FARMING NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1091, 3 November 1883, Page 4

FARMING NOTES.

I Poultry Raising. Let i me ask, would not the wellknown scratching propensities of the hen be valuable among the trees in an orange grove, and the gradual, and at the same time constant manuring of the ground be just what is needed ? I have noticed the trees where the poultry had a free range were the most thrifty ones in a grove; must not the constant stirring and manuring of the ground have some of the credit for this ? . .

Poultry raising is not difficult, and it is profitable. To be sure they require attention. If you let a hen set just anywhere, and she hatches out a few chicks, and you let her run with the expectation of her 'providing her brood provender from her foraging expeditions you may be disappointed. Early and constant care pays. The breed of poultry is another important matter. I have Grey Bramahs that weigh fifteen pounds to the pair dressed, at one year old; and spring chicks twelve weeks old, nearly three pounds each; and I live in a city and keep my hens penned up in a yard 50ft x 30ft, with a population in that space of from forty downwards, as the calls from the kitchen decrease the stock. Cannot success attend Florida “ Henneries ”as well as here ? A new impetus has been given the business by using the “ incubators ” for hatching, by means of artificial heat instead of the mother hen. Some have proved very successful, while others have partially failed. A very simple one was made last winter by a small farmer near me, the source of heat being a coal oil lamp, by which he hatched nearly three hundred chicks that grew finer and faster than those hatched in the ordiary way. —Corr Florida Agiiculturist.

The Cauliflower

No vegetable will give more profit to the market gardener than the cauliflower, if he gives it plenty of water, fertiliser, and work. There are French, German and Italian varieties. The Et has proved with me the surest to id, and weighs sometimes sixteen pounds. : The ground for this plant must be very rich. They thrive best in rich sandy soil. The late Italian varieties should be planted from April till July;. the,early ones from June till the end of August. The French and German can be sown from August to October, for spring crop, but if the heat sets in soon and is too dry they Wfli’ be a failure. The most successful gardeners, in raising canliflower plants, sow the seeds thinly in seed beds, and water the plants three times a day, never allowing the bed to get dry from the sowing till the plants get big enough to transplant. There is no danger in doing this of scalding the plants, as many would suppose, but just the reverse; the plants thrive well, and so treated will be attacked less by the cabbage fly, the greatest enemy of the cauliflower, and it is very hard to protect the young plants from its ravages. Cauliflower is most easily hurt by frost when it is half grown, and for that plants set out in Septembershould be forced with plenty of water and superphosphate of lime or Peruvian guano to have them (the plants) hard enough for the end of November to be out of the frost’s reach. When the heads make their appearance no more cultivation is needed, but the plants must be kept moist till they are ready for the market, whice will be in a month from that time.— Con. Flotida Agficultutist.