FARMERS' ITEMS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 355, 17 February 1881, Page 2

FARMERS' ITEMS.

The Linden tree is recommended formoist lands:. Never work with dull tools, for theyreq'iire too great an outlay of strength,, both of man and beast. •._,■■- y East India grass, in the'Russian River Valley grew 7£ feet in three months. It makes valuable forage. Xhe. ground, between growing crops, should be kept constantly hoed, even.if: there are no, weeds, as a loose surface, checka evaporation.. '■'..-. . ! " :

The yeaily production of all qualities of. ewes' milk cheese in the department of Aveyron, is about 2000, tons, worth about £20,000. The manufacture, of glucose from maize has now become an important industiy in. the United States, and it is estimated that, a capital of £5,000,000 is invested in it. At a recent sale of wool at Geelong a Mr David Taylor's greasy brought the top price of the season—eight bales fetching 18§d per lb, 15 do l*£d, and lambs 17fd.

I have been informed that a black red British game hen, of Mr H. Cadell'sbreeds has laid 100 eggs without sitting, one of the eggs being over three inches in length... —Sydney Town and Country. An animal is the composite product ot numerous ancestors ; it will follow the. characteristics of, its parents, yet inherit also characteristics that belong to its ancestors.

The minute roots left in the soilrwhen, some Geelong vineyards were dug up two : years ngo have been found to be stillinfected with living phylloxera. . t One of the most extraordinary laying; records I ever met with—l believe it was over 250 in a year—concerned the pro-, dace between Spanish and Black Hamburg.—" Wright's Poultry Book. It is nothing uncommon for a Texan cow boy to be in the saddle at the annual '•round up" for thirty-six hours at a stretch, and most of the time on the " lope " or canter.

A New York fruit-grower has paid £IOO, per annum for manure alone to put on his. 130-acre orchard. Note the consequence :. he now lins a large evaporator which will, dry 125 bushels of fruit in the day.

The cleaner the stable or milking yard, v the better brushed or cleaned the cow, the. -, neater (he milker in his or her person, and the less exposure the milk has to the. air, the longer it will keep sweet, and. the 8 teeter and purer it will be. In 1868 feathers from tame ostriches first figured in the trade returns to Southern Africa, while during the first, quarter of the current year, the export ot■ feathers was at the rate of £1,000,000 perannum. * The Mark Lane Express gives publicity to a statement to the effect that bran, which has been saturated with a solution, of alum and nitre, if scattered en each round of sheaves when ricks are being built, will keep rats and mice from the stack. We contend that the European .vho will,. use horse labor o.n every possible occasion, plant all vegetables and crops in longstraight rows, manure heavily, and use frequently both the light plough and the. horse hoe, need not fear the competition of the Asiatic—Queenslander.