AUGtTST, 1911.] 



147 



Scientific Agriculture. 



use, and through the misplacing of the 

 articles, because as these are not regu- 

 larly entered as estate property, the 

 cost of buying them from time to time 

 is considered to be a small matter. The 

 keeping of accuratb records of the 

 purchase of such articles, and the conse- 

 quent knowledge of the economy 

 effected by the careful storing of them, 

 will not fail to give the practical agri- 

 culturist an idea of the expense that 

 carelessness in this respect has caused 

 him in the past. 



In the matter of the larger articles, 

 such as the implements employed in 

 cultivation, although these cannot be 

 lost outright, neglect of care for them 

 shortens seriously their period of use- 

 fulness and lessens their efficiency, 

 When these are put aside for a season, 

 the parts which have to bear the 

 greatest wear and tear, more especially, 

 should be dried, cleaned, and covered 

 with an application of heavy lubricating 

 grease. Attention may also well be 

 given to those portions of them that do 

 not receive direct wear, and here the 

 care will consist in keeping such parts 

 properly painted. 



Some of the largest, but least obvious 

 economies can be effected in regard to 

 the animals employed by the agricul- 

 turist. Animals are required by him 

 for the provision of energy, or for giving 

 food products. In either case, the 

 policy should be followed of treating the 

 animals in such a way that the food 

 absorbed by them is used as little as 

 possible in doing useless work. Chief 

 among the precautions to be observed 

 in this way will be to see that the 

 animals are stalled as near as possible to 

 the places where they are wanted, and 

 that they are properly protected against 

 inclement weather. In regard to the 

 former consideration, energy and there- 

 fore food are wasted where it is neces- 

 sary to take the animals on the estates 

 long distances to be worked, or in the 

 case of cows to be milked. In the 

 latter connexion, animals subjected to 

 untoward conditions of weather must 

 use energy in order to overcome the 

 possible evil effects of those conditions. 

 An interesting illustration of the extent 

 to which the food and energy of an 

 animal may be wasted in this way is 

 supplied by the fact that, with cows, 

 for every pound of rain evaporated from 

 » the body, there is consumed more than 

 three-quarters of a pound of solid sub- 

 stance, reckoned as fat which might 

 have gone to form milk. 



In continuation, as regards animals, a 

 large amount of the food is often wasted 



in providing energy for doing useless 

 work in connexion with ploughing and 

 hauling. In both of these care should 

 be taken that the animal is attached to 

 the implement or vehicle in such a way 

 that as large a proportion as possible of 

 the power given by it shall be used 

 directly in the work that is required of 

 it. Generally speaking, as regards 

 ploughing, the line of the traces should 

 be one and the same with a line passing 

 through their place of attachment and 

 the centre of greatest pressure on 

 the mould board. With reference to 

 haulage, in the case of a very smooth 

 road such as that formed by a line of 

 rails, the plane of the traces should be 

 parallel to the surface of this ; where 

 the road is not smooth, however, the 

 effect of the friction and the fact that 

 the wheels are continually endeavouring 

 to mount up out of the surface into 

 which they have sunk, will make it 

 necessary tor the traces to slope down- 

 wards and backwards. Another matter 

 of importance that is not usually re- 

 cognized as regards vehicles travelling 

 over ordinary roads, is the distribution 

 of the load on the carriage. It is most 

 usually, but not always, the case that 

 the heaviest part of the load should be 

 placed over the hind wheels, because 

 firstly, the front wheels make a firm 

 track for the hind wheels carrying the 

 heavier weight; secondly, the hind 

 wheels are generally the larger, so that 

 they sink a smaller distance into the 

 road, and use less of the energy of trac- 

 tion than would be consumed by the 

 f ront wheels, with the greater part of 

 the load on them ; and thirdly, such 

 distribution of the load enables the 

 vehicle to be turned with greater ease 

 and less damage to the road. 



So far attention has been given to 

 the animal, its mode of attachment, and 

 the load on the vehicie which it draws. 

 It is plain, however, that much more 

 might be done toward the improvement 

 of the roads themselves, on which the 

 animals have to work. Bad roads mean 

 constant expenditure in providing extra 

 food for a continual waste of energy, 

 and they also bring about unneces- 

 sary injury to animals, vehicles and 

 implements. In the amelioration of 

 such conditions, attention should be 

 given to the provision of smooth and 

 rigid roads with easy inclines, and where 

 it is not possible to provide anything 

 but a rough road, the conditions should 

 be bettered as much as may be by the 

 use of vehicles having large wheels with 

 wide tires. It may be useful to mentiou 

 here that a cheap and effective imple- 

 ment known as the road drag is much 



