FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 281, 30 April 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Till- Wl-.ATIIKU AND TllK FaIIM.— TIIO recent rain.-, have done much good in rendering the land workable, and the weather now prevailing is seasonable and propitious. .Somewhat heavy frosts occurred at tin early part of ilie week, Luu the last few mornings have been mild and open. Autumn-sown oats and grass ate now making satisfactory headway ; the latter (in pi opcrly-worked and manured land) is looking first - rate. Paddocks intended for tho early sowing of grain are being brought under the plough, and the lifting of the potato crop is still eng ging the attention of growers, but the yields, taken all round, arc very disappointing. The outlook for winter feed is far f oin being bright. The turnips have suffered most severely from the aphis blight, and many promising crops have been almost completely ruined ; on most farms this year straw stacks arc to be seen, and in a winter of short commons like the one we are now entering upon these will bo come in very welcome as an extra feed supply. xxx Tin: Grain Markets.—As was to be expected, the outbreak of war has caused an immediate rise in food products. Wheat in Mark Lane has advanced 4s a quarter (Gd a bushel) during the week, and although the present price has not been cabled, it must be now somewhere near the .50s mark for top quality (Hard Duluth). Tho intercolonial markets have also firmed, but prices have net yet advanced proportionately witii those of the Old World. The Melbourne quotation is 4s 3d to 4s 5d ; Sydney, 4s to 4s 2d. The price now ruling in Sydney will, it is said, put a stop to the importation of wheat into this colony from that quarter ; and the Canterbury farmers, who have been holding off the market awaiting better prices," will now realise their hopes. Oats are in much inquiry. In Dunediu the market is reported to be in an excited state, and there has been an advance of Id to ljd per bushel on last week's prices, quotations ranging from 2s to 2s 4id per bushel A strong demand for this cereal from all parts of the colony north of Oamaru exists, and the Otago oat growers are bound to do particularly well this year. + -I- + Thk Drought and thk Dairymen.— The Ellesmere correspondent of the Prtss s-tys that'as showing how the drought is aff-ctirig farmers, one farmer milking 30 cows is only sending 3001 b of milk to the creamery instead of which he ought to be sending 906 or 700. Another farmer milked eight cows for one bucketful lj of milk. + + + A Prolific Flock.—A Hampsh're Downs breeder, writing to the " Mark Lane Express " on this season's lambing, says : " I have now from ray flock of 420 ewes, 150 doubles, 140 singles, and 13 ewes have dropped triplets, all ctrong and doing well." The lambing has not quite finished, but 479 lambs already dropped is a handsome percentage. + + HA Fine Bullock —The Lyttelton Times of the 7th says: -" A very fine throe-year-old bullock wa* sent iu for sale at the Addington market yesterday by Mr S. Garforth. The animal, which took first priz j as a two-year-old at the metropolitan show, has been grass fed, and was estimated by several competent judges to draw tho beam at between 13001 b and 14001 b, After some keen competition it was knocked down to a local butchor at £ll 15s. xxx A Line of Yjsausrs.—A very nice line of 32 vealers was disposed ot at the Addington market recently. They bad been purchased by Mr T. Hodgson, from the St. James station, and were, without doubt, the best line of the kind seen in these yards, being large framed shorthorn and polled Angus breeds They met with considerable competition and averaged tho satisfactory price of 31s per head, nearly the whole lot being taken by the Christchurch Meat Company, wbo intend to freeze them for the Home market, xxx The Farmer and the Miller.—The Wyndham Herald tells the following as a good story that has not found its way into print yet : Tho miller wantech-to buy the farmer's wheat, but the farmer protested that he had not been peid by tho miller for the wheat he had purchased lust year. Finally the miller promised payment of the old account, aud a bargain was struck for the new wheat. The farmer presented himself at the mill with a load of well filled sticks, but before he would remote oue sack he wanted the promised cheqtio for the ol I account. This was given after some trouble The dray was unloaded, and botn were mutually pleased, but the feelings of the miller may be judged on discovering all too soon that the sacks wore filled with sawdust ! + + + Excitable Horsf.s. —The beit and only tiling to do when your horse is excited is to calm him down. This is best done by getting the horse's head and talking to him gently, rubbing