GLEANINGS.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 318, 4 May 1878, Page 4

GLEANINGS.

[From the Canterbury Times.] The hetchel of culture in a thorough summer-fallow starves out the insect tribes, or gives them notice to quit. Often and often have wc seen crops on raw, half-tilled land standing still in patches while lousy a t the roots. Cattle, patrolling old fields in search of herbage, keep insect life on the move.' Sheep are better, and turkeys digest swarms of grasshoppers and crickets, that we know of, into good phosphates, beside assisting the turkey-farmer, with their keener eycsight, in keeping obscure insect pests in order. A summer-fallow is like that besom of destruction which sweeps away an effete civilisation and leaves a country barren for a while, ready for better seed —or like the care of the vigilant fruitgrower that leaves nothing but green stuff for thieves to plunder.— -Conn. Courant. The Americans are trying the experiment of sending carcases of mutton in their skins, the wool having been scalded off. They skin bettor than one would expect, under the circumstances, and the carcases arc, of course, fresh and clean. At Mr Tallerman’s Cold Storage Wharf in Thames-street, I saw, last week, a carcase in the skin, and one which had been skinned ; the pelts are presumably worth as much here as on the other side, and no canvas cloths are required. There must also be a saving in weight, as the evaporating surfaces are lessoned more than one half. There is, however, more trouble attached to it on this side, and it remains to be seen whether the plan will be generally adopted.—Correspondent Mark Lane Express. The chief value of •wood ashes as a fertiliser depends on the potash which they contain. And when obtained in large quantities they may often bo substituted for potash salts. The quantity to use per aero varies with the character of the soil and the character of the ashes. The more vegetable matter the earth contains the more ashes it will stand. Heavy clay soils have more potash as a general thing than light soils, and consequently need less ashes. The quantity which should be used varies with the above conditions from one to two pecks of (nuleached) hard wood ashes per square rod, or thirty-five to fifty bushels to the acre. Never put ashes into the compost heap, but scatter them broadcast over the field after the first barrowing and before the rest of the manure is admitted. Mr James Burnell, of Pacheco, has adopted for several years a method of sowing wheat which has never been described in the Patent Office, but which we have heard has been practised and advocated by some of our farmers. He fastens a common sack of seed in front of him, on horseback, attaches his feet to guide reins and uses both hands in throwing the grain broadcast, right and left, in such quantity as suits hioi. Being elevated from the ground the seed obtains a wide spread. He says be can sow 20 acres a day without much fatigue in this way. —Pacific Rural Press. The heaviest animal at the Smithfield Club Show was the second prize Shorthorn ox in the aged class, the property of, and bred by, Sir IT. C. Musgrave, of Eden Hall, Penrith. His live weight was 24-|cwt when exhibited. On being slaughtered a few days after the show his dead weight was 17|cwt 21b, which is ■within 27-|- per cent, of his live weight. Of loose tallow there were Bcwt.