AGRICULTURAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 171, 18 May 1871, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL.

Poultry makes a good deal of bother among near neighbours, and it is only upon large farms with a wide ran^e that turkeys ever ought to be kept. They won't do well ia confinement, un ess you have a twenty-acre lot, with trees and brush for them to run in. Nearly all the turkeys that are raised in Hookertown are raised upon farms, and the birds go where they like. They do some damage on the farms of their owners — trample the grass and oats a little, pick up some corn in tiie fall, and strip the turnip leaves. But on the whole they are so profitable, and make so large an item in the income of the year, that few farms like to do without them. They live very largely all through the summer on grasshoppers and other insects, reducing their numbers and helping the grass and grain crops in this way much more than they damage them. It is not an uncommon thing for a smart poultrywoman to raise a hundred turkeys. They are sold in a lump, and the money comes in a lump with very little trouble. The best-managed flocks come home every night, and always roost in one place on a scaffold, secure from foxes and other night marauders. But they will sometimes stray into a neighbour's field and eat some grain. This is provoking, but if a farmer knows that his turkeys wander in the same way, and commit the same depredations, it ought to make him careful of his neighbour's property. Where neighbours all keep these birds, the account is probably pretty equally balanced a; the close of each year. Their wanderings will be very much restrained by liberal feeding at home. They travel for food mainly and, if it is found that they trespass, itis much more econo mical to draw upon your corn-bin to restrain them than to draw upon your neighbour's cornfield and exhaust his patience. — " American Agriculturist."

QUARTEB-ILL, OB BLACK-LEG. — Sir» — Could you, or any of your kind readers, give me any remedy for blackleg disease amongst dairy calves, in good condition ? I have lost a dozen these last three weeks. Calves seemingly quite well when put up from the mothers at night, are next mornius; lame, and next night dead, from six up to 15 months old. One with the other I reckon, linger about 30 hours. All that I have lost, except one, have been affected in the fore shoulder, the other in the bind thigh. Good bush grass pasture, not kept in a pen but in a small paddocks at night. I have opened several, all alike — all the blood in the body goes to the diseased quartet. By procuring or giving any remedy, you will oblige Gideon Cicol, Panmure. — [In your case the disease has run its course with extraordinary rapidity. After the disease is apparent it is dfficult of cure ; preventive measures therefore are usually adopted. We regard this disease as the result of a change from dry or stunted to an abundance of good and succulent pasturage. The fact of its commonly occurring in the autumn, after the grass has begun to grow vigorously, affords a key to the cause. By many farmers in England a seton is put into the dewlap of each calf or yearling on the approach of autumn, and it usually has the effect of preventing the occurrence of blackleg. We recommend you to administer purgatives at once, and to repeat them twice at intervals of a week. The dose may consist of from two to four ounces of Epsom salts (according to the age of the animal), and with this many farmers mix a dessert, or tablespoonful of sulphur.

Setons may also be put in if considered desirable. Although remedies, as we have said, usually fail in removing the disease when actually visible, success sometimes rewards the rn.nr active treatment. Bleodiugfromfu* nffecivd part, where the blood has Ht.ign&hu! and has become thick, is the fii^t thin-j. On one or more incisions beinj made, tho hide should be rubbed forcibly aiul briskly, so as to cause the expulsion of the blood at the orifices. A quick purgative should be administered at once, and the circulation of the blood should be promoted by wrapping the body in rags dipped in hot water and wrung out. Unless, however, the calf be a valuable one, it is hardly worth while to spend so much valuable time in what will probably be an abortive attempt to save its life. — Ed. " Australasian."

Wandering Weeds. — It is stated that there are now no less than 214 weeds which have been introduced into the United States from foregin countries, and principally from England. As a proof of the rapidity with which useless plants are accidentally brought over the seas, it is said that in 1837 there were only 137 foreign weeds known in this country. As far back as 1672 a curious little volume, called " New England Rarities," gave a list of 22 plants which the author considered had sprang up since the English had kept cattle in New England. The author mentions the " plantain," which, he says, the Indians call the "English man's foot," as though produced by the tread of the white settlers. The comniou " yellow toad flax," it is stated, was originally introduced into the province of Pennsylvania as a garden flower by a Mr. Ranstead, a Welshman, residing in Philadelphia, from whom it has derived the name of " Ranstead weed." In 1758 this weed had overrun the pastures in the inhabited part of Pennsylvania, and was the cause of bitter complaints from the agriculturists of that day. Chickweed, it is stated, was introduced in South Carolina as food for canary birds, and in 10 years spread for upwards of 50 miles, and now occupies the outposts of civilisation. The Scotch thistle is said to have been brought to America by a clergyman, who carried with him a bed stuffed with thistle down in which Borne seed remained. Feathers, being cheap -in the new country, were substituted for the down, which was soon emptied out, and the seed springing up, filled the country with thistles. Another account says some enthusiastic Scot introduced the thistle as an emblem of his country, which soon made itself at home, and became a nuisance.

A mathematical tutor has been committed for trial on a charge of inciting a priuter in the employ of Messrs. Gilbert and Rivigtou to steal a copy of one of the examination papers of the Apothecaries' Company, that he might the better " coach " his pup^s for the approaching examination. Thefts of examination papers are very rare, the offence being in bad repute, the risk great, anb the profit not very sure. Perhaps, however, if a mau will perpetrate this highly objectionable crime, he cannot do better than follow the example of that undergraduate who, tradition says, made his way into the compositors' room iv a pair of spotless white trousers, marked where the block of type lay well inked and ready, and, gently lifting up his coat tails, Bat down with an innocent air, taking thus a neat impression of all he wanted to know. He committed no felony, though he did much harm to his clothes.

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