Rural Column.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 139, 9 March 1877, Page 3

Rural Column.

Oats are gradually going out of cultivation, in Albury, Victoria, New Zealand competition being too strong. In Storer's field experiments wood ashes (unbleached) applied in large quantities brought larger yields of barley, beans, and rufabagas than farmyard manure, eit, stable manure or single potash salt, as sulphate carbonate or even nitrate.

After your geraniums have finished flowering, cut them back at least onehalf, and place them in a cool, shaded place. Water them very sparingly until new shoots begin to start,. when they should be re-potted with fresh soil, and brought to the light and watered more abundantly as they attain growth.

A horse, no matter how vicious and obstinate he may be when attempts are made to shoe him, can be made quiet and manageable by making him inspire during the operation a lew drachms of the ethereal oil of parsley dropped on a handkerchief. A large number of trials of this substance have been made with the most troublesome and violent animals, and in every case with perfect success.

In large plantations where hares and rabbits have to be dealt with by the thousand, one of the best remedies is to get from 50 to 100 faggots, stack them up in any corner, and you will find the rabbits burrowing under the stack in a very short time. Give them a month's peace, and. then place a net all round the faggots, and proceed to throw the wood over the net. You will find the rabbits at the bottom of the heap, when you should be armed with a short, stout stick, and give them the coup de grace.

In December, 1873, there was a first prize bullock shown in Edinburgh, Scotland, weighing when living 28cwt, of 1121 b. He was purchased by weight at lOd per pound, and slaughtered by Mr Thomas Townson, butcher, at the village of Wray, near Lancaster. At the above price per pound he amounted to LB-1 8s 4d. He weighed in pounds 2026, and was a magnificent rich roan, standing 16 hands 2 inches high, four years old. He was bred and fed in Scotland. Many inquiries have been made in England, but nothing equal to him has been heard of. The above particulars are well vouched for by manypersons well known, as well as by the testimony of feeder, cattle-dealer (who brought him to Scotland), and the 8 anding of the butcher.

A much desired improvement (says the Journal of Applied Science) has been made in portable engines, consisting of a steam blast tube cleaner. The invention possesses manifold and striking advantages. The patentees of this arrangement are Messrs Brown and May, Devizes, and it must rank among the most useful of modern improvements in this class of machinery. The invention, which is as simple as it is effective, is patented in most of the countries on the Continent, where marigold and silver medals have been awarded to it. By simpl}-- moving a handle, a blast of steam is introduced into the chimney, instantly removing all soot and waste matter fron), the tubes, which can thus be cleaned as often as desireable, and it is alleged while the engine is at work. An obvious saving of time, labour, and fuel accrues, and the efficiency and completeness of the engine is increased by as much as 25 per cent. Germination ov Ancient Sled. —kn interesting observation, referring to the power of germination in seed which is hundreds and even thousands of }*ears old, is said to have been made by Professor Hendreich in Greece. In the silver mines of Laurium only the slags left by the ancient Greeks are at present worked, in order to gain, by an improved modern method, silver still left in that dross. This refuse ore is probably about two thousand years old. Among it the seeds of a species ot glaucium or poppy were found, which had slept in the darkness of the earth during all that time. After a litile while, when the slags were brought up and worked off at the smelting ovens, there suddenly arose a cropof glauciumplants, with a beautiful yellow flower, of a kind unknown in modern botany, but described by Pliny and others as a common flower in ancient Greece.

How to Get Eggs in Winter. — With a warm shelter and suit-aide food, pullets that begin to lay in the autumn will continue to lay through the winter. It is mainly a question of food. Indian corn is good because it furnishes plenty of fat and keeps up the heat of the fowls, but it is poor in albumen and the phosphates. Fowls want a variety of grains and vegetables, and, to do their bes - *, one feed daily of warm cooked meal and vegetables. Most farmers have milk, and, if this can be added, it will be all they need. Boiled potatoes or turnips, mashed and mixed with Indian meal, make excellent food for laying hens. Fowls are particularly fond of cabbage' and turnips at all stages of their growth, and eat them raw greedily every day, if they can get them. liefuse from the butchers, and offal from the fishmonger?, also furnish good material for making eggs. These are accessible to most people, and can be had at small cost. A. hen is only a machine for producing, eggs.' If you want the finished product, you must put the raw material into' the hopper.. It. should not 'be forgotten, that there, is ii liberal grinding going -on in the gizzard, and the laying bird should have free access

