ON THE LAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2421, 9 February 1909, Page 2

ON THE LAND.

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

THE BRADFORD MARKET.

INCREASED FIRMNESS

Considering we are so near tiro holidays it is really surprising how firm and active is the market, for since last Tuesday things have sensibly improved. Oi course, most of it has been New Year business, but all the same there has been a fair _ weight of tops changing hands, both in merinos and crossbreds. Last Monday’s market was much better than-the Tuesday before, and topmakers, who were very ready sellers a week ago at 22kl for a super GO’s top were unwilling to’ let another pack go under 23d. In fact, with the- slight ease there has been done a lot of quiet‘buying, and the tone is distinctly firmer and better. There is no doubt that this is the direct outcome of firmer cables from abroad, and the truth being brought more acutely home that the raw material occupies a very strong position. The inquiry for wool at the hands of merchants lias been verj good; in fact, there has been more sold to users than anybody ever an-' ticipated, there being much seeking up of the raw material since the close of the recent Loudon sales. There seems to be a very strong inquiry for good 46’s fleeces, and precious lit tie is to be found. 30t]i carding and preparing sorts are wanted, and everybody prepared to accept a market price can easily sell. What is sold, delivery is urged at once. A good 40’s top is now firm at 11. Id, and there seems to be an end to the loose, flippant talk of lid being accepted, which lias been so much in evidence this last fortnight. Spinners, if anything, are a shade better off, and the market wears a much brighter aspect. Mohair is inactive, but spinners are fully cm ployed, and trade generally, in regard to textiles, looks more healthy. The holidays are coming on with the markets in a more optimistic moodand with the turn of the year a further increased turnover should result. There is more confidence in the future of wool values than we have seen during the last two weeks, and for those who, a week ago. wore disposed to talk things down and sell a few packs, directly they have done that they are coming hack again to the higher quotations current during the recent series of London sales.

THE HORSE’S FOOT. In considering the diseases to which horse flesh is heir, says the “American Cultivator,” there are two things which should always he considered as of special importance—the teeth and the feet. The average period of usefulness of the horse is curtailed several years by the inadequacy of the teetli. In most horses, at the age of fifteen, the teeth have become rough and uneven, and from that time the • horse is a harder keeper and the real cause is not 'known by the owner. In buying horses the teeth and feet should receive special examination. Ordinarily, in speaking of the feet of a horse, we mean the part enclosed by the hoof wall. Looking at it from a standpoint of comparative anatomy, the foot includes all below the knee and the bock. The artificial conditions tinder which the horse is placed and the unusual demand exacted of him. result in almost every case in diseased conditions which render him incapable, of doing the worlc he would otherwise do. Shoeing, which ulaces him under artificial conditions, combined with the bard roads, overwork, and improper feeding, soon produce inflammatory conditions which mav result in side -bones., ring bones, coffin joint, lameness, cracks in the hoof wad. contracted heels, and a great many more diseases too numerous to mention.

In many cases the horse must be shod ; but there certainly is too much shoeing done. It is surprising howmuch work a horse can do without shoes under ordinary conditions if lie be brought- gradually to work, and a little care and judgment he exercised in this matter during the first three or four years of the colt’s life. There are three things especially to bq remembered if you wish to give this subject a little extra thought; first, as long as you use horses that have weak or defective feet for breeding purposes, just so long will you have horses, with a predisposition to these things, and you will lose money on them accordingly ; second, do less shoeing, a horse with fairly good feet will not need to be shod unless he is worked on the pavement, race track, or in mountainous districts; third, do not allow any liorseshocr to 'use the buttress on the soles of the feet, nor the rasp on the outside; do net leave the shoes on longer than four weeks without resetting. In substance, remember that the foot is the weakest part of-the horse ; that the service of the horsd- is worth money to you. Take good care of the horse’s feet. AUSTRALIAN LAND VALUES. A correspondent from Victoria writing ongthb land values in the Western district of that State sums up the position as follows: —Sheep and fat lambs have forced values from £4 to £5 per acre to £8 and £8 10s, but in dairying districts £lO per annum is a low price-. According to the puro capacity of grazing capacity of dairying land the values run from £ls to £3O and up to £SO per acre; and

Farm and Station.

