Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 227, 15 January 1876, Page 22

Farm and Garden.

The steamer Omeo brought to Wellington ninety-six Merino rams for transhipment to Blenheim, Mr. Edwards being the purchaser. They were shipped on board the Lyttelton on Friday. The ship Pleiades, which arrived in Wellington harbor on Wednesday, brought two fine shorthorn bulls, consigned to Turnbull and Co., besides a number of Leicester rams. These beasts are in excellent condition ; indeed their appearance is a matter of wonder, considering that they have undergone a voyage of over three months. The bulls in particular are in excellent condition, and through kind treatment have become as tame and docile as pet dogs. It is seldom that cattle look so well after a long voyage. A bearing upon the relative milk producing capabilities of Ayrshire, shorthorn and native American dairy cows, the records of the agricultural college of New Jersey furnish the following :—For the year November 1870, to November, 1871, seven Ayrshires and five natives, average yield 735.2 gallons. Average of Ayrshires, 782.6 gallons ; of natives, 669 gallons. For the year November, 1871, to November, 1872, six Ayrshires, two shorthorns, and seven natives, average yield 742 gallons. Average yield of Ayrshires, 814.5 gallons ; of shorthorns, 557.7 gallons ; of natives, 732.5 gallons. For the year November, 1872, to November, 1873, five Ayrshires, one shorthorn and six natives, average yield 674.7 gallons. Average yield of Ayrshires 663.9 gallons, of natives, 652.7 gallons; yield of one shorthorn, 867 gallons. In the latest report of the American department of agriculture, which is published monthly at Washington, an instance is given i illustrative of the value of field peas as a fertiliser. A planter in Alabama reports that he sowed peas freely between the rows in a field of maize. A drought came on, before the peas matured, and so dried the vines that they died. These he covered by turning two furrows between the rows. This spring, cotton planted on that field is far superior to that on other parts of his plantation. From the results thus far apparent, he judges the pea vines equal to a coat of guano in fertilising value. Instances are also quoted bearing upon the benefits of manuring by folding sheep systematically over worn-out fields by means of shifting hurdles and the sowing of green crops to plough under. Upon the relative merits of thick and thin planting of maize Professor Roberts, of the Cornell University, made some experiments upon the college farm. He planted three plots of three-sixteenths of an acre with maize, and thinned the hills in one lot to three stalks, another to four stalks to a hill ; the third was not thinned. The first plot yielded at the rate of 160 bushels, the second 125 bushels, and the third 106 bushels (of ears) to the acre. Mr. Roberts states, as the result of many experiments prior to these at the lowa College, that the heaviest crops of maize were made by growing three stalks to a hill, and that two stalks to a hill will produce more than five stalks. If every stalk produces an ear, and the corn is planted three feet apart each way, there will be nearly 100 bushels of shelled grain per acre. To grow maximum crops of maize, he states it is only necessary to grow one ear upon a stalk, and the ears of such a size that a hundred of them will make a bushel of grain.

Many dairymen, says the Californian Farmer, habitually overstock their pastures, thus not only doing great injury to the grasses, but the cows, from an insufficient quantity of food in a given space, are required to travel long distances in quest of food, and thus the yield of milk is diminished. By this practice the roots of the grasses and the whole plants are kept so small that their growth is feeble, and not onehalf the feed is afforded that the land would produce if stocked properly and the grass allowed to get a good, thrifty start. But this is not the only disadvantage to the pasture from overstocldng. The feeble growth of the grasses allows other plants to creep in, and the ground soon becomes overrun with weeds, which on account of their not being cropped by stock, grow in great luxuriance, maturing their seed and thus impoverishing the soil. The curse of American dairying to-day is weeds. When once they get full possession they become so formidable that the farmer is often disheartened and gives up their eradication. It is always advisable to pull up or exterminate bad weeds on their first appearance in pastures, and not allow them to spread. There are many weeds that cows will eat during a dearth of nutritious food that give a taint to the milk, and thus are prejudicial to a fine quality of butter. When pastures are overstocked, or when they are not yielding a sufficient supply of good, sweet, nutritious feed, corn fodder, cut grass, or some other forage plant should be given in addition. Some butter dairymen are strong advocates of corn meal as a supplementary feed in summer. Corn meal being of a heating nature we do not regard it as the best selection in hot weather, and if on account of its low price it is deemed advisable to use it at such times, it should be mingled with twice or thrice its bulk of bran. In this way the elements of milk are supplied in better proportion, while the animals will maintain better health. In cold weather corn meal can often be fed with advantage. In winter and spring, roots are exceedingly valuable in keeping up a flow of milk, and in maintaining the health of the animal —a point of very great importance, and which must not be overlooked by the practical dairyman who is seeking the best returns from his herd.

