Farm and Garden.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 1 September 1904, Page 6

Farm and Garden.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

YEJtTILATION IN THE INCUBATOR. LATE experience with hatching machines ■ emphasised the desirability of restricted ventilation or the supplying of abundant moisture in tho air of the eggchamber during tho first week of incubation. Either or both of these precautions tend to aid normal rational development of tho embryos during the early stages. On the other hand, abundant ventilation and, if necessary, daily airing of the incubating eggs during tho latter half of the incubating period, tends to healthy regular growth of the chicks and to safe hatching of vigorous broods of birds. The very opposite of these conditions too often prevails, and the results include hemorrhages shown by ' blood rings ' in tho eggs, enlargement of the heart and blood vessels, indicated by large and very bright scarlet veins, a sharply defined body and very dark ' eye spot,' as seen iu the light of tho tester. The ' blood ring' is the sign of death. Tho sharp distinct outline of the embryo and the bright scarlet blood vessels indicate excessive development of the circulatory system, from which later on there is a reaction indicated by sluggish development toward the end of incubation, death in the shell or failure to hatch, even after the shell is pipped. If jihe chicks do hatch they most likely will be weak, mopo about, to hug the heat and huddle under the hover of the brooder, and to have but little appetite; and in spite of the poultry- ' keepers's care they give up the struggle for life within ten or twelve days after hatching. When too high a temperature or ' hot spots ' in the incubator chamber add their influence to excessive ventilation during the early stages of incubation, the results are yet more rapid and deadly. The incubation problem is one which each poultry-keeper has to solve himself according to his local conditions. That this question is not yet solved by many people is evident from tho very poor hatches and the heavy percentage of deaths in the brooders so commonly experienced.

HOW A SWAJYIP WAS CHANGED TO A JYIO^EY-MAKER. Excellent profit was recently made from what was apparently a worthless swamp. The pocket of bog land was sold at a nominal price, but under judicious management and system of cultivation it became the-most profitable tract of land in that vicinity. The soil was composed almost entirely of decayed vegetable matter, and was so very soft and swampy that it was necessary to attach boards or plates of metal about nine inches square to the feet of the horses working it. By means of careful drainage and the use of fertilisers the finest crop of celery was raised ever produced in that vicinity. The superior quality of the celery and the neatness and uniformity with which it was graded and picked realised the highest market price. The amount of seed required to furnish plants sufficient for an acre of land varies somewhat, but usually three or four ounces is a safe estimate. The land was.put into the best possible condition ; a disk harrow was freely used, and the planting done by hand at so much per thousand. Each man takes his plants from the bed and does his own cutting. The rows are about ninety rods long, requiring eight per acre. The soil is kept thoroughly stirred- with a hoe and cultivator; nothing was left undone to keep the plants in the most healthy and vigorous cendition. The celery was all blanched with earth thrown up. Fertilisers were used, and the best results was obtained by sowing broadcast twelve hundred pounds per acre of a complete manure containing ten per cent, potash. The ground is firs* marked out; after the ten per cent, potash has been applied broadcast and thoroughly mixed with the soil, a cultivator is set, so that it will make a trench about eight or ten inches and four to five inches deep and run over the marks for rows. Light soil is then strewn in the trench, either with drill or by hand. The cultivator teeth are then'reversed, roller attached, and the soil thrown back into trench, covering the fertiliser; the two front teeth mix it, and roller levels the soil for setting the plants. That places the light soil, with its ammonical manure, directly under the plants, where the full benefit of the fertiliser is obtained, and the potash, phosphoric acid, &c, is gradually fed to the plants as they make growth.