Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 225, 15 January 1910, Page 3

Farm and Garden

FOWL MANURE I'OR GARDEN CROPS. It is generally understood and recognised thai hen or fowl manure is of considerable value in the garden, and it is interesting to note that a hundredweight i? jqual to half a ton of cow manure as regards the quantity of nitrogen; and, further, that it is more readily avail-able as an immediate plant food.: Analysis has shown that dry chicken excrement is nearly four times as rich in nitrogen as compared with stable manure, two and a half times more than pig manure, sheep droppings about the same, while cow manure drops down to one-fifth of the value of the first-named. Amateurs generally err in placing their fowl manure in a heap in the open garden, as the action of rains and the atmosphere rob it of a bigpercentage of its virtues. Hence it should be stored in boxes or sacks, and kept in an outhouse until required. Some crops call for very rich food, in order to procure the best results. Celery, onions, and spinach may be cited as examples, and while fowl manure is of great value for crops generally, its effect is most pronounced on hungry subjects. The value of these manures —either animal or bird —is regulated to a certain extent by the food they subsist upon, and it has been found that birds in a wild state produce a manure that is considerably richer in nitrogen, etc., than fowls, etc,, in confinement.

MANURE FOR ONIONS. In an article on onbn cultivation the horticulturist of the Transvaal Agricultural Department write?: —The soil, in addition to being light, should be also rich, and nine times out of ten will need plenty of manure. For this purpose, good, well-rotted stable or kraal manure is well adapted, and may be applied with a liberal hand,_ if possible the season before planting onions. Where there is a difficulty in procuring animal manure recourse should be had to commercial fertilisers. The following is a complete one for onions:—3ool'os basic slag, 150 Ibs muriate of potash, 150 ibs nitrate of soda, per acre. It should be applied by mixing the basic slag and muriate of potash, scattering this broadcast over the land and ploughing it under a couple of weeks or so before planting takes place. The nitrate of soda may be applied after the young plants are well started; it may be sown between the rows and raked in.

INFLUENCE OF FIRST UNION. In spite of the fact that there are many authenticated cases on record where the effect of a previous impregnation influences the offspring by another male, some stock-owners still adhere to the belief that such influence is impossible. Last week I heard a discussion on the subject, but simply because one of the disputants had not actually known of a case in point he was not to be convinced. It is impossible to pick up any book on breeding without finding numerous instances recorded of this peculiarity, and they are common enough in this country to have made the fact widely acknowledged. There is always the possibility of examples being quoted which are not correct, because of the extreme liability to error. Peculiarities attributable to this cause may be due to the atavic inheritance of colour or some other blemish, but there are sufficient examples known of in which trange discrepancies in form and colour manifest themselves as the direct result of a previous impregnation. An illustration that is frequently cited, although hundreds could be collected, is that of a chestnut mare which belonged to the Earl of Morton. If was first published in the "Philosophical Transactions" in 1821, and is referred to so often because of the striking cnange that appeared in the off-spring. The mare, which was seven-eighths Arabian, was covered by quagga, which is a species of zebra, and the progeny resembled the sire in colour and "in other respects. The three succeeding years the same mare was covered by a black Arabian horse, and the three foals all bore "the curious arid unequivocal marking", of the quagga. Professor Miles, of Massachusetts, in his treatise on stockbreeding, has tabulated a host of illustrations just as strange, but all of them vouched for and he has also made exrtacts of the opinions of various eminent scientists, who endeavour to explain this extraordinary peculiarity. —E N.R.," in the "Australasian." .THE VALUE OF RAPE. \. Rape not only turns off a great deal of feed to the acre, but it may be sown 'almost any time during the spring or early summer. . The seed is not expensive, and there is not much seed required. Three or four pounds per acre is sown broadcast, and even less in drills is sufficient, an amount too small t*> plant with a grain drill unless it is fitted with a special seeding attachment. A.person must know how to pasture sheep on rape to prevent bloating, but pig 3 take care of themselves, with the exception that sometimes they blister easily, especially white pigs with thin hair, ■