466 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



March, 1914 



® XKe Farm & The Hoover 



Farm Notes. 



During the century which has 

 elapse<l since Robert Bakewell, the 

 jiioneer of scientific breedin<;, be ran 

 his work, <jreat improvements hava 

 lieen wrous^ht, and even durintr the 

 last three decades the chaujjes in 

 tvDe have been very jrreat as pic- 

 tures of domestic animals of all 

 kinds show. In 1775 anitnals were 

 slab-sided, ;; ; 'ir^ "'..iture, rangy 

 leggy, unbalanced, and had too 

 much ofial consistent with econo- 

 my ; now reverse conditions are 

 frequently found, and the demand 

 is making the number larger each 

 year. 



Every olxser\ing stock breeder 

 must have noticed the strong vi- 

 tality of the scrub animal, which 

 is raised under conditions entirely 

 opposite to those which obtain in 

 raising stud .stock. The former is 

 often on the brink of starvation, 

 while the latter scarcely ever 

 knows the feeling of hunger. The 

 strong vitabt}' of the scrub cattle 

 has led some stock owners, parti- 

 cularly in America, to advocate 

 their u.seim breeding, and on many 

 occasions the razor-back pig has 

 been employed to give vigour to 

 the highly-nurtured domestic ani- 

 mal, but the desired results — vitali- 

 ty and fertility— might, no doubt, 

 be obtained withont employing an 

 animal so full of defects, from a 

 breeder's point of view. 



A remarkable jump by a nine- 

 months-old colt, got by a tho- 

 roughbred out of a hunter mare, iis 

 told. The colt was in a field with 

 liis dam, when the groom in charge 

 came and took the mare awav. 

 shuttintr the youngster in the field. 

 The colt began to grow restless 

 when he saw his tnother disappear- 

 ing, and, after galloping once 

 round the field, went straisrht for 

 the stone wall which surrounded 

 :t, and cleared it without touch- 

 ing. The place where he jumped 

 was afttr wards measured and 

 found to be 5ft. 7in. from the 

 pround to the coi>ing. 



Bread was once a common food 

 for horses in l^ngland, and is still 

 used in some i)arts of Europe. 

 It is made in long loaves, from 

 third-class rye flour ; they are 

 baked as hard as a brick, and are 

 perfectly drv, the people holding 

 that dry bread is more digestible 

 nd also keeps longer. Two pounds 

 f this rve bread is considered 

 rqual to about ,^lb. of oats. 



There is probably no kind of 

 cross in horse-breeding in which 

 there are greater possibilities in- 

 herent than that between the ) . 

 and the horse. I'lie presence of a 

 dash of pony blood is admittedly 

 always found to be in every was 

 advantageous in a himter, imiyart- 

 ing, as it does, an increased degree 

 of stoutness and stamina, while it 

 also tends to promote soundness, 

 ponies notoriously being much 

 sounder, as a whole, than the 

 horse breeds, and especially so as 

 regards the wind. Thus roarin;>; 

 is practically unknown in them. 



Indigestion in horses, like the 

 same trouble in the human bear, 

 is ^•ery common, and productive 

 of a multitude of ills and afflic- 

 tions. Treating indigestion in the 

 four-legged animal is about the 

 same as trying to cure dyspepsia 

 in the human being. The more one 

 uses drugs, as a rule, the greater 

 the need. The logical course in 

 both instances is to endeavour to 

 discover the causes, and the rest 

 is easy. 



Often there are four or more 

 types in even a small herd lor flock 

 raised by one man : with no defi- 

 nite . twe at all. It is thus evi- 

 dent that the average stockman 

 does not know what he is breeding 

 for. Where men breed toward a 

 definite market type they are siire 

 to make more money and make it 

 c|uicker. 



It is of the utmost importance 

 to keep strictly in mind the object 

 for which animals are bred, and 

 hold strictly to that end. Any de- 

 viation is sure to result in a vari- 

 ation more or less valuless, and 

 thus to be a step in the wronof di- 

 rection. What has . already been 

 accomplished is only an index of 

 what can be done. 



The Ram.bouillet merino originat- 

 ed from a flock of over three hun- 

 dred Spanish sheep selected from 

 the fine.st flocks of Spain in 1786. 

 This flock was pinned upon a pub- 

 He farm for the improvement of 

 stock at Rambouillet, near Paris. 

 In the selection from various 

 sources it appears that the flock 

 was of , a v^cry mixed character, 

 but, by careful breeding through a 

 course of years, the differences be- 

 came merged into a breed of sheep 

 which in the opinion of its French 

 owners surpassed its ancestors. It 

 was in the increased .size of the 



Potato Di^^er 



READY FOR THE FIELD. 



Why continue^ digging with forks 

 when you can secure the Hoover 

 Machine which will not only save 

 labor and aching backs but Dig 

 your Potatoes without damage ? 



Call early and inspect, or write us 

 for further particulars. 



Norman & Co. 



BANK STREET, ADELAIDE, 

 SOLE IMPORTERS. 



carcass and weight of the fleece 

 that this improvement was chieay 

 if not wholly made. 



America has grown wheat on an 

 Bin. rainfall, Australia has grown 

 wheat on a sin. rainfall, but in 

 South Africa they have grown a 

 rainless wheat. That is to say, 

 that at Licttenburg, which is in 

 the dry zone of the Transvaal, 

 they have grown a wheat without a 

 single drop of rain falling upon it 

 from seed-time until harvest. This 

 is the Durum wheat, Apulia, which 

 was originally introduced fromi the 

 dry belt of Italy. 



The Americans are credited 

 with making the most of their 

 farm products in the feeding of 

 stock, but it will come asi a sur- 

 ])rise to readers to learn that 

 where cattle are fattened on grain 

 in small fattening yards, pigs are 

 regularly utiUzed to eat up the 

 unconsumed grain in the droj)})i 

 of the cattle. A bulletin issued 

 by the Oliio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station states that of forty- 

 five Ohio cattle-feeders a number 

 used no other food for their hogs 

 than the undigested grain in the 

 cattle droppings. In some experi- 

 ments carried out by the Experi- 

 ment Station four hogs were put 

 in pens in which seven steers were 

 being fattened, and it is stated 

 that there were not sufficient pigs 

 to eat up all the grain that passed 