. where £IOO per acre is .reached tlairyj ing is the .leading factor in a system •of mixed fanning. Rentals at £2 to } £2 10s iter acre are paid in parts of ; the western districts for grass land 1 alone, the sown grasses being entirely unassisted by croft-growing. There lands could, by periodical cultivation, be made to produce more grass; the farms by patches of .fodder crops could support anore cows; and the cows could easily be made to produce more butter or cheese per head. Ours is .a comparatively crude system as yet of managing even the land, and it is certainly not an advanced system of managing the cows. How wondeiffutl an industry it is must ho obvious for such results as the above to be obtained. AGRICULTURAL TEACHERS. One of the .main obstacles to the extensive development of agricultural education in its widest sense is the comparative dearth of qualified teachers. Tlhe only persons who are really qualified to teach agriculture are those who have, added to a sound knowledge of .practical farming, considerable acquaintance with natural science. Plenty of students can pass examinations and emerge from the various colleges chock-full of theoretical instruction. ;But few of those young men have had the opportunity of gaining experience in the practical side of (farming. In the United States special trains have been fully equipped to spread abroad knowledge, of all that belongs to high-class farming. These trains penetrate different farming districts, the time, of the ir-tp rob able arrival being well advertised beforehand. No matter at what hour one of these, trains with its band of hard-working agricultural lecturers draws .up at a railway siding crowds of farmers are in attendance. On one occasion the hour of arrival was 6.20 a.m. The people came, in ox-carts, waggons, buggies, and automobiles, on foot, on mules, and on horses. The number of vehicles is more suggestive, oi a circus than a course of practical and enlightened instruction. Farmers of all ages board the train to listen to the new gospel of farming. Men, hoys, women, a lid girls display the utmost interest and enthusiasm. Storekeepers leave their stores and blacksmiths their anvils to listen and learn. One of these trains stopped at 22 different stations and commanded an attendance of 3000.

PLANT FOOD AND DISEASE. Mr J. Lionel Shannon, writing in the American Agriculturist, says: “The clays of unscientific farming in the United States are at an end. All improvement in the future must be sought for along intensive lines. The demands of an ever-increasing population must be met by the application of more scientific methods in obtaining from a 'limited amount of land all that can be squeezed out of it without too seriously impairing its fertility, and this can only be done by scientific agriculturists. With the constant- removal of iron from the soil there is a corresponding deficiency in chlorophyll, in the formation of which iron and sunlight play an important part. In modern agriculture iron is seldom, if ever, returned to the soil, yet is is an undeniable fact that iron is removed from the soil with each crop. Chlorosis in plants and anemia ill animals are considered bv some to be closely related, and whatever the cause which brings about this condition in each case, it is quite obvious that- neither chlorotic plants nor anemic animals aro in proper condition to resist the attacks of disease producing organisms when exposed to infection. Whether or not this most logical theory of Wright’s has yet met the approval of scientists, the fact remains that with the. increasing development of intensive methods of farming and stockraising the liability of disease among animals kept together in large numbers under somewhat artificial conditions, is far greater than when kept under more natural surroundtings.

