On the Land

New Zealand Tablet, 25 April 1912, Page 51

On the Land

> Cow beds and bails should be : limewashed regularly. Tins not only assists in mitigating ;/ the fly nuisance, but keeps the wood-work clean and sweet.

>:':A good .whitewash for poultry house is 4 gallons of lime and water, |lb of v soft soap, and 1 pint of paraffin oil. Mix : well together:- The paraffin destroys the insects, while the - soap causes the . whitewash to adhere to the walls. ■■'.■;■'£ ;. %. .

: The mangel is a crop which deserves to be more generally cultivated on account of its .value as a- feed for farm animals; more particularly cows and pigs. It does best on the rich alluvial soil of river banks, but can with liberal manuring be made to yield satisfactorily on light land. Farm-yard manure is the best dressing to give the land r in use for root crops. If artificial fertilisers are used, phosphatic manures should give way to nitrate of soda. A fine seed-bed and shallow seeding are essential to the success of the mangel crop.

:. fAt Burnside last week there was yarding of 196 head of fat cattle, which consisted principally of cows and heifers and light and unfinished bullocks. Prime bullocks were scarce, and these showed a rise of about 10s per head. Cows and heifers were a good deal easier. Best bullocks brought from £lO 10s to £ll 10s; extra, •to £l3 10s; medium to good, £8 10s to £9 15s. There was a very large yarding (3261) of fat sheep, of which only a few pens were prime wethers. The majority of the yarding consisted of old ewes. Prices for wethers showed a rise of 6d to Is per head, whilst ewes showed a drop of from Is to Is 6d per head, and towards the end.became almost unsaleable. Best wethers brought from 18s 6d to 21s; extra, to 23s 6d; medium to good, 15s 6d to 17s. The fat lambs-forward totalled 2202. Prices were easier by about 6d to 9d per head, but this is accounted for by the poorer quality. Best lambs brought from 15s 6d to 16s 6d; extra heavy, to 19s 6d. The pigs forward totalled 140. Prices all round ruled much the same as at previous sale, but towards the end fat pigs dropped three or four shillings per head. Suckers brought from lis to 14s; slips, 16s to 18s 6d; stores, 20s to 325; porkers, 40s to 51s; light baconers', to 635; heavy baconers, to 70s; choppers, to 86s.

__ L: At the Addington market last week there was a large entry of stock, especially of all classes of sheep, and a good attendance. Store sheep sold well, ewes being in good demand. Prime fat lambs were firm at the previous week's rates, but unfinished sorts were a shade easier, and fat sheep were also very firm. Fat cattle showed a decline in values, and pigs of all classes sold well. The entry of fat cattle totalled 248.. The sale was somewhat irregular, and values were lower.' Steers made £8 7s 6d to £l2; extra, £l2 15s to £l6; heifers, £6 to £8 ss; extra, to £9 ss. There was a fairly large yarding of fat sheep, the larger portion being ewes. There was a keen demand for both ewes and wethers for export,. and this affected the values of butchers' sheep, and prices were consequently firm throughout, ewes, if anything, selling at improved rates. The range of prices was: Prime wethers, 18s to 225; prime ewes, 13s to 19s 4d. There was a very large entry of fat lambs. The total was 9467, which is the largest for the season. There was a good demand on the part of export buyers for all good sorts. Tegs made 17s 3d to. 19s 6d; a few two-tooth and ordinary freezers and butchers' lambs, 12s to 17s. There was a large entry of good quality fat pigs, and all classes met with a good sale. Choppers made £3 to £5 10s; heavy baconers, £3 to £3 13s; lighter, £2 10s to £2 17s equal to 5Jd per lb. \ "

CROP YIELDS AT LINCOLN COLLEGE. The returns from some of the crops threshed at the Canterbury Agricultural College were reported upon at a meeting of the Board of Governors last week. In the quarterly farm report the notes upon the late harvest stated that the harvest was at least three weeks later than usual, and everything ripened very slowly owing to the limited sunshine in January. All the

crops on ■■. the College farm were good, and considering the bulk -to, be dealt. with, were harvested in record time. Yields in most cases are above the average; oats will be from 20 to 30 bushels better than last year, and the best yield so far -was 87 bushels per acre from Black ; Tartars, sown veryUate in the spring; Wheat averaged 51 bushels, which is d 5 bushels better than last year. ' The best yield in wheat on the College farm was 70 bushels per acre, which is about a record; Italian- ryegrass gave 58 bushels; although it was only shut up in the beginning of December. -* The barley yield was low, but the crop was very thin, owing to being badly flooded in: the autumn, just after it was sown. , - .

