Farm, Garden and Orchard.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 18 August 1904, Page 3

Farm, Garden and Orchard.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

TEMPERATURE AND JWILK PRESERVATION. IT is now claimed that the keeping quality of milk is more a matter of temperature than anything else. This conclusion has been arrived at "as the result of experiments that show the rapidity with which bacteria will develop in milk at different temperatures. The results of the experiment are described in an instructive bulletin recently issued by an experimental station on the relation of temperature to the keeping property of milk. In one experiment a sample of milk was divided into two parts—one part was placed at a temperature of fifty degrees, and the other at seventy degrees. The lower .temperature is that of an icechest, and the other that of an ordinary room. At fifty degrees the multiplication of bacteria was five-fold, and at seventy degrees seven hundred and fifty-fold. A microscopical examination exhibits the remarkable influence of difference of temperature, and the growth of a single bacterium in twenty-four hours, in milk kept at a temperature of fifty degrees. Temperature has a great influence on the keeping quality of milk. Milk kept at ninety degrees (the heat of the cow's body) will curdle in eighteen hours, while the same milk kept at seventy degrees will not curdle for forty-eight hours ; and if kept at fifty degrees the temperature of an icechest may sometimes keep without curdling for two weeks or niore. This shows what a decided influence the dairyman can exert on the keeping of his milk by a lowering of temperature of twenty degrees; for. a short time, after the milk is drawn the bacteria, which are present, fail to grow. But after the preliminary period has passed the bacteria begin to multiply. At a temperature of ninety degrees this prelimiarny period is very short, lasting only two to four hours ; after which the bacteria develops with such extreme rapidity that'the milk is almost sure to sour in thecourse of twelve hours, or even less. In milk kept at a temperature of seventy degrees this previous no-growth period lasts usually about six hours. After six hours the bacteria multiply so fast that in the course of twelve hours they are always to be reckoned by millions, and the milk is almost sure to sour and curdle inside of thirty-six hours. If milk is cooled at once and kept at fifty degrees, the preliminary period, during which 'the bacteria do not: grow at all, is much prolonged. It is found in some experiments that milk kept at fifty degrees may contain, when it is forty hours old, no more bacteria than at the start, and sometimes even less. That shows that a temperature of fifty degrees makes it possible to keep milk'perfectly good for at least forty hours, provided that temperature is attained quickly and maintained constantly. Even after the bacteria begins to grow they develop very'slowly. Milk may be kept for many hours longer at these temperatures without showing any signs of the effect of bacteria g'-owth. These facts show that, so far as concerns the keeping of milk, the maintenance of a low temperature is a factor of more significance than any other factor connected with dairying. The number of bacteria present in milk after it has become twentyfour hours' old or more is dependent for more upon the matter of temperature than it is upon the original cleanliness and care in production. It is not meant to imply that the regulation for cleanliness should not be followed. On the contrary, every precaution in that direction should be taken. All such precautions are useful and extremely important in preserving the milk from contamination with unwholesome bacteria. MUSHROOJfI CULTURE. Mushroom culture is as yet in its infancy in this country, and in many of our States it is as yet unknown. There is nothing fictitious or uncertain about it ; there is no secret whatever connected with it, and skilled labor is not necessary to make it successful. The commonest farmhand can turn and prepare the manure, build the bed and spawn and mould it over, and any child can gather the mushrooms after they come up. It is not a laborious crop. The chief labor in connection with it is in preparing the manure and building tho beds, and that is a matter requiring but little time each day or two for about three weeks. Nearly all the labor for the next ten or twevle weeks consists in maintaining an equal temperature, and gathering and marketing the crop. Many women are searching for remunerative and pleasant employment upon the farm ; what can be more, interesting, pleasant and profitable work for them than mushroom growing ? Workmen can prepare the manure and fix the beds according to directions, and the farmer's wifo or daughter can attend to the after management, with scarcely any tax upon her time,

I. SOIL AJ*D WATER ANALYSES. ; If you want an orchard in a section- of country requiring irrigation, the soil'of which varies in depth from six inches to six feet, with an underlying hard-pan or bedrock from two to six feet in thickness, and the water which you are compelled to use for irrigation purposes contains a large quantity of alkali in solution, you may expect and will be protty sure to have your ■expectations realized, that in eight or ten years at the most your orchard will prove entirely worthless, and, in all probabilities, die. The reason for this failure is plain, If the water you irrigate- With is largely charged" with alkali, the back country through which this water'flows mus't necessarily contain a large qua'ntity of mineral salts, which arc gradually leeched out and brought down and deposited on your land. In using such water for irrigating purposes upon land poorly under-drained, as de•scribed above, you are constantly charging the soil with a large amount of alkali, which has no method of escape. Analyze the soil and water before you plant your orchard. If you plant the trees first, rt requires eight of the best years of your life to find out or discover your mis--take, and when you notice that the trees have stopped growing and present a sickly appearance and do not fruit well, it is%enerally too late to commence investigations by analyzing the soil and the water. 11l a number of instances parties have planted the same land twice and even three times with fruit trees, and when the third lot of trees were dead or dying, commenced an investigation to ascertain the cause by analyzing the soil and the water and searching for the hard-pan or bed-rock, only to discover at this late day that fruit trees should never have been planted at all upon that land.