DAIRYING ITEMS. The calves should -have new milk for a fortnight at the very least. For making first quality butter a. butter-worker should always be used. Do not allow calves to get fat, but keep them in a good, thrifty, growing condition. Dairymen should know what their cows are producing in return for the feed consumed. If strong and healthy tho calf should he taken away from the dam when two or three days old. For dry salted butter joz of salt to tho pound of butter is tho most popular quantity ffor “fresh” butter. The greatest economy is practised when a cow is givon all she can eat and properly digest of a well-balanced ration. Many -a good cow is not permitted to do her best for lack of sufficient food, or, it may be, for lack of ni.i.ikproducing food. Every farmer should make provision to tide over the dry spell, which usually brings the milk down to about half the ordinary flow. A farmer who milks ten cows, obtaining from them, say, 3001 b of milk a day, or 1501 b at each milking, should be able to separate it in 15 minutes. . A certain amount of flood is al-

ways required to maintain the body. The cow uses up energy in digesting her food. She uses up energy in walking around. To obtain ideal butter every day’s cream must bo kept by itself and churned separately —that is to say, 'the-.operation of churning must be conducted every day.. Of the two methods of salting, dry salting should be adopted in winter, as the butter can then be manipulated before it becomes very hard. Brining is best .in summer for the op-posite-reason.

WEED KILLER. THE POVERTY iBAY SPECIFIC

The report that the Government would pay £15,000 to Mr Thomas Long, of Matokimatoki for the secret of his weed-killer, subject to satisfactory test, is denied. Mr J. D. Ritchie, Secretary lor Agriculture, states that Mr Long offered his preparation to the Government some time ago at £IOOO. The Government invited tests, and these were 'arranged, but the question of payment had not been considered. The Government had conducted tests with other specifics from time to time with varying success. Arsenic had been found to kill Californian thistle all down the tap root, but spared the lateral roots, which _ broke into growth in tho next spring. So far, cultivation .appeared the best cure on arable land, one summer being sufficient in favorable wo° fiber to eradicate tho pest. Whether a specific could be found effective enough and cheap enough to kill out tho various noxious weeds on unplougliablo ground had yet to ho ascertained. The Department was doubtful.

DRIED MILK. AN I MIP.II OV'ED METH OD. In the course of a presidential address to the members of tbe Gloucestershire Engineering Society, Air R. A. Lister, J.P., C.C., said ho would refer to a subject which he thought would be new to most of them:—“The production of pure and natural milk in a dry ponder, pure new milk,” so that pure milk could be made from it at any timo by the addition of the water that had been evaporated. The uses to which ties —to use the proper term 'desiccated milk” could be apltecl were many, ami its introduction would confer an inestimable boon upon millions. Like everythin" else in this world it competed with another article, viz., what was known as “condensed milk,” but it differed from it so much -as to constitute quite a different article. For instance, this milk powder could be used for every purpose for which, new, fresh milk was used. There was nothing added to it, nor taken from it, except the water, and when this was added the milk was re-constituted. It could bekept for 12 months or 'longer, then mixed with water and the- cream taken jvwav by niouus of n nicclnuiicftl centrifugal cream separator, good butter could be made from the cream. Or. if preferred, the cream could be obtained iby gravitation in the oldfashioned setting pans. He had some of the powder with him, over 12 months old, and alter ho had described the invention he would make milk of it by adding cold water Tho-y would find the flavor to be -that of new boiled milk allowed to get co.cl again. Milk powder had been made before., but never to lus knowledge by a process tlmt had not the effect of destroying some of its qualities; neither did he know of a milk powder made, by any commercial process that was perfectly soluble in cold water. Before lie described the simple and quite natural process employed in the invention. Oie asked those present to consider .for a moment some ot the various purposes "this -clry milk could be. used for where it was difficult to use pure fresh milk : —.Bakers and confectioners, cocoa and chocolate manufacturers, on board all snips; the Army and Navy, mining and exploration camps, hospitals, children s food where- absolutely pure milk was essential, eve tv liouse could liaye pure milk at aid times and hours in the larder. It could be kept in stock and sold ihv all grocers. It would not compete with fresh milk jn price .when this could be obtained in good condition from the farms, but would bo another outlet for milk. from farms not close to large, towns, .also when there was a .glut of mil km the summer. Proceeding to describe tlio invention, which he said was perfectly simple in detail, Mr Lister stated that desiccated mil'k would shortly be imado in England, the site of the new factory being at Wcmbury, m Cheshire. '