FARMING ITEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5197, 17 November 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMING ITEMS.

A return laid on the table of the Assembly recently shows that the number of cattle imported'into South Australia during 1876 was 4471, and sheep 29,665 ; the cattle exported numbered 272, and the sheep 1151, the majority of the animals in each case being introduced into the colony overland. Yignerons are very apt to leave too many shoots on their vines, aud they could not pursue a worse policy, for if they thereby obtain a few more bunches, it is at the expense of the quality of the produce and of the future welfare of the plants. Where the soil is poor, and manuring has not been practised, it is of great advantage to apply a portion bonedust to the soil, and harrow or hoe it im A sharp Ipok out must be kept for the oidium, and sulphur applied signs of it are discovered ; though when it is, or has been, prevalent in the neighborhood, it is advisable to apply the sulphur without waiting for the appearance of the fungus. In stacking hay the main rule to be attended to is to keep the stack well up in the centre, not two high in the middle, but having a convex shape gradually rising from the sides and ends towards the centre. This shape being maintained regularly as the stack building progresses, will always prevent it from taking in rain ; while the opposite or concave system of building followed by some provides for the conveyance down through the centre ef the stack of every drop of rain that may fall during the building process, or may find its way through the thatch after the stack is finished. As against the loose haymaking system, however, the practice of cutting hay with the reaping machine and sheafing it is growing in favor, and now that the reaper and binder is coming into use, this practice may be expected to become much more general. Among the more prominent merits of the system may be noted its inexpensiveness of harvesting generally as compared with the present plan, the greater safety secured in the field during broken weather, owing to the crop being stocked insead ; of cocked, aud the. more convenient handling in all the processes between the field and the market. For chaffeuttiug purposes, for instance, the convenience of the sheaves over the loose hay is very marked. On the question as to perpetuating the present system of prohibiting the importation of stock, the Sydney Mail says : —“Mr. Curr, the Chief Inspector of Stock in Victoria, has unconsciously done the Australian colonies a great service. His paper on the importation of stock, which was written with the object of keeping an absurd prohibition in force perpetually, caused a deputation from the Victorian National Association to wait upon the Victorian Premier to request that gentleman to use his influence with other colonics, so that the ports of all might remain closed, an action which resulted in an opinion from the Victorian Premier that prohibition was a rough and ready device of barbarism. Apart from this, Mr. Curr has succeeded in arousing other colonies, but not in the way he desired. South Australia has been long silent on ! the question, but the Adelaide Observer now speaks out. ‘ The result of Mr. Curr’s paper,’ says that journal, ‘has been that the society has adopted a resolution urging the Government wholly to prohibit the introduction of foreign stock into the colony. Of course, if this is approved by the Administration, it virtually also means the exclusion of all stock coming from any other part of Australia, as, if the other colonies open their ports, the Victorian Government must consistently pr ohibit the importation of stock from places which have thus run the risk of contagion.’ ” "Where roses are free from aphides and blight the blooms are promising to be very fine, though they are later thau usual ; two or three good soakings of liquid manure would be advantageous in increasing the size and heightening the color of the blooms. Dahlia plants in pots should be gradually hardened previous to being planted out. If their pots are becoming crowded with roots they should be shifted into larger ones, otherwise the plants are liable to become stunted and the young tubers get cramped and twisted. Another lot of Gladiolus conns may now be planted for autumn flowering. In order to maintain a succession of flowers, the early-blooming sorts may be taken up when past their best aud transferred to some snug sheltered situation, and their places filled with summer blooming sorts. Among those that may be removed are violets, pansies, aud daisies, besides other things of similar character. There are innumerable subjects to take their places, such as Pelargoniums of all kinds, Fuchsias, Calceolarias, Petunias, and numerous others of what may be termed greenhouse plants, besides French and African Marigolds, Zinnias, and others of the more tender annuals. Properly-managed plants of these, and others if put in now trill at once start into growth, and presently make a show which will be continued throughout the season. It shows bad gardening to put miserable little plants into the flower beds and borders that it takes weeks or mouths to make even a decent appearance, instead of having strong established plants ready to fill any vacancies that may occur. Perennial and biennial flowering plants may now be sown, for it is necessary to have the plants strong before autumn in order to ensure a, good bloom. Among them are included Wallflowers both single and double, Sweet Williams and others of the genus Dianthus, Campanulas, Aquilegia, Delphinium, Foxglove, Hollyhock, Pentstemon and biennal stock. When the plants are of sufficient, size they should be transplanted into nursery beds to gather strength and remain till planting time arrives in autumn.

