NOTES AND GLEANINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 359, 13 April 1889, Page 3

NOTES AND GLEANINGS.

Young Farmers Take Courage-!— Having a business which is sure to give a living to an average man, and just as sure to give more to a man above the average, what need has the ambitious young farmer other than to set his face to the morning, and persevere ? The greatest foe to success on the farm is ultra old-fogeyism, — the refusal to learn, or to accept the teaching of experience. The spirit of the age is a spirit of investigation and progress. It has remodelled the world in half a century, and has done something for the farmer, but it can do much more. "It is not in our fates but in ourselves, if we are underlings." Tnii "Nkw Gospel."— This is not only the ago of change and progress ; it is also the age of specialties. Every one of the grrand divisions of human activity is being subdivided, because there is such an increasing deal known, and to be known and done, in each, that none but a very exceptional man can excel in all. Farming is the broadest of all businesses, and the most . complicated, and consequently calls the , most loudly for subdivision. The great majority of our best farmers are specialists. Soon all will be go, by force of necessity. Care ov Machinery. — The most important lesson in the economical care of machinery which the farmer needs to learn is to pi'otect it from the weather. The power of the, "elements, " rain and wind, does more in the work of disintegration and change every hour than all the steam power upon earth could accomplish since the world was created. Mountains are levelled down, rocks are crumbled away, thousands of billions of tons of water are raised in the air from oceans and rivers'and lakes to fall back in rain. , Forests and flowers come and go at 'their giant bidding} ■ and 'yet the farmer leaves his delicate' reaper or thrasher exposed to all their power, and wonders why it so soon gives way. The advice to house implements is so much more important than any other we could give, that we might stop here, but would say, a small portion of the money lost in implements giving way comes of want of proper attention to keep nuts tight, oiling, etc. New Potato Harvesters. — Writing about the machinery exhibits at a recent lowa State Fair, F. S. White says :— " Among the new implements are two potato harvesters that were on exhibition. One is manufactured in Ohio j the other at Prairie City in the great potato-growing section of lowa. These machines are both constructed with endless chain belts which carry the potatoes up on an apron which, drops the tubers over behind the plough, after separ-

ating them from all dirb and weeds. 1 They are made heavy, and ibr will. take| lots; 6f horse power to pull oneof them," especially if the land is a little wet. My opinion is that only under the most favourable conditions could either of these harvesters be made a labour-saving device. New potatoploughs are also brought out each season, and I do not think we are ready to lay aside the ploughs for these large expensive harvesters, though our potato ploughs are far from perfection, and there seems to be a better opening here for mechanical skill, and I am sure a fortune awaits the man who will make a perfect working potato plough. X have tried quite a number of potato ploughs, and ■ find the great trouble is that when the fingers are leb back low enough to allow the trash and dirb to pass over, they let too many potatoes go over which get covered up with the dirt. If the fingers are raised high enough to hold or catch all the potatoes, the plough catches two much trash and is too easily clogged up in web or weedy land. A potato plough manufactured at Hamilton, Ohio, comes nearer a perfect potatoharvesting implement than any^ I have tried, and my only objection co it is that the fingers ai*e seb too low, and let too many potatoes pass over them. It has something similar to an old-fashioned coulter, witn a roller attached, which works between the beam and plough and rolls all the trash off out of the way of bhe plough and potatoes. With the best machinery thab can be made, there will be plenty of heavy hand work in potato harvesting." A Horse Worth £250, 000. — Theinfluence of one good sire is scarcely estimable, but in the Live Stock Journal Almanack for 1889 Mr W. BurdeU-Coutts, M.P., calculates bhafc the celebrated hackney stallion, Triffit's Fireaway, represents in his stock a money value of £250,000/ He is now rising thirty years old, and has been at the stud for over twenty-five years. He has averaged over 100 foals a year, the least prices of which are given ab £100 each. So great is his influence that his stock can be recognised ab sight, and an instance is given of foals got by him out of a carb maro which as five year olds were sold by London dealers _ at 300 to 400 guineas the pair. A Patent Tree Killer.— An invention which may have no slight influence on the future settlement of the bush lands of New Zealand, says an Auckland paper, is jusb being patented here and in all the colonies. Ib is a composition which, when trees are inoculated with ib, mingles ibself wibhbhesap and circulates through every branch and leaf, utterly destroying the life and rendering the standing tree in three months' time dead and rotten, and so highly inflammable thab when fired it burns away literally root and branch ; for the fire creeps even down the roots into the ground, consuming them ao thoroughly that the land can be ploughed afterwards. Ib is available also for old soumps, bhus doing in a monbh whab nature takes years to accomplish. The process of inoculation is simplicity ibself, requiring little labour. Ib is simply the boring of a hole about six inches into the bree with an inch augur, filling with composition, and afterwards plugging with cork, tough clay, or other suitable substance. It has had several trials, and has done effectual work in all cases, in one instance 700 acres having been cleared with it, every tree being successfully dealt with, This will be welcome news for bush settlers, as not only saving much labour, bub adding to the value of land by a much quicker and more thorough clearance, and by bringing ib into an earlier condition for cropping. Ib is ' also very inexpensive, not costing more than a few pence even for a large tree. Selling by Live Weight. — We have frequently discussed this question, and striven to awaken an interest in the subject amongst New Zealand stock owners. However, they seem content with the old guess - work method of arriving at the butcher's value of a beast. In England, as we have previously shown, the sensible American plan of selling by weighb is being gradually adopted. Before the House of Commons adjourned ab the end of lasb session" Mr Mahoney asked the President of the Board of Trade, "whether sales of cattle by live weighb, and sales after cabbie have been weighed, had considerably increased in number during bhe past two months in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Newcastle, Liverpool, and Islington ; and whether he could now say when he would issue to members the first reburn of such sales. Sir M. Hicks Beach, in reply, stated thatthe usage indifferentmarkets "had shown ib was practicable to effect sales by weighb. The practice had been established in one or two markets, but could nob be said to have increased generally. In Liverpool, however, sales of cabbie by weight Had increased considerably, and there was a slight increase in the returns for October over those of September. He hopod bo publish some informabion in reply to the lasb parb of bhe quesbion in the shape of the reburn moved for. Farmers and the Parcels Post. — Itia nob genealiy known whab a real help to English farmers and horticulturists is afforded by the well organized parcels-post of Great Britain. This gives farmers a chance to sell small quantities of produce, such as fruits, vegetables, poultry, etc., direct to consumers by mail. Irish farmers areasking that thisaccommodation be carried still further by having the value of goods sent by parcel-po&b collected by the postoffice authorities, much the same as packages are now sent by express in this country, cash on delivery. The parcels would be marked with the amount to be paid on delivery, and if refused, the goods would be returned to the sender. This is a scheme thab many farmers on a small scale in other countries would be quick to take advantage of. A similar plan works very sabisfacborily in Germany.