Farmers' Column.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 13, 22 April 1871, Page 9

Farmers' Column.

SHEEP. . . i The notion held by many that it is an easy thing to make sheep pay is by no means correct; on the contrary it may be eaid that it requires the exercise of no ordinary skill to make a successful sheep farmer. "What the points are which ensure success it is not easy within the limits of a brief paper, such as this of necessity is, to fully explain; but we may in the course of it be able to indicate much that may be sueeestive of the true answer to the question. A good knowledge of the breed most likely to thrive best under the circumstances of the farm on which they are to be reared is, of course, indispensable. It is surprising how many act upon the notion that sheep of any breed will do anywhere; a notion that has led many to large loss. The following resume of the opinions of an eminent authority upon this point of breed best adapted for certain circumstances, will be of service here. The sheep of Great Britain are divided into classes according to the length of their wool. Of class first, ' long wool,' are the Leicester, Lincoln, Cotswold, Eomney Marsh, Exnioor, Dartmoor, South Ham, Hardwick, Border Leicester, and the black faced Scotch. Of the second class, the ' intermediate,' are the Dorset, Cbeviots, Welsh, and the Oxford Down. Of the third class, the ' short wool,' are the Hampshire and the Shropshire Downs, the Southdowns, and the Eyeland breeds. „Our authority classes Leicesters as he would Shorthorns in the bovine ribs—requiring a dry climate, rich land, and food. The ' Downs' are classed with the Devon breed of cattle ; some like the Shropshire can stand a wet climate, and will feed upon a poor soil. The Oxford Downs and cross breeds are classed with the Hertford breed of cattle —requiring a climate not too„ wet, and land of a fair quality. In wet and humid climates the short wools are obviously better to keep than the long wools, which latter, from the length of the wool, bears them with a material peculiarly susceptible of humidity, so that in rainy weather they carry a large weight of moisture along with them, and after the weather clears up this moisture is long being got rid of. We have said that sheep farming requires an exercise of great judgment on the part of the farmer, not only in the selection of the animals he stocks his farm with, but in their after management. In the selection, our authority gives certain points as those which must be attended to —the blood, shape or form, the constitution, aud the character of the animal. The purer the blood the better the animal; and if crosses are desired, so much the more certainty will be associated with the cross if the blood is good to begin with. The ewes may be kept of two breeds to cross from. A capital cross is a Down ewe with a Leicester ram, or the converse. When the ewe and the ram are pure breed, the first cross will be the best. The great point in the management of sheep is to keep the young lambs gradually progressing till maturity is attained ; indeed, if this is attended to maturity will be all the earlier reached It is the most mistaken policy to keep in the food by way of saving—this is truly a penny wiseand pound foolish method; for it should be remembered that if the condition of an animal be once let down, however well it may be fed afterwards with a view to regaining condition that will not be regained. It is the truest economy to give the sheep plenty offood, and that of the best quality. Another point to be attended to is the changing of the food. We have only to reason from our own feelings in this matter to know that the change of food will be as welcome to our stock as we know it to be to ourselves, and any way by which the appetite is increased cannot fail to act favorably in the assimulation and digestion of the food. There is a vast deal yet to be learned in the art of feeding ; hitherto we have done most by rule of thumb, conjecturing which was best without inquiring into the reason which dictated the practice. Mixtures of food are also worthy of the consideration of the feeder. Thus it has been found that 61b8 of oilcake will produce lib of flesh, and that the same weight of flesh will be produced by Blbs of beanmeal; but by mixing these substances in the proportion of If lbs of oilcake and 2?lbs of beanmeal —in all 41bs weight—we get the same weight of flesh, namely, lib. Another mixture will give the same weight of flesh —namely, 2flb of oilcake and a of beanmeal—in all 31bs. Another mixture (in weight 3flbs) will give the same result, namely, |lb of oilcake and 2f lbs of beanmeal. There are feeding substances other than oilcake and beanmeal very valuable for mixing; but we unfortunately require a good deal of practical experiments to be made before we can come to any conclusion as to their value. The mode in which the food is given exercises also an influence upon the progress of the animal. Thus to give a large weight of cold raw turnips, is a bad practice ; now that we mow the value of heat we know that this Bust be so. Much of the evil could be overcome by pulping the roots, and allowing them to stand some time under cover,