to gravel with sharp broken oystershells. With a plentiful supply of eg<»--producing food, hens will lay well in winter when "eggs bring the highest price. Regarding potatoes, the/ Shrewsbury Chronicle observes J-— 4 - A, .curiosity in the giowth of this most useful vegetable is now on view at the photographic studio.of Mr Dustin, in the High street, which will doubtless attract considerable attention from every gardener, amateur, and others interested in potato cultui-3. On the 30th of June last Mr Dii9tin cut about six inches off the. branch of a potato stern growing in his garden, slit it up about an inch, and planted it. It grew and threw up several luxuriant haulms, and the. other day he dug it up with four fair-sized potatoes, considering the short time planted, and numbers of small one* growing on fibrous roots thrown out/ on each side of the • spit stem. W« have always thought the potato could only be grown from the seed or cuttings from the potato itself, though we havo known them grown from peelings when the ' eye ' has been uninjured ; but if it should be proved that this vegetable can be propagated from cuttings a complete revolution in the culture of the potato will be effected, as the amount of produce from a few sets will be largely multiplied. Another consideration is that it will probably tend materially to check, or perhaps eradicate, the disease, as it is possible the produce grown from stalk cuttings would be less liable to inherit disease than that from seed or cuttings from the root itself. At all events a most important question is opened, the result ot which every ono will watch with interest."

•sex procured at will.

It has for a long time been a subject of much discussion among scientific men in the medical profession toestaHish definitely whether in the higher order of animals there could be a rule introduced whereby the production of tile sexes could be regulated at 'will. The importance of such a discovery may be better understood, and its value more thoroughly appreciated when experiment is made, and trustworthy resultsobtained in the reproduction of the domestic animals. For example, nearly every breeder desires sometimes that tbe offspring resulting from the intercourse ol certain animals which he may possess shall be males, while of others females. Their pecuniary value may be greatly enhanced, at times, by such a regulation.

it appears that science has at last with analytical research and scrutinising care unlocked the door to these mysteries, and laid bare the simple means by which these ends may be accomplished. Professor Thury, of Geneva, has shown how males and females may be produced in accordance with our wishes. He says, "if you wish to produce lemales, give the male at the first sign of hear. ; if you wish males, give him at the end of the heat." The truth of this law has been sustained in practice, and Georg*e7, H. Naphej's, A.M., M.D., of Philadelphia, iv one of his recent works, says on- the subject that ho has now in his possession the certificate of a Swiss stock-grower, son of the President of the Swiss Agricultural Society, Canton de Vaud, under date of February, 187(5, which says :— v In the first place, on twenty-one successive occasions I desired to have*. heifers. My cows were of the Schurtz breed, and my bull a pure Durham. I succeeded in these cases. Having bought a pure Durham cow, it was very important for me to have a new bull to supersede the one I had bought at great expense, without leaving to chance the production of a male. So I followed accordingly the prescription of Professor Thury, and the success has once more proved the truth of the law. 1 have obtained from my Durham bull six more bulls (Schurtz-Durham cross), for field work, and having chosen cows' of the same colour and height,! obtained perfect matches of oxen. My herd, amounts to forty cows of every age. In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experiments after the new method, and in every one I succeeded in the production of what I was looking for— rmale or female. I had not one single failure. All the experiments have been made by myself, without any other person's intervention, and consequently I do declare that I consider as real and certainly perfect the theory of Professor Thury."

The same plan has been tried in France, with, it is ascertained, the most unvarying success.

There is a theory among agriculturists to the effect that the weather influences and determines' the sex"; dry and cold, with northerly winds,' producing among mares, ewes, and heifers more males, while seasons of an opposite meteorological condition, more females. The truth of the latter theory is difficult to prove, and is, besides, based upon the conditions that are beyond the control of human aaencies. and therefore of little avail to mankind ; but the former statement 'is "susceptible of demonstration, and is so simple in its operation that the experiment may be easily tried and adjudged by anyone.

A common- sense view in discussing tbe subject of procreation suggests that it is not a matter of chance, but is from the very character of its importance governed and controlled ,. by, natural' and 'fixed laws, the perfect understanding of which may or may not be within reacU of human intelligence.