EXCESSIVE MILKING. ,;1 Th° point is - raised by an American authority whether or not excessive milking may impair the breeding function, and defeat its own ends. A cow in a state of nature■ requires very little milk for its one calf, and per contra one of our great milkers with her immense bag is a very artificial animal, indeed. The strain of yielding so much milk and carrying a calf at the same time must be very great, and there must be a tendency to break down. It is stated that some of these eat milkers breed two or three calves and then go sterile, and that is one of the reasons why-the race of good milkers is not more quickly increased in numbers It would be of great interest to find if this result has been met with by breeders of deep milkers in this country The calf of a good- cow may not turn out to be a good milker because its sire is responsible for some of its qualities or defects, but the point is to have a milker some kind every year from each phenomenal

LUMPY JAW. ' . d,sease s most commonly met with in cattle, though pigs, horses, and mankind are also liable to it. Ihe disease is due to the invasion of a parasite known as the ray fungus or actinomycosis. This fungus apparently grows as a parasite on certain grasses, barley in particular. It causes great irritation of the tissue invaded, usually about the tongue, which promotes an extensive growth of certain cell elements, so that a large amount of tissue is produced, in which an abscess s formed. The lump formed is usually on the jaw, but may affect nearly any part of the body. The growth is slow, beginning with a small nodule,,but may grow to a very large , size. It generally discharges a thick yellowish pus when reaching any size. Ordinary abscesses are often mistaken for this disease; but the parasite can be identified by the microscope. Should the disease become frequent on any particular land, the pasture may be suspected, and' cattle kept off it

THE KICKING COW. - cow In ß^r y instances /he .milker makes or, unmakes a cow. Better never put a fine cow into the hands of a poor milker. It will do no harm, however, and it may do much good to put the poor cow into the hands 3 I good milker The cow that is naturally S and possesses a tendency to kick or switch her tSlIn the hat nersoTft f r ? qUent mterVals >P* to so exasperate that person that he may not only handle her roughly but also deal out the same treatment to the other cows' Thus she is a detriment to the entire herd in an inS

DRAFT HORSE CONFORMATION. < ' JJ A heavy draft horse should be long ribbed If a horse is short ribbed he is light in his middle and nearly always a poor feeder His stomach S too small another"" Wb° Ugll Wg T 5 him from one *S£ anotner. , When put at hard work he eenerallv has * fagged out appearance. A ; light centred horse seldont weighs well, .and weight in /draft horse? if it comS from hone, sinew and muscle, goes a long way toward determining his commercial value. Y tt>Ward

_ . Waihl z (From an occasional correspondent.) . \ April 14. 3 Owing to his Lordship the Bishop leaving for Australia, the Yen. Archdeacon Brodie has been appointed Administrator of the Diocese in his absence, and will be absent from Waihi for four weeks. The annual general meeting of the Waihi Catholic Men’s Club was held in St. Joseph’s schoolroom this morning. There was a large attendance of members. The diploma won by Mr. P. J. Lynch, in an oratorical competition under the auspices of the Federation of Catholic Clubs, was presented to ■ him. , The report and balance sheet showed that since the inception of the club in. August last, the receipts amounted to £lB 2s Bd, and expenses to £l2 14s, leaving a credit balance of £5 Bs, with assets (bookcase, library, etc.) of about £ll, and no liabilities. The officers were all reelected, as follow:—President, Mr. W. J. Sullivan; vice-president, Mr. T. J. Martin; secretary, Mr. T. J. Ryan treasurer, Mr. T. Collins; librarian,. Mr. R. Hooker. Mr. W. Sullivan, delegate to the conference of Federated Catholic Clubs, held at Wellington, gave a full report of the business transacted there. Indignation was expressed at the action of the officials of the Miners’ Union (of which so many Catholics are members) in allowing the use of the hall to lecturers who,

speaking under the name of Labor or Socialism, took; the: opportunity to attack religion. It t was resolved that as on that evening a Socialist lecturer was announced to reply to an address given at the club by Yen.' Archdeacon Brodie on the ■ Ferrer case, the Archdeacon and members of the club should be present, and refute any attacks made on Christianity , or the Catholic religion. In the" evening, when Mr. Way lectured at the Miners' Union Hall on ' The Martyrdom of Ferrer,' the Ven. Archdeacon Brodie and members of the Men's Catholic Club were present. The lecture was evidently mostly taken from McCabe's book, and was a tirade of abuse on the clergy of Spain, the Catholic Church, and Christianity generally. [At the conclusion of Mr. Way's address, as reported in our last issue, Archdeacon Brodie took the platform and exposed the source and unreliability of Mr. Way's information.] \ ;