FARM ITEMS.

Patea Mail, 28 April 1881, Page 4

FARM ITEMS.

Trenches 4ft wide and 2ft deep are of a size well suited for root storing either in moderate or severe weather. If put in too large heaps, or too deep pits, roots heat, and of course do not keep well. Cover with straw, and lightly with earth patted down to shed rain, and ventilate well.

Root tops and small roots may be fed to cows and young stock quite freely, before they heat, which they do quickly if in heaps. It is well to lay them on the north side of some building, where they will not become sun-dried, for thus they will be kept much longer than in any other way. A calf needs no cream. An excellent animal can be raised on skimmilk warmed to the natural heat of fresh milk, or about 80 degrees. The calf should be taught to drink from the first, in which case it is very little trouble to teach it; it may bo taken from the cow, but kept in sight, or otherwise completely out of hearing, an hour after it is dropped. A hole in the side of a cow’s teat may be closed by clipping away the skin around the edges of the hole, then cutting a small slit across the hole and a little above and below it, and bringing the edges together with a stitch. As the wound heals the hole will close. This should be done when the cow is dry, or a milking tube should be used to draw the milk.

Lice on cows, calves, dogs and poultry should be attacked by means of some oily or greasy substance. This kills them. Sulphur is also fatal to them. Persian insect powder is the best of all remedies. This is to be bad at all the druggists. Whatever remedy is applied should be rubbed into the hair and on to the skin, so as to reach the vermin. Linseed oil and sulphur well mixed together is an effective remedy when it is thoroughly well applied. But it is useless to kill the lice all over the back of an animal and leave a colony alive on the brisket or under the thighs, where they usually abound, as in this case they soon spread all over the animals again.