The Angora goat is increasing in favor with Californian land occupiers, the production of the mohair proving very remunerative. The manager of the Farr Alpaca Company, Holyoke, Massachusetts, makes the following remarks on the subject through the Press :

"As we are large users of this description.of stock, I take considerable interest in the growth of it in our country, and I hope it will prove to be a success. I hope the promoters of this new industry understand and are fully alive to the importance of keeping up the breed and quality of the hair. The value of the article depends upon this. Lustre and strength of staple are the two qualities wanted in the commodity. It is the lustre or brightness which gives to this hair its chief value, and it must have length to admit of its being worked advantageously. The shortness of the staple is the principal drawback to the Californian article. The lustre is equal to the best Turkish mohair. If California farmers can grow the stock to average eight or ten inches long, the success of it as a valuable commodity is certain. Hair ten inches long is worth more than double of hair five inches long, and below five inches it is poor stock for any purpose. We recently bought a few bales of California mohair, and paid 85 cents per pound. It was about seven inches long, and had to be mixed with ordinary combing wool to carry it through, which of course detracts a good deal from the brightness of the goods. Had it been two inches longer, it would have been well worth Idol, per pound.

FRENCH AGRICULTURE. (From the correspondent of the S. A. Chronicle.) Paris, October 30.

The subject of selection of seeds, and of wheat particularly, occupies much attention. As a principle, it is said, one ought not to sow wheat in the place where it has been produced. True, it is an excellent practice to renew seed wheat, but is it necessary to do so every year ? Competent authorities, who practice what they think, reply no. So long as the yield of grain shows no falling off, and the grain displays no signs of degeneracy, easy at all times to perceive, there does not appear to be any necessity for changing the seed. Some farmers adopt the practice of selecting every year a quantity of the plumpest grains, sowing them apart in a kind of nursery, and thus keep up a constant supply of sound seed. Unfortunately these kind of sowings are generally too thick —the axiom being forgotten, that the richer the soil the thinner should be the sowing. A soil may be rich and well-prepared, but these conditions will not produce good grain unless the seed be in itself "robust." The vigorous plant is that which has had during the stages of germination the largest supply of matters stored in the seed for its food. It is not counted good farming to cultivate numerous varieties of wheat, save where the farm is very extensive, and it be desirable to have the crop mature at some intervals, to allow of the better distribution of harvest work, For rude climates and poor soils the bearded variety of wheat, with its fine straw, is generally chosen ; the other kinds would simply fail. For milder climates and richer land a variety of wheat more productive, with stronger straw and a harder grain, must be preferred. The crop will thus escape the chances of being laid and the ears from shedding the grain. Farming societies in France are commencing to adopt some excellent measures. Many have already purchased some of the newest types of agricultural machinery, in order to initiate farmers into their use while impressing them with a sense of their importance. From machinery the plan spread to test seeds, and it has now become the turn to experiment with manures. Samples of these are obtained and tried under common conditions as to soil and crops. Thus each Farming Society has its experimental field. The results of a total series of trials with divers fertilisers may be thus summarised : Commercial manures alone ought not to be relied upon to maintain the richness of a soil ; they ought only to be considered as the complement of farmyard manure, taking care to alternate the phosphates with nitrogenous and potash preparations.

