The Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 34, 16 September 1871, Page 8

The Farm.

COTTAGE MANAGEMENT OF THE SILKWORM.

The Second Age.—The ninth day of rearing—On the morning of this day they willhave cast their skins and require food. As on the beginning of the former age, twigs should be laid over them, and as soon as they get loaded with worms remove them to clean paper trays ready prepared for them. In this age they will require double the space to grow in, as they increase so much more in size ; they must be laid in squares, about one-fourth the space they will fill during this age ; and care must be taken to enlarge the squares every time they are fed. Due attention must be paid to increase the quantity of food given, up to the fourth day; on the fifth day they will require but little, arad on the sixth little or none, as they will become torpid: in this age the leaves need not be cut quite so fine. They will consume double the quantity, and in less time. The temperature of the apartment should be kept as regular as possible, and it must be well ventilated, but no strong current of air should be allowed to paßs over the worms; and when the sun shines, a blind should be hung up against the window, as the rays of the sun are very hurtful to them.

The Third Age,—the 15th day of rearing.— In this age, the worms increase so much in size, that more than double the space will be required to what they had last age, and four times ..the quantity of food. As soon as the worms are revived, remove them to clean trays, as explained in former ages ; increase their food up to the fifth day. The sixth day half the quantity will suffice as given last day; and on the seventh little or none, as they will begin to cast their skins, and enter upon the fourth age.

The Fourth Age,—the 21st day of rearing. —ln this age they will consume about three times the quantity of leaves as given last age ; they should be older, and not cut so fine, and will require rather more than double the extent of tray. Remove them as in the last ages, on clean trays, and every time they are fed increase the quantity of food up to the fifth day. The sixth day, about half the quantity, and on the seventh day little or none, as they go through their last moulting, and enter upon their last and most precarious' stage as silkworms.

If the weather be cold, a fire should be kept up; but be careful of smoke, as it is very hurtful. If the weather be favorable, blazes of wood shavings, or light wood, should occasionally be had recourse to agitate and renew the air within, and to check any bad unpleasant smell, and carry off any damp. The Fifth Age,—the 27th day of rearing.— This is the commencement of the longest and most dangerous age of the silkworm, and the greatest attention must be paid not only to the feeding, but to the ventilating, to keep up a regular temperature and prevent dampness and noxious air. Strict attention must be paid to clean the trays of the excrement of the worm and the refuse every morning ; for cleanliness is of the greatest consequence. _ The thermometer should be kept up to sixtyeight degrees, or perhaps varying from sixtyfive to seventy-five degrees, but not under sixty-five if possible. A hygrometer is a most useful instrument to measure the humidity of i the apartment, as a dry atmosphere is of great

importance, and dampness may be considered the greatest bar to success in rearing the silkworm in this country. If a hygrometer cannot be had, a little salt placed in a dish will show when there is any appearance of dampness ; when there is the least indication, blazes of wood shavings, or small wood, should be had recourse to until the dampness disappears; or if a fire is required to maintain a heat as well, billets of wood, or coal, must be used. If ventilation and blazing fires are not sufficient to carry off the noxious air arising from diseased worms or other causes, recourse must be had to kill it, which may be done with the following ingredients : with 2 oz., of salt, mix 1 oz., of powder of black oxyde of manganese; put this mixture in a wine bottle, with 20z., of water, stir it about, then cork it well, until you want to use it; procure also about half-a-pound of sulphuric acid. Care must be taken not to place it near the fire. When it is required to kill the noxious air, pour a little of the sulphuric acid, say about a tea spoonful, into the bottle containing the mixture of black oxydeof manganese; alight vapor will issue from it. The bottle should be moved up and down the apartment, this should be repeated perhaps two or three times a day. The bottle must be well corked when not in use. Always when the cork is drawn, hold it as far from you as you can, as the vapour is very searching and rather dangerous ; when you fumigate, add a little of the sulphuric acid, but not so much as at first. Should the substance in the bottle harden, add a little water and stir ic about.

In this last age, the silkworm should be fed with full grown leaves, and given whole ; the quantity they will require, if they succeed well, will be about four times what they consumed the last four ages. They must be given perfectly dry, and a stock of leaves should be kept always on hand, in case of wet weather. If they are two days old they will answer very well but must be kept dry, a little spread out, and turned occasionally, to prevent them from sweating, and top leaves from shrivelling. Up to the sixth day they will consume an immense quantity of leavesf increasing the quantity every time you feed. On the morning of every day they should be removed to clean trays, the best time to remove them is immediately after the first feed.

