FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1916, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

"Kainmaking is beyond the power of man," says Mr. H. A. Hunt, Commonwealth Meteorologist. "People who talk about directing electricity through cloud systems to precipitate rain and other dream schemes of that kind are not aware of the physical problems tlicy arc up against. One of the reasons of tllie omnipotence of man in regard to rainmaking is the fact that rain is caused mainly by the movement of air currents against falling temperature gradients." In the United States nearly 10,000 square miles of territory were released from cattle tick quarantine in the south on March 10 last. This, added to the previous territory cleared up, made a total of 470,-li7'» square miles to be deducted from the 741,575 square miles originally quarantined in l!)0li. Some of the States have made great, progress during the past few years and Tennessee, for instance, lias been entirely cleared of ticks.

A legal decision was recently given in an English court as to when a lamb becomes a sheep. The question arose out of tlie killing of some s'lkmmi on a railroad by a passing train, ami it wai denied that the complaint was properly made, the animals being lamb?, and not sheep. The judge decided tlwt the lambs ceased to be lambs and became sheep as soon as tfiio.y acquired their first pair of permanent; teeth. Appaiently he did not considei the question of when a lamb became a hogget, which, generally speaking, is between the time the lamb is weaned and when it is shorn. The cleanest milk is that which lias been ccntrifugally cleaned, and separated milk, the latter being subjected to centrifugal force during the separation of the cream from the skim-milk. It is only when large quantities of milk are dealt with at a time that a centrifugal milk-cleaner is employed. The next best means of cleaning milk is by employing the ordinary cotton-wool type of milk filter as commonly used in the farm dairy.

In regard to the large orders for beef stew placed with Canada foi British Army use, this amounted to C 00,000,000 one-pound tins. Sub-contracts for "200,000,000 tins were placed with fifteen American and Canadian packing and tanning companies. Deliveries are to run to about 10,000,000 tins per week. The price arranged under sub-contracts was 7s 3V;.d per dozen, f.o.b. Montreal. A new apparatus for watering large areas has been perfected in France. It can throw water in a steady, gentle rain for a distance of 270 ft from the centre of supply, and the nozzles are so arranged on pivots that a proper howitzer action is secured, and the jets of water arc thrown up at a high trajectory so as to cleat trees, or, if necessary, houses. The average mechanic, with quite a modest amount of knowledge of hydraulics, should be able to manage the appliances.