FARM NOTES.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 2, 8 April 1893, Page 16

FARM NOTES.

The Victorian Government will abolish the rabbit inspectors, and expect to save £15,000 per annum. When properly looked after, the hen lays 20 eggs the first year; 135 the second; 111 the third; the fourth 9G; the fifth 70; the sixth, 50 ; afterwards declining rapidly, The Waimatuku dairy factory, which is under the capable management of Mr. Stobo, will close for the season about the beginning of May. The oldest Hereford herd in America is that of Erastus Corning, Albany, Hew York. It dates back to an importation of 1840. It lias been proved by exact experiment that the keeping of apples depends upon the integrity and completeness of the natural

varnish on their skins. When this was gently rubbed off in part the fruit soon lost 5 per cent, more of its weight by evaporation than by samples left intact but similarly stored. And apples with the waxy coating unharmed did not decay for a long time, although smeared with mould and kept in a moist and warm place. Some farmers (remarks an exchange) ignore profits in keeping hens. They want simply enough to supply their tables with eggs and broilers. Others aim for profit as well. Market poultry is the foundation of the poultry business as pork is the foundation of fancy breeds of hogs. Like any other business, it requires knowledge and experience. One who is without experience should try a small number, learn to care for them, and study the wants and characteristics of each fowl. He will then be able to increase his flock. Pleasui’c is a secondary thing if the aim is to make a business of poultry keeping. Every farmer should keep a few fowls ; they can be cared for with little attention, when a large flock always means work to the owner. How did the word ‘‘bay” ever come to be used in connection with the colour of the horse? It is not used in that sense for any other objects. It is said to have been first applied to a breed of horses too light to be called brown and too brown to be called red. These horses were found in a district in England noted for its bay trees, for the leaves of which they showed a great liking. Every breeder of horses in that locality relied upon these trees for the medicine with which to cure his diseased animals. The horses coming from this district became known as bay horses, and their uniformity in colour led to the common use of the term. The following letter, which appeared in the Australasian some time ago, is of interest ; —As partly explanatory of the famine in Russia and the steady decay of agricultural prosperity in that country, the London Spectator, of June 25, quotes a paragraph from a much-read German agricultural gazette. It will interest those of jour readers who desire the preservation of our own forests:—“ The wanton despoiling of Russian forests during these last thirty years has led to such widespread devastation in the woodlands that industrial Western Europe is at present richer in woods than Central Russia. The havoc wrought in the forests has had the result that the abundance of water in rivers and inland lakes has decreased ; that immense masses of quicksand have been formed, which encroach steadily upon the cultivated land; that the Russian territory is becoming desiccated and nature impoverished; that the temperature in summer has increased by 3dcg., and decreased in winter to the same extent. Professor Bogdanon, who lias diligently studied these subjects for years, predicts, upon the above grounds, that the metamorphosis of the ‘black earth’ into a desert will be accomplished within the next century, unless this destruction of woods bo proceeded against with ruthless energy.”