As soon as they get upon the leaves or twigs, remove them to the clean trays, it may be necessary to remove a few of the large worms with the hands, or it is better to take them up with a quill, as the less you touch them the better, our hands being so much warmer than their bodies, are very hurtful to them. The paper trays used the first day, will answer for the third, and so on. For the seventh day, a less quantity of leares will be required than on the former day, and the eighth day, still less; the ninth day very few will be required, but observe to give them as much as they will consume at all times, now in particular. On the tenth day a sprinkling of leaves may be given. On this diy most of the worms will shew symptons of rising ; they beceme a transparent color, restless, move about without eating, rearing their heads, as if looking out for something, and get along the Bides of the trays. When such is the case, it is a sure sign that they are going to prepare to spin their silk. As soon as they show the above sign, small twigs of birch, or bunches of heath, should he got in readiness, and stuck round the sides and back of the trays, meeting at the top, so as to form an alcove, the front should be left open that you can sweep up the litter, and assist some of the worms to rise; but most of them will get upon the branches without any assistance. Some of the worms may be two or three days later than the others in rising ; if any remain after the third or fourth day, they should be collected and put on a tray by themselves, or otherwise thrown away. From the hatching of the silkworm to the time they rise it will occupy about thirty-six days. Various are the diseases incident to the silkworm, through bad management, but I cannot go into particulars, as it would take up too much space. As soon as any diseased worms appear, they should be picked out immediately and thrown away. {Concluded in, our next.) SEEDS AND WEEDS, .AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF FARMS. The following interesting paper was read by Mr Morton, at a meeting of the Ballarat Farmers' Club, held on the 19th August:— Gentleman, —Agreeably with my promise to read you a paper giving my experience of farming in this district, I will commence by stating that about 16 years ago I purchased a farm at Learmonth, and commenced cultivating it. Possessing no practical knowledge of the business I merely adopted, in a rough way, the practice of others ploughing, sowing and reaping, which was all indeed that was required in those days to obtain from our virgin soil 50 and 60 bushels to the acre, and in many cases more. But, unfortunately, my want of practical knowledge soon told upon my farm, and that which was once of first-class quality, within four years became a perfect hot-bed of weeds, wild oats, sorrel, wild mustard, &c. Indeed, after the fourth year weeds were the rule and grain the exception ; so much so, that after threshing the crops of 100 acres I had seven bags of splendid sorrel and about 20 of wild oats, leaving only about 1100 bushels of clean grain, and so ignorant was I of the difference between the seeds of sorrel andjwhite clover, that I sold two bags to a Mr Quinlan at 6d per ft., believing it to have grown from clover seeds put in with the crop on about 30 acres of land laid down for grass that year. Fortunately for my neighbor, who knew as little about clover as I did, before delivering the seed, Mr Kinnersley called at my place, and, with a view to induce him to purchase, I praised my clover seed so much that he asked to see it. Judge of my surprise when he declared it to be sorrel. I saw at once how narrowly I had escaped an action at law, and from ruining my poor neigh*

