308 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 May, 1916. 



AGRICULTURAL ITEMS. 



Influenza, a catarrhal disease, affects horses from time to time. It 

 is known as pink eye on the American continent. It is generally deemed 

 an infectious ailment, but is as erratic in its departure as it is sudden 

 in its intrusion into a stud. 



Fit^hting sheep are kept by the native princes in India. These rams 

 are o-enerally white, with a trace of brown on the head and feet. The 

 nose is arched and the horns large and massive, projecting in spiral form 

 about the head. The tail measures about 4 inches in length. 



The more systematically either arable or pasture land is ridged and 

 furrowed, the more rapid is the process of Wieathering, and the larger 

 the quantity of food made and liberated for the use of plants; hence 

 the soil maker has to adopt methods of draining and soaking the sub- 

 material to a greater depth than takes place under natural conditions. 



The shape of the udder is a valuable indication of milking capacity 

 when considered in conjunction with manual examination. The fleshy 

 vessel is soon discovered, and where the fleshiness is pronounced it almost 

 certainly indicates lack of milking qualities. The vessel that has a good 

 "fall" and is level rather than pendulous is the type of udder that 

 dairymen like. 



Deep-rooting crops are soil factors of the lughest value, and many 

 weeds, notably thistles, mallows, and other subjects, which make piped 

 roots and cavities in the soil, are by no means a misfortune where soil 

 is at all shallow, or excessively heated and dry in summer. In many 

 quarters, the roots of weeds will be found to be the only disrupting and 

 deepening soil factors. 



Good farmers improve their land; bad farmers impoverish it. The 

 man who makes soil, makes money, and he who increases his banking 

 account at the expense of his farm is a false economist. The soil is ever 

 the medium, and if it can be made a safe medium of profit for a thousand 

 years, it will return an infinitely higher reward than where a " take-all " 

 or exploitation policy is pursued. 



Probably the best sweetener of pasture-land is lime. In one form or 

 another lime checks acidity, develops sweetness, and brings back much 

 clover whose presence may not be suspected. Foggy pastures benefit 

 greatly by liming. The nethods of applying lime are many.- There is 

 the ordinary ground lime, which is often difficult to get locally. Lime- 

 stone ground is very useful, and experiments have shown that it is little 

 iy.ferior to the burnt stone. Then in basic slag there is a certain element 

 of lime, which accounts for slagging largely superseding the old practice 

 of liming. 



The manure pit should be planned on a tonnage basis, since, accord- 

 ing to the class of land and kind of farm to be worked, it will demand 

 a definite quantity of bulk manure per axre. Under ordinary conditions 

 of feeding and housing, pigs yield more manure than any other animal, 

 but the manure supply of the farm depends, not so much on the number 

 of animals raised, as the care and provision made in accumulating and 

 conserving it. It is to this neglect of our homestead manure supply 

 that we must attribute so many depleted areas, which, under more 

 intelligent management, would have improved rather than declined in 

 value 