then mixing them with cut straw and the artificial food. If the mixture is allowed to stand for some hours before being given to the sheep the temperature will be slightly raised, and the food itself will not be impaired in value. Even if fermentation sets in the food will not be less valuable; some eminent authorities say that it will be all the more valuable. We are ourselves inclined to set considerable value upori fermentation in food for farm stock ;. the point is one worthy at all events of being fully tested. If cold food is not good for the animals in cold weather, it would appear reasonable to assume that exposure to all the influences of cold, raw weather itself cannot be good. Shelter for sheep is of course by some considered quite Utopian ; but we remember the time when other points now conceded to practice were as much denounced as this now is by some; and possibly we may soon see shelter for sheep forming part of the buildings of every farm. The practice of giving sheep shelter is decidedly on the increase, and if there is anything in the theory of feeding which our agricultural savans have told us is correct, then it is difficult to see how their theory should apply to certain of our farm stock and not to others. Attention to the health of the sheep is of course another point demanded, and on nothing, perhaps, is the skill of the farmers better displayed than in marking the beginning of diseased, and in deciding! what remedies are to be adopted. A very; common disease, at least too common, is looseness of the bowels in lambs, and is. brought on, doubtless, by a wider variety of causes than we are able to take cognizance of, such as rapid changes of food, peculiarities of the pasture grasses upon which they feed, or of the weather ; but whatever be the cause it is a troublesome complaint and eventuates frequently in large losses. A change of food from a laxative to one of a more binding character will frequently get the complaint under. Wheat meal, as also bean meal are good for the complaint; if roots are given they, should be pulped, and they will be all the better by being mixed with other food as pea meal and hay cut. If the looseness is very bad, we should not attempt at first to stop it by giving astringents, such as bark or laudanum, but we would first cleanse the bowels by a dose of linseed or castor oil, which will have the effect of getting rid of the matter in the bowels, which in all probability, causes the looseness ; then,' if the looseness does not cease, astringents may be given. THIN SOWING. Will you be so kind as to cause the following account of my wheat drilling to be inserted in your valuable journal ? October 11, I drilled a few perches of land, putting in one seed of wheat in every square foot of ground ; and this was in my own land. The quantity per acre would not have exceeded quarts. November 5,1 also drilled a small quantity of laud in a neighbor's field with the same quantity of seed per square foot of land, that is one seed in every 14-1 square inches of land. Nov. 9, I drilled a whole field of my churchwarden's putting in 3£ pecks an acre in two-thirds of the field, and L| pecks an acre in the other one third. November 11, I drilled a part of a 90 acre field for a gentleman in a neighboring parish, putting in exactly nine quarts an acre, or one quart over a peck per acre. I told the owner of each field that if the yield at harvest were not equal in quantity and quality to any wheat crops on his farm I would make up the defici ency in money. These examples are not fair ones, on the account of the lateness of the season when the seed was drilled, but late as it was. I have full faith that the yields will be good. My agricultural readers will smile at this, and perhaps, I fear, do something worse ; but I call to their recollections that as I regularly advertised, I seeded land for 14 vears in succession, and that I never exceeded two pecks or 16 quarts an acre, and sometimes used less than one peck, and yet in each of two of those years I had seven quarters of wheat an acre, and the general average of the 14 crops in 14 years was 44 bushels an acre. Mr Piper, of Colone Engaine, was during the same number of years, producing nearly equally as large yields from only half a peck of seed an acre ; but he alway put in his seed early. This is one of the secrets in the production of large yields from small quantities of seed ; for should the plants be weak and tbin upon the ground before the frost sets in, they are liable to be greatly injured and sometimes even killed in clear cloudless, and.frosty nights by the effects of radiation, and especially where the land is both wet and cold ; hence thin seeders ought alway to take care that their lands are thoroughly drained, or deep enough to raise the temperature of it, as well as to let the water from it. I engage, should my life be spared, to produce roots of wheat from a single seed each, having two thousand-fold. My friends, do not start at this; remember that years back I advertised that I would be led blindfold into my wheat field and pull up root after root having two thousand fold, and some even four thousand-fold.—Geo. WUMns, Wix Vicarage,

