THE FARM.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 March 1880, Page 4

THE FARM.

GLEANINGS. In the Wiener Landwirthscahaftliche Zeitung Dr Englir.g recommends the following plan of protection from mould cheeses that have cracked, and are consequently pec lia_iy liable to its incussion. He t . ~s or digests a spoonful of bruised pepper, two teasnoonfuls of salt, and the same quantity of boracic acid in an eiglitli part of a litre of brandy for a few days, then filters the fluid through a cloth and dilutes it with an equal quantity of water. Some of the preparation is introduced into the crack by means of a feather, or better still with the aid of a small glass syringe. _ Places which have been nibbled by mice, and are thus encouraged to decay, may be similarly treated, and no mould will form after the application. A washing of the same solution will put to flight “jumpers ” already established in cheese.

If moderation is needed anywhere on the farm, it is in the driving of cows. A boy, or a dog, that will hurry, and therefore worry, their cows as they are taken to and from the pasture —to put it mildly—should be attended to. Boys :do not run the cow home, even if it is getting late, especially if it is onthe way to the yard and their udders are full of milk. In picking out stock for laying, it is best to take an equal number of pullets of last season’s hatch and of year-old hens, mating the first with adult cocks, and the second with cockerels of the preceeding year, taking care always to get powerful, vigorous cocks, with loud crow. By thus selecting stock, there will be no cessation in the egg supply. To keep his walks free from weeds for the longest possible time at a small cost, Mr M’Lean, gardener of Lord Holmesdale at Linton Park, Kent, boils 11b of arsenic in a gallon of water for half an hour, then adds from 4 to 5 gals of cold water, and pour it carefully on the paths. The effect of this dressing on the weeds is seen in three or four days, and one application a year is sufficient. Of course, the utmost care must be taken in the use of such dangerous poison.—Gardeners’ Chronicle. Herr Maurice Phillipp, of Pdesbrch, Zurich, claims to have discovered a procoss whereby milk can be kept good and fresh for any length of time in any temperature. The nature of the plan is not stated, but samples of the preserved milk have been subjected to severe tests by the Chemical Agricultural Commission, whofailed to detect any doubtful ingredients. Her Phillipp proposes to send his milk to England weekly, and to dispose of it at a very cheap rate. The sudden appearance at irregular intervals of the caterpillar pest is accounted for on the ground that the egg only comes to active vitality during a favourable and what is generally a season of great luxuriance ; so it seems that a succession of sun and shower streaming the ear th thereby hatches the eggs, whLh we believe, can otherwise lie do.-., an; for many

years. The farmers of "Waterloo, Ontario, have adopted a novel but very effective way of threshing peas. The peas are threshed by being run through a cutting box, by which the straw is cut very fine, making tolerably good feed, while the grain remains whole The peas bring a better price than those threshed otherwise, as they are not broken up as in other modes of threshing. A correspondene in an Australian contemporary speaking of rust in the Warrnambool district, in New South Wales, says:—For some years after '64 thunderstorms almost ceased to visit the district; and during this period we had rust yearly, but directly the thunderstorms again became prevalent, rust again ceased; and following that time the result of my observations has been the same. I do not know that any ef those writing about “rust” have touched upon it in relation to thunderstorms; but it will no doubt be interesting to know from others whether their observations and mine are in any way similar.