M. Goffart was the first in France to adopt the plan of preserved green soiling in covered trenches, as fermented food for live stock during winter and spring. Every autumn he invites those who please to honor him with a visit, to come and witness his process of preserving maize. Three machines (driven by steam) cut the fodder into lengths of one inch ; for every six shovels of the green stuff a workman adds one of cut straw, the mixture is then thrown into the open trench. Five tons per hour is the quantity thus manipulated, .and 50 represent the produce of an acre. The maize is cut just on coming into flower. Of course it can also be stored in an unchopped state. When the weather is wet at the time of putting into the trenches, a more liberal supply of salt is distributed over the mass, at the rate of seven lbs. to the ton. strewing a little in the bottom of the trench, scattering it on the sides —never in the middle—and using it liberally on the whole surf a ce of the last layer. Too much salt would injure the health of the cattle, that ought never to receive more than two ounces of salt daily. Before covering with clay—never with sand—a layer of dry leaves or straw may be advantageously placed over the maize. Any fissures that may open, close them by a stamp of the foot, and in a few days the earth will have absorbed the fermenting gas. During frosty weather the food for the morning should be extracted from the pit the preceding evening, and vice versa; 401bs. is a sufficient average feed for a cow, with lOlbs. of hay, given at three intervals, the first on entering the shed in the morning. Horse breeding in France is commencing to exhibit signs of practical amelioration. One of the chief obstacles hitherto has been indifference as to the food ; this has been almost a rule respecting horses of a light breed, that were generally left to find out their living during their youth as best they could ; precocity was no object, and at the end of four or five years they were certain to sell for something. The matter was different respecting heavy draught animals ; in their case generous feeding during growth was repaid by early dsvelopment and handsome prices. At present the fashion is generally to cross native races with English blood, but French breeders forget,

or desire not to recall, that without liberal feeding there can be no good race of animals ; now liberal feeding means oats, and such is the food that is not forthcoming ; instead, straw and hay, with occasionally roots, are given. What could a race, post, cob, or omnibus horse do in the shape of work, if instead of rations of oats their stomachs were stuffed with straw and hay ? There is a marked tendency for the production of improved breeds of sheep. Each agriculturist apparently desires to have a " species" ] of his own, but what he obtains is, of course, only a variety. The production of wool is no longer regarded, as a paying speculation. Prance cannot compete with Australia, South America, &c. ; hence the aim is the precocious production of meat and of wool at the same time. Now, precocity is not the privilege of any race ; it is a mere question of feeding. M. Pilat is celebrated in the North of France for an excellent variety of sheep known as "Brebieres," formed by the Dishley and a cross-merino breed, which he maintains by careful selections and crossings. The lambs at their birth weigh from 9 to 12 lbs., and like their mothers, are objects of studied care in the matter of good feeding. When six weeks old the tails of the lambs are amputated ; in March castration takes place. The weaning is effected gradually and naturally, and it is in the happy selection of lambs, to be retained as rams, that M. Pilat excels. With the males, the permanent teeth commence to show between the twelfth and thirteenth month ; the animal is adult at thirty months. For fattening he selects the animal having the chest broad and deep ; eye, lively ; head, small ; forehead, broad ; hind-quarter, well developed ; bones, • small; skin, fine and supple. During the fattening, absolute tranquility, demi-obscurity, and regularity of feeding are observed. The lambs, which are in great request, are sold at the rate of sixteen sous per pound, live weight. It must be admitted that the period for paying fancy pi'ices for rams of celebrated flocks is dying out; agriculturists have discovered how to develop precocious breeds, and never to attempt such unless abundant and rich food be obtainable. To have a prize animal, and not the means of feeding in keeping, resembles much the possession of the white elephant. THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUNGBLOOD HORSES. The breeding, riding, and management of horses was the subject of an interesting paper by Mr. Brady Nicholson, of Stanton Grange, Garforth, before a meeting of the West Biding Chamber of Agriculture, the other day. The lecturer, who is well-qualified from his long connection with horses to speak upon the subject, commenced his remarks by describing the best kind of horses to breed from. After adverting to the efforts of Lord Oalthorpe and other noblemen to improve the breed of horses and blaming the French and German war for what he considered the " scarcity" of horses, Mr. Nicholson dealt with the subject of the management of foals. Some of his comments on this head are worthy of being reproduced. He said :—" I think T have now described the animal most likely to breed a valuable horse, so I will pass on to the management of the youngones. Presuming you are anticipating the arrival of your first foal from the favorite mare, the mare is better for exercise—slow work on the farm, if such is her occupation, even up to the time of foaling. Just for that time, if early in the season, she should have bran and linseed mixed. When the foal arrives, should it be costive, either give it a little castor-oil or give it an enema. Many foals are lost in the first few days from want of attention at this particular time. It is also attended with danger, distending the mare when foaling, if the presentation is natural. Thirty-five years ago I thought I would be clever, and assist a favorite mare of my father's. Although I only gently pulled the feet of the foal, my interference hurried the mare, and she died a quarter of an hour after the arrival of the little stranger—she flooded away. When I came home from school we had some forty horse 3 on the place. I thought I would commence doctoring them, and began, to experiment on my father's horses when ill. I think I killed three. One was attacked with inflammation : I bled him till I got the proper pulse, rather fast from the re-action ; so, through ignorance, bled again, and the horse died. After reading Fergusson on blood-letting, I found out my error. Since then I have been more successful in doctoring my own. I have to thank Sir David Cunningham for making me a present of a book on the nature and managementof the horse, by Mr. Koper, veterinary surgeon. When I was at Newmarket judging greyhounds, in 1845, Lord George Bentinck himself spread bone-dust on the grass where his young yearling race-horses grazed. Foals are better taught to lead as soon as taken from the mai-e, and their legs and feet handled. If they happen to meet with any accident, unless they have been haltered and led, they are very bad to manage. Young horses, like children, require kindness and firmness. The more quietly you move about them the better. Numbers of horses are spoilt by ill-treatment. I had a mare named Laurestina, which was very bad to shoe. The village blacksmith was a savage, ill-tempered man, and abused her. After the mare had left above a year, a gentleman who purchased her sent her on to the village to be fed before meeting hounds. She was eating her corn when the blacksmith walked into the stable. She knew him immediately, stopped eating, looked round, and snorted, set back her ears, and would have kicked the man in a moment. He remarked, * By Jove ! she knows me, and would pay me off if she could get the chance.' Horses do know the person who behaves ill to them, and most of them when young will, after ill-treatment, give a parting salute when they have the opportunity. I also look straight at the eye of a horse when I go up to him. If he drops his ears back, I give a quick glance, I speak to him, which draws off his attention of kicking. If a man walks boldly up to a horse he will seldom lash out. Ilarey's success was due to his nerve

