Agricultural and Pastoral.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1608, 4 September 1874, Page 345

Agricultural and Pastoral.

The Bovine Resources of Texas.— As an illustration of the immense bovine resources of Texas, it is stated that one breeder there boasts that he will have 75,000 calves to brand this season. He says that he branded 63,000 last year, and 70,000 the year preceding. Compare this with a New England farm-yard, with its two cows and yoke of oxen 1 The Eucalyptus in America.—Commander John H. Russell, Inspector of Ordinance at Mare Island, writes to Sonntag and Co., San Francisco, for a pound of the seed of the Eucalyptus Globulus, familarly known to Californians as the Australian gum tree, ■which has been ordered by the Bureau of Ordinance of the Navy Department. The seed is intended for planting at Pensacola, Florida, Norfolk, Virginia, and Washington, D.C, on the various magazine grounds, as an experiment, and the Department is desirous of obtaining all the information available as to the means required for the successful culture of the tree from the seed. The Ayrshire Cow is bred, and has been bred for milk; her inheritance is all in the line of milk producing. Her form indicates it: her records prove it. When aged and dry, the same functions which ordinarily fill the udder fill her muscles with fat; but while milking, inheritance, intensified yearly by selection, turns the energies of her system towards extracting materials from her food, and secreting the larger and richer part in the udder. As the short-horn stands with the grazier, who had tried their quality, bo does the Ayrshire stand with the dairyman. By seeking improved breeds, the farmer is adding materially to the profits of his farm, for he is utilizing the great power of unerring certainty of inheritance, — Dr Sturtevant, The Austrian Royal Stables.—The Otago Guardian possesses a correspondent at Vienna, who in a recent letter describes the different objects of attraction in the Burg. "To me," he says, "the most interesting sight is the Royal Mews, containing 350 horses, each horse in a separate loose box; one long building contains only white horses, another black, another bay, brown, and chestnut. All are beautifully arranged and orderly, nor is there the least disagreeable smell. The handsomest horses are English. The Emperor's riding horses are in enclosed stalls: I counted about 40. A groom was trying to saddle a beautiful black mare, which seemed rather restive. He was speaking to her, and I called out, ' She does not understand German.' Then I said in English, ' Come here, Black Rose, my beauty,' and she actually turned round, ran over, and put her nose in my hand. Every one present was delighted." Care of Tools.—Every farmer should have a can of linseed oil and a brush on hand, and, whenever he buys a new tool, he should soak it well with the oil aud dry it by the fire or in the sun, before using. The wood by this treatment is toughened and strengthened, and rendered imprevious to water. Wet a new hay-rake, and when it dries it will begin to be loo'se in the joints; but, if well oiled, the wet will have but slight effect. Spades and hoes are preserved from checking and cracking in the top of the handle by oiling; the wood becomes smooth as glass by use, and is far less liable to blister the hand when long used. Axe and hammer handles often break off where the wood enters the iron; this part particularly should be toughened with oil, to secure durability. Oiling the wood in the eye of the axe will prevent its swelling and shrinking, and sometimes getting loose. The tools on a large farm cost a large sum of money; they should be of the most approved kinds. Laborers should be required to return their tools to the convenient places provided for them; after using, they should be put away clean and bright. The mouldboards of ploughs are apt to get rusty from one season to another, even if sheltered; they should be brushed over with a few drops of oil when put away, and will then remain in good order till wanted, Taming a Horse.—The New York Commercial Advertiser says :—"A beautiful and high-spirited horse would never allow a shoe to be put on his feet, or any person to handle his feet, without a resort to every species of power and means to control him. At one time he was nearly crippled by being put in the stocks; ho was afterwards thrown down and fettered; at another time, one of our most experienced horse-shoers was unable to manage him by the aid of as many hands as could approach. la an attempt to shoe this horse recently, he resisted all efforts, kicked aside everything but an anvil, and came near killing himself against that, and finally was brought back to his stable unshod. This was his only defect; in all other respects he is gentle and perfectly docile, and especially in harness. But this defect was j ust on the eve of consigning him to the plough, where he might work barefoot, when, by mere accident i & n officer in our service, lately returned from Mexico, was passing, and being made acquainted with the difficulty, applied a complete remedy by the following simple process: —He took a cord about the size of a common bedcord, put it in the mouth of the horse like a bit, and tied it tightly on the animal's bead, passing his left ear under the string, not painfully tight, but tight enough to keep the ear down and the cord in its place. This done, he patted the horse gently on the side of the head, and commanded him to follow, and instantly the horse obeyed, perfectly subdued, and as gentle and obedient as a welltrained dog, suffering his feet to be lifted with entire impunity, acting in all respects like an old stager. That simple string, thus tied, made him at once docile and obedient as ,any one could desire.. The gentleman who thus furnished this exceedingly simple means of subduing a very dangerous propensity intimated that it is practised in Mexico and South America in the management of horses. Be this as it may, he deserves the thanks of all owners of such horses, and especially the thanks of those whose business it may be to shoe or groom the animal."—The principle of the plan would seem to be the same as that of other ingenious devices which have proved successful—to divert the animal's attention to something else for the time.