Notes and Gleaning.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, 3 December 1887, Page 4

Notes and Gleaning.

American Chops.- -The report of the Agricultural Department for August announces a reduction in the national average for corn to 80.7, against 97.7 in July, the falling off being caused by long-continued drought in the va'leys of the Ohio and Missouri, where two-thirds of the crop are grown. Spring wheat has fallen oil" slightly, the average being 78.8, against 80. 8 in 1886, but in the extreme east and on the Pacific Coast the condition is high. The condition of oats is So. o, indicating that the crop is slightly under the average. Barley is 86.2, which indicates a nearly average crop, and the July yield is favourable.

Waste on the Faiim. — Guard strictly against waste. " Uather up the fragments that nothing be lost." This may be applied specially to the making and saving of manures. How often we have seen the essential strength of the manure heap polluting the loadsido and binall streams of water ; piles of oyotei 1 shells, bones, old boots, and other rubbish disfiguring the highwi\\ ; ashe^, soapsuds, soot, and other na-to maleiial .so miscalled — adorning the backyard, when a little time and labour would convert all into valuable plant food and gieatly piomote both the neatness and health of the promises. But most precious are the fragments of time. ''Time is money, ' and these fragments should not be squandered but put out at inleiei-t.— lUiioC JS r cir Yvrhir.

WOKKIXG lIORSLS IN H(»T WhATIIUi. — That hor.ses at haul work should haAe au oppoilunity of drinking good clean water, \vhono\ei they aie inclined to do so, is a tact a\ ell known to e-\ cry hor»c owner who studio-? the comfort and health of his animals-. Horses should not be compelled to go thirsty at any time, but particulaily when ut hard woik and sweating freely, when the uater is returned to keep up the moisture oi the body. When kept for several hours without water, they not only suffer for want of ifa and work with le^s spiiit, but will drink too much when they have an opportunity. It) America in veiy hoi weather many contrivances aie adopted to add to the eomfoifc of holies v. lien at work in the heat of the day, and the Salioncl JJt'c Slock Journal .says that it is quite a common practice lo fasten a large .sponge satmafced with cold water on the top ot the aniinalV head. Thi-. precaution is of course intended to guaul ayainsfc .sunstroke.

A Straw Bv\i> Sin; vi Bimikr. -The most original invention ol the year in connection with agriculture is undoubtedly the stvdwband harvester of .Mr. Walter A. Wood, of Worship Stieet, which is now being shown at the American Evhibition. Tlio specimen, inaclmie has cut and bound into sheaves the produce of foitj r acres without using wire or stiing' or any other binding material than what may be designated the natural one of btiaw. The band in made by the harvester. t\\ isting the band, sheaf by sheaf, a.s it) proceeds, horn a bunch of pieviou&lj cud stiaws carried upon the machine. The straw s are cut to a uniform length of about 22 inches, a loo'e bundle of .some 10 inches diameter sen ing* to bind the sheaves ot at acre of crop. Wheat or other straw can be u=sed ; but .straw broken by the tlneshing machine i-> objectionable, and strong 1 rye&traw from winch the ears have been cut oft in a sort of chopping-box is preferred. The few bunches employed for displaying the action of the binder at the exhibition are fiom lields of lye in the neighbourhood of London ; «omc were brought from Dorchester, where crops were cut ab the summer show trwd oi reapers. In practice, probably half an acre of rye would .supply .straw enough for binding about 300 acres o£ ■wheat, bailey, or oaU. It is considered that the substitution of straw for twine will sa\e four-fifths the expense of binding.

The R utvKsT ov the World. — At the opening ot tho Vienna C-liain and .'iced Pair, the estimate of the entire harvest of the uorld "\vn c v as usual, published. Assuming the number 100 to represent an average harvest, the yield of wheifc in 1887 in the following countiie-. is indicated by the undei mentioned figure^: In Austria 117, Hungary 120. Son h 140, Switzerland 110, France, 10."), Civat Brkain and Ireland, 120, Wall.ichia 101, Central Russia US, Northern Russia 95, ]\lolda\ ia 00, Italy 90, and Egypt 9.1. The yield in Indi'i is estimated this yea: at 6,300,000 tons, against 7,729,000 tons last year, and in Ihe United States 4-20,000,000 bushels, against 407,000,0001a5b year. Rye i< generally above the aveiage. Barley yields in Austiia 106, Hungary 116, Bavaria 115, Wallaehia, 115, i'rnssia Q 6* Great Britain and li eland 90, and Egypb 80. Oats pive in Hungary 104, Italy 125, Central Russia 108, Austria 92, Great? Britain and Ireland 83, Roumama S5, Prussia 87, Ba'wma 70, and Bessarabia 70. The yield of maize or Indian corn in America is 1 ,600,000,000 bushels, against 1,065,000,000 last year.

Govr.RXwevr Grant for HoKbE-bREED-isq, — Commenting on the Government grant for hoi se- breeding, the Norwich l)[ercury says :—" At last the Queen's Plate money, amounting to £3,000 a year, is to be made to serve this useful end ; as, in fact, has been the intention of the vote all along. To this sum, other public money is to be added so as to make up a total of £5,000 a year. Now comes in the farmer's part of the business. To benefit him, and really to improve his horse stock, ought to be the one object. But itia much more likely that a few owners of thoroughbred horses will expect to receive the whole grant. Agricultural, coaching, i and hackney horses are beneath the attention of most of the men, who by ' real good sound blood put within reach of the tenant farmer ' understand only racing blood. The Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs, Lincoln, Easb Yorkshno, and Cleveland district peers and members of Parliament should be solicited to ork together for the advantage of their fanner constituents, who arc particularly interested in this matter."

S vi/r. — While salt, is a neecessary ingredient of the food of man and animals alike, ifc is, says a veterinarian writer, in excesh, highly "injurious, and even toxic. Its physiological action is that of a restorative mainly. It is absolutely necessary for the purpose of forming gastric juice, and to some extent the bile ; of digesting albuminoids, and of preserving the blood in a normal state. If, however, it is given in excess it produces sub-acute inflammation of the bowels, vomiting in certain animals, and skin eruptions, with loss of hair in hairy animals, and of feathers in the feathered tribes. In one ham and bacon importing; and curing establishment, well known to the writ er, almost every dog that was purchased for watching purposes became in due course the subject of chronic disease of the skin, which in every instance was very difficult to cure. In this case the animals rcceh ed as savoury morsels the ham bones, -\\ hiuh Avero denuded of their fleshy covering in the act of "boning." In very large quantities salt is a violent irritant poison, particularly to tho pig, producing intense inflammation of the mucous membrane of the &asiro intestinal tract, convulsions, distressing vomition, and, in the pig, frothing af) the mouth, champing of the jaws, and marked abdominal pain. Therapeutically, few of the inorganic preparations have a wider range of use than has common salt ; but, like all other good things in this world, it may bocomo a source of evil if injudiciously employed.