and knowing the proper tackle to put on a horse. I remember that first seancehj Mr. Norton which took place in the yard of the George Hotel, at Wakefield. This gentleman had paid £lO for Barey's secret, and. was kind enough to call together his neighbors and friends to see his performance. After taking a view, I was glad my £lO was in my pocket. Strapping up the fore-leg of a vicious horse with a stirrup-leather ! It was practised fifty years ago by my father. At two years old a young horse had better be mouthed and carefully handled a few weeks before turning out to pasture. At three years he should be broken —a most critical time. Much depends on the proper treatment, getting the horse with a good mouth and manner. Should the horse unfortunately throw the breaker and learn wicked ways, he will try to do ditto again if he has the least opportunity. A man that rides a young horse should always be on his guard. When the horse is first saddled, run him up and down the yard till he gets used to the saddle. By 'adopting this method, and keeping your heels from touching him when first mounted till he settles down, many a fall and accident may be thus avoided. Very few men can &it a horse when he arches his back, as he feels as if he were sitting on a grindstone ; and, if he begins to go up and down like mill-sails, he will most probably find himself in the same position as the young nobleman the other day, who was showing a young horse in the front of & baronet's house to a bevy of admiring and fascinating young ladies. The horse was a magnificent animal. I have this year myself at two shows helped to award him two first-class prizes. He, being much above himself, did not approve of the nobleman's handling, and prostrated him on his back, unhurt, in the presence of the admiring fair ones. I, for myself, do not at all envy the nobleman's feelings. Probably had the horse been run up and down first with the saddle upon him, the rider might not have come to grief. I will here make a remark about horses going roarers. I consider one cause to be having them kept in too hot stables, continually breathing vitiated air, which weakens the respiratory organs, and when they go out into the cold east Avind they are always liable to catch cold. When a horse begins to cough, rub his throat.with turpentine, and give him linseed and bran mashes with two ounces of sulphur and half-an-ounce of nitre in it, which treatment I have found successful. I like a cold, dry,- ventilated stable, with plenty of clothes on the horse. I should not advise the breeding of hunters, unless the breeder can either train them himself for the field, or have some one to do so in whom he can place the most implicit confidence, as the great success in breeding depends on the handling and proper training for the field. Suppose you nave no one on whom you can rely : in this case turn your attention to the breeding of powerful cart-horses, as you will find them much more remunerative. Do not forget that cart-horses should have plenty of action : a good mover will cover so many more acres a day on the land, and go quicker from place to place in the town."— Live Stoclc Journal.