FARMING NOTES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2989, 24 January 1881, Page 4

FARMING NOTES.

~ r * G. W. Whitner, Williston, Vermont, '"'% a collie clog inside a drum churns "Wi.. M aughtering match near In a roeent shoep-o- the -winning man Newark, New Jersey , , "* m 86 minutes, dressed his twenty-five heaa - World Mr 0. B. Eaton, Column's Bw -n any says, gathers his flock of sheop fro- ■ a part of his 400-acre pasture by blowing horn. " They expeot, and always get, salt or corn for their obedience to tho call." During the seven months ended July 31 there have been 201 cases of pleuropneumonia detected amongst cattle imported to I Wlr&V? m Jil2-]7™' : ed States, able to feed as a lymphatic onVVififi a broad, deep chest, for this last is seldom disturbed much, by anything—he feede well, and fata -well. Land in Texas is very cheap. The last legislature set apart three million acres of land in the Pan Handle, and ordered a surrey, and put it upon the market at a minimum price of 2s Id per acre. The survey of this 3,000,000 acres has just been completed, and the land is now in market. The increase in the exportation of breadstuffs from the United States has been equal to 129 per cent of value in seven years, and the increase in the exportation o£ provisions lias been equal to 221 per cent for the same time ; but during the period there has been no increase in the value of the exports of cotton. According to the Mark Lane Express a most dreadful disease is now ranging amongst cattle in the Russian provinces nearest Finland it is called Siberian plague, and is decimating the beasts and even causing deaths among men. A seed farm at Sibley, Illinois, has 35 acres of cucumbers, 10 of squashes, 8 of •water melons, and 35 of beans. In America the value of both horses and mules is dependent upon their weight. Where we refer to height for description the Americans refer to weight. A good weight for tho best farm horse is 14001b ; at five years old he is then worth from £40 to £50 ; a pair of mules, each weighing 12001b to 13001b, being worth £50 to £60, and a good ox team on the spot, £24 to £25. 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 14,000 acres, and potatoes have also increased 9587 acres. The 1880 live stock returns for Great Britain show in cattle an increase of 55,000 as compared with 1879, and 174,000 as compared with 1878, but sheep have decroased during tho year by 1,535,000. There are many farmers who have extra good butter cows but who do not know it. They have poor pastures in summer and poor shelter and indifferent feed in winter. They have no convenience for making butter, no arrangements for keeping tho milk cool in summer, and frequently in winter it is exposed to the odours of the kitchen. Mr Edward M. Hand, of Chickasaw County, lowa, has patented a device for collecting manure from various points and conveying it to a compost heap or waggon or other place of deposit. It consists in a novel rake and the combination therewith of two hinged, curved arms connected to a draught bar, and two pivoted straight arms serving as handles, whereby provision is made for adjusting the rake to different positions and for tilting it to dischrrgo tho load. Eorty years ago Messrs Lawes and Gilbert, of England, began a series of experiments in wheat growing. They selected plote of ground—in some they tried different manures, while on one plot no manure or change of crop was allowed, but wheat followed wheat, season after season, for 40 years. In that time there has been a decrease of just 10 bushels per acre in the yield. One fourth bushel per acre a year. Taking this as a standard case, farmers who follow wheat with wheat not giving the land any needed rest, or feeding it with manure or green crops turned under, may look for a decreaso, of course less some years than others, but an average of onefourth bushel per acre a year. This is one practical outcome for theso celebrated experiments, for which tho farmers of the •whole world may feel thankful to Mossrs Lawes and Gilbert. A correspondent of The Indianapolis Journal reports the following singular phenomenon. ; — The hired, man of

John B. Coyner, a farmer living near Palestine, Hannock County, Ind., was in the act of watering tho cows, nine in number. Thoy wero standing around the pump trough, awaiting his action, when all at once, with tails erect, they made a stanipodo down tho lano as fast as their legs could carry them. Tho cause of this sudden freak was a mystery to tho hired man, but it was not long until he was let into what appears to hare been the secret of the stampede. Suddenly, although tho sky was clear and the atmosphere still, a small cyclone, not over twenty feet in breadth, darted down from the sky, and, striking the earth near the pump, twisted off fire large beech shade trees standing near by, as though they wero mere weods. When tho cows mado'the stampede thoro wero no indications of its approach, and by what mysterious rulo of foresight the cattle " smelt trouble in the air," is one of the things which " no feller can find out."