DISEASE IN PLUM-TREES. A few days ago we received from MrE. B. Lucas some plum tree leaves covered with insects, some of them in a state of wonderful activity. As soon as possible we communicated with a gentleman well known as ' Naturae Amator,' and he has furnished us with the following reply : " Sir—l lately received enclosed in a letter a few leaves from three separate plum trees —the Magnum Bonum, Orleans and Damson —all infected, as the sender aptly says, ' with the so-called red rust,' but which he rightly, after examination, considers to be insect s. The term red rust is often too frequently applied to any kind of vegetation that may happen to be marked, rubbed, or punctured with reddish spots. The plum leaves, frooa their compression in the letter, heat of the weather, and time they took to- travel, came up in a very dried up state, and what had fallen from or rubbed, off them had become fine dust. This dust was apparently the remains of small insects, whose birth, parentage, and education I. was better able to decide the nature of from the remarks after their first examination by their finder than from any that I could afterwards make, and added to their locality and habits, much limit the number of the insect species to which they belong. This is either to the family Thripida in the order Thysauaptera, or the division i Dimera in that of Homoptera. The first has but one family, the other three or four and under the last of these the Coeeidse, in preference to the Thripidse, I think the late tennants of the marked leaves must be placed. These are winged (but others are not so), that is the female members which are found as described, after their final transformation or change, fixed and motionless on the leaves. The writer says, ' The insect is in the maggot form on the under side of each leaf; to the naked eye it is a small elongate dot of a yellowish brown color, but under a small microscope it assumes the proportions of a well fed maggot.' This appearance is more that of the Coccus than any other. The writer speaks also of the reddish spots on the under sides of the leaves which are caused, as he suggests, by ' growing' of the insect, or rather the pumping up the sap of the leaf. All the four families mentioned before, one of which included those universal pests the different kinds of Aphis, consists of minute vegetable eaters ; and there is hardly a tree, plant, flower, or vegetable so called, that is not at some time or place subject to their attacks often in immense numbers. The writer's complaint is a common disease known in this and other colonies and parts of the world for some time past, caused by these insects thus drawing more or leTss, according to their numbers, the life blood or sap of the plants, &o. We all know too well the works of the Aphis in the family Aphidse so I will just glance at those of the other, destroyers. The Thrips is plentiful enough (that is more than enough) at times, and from the earlier days of the colony I have observed it on various trees, &e., in our summer season —among others, on the leaves of the orange and lemon. Westwood says, speaking of England, that they are often ' extremely injurious, especially in hothouses and vinehouses, the leaves upon which they reside being marked all over with small decayed patches. They also especially infest melons, cucumbers kidney beans,' &c. Various plans for their expiration were given ; among others in two works now getting out of date —the "Gai'dener's Magazine" (of that day), and " Major, on the Insects which Infest Fruit Trees." Other species attack sometimes the wheat and (abroad) the olive trees. In the Dimera, the first fatuity is that of the Psyllidse, all equally minute, and vegetable "feeders in all their states, but different in structure from the last named. They have received specific names from the trees and vegetables they frequent, among which are included apple and pear trees. The Coccus in the last family, and to which the author of the mischief done to the leaves of plums first mentioned seems to belong, is and has been well known for years, mostly from the damage done by one species to the vine ; also the pine apple and orange trees in hothouses. They are well known to gardeners, &c, under the names of scale insects, mealy bugs, &c. The cochineal insect and Scarlet Grain of Poland also belong to this genus. " These insects have been called the phlebotomists of plants attacking them first when their juices are superabundant, but the effects are afterwards, unless kept by some check within bounds, always injurious. As to remediesin the above case, not having works just now by me, I can only say that if but few leaves are affected it will be best to handpick and destroy them. If more, Gishurst's compound for sprinkling or washing the leaves has been generally used with success."

FLO WEE GAEDEN ARRANGEMENTS. Never was there a time when so much attention was devoted to the cultivation of taste and skill in the arrangement of colors. The modern style cf flower gardening has, so to speak, forced this upon the gardening portion of the community.

