ON THE LAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2407, 23 January 1909, Page 2

ON THE LAND.

HOW TO TELL A GOOD COW. 3.lliLfv VEINS AND UDDER. The milk veins in Trout oT the elder 'are usually an infallible mirk •>f a, good milch cow, and the larger . Uvey fare the better the indication*, la extra”good cows they -branch on. into four arteries along the belly, but they all unite before reaching the udder. The move irregular the course the more, sure you- may the the cow is i- good milker, hut the veins give no indication of the quality or richness of the milk. The udder should 1 covered with a short, downy coat of hair. This hair should begin to turn its backward course from the front Seats,' running in this direction between the teats, then on the hack part of the udder, called the escutcheon, and on as far as the vulva in ths best cows. The wider the belt of this upturned hair the better. It 'should be short-and velvety, covering a soft, orange-colored skin. The shape and size of the odder is, however, by .far (lie most reliable index of a good cow. All the other marks are only relative importance, and it is better to (have a seraggy-looking cow any day with a good udder than a grand-looking beast with a miserable •Mg. -No matter how good-looking a dairy cow may he, except she has a well-developed udder, with its .accompanying network of mammary glands, she cannot- be expected to excel as a pail-filler. . Ais a rule, heavy milkers are seldom the best-looking cows, because though good-looking animals capable of creditably acquitting, themselves at the pail are occasionally met with, it is'tlie almost invariably the rule to find cows -which are good at the pail very thin in the flesh, narrow across the shoulder, slack over the loins, and in other ways deficient from a butcher’s point of view. The ideal udder is the one which is well developed both fore -md aft, one that is carried high up toward the escutcheon, and at the same time goes a long way forward under the belly, in addition to this, the -udder must be cieep and square in shape —the deeper and squarer the better. Its four teats should be of good size, and placed as nearly as possible at equal distances apart. Cows possessing udders of this kind may always lie counted on to prove good milkers, just as other cows possessing small, round-shaped udders, with teats so close together that they almost touch one another at the points, may invariably be put down as poor padfiilcrs, no matter how fine their appearance may be, or how good-looking in other respects. PREPOTENCY. THE FUNDAMENTAL IMUNC! RLE Olio of the great differences between purebred and scrub annuals D in the prepotency that each possesses. The ability of animals to reproduce their like depends on ancestry, and that is where the scrub animal comes short. The scrub animal has too many tvpes among his ancestors, and not many of his ancestors are ot one tvpe, or if of one typo the type is an undesirable one. .Prepotency is, after all, largely a matter ot mathematics. The purebred bull may Imre behind him ten thousand ancestors all of one general type, and that a verv desirable type from the viewpoint of the beef-makers, a scrub in a v bo .accidentally of good conformation', but among ail his thousands of ancestors there may not he ten of the same type. Which -animal has the bettoi chance of transmitting hi.s form ancl type to his progeny, the one whose type has been intensified by the blood of ten thousand ancestors, or the one whose tvpe has been intensified by only ton ancestors? The pure-bred bull will often be 'a. hundred times more certain in transmitting his type than the scrub hull. This fact is fatal to the argument of the man that contends that bulls should be judged by their, conformation rather than by their breeding. The man who acts on that supposition introduces chaos into his herd. Thousands of good -herds lmve been ruined by this heresy, ias the resulting animals have been of all types, most of which have never been described. Such animals are nondescripts, and have no great value for any purpose. When a man .gets an .assortment- of this kind on iliis hands he will discover that he has been engaged in a losing contest with the laws of Nature.

Prepotency is what makes an old established breed of more value than a newly-established breed, other things’ toeing equal. We see this is Hie ease of farm fowls more than elsewhere, for the reason that ive have several breeds of poultry that have been 'recently established, _ and are '•able to compare them with other poultry breeds that have been purebred for centuries. One of the originators of a new breed says that 'after he toad established the breed he did not dare to give it to'the public for years on account of tlve strong tendency to report which exists in every new breed, Whether that breed bo produced by crossing or by' selecting the sports from a breed. Some of, those that are handling, the new breeds of poultry say tint they have to-kill each year, from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of all the young birds on account of their not coming near enough to the desired type. This process will have

' Farm ark si Station.

PRAIRIE GRASS

to be continued for a long time, but the percentage of birds that have to be killed will decreaso from year to voar.

No breed of animals' lias ever ;vet reached the point where it does not show now and then some sign of reversion to u type different from that of tho breed. Thus we have seen Aberdeen-Angus,cattle that were red, though all their ancestors for many years back were 'known to be purebred and of the regular breed type. An out-cross of a breed, will introduce a strain that will regularly appear in iafter generations. The red Angus sports are tout a notice that in the past red animals had a part- in the formation of the breed,’ or were introduced in the making of out-crosses.

Prepotency is such a valuable thing in animals that it is worth paying a good price for, as it is impossible to secure it except toy breeding for many generations along narrow linos. This fact must always put the originator of the new breeds at a disadvantage.