An article in the Melbourne Leader contains the following remarks on hay crops :—Bye grass and prairie grass are now entering largely into the crops which are being converted into hay, and these fodders require even more care in their treatment .than the, oaten hay crop. Care should he taken to out the rye grass and prairie in time, when required for hay. They should not he allowed to stand after the. flowers appear, for if these are allowed to fully open the stems lose in sugar and only gain in woody fibre. Grass hay being finer than oaten, requires more freqdent turning in the field and putting up afterwards in smaller cooks and stacks than does oaten hay. Even when intended for seed, grasses should not he permitted to get too ripe before cutting, v/liile careful handling together with taking due precautions in the way of making the stacking dray or waggon seed proof, by such means as covering the bottom and sides with a tarpaulin, should not be neglected. Lucerne also makes a good hay, and even in its green state, when cut with the chaffoutter, it makes an excellent mixture along with chaffed straw and pulped roots for milch cows’ fodder. An excellent fodder for stock-feeding purposes may also be obtained by cutting lucerne, rye grass, or prairie grass in their green state, partially winnowing them in the field, and then stacking them layer and layer with wheaten or oaten straw and hay. An old straw stack may thus he made into valuable fodder by taking it down, and rebuilding it in alternate layers with sorghum, maize, tares, or similar fodder plants in their green condition. In the cutting of oaten and wheaten hay the chief points to be attended to so as to ensure good hay are, first, cutting before the crop is too ripe—it is better in this climate to err on the green side ; second,, getting the horse hay rake to work immediately after the mowing machine and raking the hay into winrows ; third, getting it'from the winrows into cock before it has time to scorch with I the sun ; and fourth, well securing the cocks by means of hay band or lashing, so as to guard against squalls or storms of rain. A..great quantity of valuable hay is annually lost for want of this necessary precaution, which, if done at once, takes hut little time and makes all safe. Growers of Boses for exhibition often experience some disappointment through their blooms not having been cut at exactly the right moment ; they may be found when wanted for staging too much or too little blown, or the color may have gone ont of them, necessitating some of the finest to be thrown aside and their places occupied by inferior ones at the last moment. The following, which is certainly interesting and may be useful, is by Mr. Henry Curtis, Devon, in the Journal of Horticulture :—“ I was first led to the practice (cutting roses in the sun) by observing during a cold, dry wind with no condensation of dew how much some fine exhibition flowers which I had.

been anxiously watching were retarded and kept back on the trees. After making several experiments to satisfy my mind I was led to the conclusion that the safest plan and the best time to cut in very hot weather for travelling was at six o’clock in the morning and three in the afternoon.”