bor. From that time forth, I paid greater attention to the selecting of seeds and general management of my farm, a brief outline of which I will now give you. In the year 1861, finding it unprofitable to go on farming as I had been, I purchased from Mr M'Dowall 20 tons of bonedust at the rate of £6 per ton putting it on 80 acres of land, and regret to say that I did not that year receive any material benefit from it. Thirty-six acres were sown with wheat, and 44 with oats; but so dirty was the land that, after threshing, I had 17 large bag of sorrel and other rubbish ; while of grain there was not over 1400 bushels. Thirty acres of the 801 ploughed immediately after harvest and kept constantly turned over as the weeds appeared and in May, 1863, put in oats and barley, which yielded about 45 bushels of Tartarian oats and over 30 bushels barley, all pretty clean. The other 50 acres I had laid down with artificial grasses and oats, which cut about two tons of dirty hay. to the acre. Had this paddock received the same treatment as the other, by way of ploughing, &c. I have no doubt the hay would have been of a much better quality, and were it not for the application of bonedust, I suppose (from the filthy nature of the land) I would not have had more than 15 or 16 cwt of hay to the acre. From the experience thus gained, as well as constantly reading several excellent articles written upon the system of rotation of crops, I determined upon adopting that course, and to test its efficacy, in 18641 broke up a paddock of 27 acres, which was laid down with clover and rye grass for three years. The first crop gave over 47 bushels of oats to the acre, with very little wild oats or weeds; the second nearly 30 bushels of wheat to the acre, although the wild oats and weeds Beemed to increase. The third year I put rye-grass and clover with the oats and made hay of it. The paddock is now in splendid condition, having been fed off by sheep during the last three years, and I believe if broken up it would give as good crops for two or three years as when first cultivated. I would have mentioned that two years ago I fattened within four months eight sheep to the acre on this lot. In 1865 I also broke up 37 acres of land that had been in grass only three years, having previous to laying down given six crops, with even better results. I had to mow a great part of it for hay the first year, the crop being too heavy, and the two following years I averaged 28 bushels to the acre. This paddock is now two yearß in grass, and looks clean and in splendid condition. So satisfied am I of the benefits to be derived from a system of rotation of crops that I do not intend to take off more than three grain crops from any of my lands. As a proof of this I have now only 50 acres in cultivation, and over 400 in artificial grasses. Weeds, too, of every description can be destroyed if the grass land intended to be put under crop is well fallowed during the summer previous to sowing. I find that all the small fibres of sorrel and other weeds form tap roots, and that the roots of many weeds die out below a depth of six inches from the surface—that is, where the land is in grass for from three to four years. Summer fallowing of grass land will also enable the farmer to destroy nearly all the wild oats that had not previously germinated. I would advise all farmers not to put stable or farm yard manure (no matter how well made) upon land intended for grain crop. Many of the seeds of weeds, such as cern cockle, commonly called iron-weed, remain for more than twelve months without germinating. Farm yard manure should be well decomposed and put in for green crops or top-dressing grass. The latter course I have pursued with great advantage for the last four or five years. Now, a few words upon the advantage of combining sheep farming with agriculture. No matter how small th& farm, I think I will be able to prove to you that, with proper attention, the farmer need not allow his land to become poor or dirty. Six months ago Mr Kinnersly had a farm of sixteen acres, in which there were twelve acres of mangels growing. I advised him to try how sheep would answer on it, and I will now read his opinion of the experiment. Mr Kinnersly says : —" In answer to your inquiry as to the success of feeding sheep on mangels, I beg to give you the following particulars :—I had twelve acres of mangels sown, but owing to the seed being bad there were so many failures that in the latter end of November, 1870, after scarifying the mangels, I drilled a row of maize between each row of mangels; together I estimated the crop to be equal to 15 tons of mangels per acre. On the 6th of May I placed 860 sheep on them, allowing them the run of a paddock of sixteen acres of grass at the same time. They ate the maize freely from the first, but for the first week or ten days did not appear to care much for the mangels, and though considered quiet for merino sheep, were very unsettled; and I think during the first three weeks rather went back in condition. After that time I kept them on the mangels exclusively, giving them a fresh patoh every second day, and had sufficient mangels to keep them four weeks longer, or seven weeks altogether. After the first fortnight they commenced to eat the mangels freely, and scooped them out of the ground several inches deep, and preferred the mangels to grass, as on several occassions I drove them into an adjoining grass paddock, and on each occasion they made back to the mangels at once. I do not think that the sheep improved in condition during the time they were on the mangels, but am of opinion that quiet sheep that had been accustomed to small paddocks would do better; or probably ewes and lambs would be found more profitable, as the mangels could be eaten off during the autumn, when feed is generally scarce, and the mangels would be off the land in time to give the succeeding grain crop the best possible chance. Should it be found necessary to provide feed to supplement the pastures during the winter months, I think rape or mustard will be found preferable to mangels, as they could be sown on; land intended for fallow, and if found too

succulent, the sheep could be put into a straw yard at night, and given a little clean straw to eat, and bedded with damaged straw. By these means the whole refuae straw of the farm could be converted into manure of the best description. Mr William Vaughanhas tried this plan of converting his straw into manure, and he assures me with complete success, not only in yielding a more certain profit than cattle, but making better manure. And if successful when only yarded at night off the ordinary pasture, how much greater probably would be the success if fed during the day on Bucculent food, such as rape, mustard, or white turnips." You will perceive from this report that sheep in great numbers ean be kept on a very small farm, and I have no doubt that the agriculturists of this colony will ere long be in possession of as many sheep as our squatters have at present. No doubt can exist as to its practicability, for mangels can be supplemented by rape, which is well known to fatten trom ten to twenty sheep to the acre in England. All wo require is a quiet class of sheep, a stringent dog act, and a fencing statue ; every man to have his fence sheep-proof. This done and a farmer with 160 acre can with system of rotation of green crops, sustain upon 80 acres 1000 sheep, say, for six months —that is upon mangels, rape, turnips and maize. The present system of farming, as encouraged by every succeeding G-overnment, will I fear before, long reduce the lands of this colony to the miserable condition of millions of acres of what was once the finest land in America. According to the published reports of the hon. the Commissioner of Agriculture, the State of Ohio in that country, and those once fertile lands east of California, are now almost deserted. This the Commissioner eays was brought about by the facility afforded to agriculturists to obtain fresh land, to operate upon in the same ruinous manner as those deserted. He says that land that once gave 50 or 60 bushels to the acre, in a few years—through bad management—yielded only three or four bushels; and this most assuredly will be the fate of Victoria, but with much more calamitous effects, because the area of agricultral land in this colony is limited, compared with America. But, to prevent this misfortune to the colony, I will conclude by suggesting a systematic rotation of crops, greater care in the selection of seed, efficient drainage of all lands, and to never cultivate more than can be conveniently attended to. Farmers in this colony have not up to the present time occupied a proper position. They are without influence in the Legislature, and their interests are left to a lot of men just as ignorant of their requirements a I was when I commenced farming.— '' Australasian."