Farm and Garden.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 135, 1 March 1909, Page 3

Farm and Garden.

line of the mo.n im)K>rtant items in dairy work i.s regularity as to milking and feeding. The farmer needs to do a little more j investigating along the line of the sale of farm made butter. Cream from home separators should be delivered while it is sweet, even if four or five journeys a week are necessary. Dry cows should be fed so as not to take on much flesh. Keep them in model condition and they will yield better. Every farmer should work steadily towards the goal of keeping only high-class cow?, as these arc the most profitable. Milk should be removed from the milking «hcd as soon as possible after the milking is done, and separated while it is warm. Do not separate what is k aown as beestings or colostrum until the eighth milking after calving, but feed it to your young calf. Cream from colostrum milk produces a poor keeping butter o> undesirable flavour. Cream should be run over a small cooler immediately after separating, and cooled as low as possible on the farm. The reducing of temperature immediately firms the fat globules, prevents early souring, and gives improved texture to the butter. Cooling in this way removes taint and cowy odour, and should only be practiced in a clean, sweet atmosphere. A sound horse will stand a wonderful amount of work if he has the right kind of care while at it.

It is almost useless to expect anything extraordinary from a horse which has no aneestry of any merit.

[ If a bom? was left to choose for 1 himself, he would eat all the hay he \ wanted, and if still allowed to choose, he would not Ik- driven with his stom- ' ach full of hay.

I ' Milk rapidly, hut do not rush as if ; you were pumping water or shovelling ! coal. Someone will tell you to "milk | fast." hut lie Mm- you milk well, whether vi".i milk fast or not.

Idleness* rarely improves the condition of a horse. A single bad habit * may change the value of a horse very materially. There is nothing more strengthening for young colts than plenty of exercise.

When cows arc being fed on ensilage it should be given immediately after milking, and no matter what the feed may be, it is desirable to run the milk over a cooler as soon as"pod&fhl» r " after it is drawn from the cows.'

A New Distemper Cure. Of all the diseases to which dogs are susceptible there is none so much to be dreaded as distemper, and anything relating to its prevention or treatment is of interest to the dog breeder and 1 owner. We make no apology, therej fore, for directing the attention of readers to an account of the claims of an American, a Mr Moore, as described ' by a correspondent of a daily contcmf porary. It appears that this Mr ' Moore, working in conjunction with a *Dr Millar, has prepared a vaccine i which is injected hypodcrmically, and, I it i? claimed, with the following reI suits: "For a short time" he says, , "in most dogs there will no change I observable (negative phase), but in ' two or three days the animal will show ! a wonderful, and indeed, an almost unI bclicvcablc improvement. You all | know the prostration and misery of a ! dog down with distemper. With this

method of treatment used early in the f disease he never gets down, he is up

and lively during the entire period of ! the difficulty. It should be borne in mind, however, that while the animal : seems well he is not, and should be j treated as a sick dog until the eight ; weeks which constitute the normal run of distemper arc past. Do not feed anything but very light diet in the first i two or three weeks of this disease; I pure fresh milk, milk toast, tggnog, | and not too much of this. He will take no hurt from the lack of food i during the period of fever." Those of us who have had practical

experience of this disease, and wit-

nessed the numerous failures of "sure" cures", will look upon this as something of a fairy tale, but the experiments are said to have covered a period of

I three years, which should be long | enough to admit of satisfactory proof. ; It is pointed out that the investigators j seem to have worked on the lines sug- ' gestcd by .Sir A. E. Wright in bis op- ! sonic theory The idea of the bacterin is to increase the opsonic power of the dog, which is high in relation to most | germs, but low towards the germs of > distemper Mr Moore admits that | some dogs must die of distemper ■ under his treatment, jsut as some I human beings die of diseases not f usually accounted a fatal type, hut the number will be very few.

A Cure for Bot-fly. Mr T. F. Crick, of Gollan, N.S.W., states that he recently saved the life of a valuable draught horse by means of an American cure for bot-fly The animal was almost in the last stages of the sickness when the cure, which is as follows, was applied:—First drench the horse with a quart of molasses or dissolved sugar, with 1 quart of new milk. This induces the grub to let go his hold, and in 30 minutes the animal will get a little relief. Then dissolve two ounces of alum in one quart of water, and administer. This contracts the invader, and a good dose of Epsom salts will complete the remedy.