In planting potatoes where the laud has been heavily manured in autumn and laid up to the weather for some time past, it will require at the beginning of the month to be ploughed again, and to receive alternate barrowings and scarifyings up to the middle of the month, when planting will require to begin. For this purpose the land should be thrown up with the double mould-board plough into ridges about thirty-two inches apart, between which the sets should be planted and the ridges split back again with the same plough. At the end of about eight days a light harrow should be passed over the laud, and this operation should he repeated at intervals of about four days, the intervals being to permit the germination of the weeds, so, that they may be more effectually destroyed. When, the potatoes make their appearance the horsehoe should be kept going between the rows, and the hand-hoe between the sets, so as to keep the crop clean and the soil in that state of tilth which is necessary to ensure a first-rate crop. In the case of growing peas for the purpose of ploughing them down green for manure, the plough will altto require to be at work by the beginning of the month. With reference to the planting of tteeeti some growers speak highly of the practice of healing the outs with powdered lime before planting, as a preventive of the rot which is apt to take place sometimes through planting newly-cut and unhealed sets. In preparing the sets for seed the cutter has a dish of dry lime before him into which he dips the freshly-cut face of the potato set before throwing it among the rest of the seed. Peacocks as Insect Destroyers. A farmer in Ohio, whose neighbors’ crops were utterly destroyed by the Colorado potato beetle, saved his by simply turning out two peacocks into his garden, where they devoured every beetle before the insects had time to commence operations —Sussex Daily Mews. Poultry Food. - - Skimmed milk, or sour milk, or milk in any condition, is a most excellent drink for poultry. It is meat auf drink both. Some of the finest chickens w'-s ever saw were raised upon the free use of milk with their food. Hens lay as well, or better, when furnished with this, than upon any known article offered them. —Utica Deraid, Choking. A gentleman, writing to the Planter and Farmer, gives the following remedy for a choking cow. We suppose it will act as well with other animals, and it will be well to remember it. He says that it has never failed in any instance, and has been tried by him and others hundreds of times. The remedy is to take a tablespoonful of saltpetre, open the animal’s mouth and throw it well back upon the tongue, let the animal go, aud it will either go up or down in a few minutes. —Kentucky Live Stock Record. Land Drainage. The benefit of landdraining was uever more obvious iu the wheat crop than'it has been this "year. : I saw one field in which the were marked by stripes about two yards wide, the corn there being longer, thicker, and more forward thau that'in the intervals. In another field, where the wheat had been put in late and badly, and where there was a very thin crop, there was at least twice as much wheat immediately oyer the drains and for about a yard on each side of them as there was on any equal space iu the rest of the field.—Correspondent to Mark Lane Express. . Odt-door Painting. —We shall do painting on our place that would cost in an aggregate several hundred dollars for labor alone, should we employ professional painters. But being done by our own hands and those of one of our assistants, it will be completed at a saving of more than one-half. We have tried nearly all of the patent chemical paints, and while they answer certain uses, yet for downright serviceable covering to wood they cannot compare with the old-fashioned white lead and oil mixture. We shall never nse a patent paint again on any of our buildings, unless it be in the way of an experiment. Breeding. —ln a recent litter of pigs, from a black sow of the Suffolk sort, but which for twenty years in my hands has had none but a black cross, and but few even such, there, appeared to my astonished eyes a spotted blu ck aud white youngster. I can ouly account for it by the fact that about the time the sow was at service, a neighbor sent a huge white Yorkshire hilt to my black boar, and she was turned amongst the breeding sows, to my horror, which I freely expressed on seeing the bailiff’s careless performance. Whatever be the cause, whether there be that imaginative force in pregnant animals which some believe and some question, anyhow there came in corresponding time this spotted specimen, which, however, no longer lives to perpetuate the mischief. We shall see what will happen the next time the dam breeds. A gentleman (of veracity most assuredly) recently told me of a brood mare belonging to his father in Devonshire, who runs in a field, on one sloping side of which an irregularly shaped piece of yellow clay has been exposed by the removal of the turf. On one foal of this mare’s there appeared a patch similar in shape and hue to this bald spot on the bank which the mare daily beheld.—Correspondent in M. L. Express. Poultry at the Hereford Show.— There was a large collection of poultry in a separate tent in the yard, which attracted quite its share of attention; aud proved the interest which this division of farm live stock always possesses, and at the same time -the wisdom of the managers in providing a poultry prize list. -Among the -classes the white Brahmas were first in quality and numbers. — English Agricultural Gazette.