A IbE.SCUIEIt FOR WINTRY DAYS. For providing a large quantity of nutritious grass the various species of prairie grass have aio superior. The variety known botanically as broiuus unioloides is said to be one of the richest of all grasses, “best suited by rich humid soils, a lasting, nutritious, and appetising fodder grass equal in some respects to lucerne, but uusuited to permanent grazing, which in time kills it. Speaking to a “Dominion” .reporter concerning the variety of prairie grass known .as toromus schracdori, un authority conversant with the tests made at ‘Lincoln College said this grass was so valuable asm winter feed that in America it wtis known as the ■•rescue” grass, because it rescues the stock from famine in the late autumn and winter. “It- grows excellently in all parts of New Zealand.” said this gentleman, ‘‘but- has been hindered from becoming popular toy the fluff that it is not suitable for inclusion in a mixture. It'Tufts too much. It should toe grown toy itself .as a special crop. It is also not a very permanent crop either.. I should advise its being sown and cut Tor about two seasons, then ploughed undeK, and succeeded toy some other crop —-potatoes, for instance —and then restored to prairie grass again. “If the seed is sown in January or February, there should bo a good crop of feed for the middle of winter. It can toe grazed, but it is better if cut as green fodder. J.t is excellently suited for both cattle and ihor.se feed, but is, of course, not so likely to be used for sheep although it would make a vuluable winter feed for them. >l.n the Hastings district they sow a small amount in the mixture' lor permanent pasture, and it gives a yield ol Seed almost at once, and thus saves the more permanent grasses from being freely before they have become well established. “The" crop should become one or our most valuable winter feeds. In fact, it has no serious rivals. It comes in at a season when, although there is often considerable growth of other grasses, they lack nourishment. Prairie grass is the most nutritious of all the grasses in existence during its season." Lucerne? .But lucevno is not ta tvpical winter feed. Lucerne for summer and autumn, and prairie grass for winter, make a splendid combination.” SHEARING DELAYED. DISPUTE WITH 'THE MEN. Shearing in the Taihape-Matuion district has been greatly delayed by the rain, and it is anticipated that a full fortnight’s fine weather is required before tbe sheds in that locality will he “cut out.” In the backblocks also between Taibape and Hastings, the shearing has been delayed through contracting disputes between agents and chearors. It has been the custom in some sheds for a prominent shearer to- contract for the shearing of the clips, and the shearers employed by him pay him £1 for the privilege. Recently some Europeans so employed were dismissed for native shearers, and ordered off one of the stations. It is likely "that this trouble will bo further ventilated in the law courts, as the dismissed shearers have placed their case in the hands of Mr. T. M. Milford, M.P. AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE. DAIRY COMPANY BUYS CEMENT FOR SUPPLIERS. The Cheltenham Co-operative Dairy Company has set an admirable example to dairy factory concerns in general in having decided to purchase cement in wholesale quantities and supply it to shareholders at cost price. This is in order to encourage suppliers to lay down concrete floors in sheds and to concrete the stoed yards. Where necessary the Company will deduct the cost from the milk cheques, making the payments extend over the season. The, necessary concrete may thus be obtained by suppliers to the Cheltenham Company at the lowest possible cost and on the most easy system of payment. NOTES. ' There has been formed at Christchurch a Grain, Seed and Produce As-

.sedation,,, having for its object the improvement of the trade generally. Southland dairymen are having a good season ami the .export of dairy produce this season will almost certainly .'eclipse all previous' records, so ior as quantity is concerned. • Argentine wool exports tor the twelve months' closing September 30th are the lowest as regards number of bales recorded during the- past thirteen years. The total falls 4773 bales short-of that for 1900-7.

Blight has made its appearance on some (if "the farms in the Aorangi settlement (says tbe Palmerston . “Standard”), and is attacking not only the potato crops, but also the cabbages* onions and tomatoes. The increase ill the number of sheep in Europe and America is not keeping pace with the increase in population, and the number of meat consumers is steadily increasing out of all proportion to the number of sheep being raised. Attempts are being made at Wereroa, New Zealhnd (says the “Australasian”), to evolve a new type of dairy cow by crossing the Shorthorn*, Ayrshire, Jersey, and Holstein ! Truly one has to go from home to hear news. . ' . Short-legged, blockv rams, showing good width of hind-quarters, standing on legs set wide apart, and carrying meat well down to their hocks,, should be selected when mating for produci ing freezers.j * Experienced flock-owners fully real--1 ise that the condition of the ewes at mating has a marked influence riot ' only on the number-of ewes to become pregnant at' first mating, but on the vitality of the offspring.. The" question puzzling the leading breeders of Horefords in America is whether or not they should take into consideration, as a body, the advisability of adopting the polled head as an improvement to be encouraged. - It may be taken for granted that there is "no profit ill keeping any kind of live stock on a ration which will barely maintain life and keep the bodily functions going* In order to make a profit there must be either growth or production in some form, .and the process of starvation which is too often seen in the autumn does not conduce to such a condition.