Farm and Garden.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 84, 29 May 1908, Page 4

Farm and Garden.

An authority writes thus on the subject of breeding" sows:—"l have had all kinds of results from sows of all ages, but as a rule I think the aged sow is preferable. Brood sows should be handled with more care and patience than any female animals with which we have to do. If you excite sows at farrowing time until they are mad they will never forget it. They must be handled right at first. There are a great many little things to be watched that can be learned only by experience. Valuable sows while suckling pigs should be fed sparingly. It is often difficult to feed two sows and their litters ".together, and have each get their proper portion. The result is seen in the pigs. It is necessary that sows should suckle their first litters rightly. It sets the value on their usefulness."

The first principle in handling milk, and perhaps the most important, is to keep out as many bacteria as possible. This requires care and attention io a great many details, but may all be summed up in one word — cleanliness. Wherever there is dirt 01* decomposing matter there we have bacteria. A single dirty can may contain more bacteria than there are inhabitants in the world, and as soon as milk is placed herein they are all ready for business, if we wish to have milk or cream to keep in good condition some time we must check these bacteria from growing, the only practical harmless method of doing this is cooling, it must be done_ at once after milking. It is very important that it be not delayed. Milk cooled at once to 6o° even, and kept there, will usually remain sweet 48 hours or longer. Of course, the most effective cooling means reducing the temperature to 50 or under.

That genial source of trouble, the ordinary goat, say, of commerce, has often raised our ire as well as stimulated our humorous faculties. With that species of hair growing, shrub and free browsing variety, we are all well acquainted; but that blueblooded aristocrat, the Angora, most landowners are very slightly acquainted with. All know of the enormous profit derived from the sheep industry —when the bad seasons keep away—and yet on rough country, covered with scrubby undergrowth and inveterate growing suckers after ringbarking, nothing would improve it as quickly as Angora goats. There is no labour to pay for doing the work, no scamping when goats are kept on it. They do their work so thoroughly that in a few years the country is improved out of sight. If a flock be started on common-sense lines, say with 50 common does, mated with a mature pure-bred Angora buck, and judiciously culled as the flock increased, one would soon possess a decent flock of scrub and undergrowth clearing animal scavengers, and net a yearly increasing revenue from the venture. A great difficulty that presents itself to most graziers is that of restraining their migrations by fencing. Most folk think it is practically impossible to fence a goat in. This is certainly a drawback, but probably it will be solved by experiments in the direction of erecting seven and eight-wired skeleton fences, and keeping them well strained. Rugs made from Angora skins have sold in America at four guineas each, and good skins often realise from 12 to 15 dollars each.

The Bordeaux Mixture is made by using copper sulphate, 4ft ; fresh unslaked lime, 4lb; water to make 50 gallons. Fill a batrel about half full of water. Place the copper sulphate in a coarse cheese-cloth bag, and suspend in the water near the surface, where it will dissolve in a very short time. In another barrel place the fresh lime (not air slaked), and add a small amount of water to it. As the lime becomes slaked, add more water from time to time, and stir well during the slaking. Then dilute the lime water, add it to the copper sulphate solution, and the mixture is ready for use. In adding the lime water it is best to pass it through a sieve. Never add the lime water while hot. When spraying on a large scale, it is best to slake a large quantity of lime at one time, as it will keep indefinitely if covered with water. Dissolve the copper sulphate as directed above, and add sufficient of the lime water for each barrel of the mixture as it is prepared. This is much better than stock solutions.

How he raised early potatoes from the rose end of the tuber is thus described by a Manitoba farmer: —I had four long rows of my Maple Leaf last year in the middle of a large bed, so that all rows had the same chance, not one having the advantage of being an outside row with a good margin of space outside. One of these rows was all bud or rose ends, and the other three from the body of the potatoes. The rose end row showed a good six inches above their fellows, and turned out far the largest crop and the finest potatoes. The rose ends, I always find, are the most prolific, and produce the most tubers. Those who find so many small ones from the rose ends, if they would do the same as I do, would, I think, find the tables turn a little. Knowing their propensity, I put them six or eight inches further apart in the rows. Many years ago I could not make out when digging the first early potatoes why it was that one was a good hill, and the next not so good, not being so well developed. I mastered the situation by planting rose ends by themselves for earliest raising, and proved that they were the forward roots.

An American farmer says he has used simple lime water as a remedy for cabbage maggot for some years, and found it very eifective. Prepare a good solution of lime and water, and let stand a few days. When setting the plants dip the roots in the solution, then apply sufficient to wet the atalks and roots. At the end of a few weeks your trouble is over. I do not think that it destroys the maggots, but it renders the plants free from their attacks,