ON THE LAND

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3430, 6 September 1913, Page 3

ON THE LAND

BRITAIN’S BIG WHEAT YIELD.

STILL THE LARGEST PER ACRE

■I ho President of the British Board of Agriculture, Mr Rnriciman, made an interesting speech on July 10, when receiving members of the American Commission on Agriculture. “\ou have,” he told the visitors, “the advantage of a large area and a varied climate. We have a. small area, but an equally varied climate. (Laughter and cheers.) You have the advantage of all the energy of youth; wo are hampered by conditions which have occasionally got out of touch with present-day requirements. But our soil has never been exhausted, and we are discovering how rich the oldest of agricultural countries can remain.. ((Cheers.) “We have long been compelled, as you are now being compelled, to coax, to bribe, to flog the land in order to induce it to do its duty, and I may he permitted to say that our yield of wheat is still the largest in the world —32 bushels an acre. V (Cheers.) “Our . large men tell me they are making no profit. But lam bound to, admit that they seem to do very well out of it. (Laughter and cheers.) Wo have great hopes of the small men. (Cheers.) “We feel, that they will never bo able to do the best or themselves unless they are prepared to combine to buy the necessaries of their business and sell their produce. We look to the time when the British farmer will abandon his fanaticism for individual action. (Cheers.) We hope to see him with large crops, a comfortable homestead, the pride of our race and the envy of the rest of the world.”

THE BOY ON THE FARM. HOW TO KEEP HIM THERE. How to koep the boy on the farm is a problem of Empire-wide interest, for even in new lands there is a movement from the country to the city that is not entirely natural and healthy. The “Toronto Globe,” after stating that both Canada and parts of the United State are suffering because the boy in the country prefers the glitter of the town to the drudgery of the farm, argues that the only remedy is to make the farm more attractive than the town. As soon as he is old enough to judge for himself, the boy will follow his inclination, and if ho is given an interest in farm work, an outlet for his energy and brains, he will stay where he is. “Interest the child on the farm in classes of soil, and the preservation of moisture in the soil, and he will look upon the preparation of the farm for harvest not as mere mechanical drudgery, but as a field offering scope for his energy and ability.” Similarly, if a lad is interested in the scientific breeding and care of stock he will forget the drugery of looking after animals.

Tho “Globe” instances a case of the son of a well-to-do farmer in Ontario, who told his father he was tired of farm life, and was going to town to drive a cart for six shillings a day. The father, who was a man of substance and took great pride in his farm, was deeply distressed, but thought the matter over, and told the boy that if he would stay on the farm he could have for a present the best herd of Shorthorn cattle in the country, to do what he liked with. The offer was accepted, and now, three years afterwards, “you could not drive tho boy off the farm,” so the father says. It is difficult to ' get him to go to town on necessary business, so absorbed is he in iiis 'cattle-breeding. Another farmer introduced the writer to his soji, a lad of If years of whom he was very proud. The boy’s grandfather, he > said, had presented him with a purebred sheep and now the boy had sheep on the brain. “He reads every book and paper about sheep he gets his hands on. There is no mistake about it, he is going to be a farmer.” Doubtless these arc excellent remedies, but they are not within the reach of every farmer with a discontented bov.

ABORTION IN EWES. If eruching and foot rotting lias not already been done, the matter, as' far as the ewes are concerned should be put in hand! at once. If the work is done carelessly abortion may result, but if care is exercised in handling, no ill results should ensue, even when the ewes are fairly close up to lambing. Ewes heavy in lamb should on no account be crowded through gates and doorways; they must be picked up and set down quietly when attending to their feet or in crutcliing. Other causes of abortion are the feeding on frozen rations, such as turnips, rape, kale, and so

on. A ewe that is carrying a dead lamb appears dull, useless and stupid, and she is seen to separate herself from the rest of the mob. A ewe in that condition should be attended to at * once, and the dead lamb removed in order to avoid bloocl poisoning. As to tho methods of dealing with a case of this sort, “Shepherd J3oy” in the “Otago Witness”'gives, the following hints: “When performing the operation the operator should b&careful that his hands are free from wounds, as more than one good shepherd liaS’lost his life through carelessness in such matters. In any ancf all cases it would be well, as a precaution, to lubricate thd hands with an antiseptic agent, such as carbolised oil or carbolic soap. When removing a dead lamb from a ewe tho patient should: be placed on her back, as when placed in this position the work is more easily performed. The task of removing the dead lamb is,.usually mow and’tedious;

FARM AND STATION

therefore it becomes necessary, for the comfort of the ewe, to change her position occasionally. No undue strain should be brought to bear upon,the owe during her deliverance, and the shepherd should not bull, only in sympathy with, her straining. Sometimes it is found almost impossible t-o remove the lamb without first dissecting it. In no case is it so easy to remove a, dead lamb as it is a live one. Sometimes it is found almost impossible to remove a dead lamb as it is a live one. Sometimes abortion appears in wie flock in epidemic form; but this is more often duo to errors in feeding than to contagious disorder. It is advisable to remove all aborting animals from the stock, and the dead foetus should be destroyed by fire. The ewe should receive an injection of warm solution of carbolic acid twice a day for several days after the lamb is taken from her. : Care should bo exercised that the placenta he removed from her, or the chances are she will succumb to blood-poisoning. A weak solution of 1 of carbolic acid to 60 of warm water should be strong enough.”

BY THE WAY. The operations of the American Beef Trust in its dealings with the Smithfield market are being watched with considerable anxiety in the United Kingdom at present. There is a fear that if something is not done at an early date both by the British and Argentine Governments to check the trust, the Argentine and British companies engaged in the exportation of meat from the Argentine to Smithfield will be crushed out, and the British consumer will have to pay exorbitant prices for meat. The Beef Trust no longer exports meat from the United States, but it has secured a firm foothold in the Argentine, which is the largest exporter of meat in the world. Formerly the Chicago meat companies exported to Great Britain 1,500,000 quarters of chilled beef each year, in addition to thousands of head of live cattle, but this trade has entirely ceased. The rapid increase in the population of the United States has added to the local consumption of meat and reduced the number of cattle raised there. The cattle have been ousted from the great plains of the West by agricultural settlement, and the United States no longer exports meat or cattle. As a matter of fact, meat has recently been imported into the United States from the Argentine, and also from Australia.

At the last meeting of the Marlborough A. and P. Association a lengthy discussion took place on the question of veterinary examination of show stallions. One speaker held that examinations served no useful purpose, and remarked that after noting his own results in the breeding of farm horses, ho was satisfied tnat the certificates as to hereditary soundness were not worth much. His worst farm horses were vho.se that had been sired by stock supposed to be free from hereditary unsoundness, while his best and healthiest were the product of stallions that were technically regarded with suspicion. These views were not generally shared by the meeting, and it was decided that prizes in the forthcoming show shall be awarded only to horses that were declared, as the result of veterinary examination, to he free from hereditary unsoundness.

When buying a new collar, soak it in water for half an hotir, put it on the horse wet, and work him liguuy until the collar is dry; it will lit the horse perfectly if of tho right size.

An experienced - South Canterbury grazier is doubtful whether the fiue winter is going to benefit the wool clip. He finds, as a rule, that there is more liability to a break in the wool during an exceptionally fine winter than during a normal one. This is probably due to tho check the wool gets during the cold wet spell that usually precedes the break-up of tho winter, which is felt more than if the winter had been colder.