclutha residents, were badly affected through eating laurel leaves, which had been deposited in the rubbish heap on the reserve. Two of the cows died, and the veterinarian who was called in to see one of them pronounced it to be narcotic poisoning, which could result from eating laurel leaves (broadleaf variety). Both animals were valuable ones, and it is probable the owners will apply to the Borough Council, as being the responsible party, for some sort of compensation. Mr Robert Scott, of Kyeburn, i president of the Otago Branch of 1 the Farmers’ Union, has brought * to Dunedin (says the “ Star,”) an interesting exhibit in the shape of • a ball of wool about the size of a large white turnip taken from the ! stomach of a sheep that had been J under the snow for some weeks. < The hunger-stricken animal had 1 eaten the wool off another sheep, < and the surprising thing is that it could have consumed so much be- < fore death intervened. J

This year with the recent rains the season has been altogether favourable for the breaking-up of new land for the sowing of wheal, linseed, and oats (says an Argentine correspondent of the Christchurch “ Press ”)• Great activity has been displayed in this work lately throughout most of the zones, and the latest reports to hand indicate that all the ploughing has now been nearly finished. Although last year the area sown throughout the Republic was the largest ever known, it appears that this season this is to be greatly added to, as in many provinces, particularly in Buenos Ayres, the augmentation in area will be on an average about 10 per cent, for wheat, 20 per cent, for linseed, and 50 per cent, for oats. This been a most favourable 'autumn for camps, and it is only in very few provinces that pasture for the cattle is scarce.

The predictions made some time ago of famine prices in the Dunedin meat market have happily not come true (says the a Otago Daily Times ”), and matters have now assumed a more assuring tone. Cattle are, at the present time, certainly making very good prices, and the recent rise of Id per lb made on some lines by the Dunedin butchers was quite unavoidable. This is ordinarily the worst time of the year with buyers of meat, for the reason that cattle and sheep have been feeding on turnips during the winter, and the stocks of winter fodder now being pretty low, and, as it is too early for the new grass, fat cattle are scarce and dear. However prospects for the coming spring grass have rarely been better, and on the Taieri this is especially noticeable. The growth there promises to be bountiful indeed, a state of affairs which has been very largely contributed to by. the recent floods. Still, from''this time forward cattle must become firmer and dearer to the butcher, as it will be some time before the. grass-fattened cattle are on the

market ; but, it is to be gathered, there is no fear of any further rise, and not the remotest possibility of any such increase as was foretold some months back, when it became evident that the Taieri turnip crop was a complete failure. To summarise the position, the meat market will be very firm indeed right up to the end of December, but if any change is to be made in the ruling prices of beef it will be a reduction, and not an advance, and it is pretty well certain that reduction will come about early in January.

Mulhall, in his “Dictionary of Statistics,” says the United Kingdom produced 50,000 tons less mutton in 1895 than in 1875. In 1886 the United States produced 480,000 tons, and only 380,000 in 1896. The live stock of the world showed a falling off from 1895 to 1908 of 44,000,000, and the population increased by 63,000,000. It is argued that the increase of population will eventually spread so greatly that stock will have to go. However tbaVmay be, there is little need for the present generation to lese much sleep about it.

THE CRUELTY OF JERKING THE REINS. Pulling violently, and especially jerking the reins, is a too common practice with cabmen and drivers of horses, and, as they probably do it more out of igorance than sheer brutality or spite, it is well they should know that the practice is a most harmful as w’ell as painful one, both as regards the temper and the physical structure of the horse, says the “ Garden and Field.” A French expert, Baron Henry d’Anchald, has published the results of his observations on the painful effects of the practice of jerking the reins. “We are apt to forget,” he writes, “ that this mouth, which serves as the medium of communication between us and the animal should never be subject to rough treatment or shock if it is to remain sensitive and beautiful, as it undoubtedly is; that this mouth becomes bewildered and uncertain, so to speak, and hard under stupid or violent treatment, the jerking of the reins rendering the animal indocile, sullen, and stubborn.”

The details of M. d’Anchald’s experiments we have no space to go into here, but to appreciate more nearly the intensity of the pain caused by the jerking of the reins, it need only be remembered that the cannon of the bit, which is more or less thick and round, rests upon but a very small part of a membrane, which is delicate, very nervous, and is itself the envelope of a tolerably trenchant bone. If one can imagine, therefore, the effect of a 331 b. weight (so M. d’Anchald calculates the pressure) falling on one’s toes from a height of, say 15 to 20 inches, one realises to some extent the pain which is inflicted on an unfortunate horse by this always brutal jerking of the reins. Not only is jerking the reins useless in itself, but it is a,Lo most harmful, especially to young horses, as it compromises their future value and usefulness. In addition to that the pain caused by it involves a loss of energy and fatigue, which soon uses up the animal. A flick of the whip applied to the hindquarters, or the withers, for example, should be all that is needed to stimulate the horse to fresh exertion.