FARM ITEMS.

Patea Mail, 15 February 1881, Page 4

FARM ITEMS.

For liver complaint in fowls, use one pound ot alum to one quart of water. The Live Stock Record speaks of a cow that has never been dry a single day during seventeen years of milking. The proper site for a farmer’s house is one that is centrally situated in the farm. No man can be a successful gardener who does not thoroughly cultivate. No other crop requires a more vigorous start than roots. Plants are like cold-blooded animals —their vital activity increases with the temperature. It is a significant fact that Californian farmers are beginning to plant a variety of crops—formerly it was corn only. The Western Rural says that buckwheat not only prepares the soil for itself, but also for other crops as well, by pulverising it if is is hard and tough. Californian sheep men are looking forward to a series of prosperous years. It is with them as with Victoria ; the days of immense flocks are over—small flocks of first-class sheep well cared are now the nile.

A hogget in the old country is a sheep in its second year, that has not been shorn as a lamb, such shearing being very rarely practised. In this country lambs are more commonly shorn but the name “ hogget ” is still applied to them until after the next shearing. The fleeces of sheep of the age in question, that were shorn as lambs, would, however, not be called or marked on the bales, “ hogget wool,” it is, therefore, logically incorrect to call such sheep hoggets. If one has a hen that wants to sit which he docs not want to sit, if he will try the plan of shutting her up and feeding her well, instead of starving her, he will be pleased with the result. Instead of running perfectly useless for a long time she will begin to lay in a few days. Professor Farrington, in a summary of the experiments begun in 1870 by the Maine Agricultural College to ascertain which has the greater value as a food for swine, cooked or uncooked meal, says:—“ We have, by an experiment which has been continued through from three to four months of each of the nine years since its beginning, obtained evidence that all the money and labour expended in cooking meal for swine is more than thrown away. Farmers at Mount Gambia, South Australia, have engaged an expert to undertake the management of a factory for the profitable utilisation of milk, potatoes, and pigs. The gentlemen agreed to bear the cost of procuring apparatus to make experiments in milk condensing, and to use 100 gallons a day in order to test the market. If successful, a company will be formed, and the industry commenced on a large scale. Bacon curing and potato preserving will follow.