The bygone system of mixed beds and borders make no great demand upon one'* skill in this respect, but since the fashion of massing large breadths of strong colora has provailed, more attention has perforce been given to the effect which the various colors have upon each other. Occasionally flower gardens may be seen in which the arrangement of the colors is so good as to leave nothing to be wished for, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Glare and glitter are still in force, and that too in many public gardens, the arrangements of which are studied and followed in hundreds of, private places, because it is supposed that the flowers in notable public gardens are certain to be arranged by persons possessing great artistic skill and refined taste; but, unfortunately, this is very far from being generally the case. In most instances no exception can be taken to the coloring in regard to its being correct, yet there is such a constant succession of primary colors that a gorgeous dazzling effect approaching vulgarity is the result. It is the want of refinement of which I complain —that quiet grace which tones down and affects an entire design in such a manner as to impart an indescribable charm to it. Scarlet, yellow, and blue are the dominant colors, and wonderfully striking effects may be wrought out with them ; but it is to the various shades of pink, crimson, purple, and grey that the true artist turns for materials, which, when skilfully interwoven with those other bright colors, impart the highest possible finish to any design, be it large or small. To illustrate my meaning I will take a very common and very beautiful ribbon border of four rows —the first of Cerastium, pearly grey ; the second of Lobelia Trentham Blue, deep blue ; the third of Pelargonium Crystal Palace Gem, rich yellow; and the fourth Coleus Verrcbaffelti, deep rich crimson. Here are three out of the four kinds of plants used imparting the color required by their foliage alone ; therefore if Crystal Palace Gem is suffered to bloom, its flowers would quite spoil the effect. Or, supposing we want an arrangement which shall be so quiet in tone as to neutralise, or rather subdue, the effect of bold masses of color on each side of it, we will take that beautiful silvervariegated pelargonium Miss Kingsbury for our centre, surrounding it with a band of purple King Verbena, and with an equally broad baud or border of Manglesii and pelargonium ; the flower being kept picked off both Maaglesii and Miss Kingsbury, such a bed in such a position is most telling. Then again, how charming is the effect of a compact mass of the silver-variegated foliaged of Perfection when seen in all its purity next such a deep pink kind as Maid of Kent ! but if, when so placed Perfection is suffered to produce its bold scarlet flowers, an air of vulgarity prevails, and the chaste and refined beauty ofitsfoliage is altogetherlost. Our object, then, in arranging the colors in a group of beds should be to produce an effect of purity and brightness, devoid of gaudiness on the one hand of insipidity on the other ; for it should not be forgotton that it is an easy matter to use too much of such plants as Centastium, as well as of those possessing brighter colors.— F.dward LucJchurst, in Journal of Horti~ culture. Seasoning- Wood. — Dr Hartig, of Munich, has recently made experiments on various kinds of woods. He says trees generally contain, during the winter months, about an average of 507 per cent of moisture, which decreases to about 48 per cent in summer. Air-dried wood (timber) contains from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of water, and never less than 10 per cent. Wood, which by being artificially dried has been deprived of all moisture, is thereby entirely altered as regards its cohesive strength: —it becomes brittle, and loses its elasticity and flexibility. In order to dry timber by artificial means, so as t» preserve the essential physical structure, and thereby the good properties of the wood, the drying should be effected slowly, and the temperature to which the timber is submitted should be moderate to begin with, and care taken not to eliminate all the water. He also states that small pieces of wood, such as are intended for joiners and furniture makers, may readily and efficiently be dried by being placed in dry sand, and then heated to 100. The sand acts in the manner of an absorber of the moisture, as well as a diffuser of the heat. Forest Trees. —A notification in the Otago Provincial G-overnment G-azette states that the Provincial Government is prepared to receive applications from persons desirous of taking up land for the purpose of planting forest trees. Each applicant will be allowed to take up an area of laud not exceeding 250 acres, to be selected in any part of the province: provided that, if within goldfields the warden of the district will be required to report, and should the application'be granted, it will be subject to the provisions of the Agricultural Lease Regulations, as to entry to mine or prospect for gold. Any person whose application is accepted will be required, during the first year, to fence in the whole of the area granted to him, and to plant with approved forest trees one-fifth of the area during each of the second, third, and fourth years. _ The remaining fifth may be used for cultivation at the option of the occupant. As soon as these conditions are fulfilled, the occupant will be entitled to receive a Crown grant free of cost