FARMING NOTES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2978, 11 January 1881, Page 4

FARMING NOTES.

In Japan starch is extracted from certain edible kinds of ferns. Live stock should have fresh, living water, and not be compelled to drink from stagnant pools. Hundreds of tons of bacon and pork are sent from America to England at six cents per pound, and tho bacon bills of England reach 50,000,000 dollars. Wire with barbs upon it is selling wonderfully in the States —the daily manufacture is now 200,0001b weight. People are now beginning to find out that poultry-keeping can be made remunerative, and more especially ought this to be the case with farmers. The cheapest and the most essential product of the soil is grass. The better the system of agriculture the better will be the grass produced. The best food for just hatched chickens is undoubtedly hard boiled egg chopped up small, and a little maize meal or oatmeal crumbled up with it. The decrease in the acreage of barley in Britain is surprisingly large, being almost 100,000 acres under that of 1879. Oats, however, show an increase of 140,000 acres, and potatoes have also increased 9587 acres. According to the Mark Lane Express a most dreadful disease is now raging amongst cattle in the I.' ussiati provinces nearest Finlar.d. Tt is called Siberian plague, and h 'lu.'iruat'ng the beasts and even causing (Vi r; .. .imong men. A number of experiments with coal ashes, publicly reported within the last year or two, leave no doubt that th-y have, at least, Borne slight value as manure, and that with heavy land thoir effect is very beneficial. Dr Schomburg, of Adelaide, asserts that the spreading of rust has nothing at all to do with the cpality of the land, but is entirely dependent on atmospheric causes. So bitte" was the opposition by the aris. tocraey of England to the bill giving per mission to tenant far mars to shoot rabbits and hares when in their own crops, that three long debates and part of a fourth in committee took place before even the first clause was passed. There is immense danger in exclusive grain-growing and seising it off the farms in its raw state. The farmer, like the manufacturer, should aim to put the best value possible upon everything he produces before he allows it to leave his land. The digestion of a horse is governed by the same laws as that of a man ; and as we know that it is not best for a man to go at haid work the moment a hearty meal is eaten, so we should remember that a horse ought to have a little rest after his meal, while the stomach is most active in the process of digestion. 'J he summary of tbe agricultural returns for Great Britain show an increase in the area under wheat for 1880 as compared with 1879 of 18,904 acres, but a decrease as compared with 1878 of 309,269 acres. In feeding poultry cheaply and quickly the great secret to success is to give the birds just as much as they will eat up clean ; let them feel they could eat just a little more if it was them, and that they still possess an unsatisfied appetite.. A notion prevails amongst many that old seeds are better than new. Experiments have been made with the seeds of camelia flowered balsams. The youngest seeds gave tho largest proportion of double flowers. At the Tillyfom* sale Mr Bruce, Great Smeaton, Northallerton, purchased several of the pick of the herd for Major Godsman, of Smeaton Manor, who has resolved to give the blackskins a fair trial in the heart of the short-horn country.