his face and otherwi-e eliverting lib. attention from the subject of his fright, If the horse is sullen and angry the same treatment will be found beneficial. In a high state of excitement the horse does not comprehend what you want, and it b. useless, worse than folly, to attempt to beat the fright out of a horse. All men are excitable, more or less ; some more and very many unreasonably so. What would be the effect of trying to abuse one of these red-headed, excitable men in'o being calm and considerate when under the influence of passion ? It would certainly end in disaster to somebody, and this may explain the cons : s tency in some horses kicking the front end of the waggon, aud otherwise demolishing things when the whip is laid on his back because he got scared or excited about 'omcthin'g. The best thing for a driver to do is to keep calm £v;d use common sense at all times in hindling the 'cam. When a horse understands that he is not to be hur", he will not be excited or unreasonable, unless of a devilish disposition. Such cases require special treatment, and the judgment of the driver will determine the suedes* of his work in handling the horse. Always take t : me to quiet an ixeited horse. When you get au animal to understand your commands there is not much d'fficulty in directing its course. Avoid, if possible, bringing the excitable horse in contact with that which unnerves him. + + + The Jpdge Who Happened to Know —You Know.—The'• La a- Chronicle," is responsible for the following : A fow years ago, in the country, a case of sheep-stealing came on trial before a well known cv-judge of the Supreme Court and the usual jury. Counsel for the prisoner thus concluded his address to the jury : " Gentlemen, on the chalky cliffs of Dover stands a little cottage, in which dwell a poor man and hi 3 wife — a fond old couple. For years they have, day after day, awaited the return of their child, their son, the only prop of their old age ; their son, who had years ago gone away to this sunny land to earn an honest livelihood, and to be a blessing and a comfort to his aged parents. Gentlemen, this son was on the point of returning to the loved ones when this cruel prosecution was instituted. I en treat you, sirs, to think of the aching voids which you would cause in his parents' hearts should you convict my client of this charge. Do not, gentlemen by a hasty and unconsidered decision, be the means of preventing this much-suf-fering man from receiving the loving embrace of his parents." The jury returned a verdict of guilty. His Honour the presiding judge, in addressing the prisoner, said: " Prisoner at the bar,

you have been fpund'sjuilty of t l e crime of sheep-stealing. 'Die sentence of the Court is—that you 'jo imprisoned for the term of five years' penal servitude, luit ii' it is impossible for ine to roust the totichi-ig appeal of your h Iv.icat-*, "' no* 11 keep yoi from your I clove 1 and loving pai'its " I now o 'I r liat you servj t if first three year-iißenimaGiol. Th r you will, no iloubt, meut your f.uhor, who s serving a sentence for horse-stealing. Tlia other two years you will serve in Maitlaii'l Gaol, whe'O your loving mother i serving a sentence for a-Hiult iiij» your father with intent to ilo him gr.evous bodily harm. Reuvive the pris'iner." + f + Ameiucan Farming.—Dr Gillespie delivored an address ar, the annual dinner of tho Galston Agricultural Association (Ayshire) on lessons to tic derived from American systems of farming. He oxplained how itII classes of oattlu in Araerici were solJ by live weight, and in this connection lie emphasised the benefit of this system, and took occasion to true particulars of the gigantic scale on which business in tho htook-yards of Ghicigo was carried on. A contract was drawn between the! attention given to, and the money expeuded on, agricultural education and experiments in Americi and this country to the great disadvantage of the latter. One greit weakness of American funning' was cu'tivating too much land and not tilling it well, and eithc not manuring it at all, or at most insufficiently. Dr Gillespie ur«ed that in this country the evil existed to a limited extent. Ho advocated "intensivo " farming. Farmers should not aim at having more land than they could cultivate and manage so as to get a maximum of yield from it. Production would thereby be cheapened in proportion to the expense incurred. The question was discussed of the comparative advantages of the symtem very geno al in America of the farmer owning the farms iu this country of being rent-paying farmers under landlords. 