THE FARM.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 98, 27 February 1880, Page 4

THE FARM.

GLEANINGS. The experience of farmers has shown that the effects of an application of lime are not very marked during the first year, but becomes more apparent in the course of the second and third years. From the time that it exerts its full influence on the soil its action is found to gradually diminish year by year, and finally to cease altogether. Charcoal finely pulverised, and mixed with the feed of turkeys, meal, or potatoes, is said to aid greatly in fattening them, and to improve the flavour of the meat. In the collection of the British Royal .Horticultural Society there are more than 15,000 varieties of the apple. Young calves should be freed from vermin by applying a mixture of linseed oil and kerosene to the parts infested. To get rid of sourness, lime is employed, which by combining with and neutralising the acids, “sweetens” the soil. A cow that is milked three times a day will gh e more milk and yield more cream than one that is milked at intervals of twelve hours. A good cow returns her value every year in milk and butter, and in some localities the manure almost, if not quite, pays for her feed. The richer the feed, the better the manure. The “ American Agriculturist ” says that swine that are fattening will do better with soaked corn than with dry. Corn steeped in water for 12 hours has been found more economical to feed than when ground into meal. The State of lowa is being transformed into a forest-covered country, by a law which remits certain taxes for five years on every acre of fruit, and ten years on every acre of forest trees planted and kept alive. Land that is well manured at regular intervals in a rotation of crops with farm-yard manure, would become loaded with organic matter rich in slowly available, plant-food, but by the judicious use of lime upon land thus treated, the unnecessary and unprofitable accumulation of dormant plant nutriment is prevented. In fattening poultry give them all they can eat. Corn is preferable, as poultry fattened upon it are more yellow and better than those fed on any other grain, remembering that not only is every additional pound gained thus paid for, but by improving the quality the market value is increased from 25 to 50 per cent.

When rlogs attack a flock of sheep the sheep scatter, and thus become an easy prey ; but in attacking goats they find it more difficult to accomplish their purpose. The goats form into a ring, the kids in the centre, and the horns of the bucks presented against the enemy are a strong defence. The common mode of applying lime is to cart it to tire field, make it into heaps, cover it over with a few inches of earth, and allow it to become completely air-slaked, after which it is evenly spread on tire land and then worked into the soil. Some farmers hasten the slaking by adding water to the heaps. If applied soon after its slaking in this way, lime is most rapid in its action, owing to its being entirely in tire caustic state. A new disease which baffles remedies has appeared among turkeys in York county, Me. At Kittery alone, within a week, almost three hundred have died. The principal symptoms are tire dropping off of the nails from tiro toes, complete loss of feathers from the head, and a general wasting away.