THE FARM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2251, 8 September 1891, Page 4

THE FARM.

The special foods to make hens lay are secret preparations, but the following is considered a good formula:— Two pounds of each of bone, corn meal, dried meat, and oats, all finely ground; one ounce of sulphur, two ounces of red pepper, four ounces each of common salt and copperas, and one ounce of baking soda. Mix the whole thoroughly, and allow a teaspoonsful three times a week to each fowl. As the cost of these substances will be but little quite a large quantity can be made at one time.

An over-fed pig is apt to become paralysed in the loins by the effects of uraemia, or absorption of urea in the blood, by reason of indigestion or disturbances of the kidneys. The animal loses the use of the hind limbs, and drags itself about by its fore legs. Of course this disordered blood affects the flesh and renders it undesirable for food. The disease is chiefly situated in the spinal cord or its membrane, which is inflamed and so disturbs the action of the nervous gystem of the muscles of the loins and hind limbs, The remedy is to reduce the food, giving laxative medicines and applyimg counter irritants to the loins. Turpentine rubbed on the loins is useful, and doses of one tablespoonful once a day. with twice as much oil, should be given daily for a few days, The food should consist of grass, clover, potatpei*, and oatmeal, or barley-meal slop given In moderation until the trouble is removed, Pigs so diseased should not be used for breeding. An English gardener recommends the following simple mixture for painting glass in greenhouses, to obscure the strong rays of the sun, viz., white lead, Brunswick green, and turpentine made into a thin paint, and

applied with a brush. No oil should be added, or it will be difficult to wash off again. If done on a fine day this paint need be applied but once in the season, and with the aid of a little soda in the water it can easily be washed off again. What is considered a perfect plan of setting a gate-post so that it will not sag is to brace from the rear instead of the front of the post, using a half-inch iron rod and fastening it to a mud-sill buried deep enough to be solid. The rod, may be bent around the mud-sill, but is put through the top of the post and has a thread cut on it with a tap and washer, so that it can be tightened up till firm. Braced in this way it is impossible for the post to sag, and the pressure is directly downward. It is easy to prevent cabbage worms from injuring the plants, All that is necessary is to keep the crowns filled with soil. One can walk along the rows and do it with a hoe. The earth does 'no harm to the cabbages, as the heads grow up from the bottom and this throws off"the earth.

To keep the leather top and curtains of a buggy soft without gumming them so as to catch the dust, and at the same time leave a bright, dry surface, wash the leather well, so as to make it quite clean, and let it dry over night. Then anoint it well with all the lard oil it will stand, and then rub it with a sponge. Lather it with castile soap, working it well, and rub it dry with clean unsized paper. Although salt is not strictly a manure, it often serves a valuable purpose in rendering fertilisers more soluble. It is also sometimes useful in developing moisture in the soil. On some, soils it appears to be of no use, and in order to determine its value in any locality the experiment must be made on the crops. It never absorbs ammonia as some have supposed. From fiv.p to ten bushels are commonly applied to an acre. The question of relative profit, as between the use of small cuttings and whole potatoes, depends upon the cost of seed potatoes, the date at which the crop is to be harvested and sold, and the condition of the soil at planting time. In ordinary practice it will usually be found that neither extreme, as to quantity of" seed used, will be found to be profitable. The safest plan is to use large, well-matured, healthy potatoes, and cut to two and three eyes. The time to harvest any crop is when it is ripe, and the degree of ripeness depends upon the kind of crop, and the purpose for which it is to be used. If we cut wheat or oats for hay, we should cut them while in the milk, or just as the seed begins to toughen; and corn for silage at the same stage; then why not. grass for hay also ? At that stage of growth there is about sap enough in the stalks and leaves to mature the seed, and if cut we get more utriment than if cut at any other period of growth, and it will be distributed through the whole plant. If we wait longer, much of the nutriment will be condensed in the seed, leaving the stalk nothing but straw, as in the case with wheat cut fpr the grain. The feeding value of hay depends a good deal upon the kind of grass it is made of; rye straw has but little, oats has more, corn has still more, and timothy more than any of them; but we want" hay, not straw, and we must cut it at a time when the feeding value will be distributed as equally as possible through out the whole plant, and • that time is when the stalk contains about all that it will ever get; the "little more" that it might get would better—in perennials—be left in the roots for the benefit of the next crop, and sometimes this must be done in order to make the next crop a possibility.