5«o long a» an American farmer had uo debt on his farm, his lot was good enough but, if he becon.o dependent on tho tender mercies of an American money-lender, his condition was far from being an enviable one Utile s ho could meet his engagements to a day, the mortgagee was almost certain to foreclose and turn him out of lis holding and home. To he under a considerate and liberal landlord like the Duke of Portland was probably quite as desirable a position as that of an American fanner who was owner of his land, except in cases when ho was possessed of sufficient means not to be beholden to any usurer. BRAINS IN THE COW YARD. Yes, sometimes cows of no particular breed will pay well in the dairy, but co*s of that kind cannot be depended upon t) transmit their good qualities to their calves. The only way to be sure a cow has good milking quilitiea which can be perpetuated ia her offspring is to be sure she has good blood in her. A good bull bred to poor cows will beget calves better than their dams, but we should select the best dams we can and so improve our herds the faster. Don't condemn a. breed until you have given it a fair trial ; don't let prejudice have my s>y in the matter. lii selecting cows of any of the breeds take those which have the characteristic colours of that breed. Not that colour indicates quality, but that an "off" colour is not a sign of " inside " improvement, and may he a sign of departure Irom the standard. " Like begets like" within certain limits, but the certainty of result is only known at the milk pail. Any little improvement in dairying that will cheapen cost of production will sum up the same as an increased selling price. Don't believe any theory is correct until you have tried it. and don't try it in a wholesale way. We must have our own particular routine of dairy work ; which exactly suits our neighbour may not work out smoothly in our own diiry A routine way of doing things saves much time, but we must improve that routine when we can. Don't, depend too much upon breed ; feed is breed's equal pa'tner. A cow is in her prime when she is from five to seven years old ; with her second calf she ought to show what Bhe will do whf'ii older. If a cow does not prove to be a good one when she has her second calf she will likely be too expensive for any but a rich man to keep. There are exceptions in all rules, but we can't (in the case ol a cow) always afford to wait to see if our cow ia an " exception " If a cow waited until her third ca'f before she proved profitable, her heifer caves might wait till the fourth calves, and that would be ruinous. Sometimes a cow '" waits because her feeder dons not do his part right; we must not condemn a cow until all the evidence is in. All cows do not like the same kind of feed, neither will they do so well as they would on some other kind. If one or two cows in a herd do not seem to be doing as well as they should, try them on another kind of feed. A change of feed will often improve the appetite. ; cows must be hearfy feeders to flo well at the milk pail. THE VALUE OF HUMUS. A recent bulletin of the Minnesota Experiment Stition (U«CUB-<es humus, and draws tho following cinclusions ;—The animal and vegetable substances in the soil in varying degrees of deoty or decomposition ai\s collectively spoken of as humus, or organic matter. These substances when they re ; ioh the propel' stage of decay unite chemically with the potash, phosphoric acid, and li'na of the soil, forming confounds called humatcs. Humus has been found to bo valuable in the following wiys :—I. It absorbs or "fixes" nitrogen, ihu* preventing the loss of this, tho most valuable of all fertilising elements. 2. It renders potash and phosphoric acid soluble, so that thoy can bo taken into the sip of pi ml 8 through the roots. F.;r these reasons farm manures possess an advantage and value over and above the market price of the nitrogeu, potash and acid they contain. Their bulk is mostly humus, a valuable material which exists in very small quantities in commercial fertilisers. For the same reason, clover, peas, and other green crops—even weeds —turned under, are largely beneficial to land, aside from tho nitrogen they have acid and potash their long roots may have gathered from the air and tho phosphoric brought up from the subsoil. THINGS THAT PRODUCE HUMUS. Investigations prove the foliowinar interesting and valuable facts relating to humus : Farm manure, green clover, blood, fish, tankage, cotton seed, etc, produce humus rich in nitrogen ; while oats, straw, sawdust, and carbohydrates form humus poor iu nitrogen, but rich in carbon, and the nitrogenous humus more readily unites with tho potash and phosphoric acid of tho soil to form huuvites than does carbonaceous humus. The humus of virgin soil is much i icher in nitrogeu and humates than tho humus of soil* that has been cropped for a scries of years. The practice of burning off lands preparatory to ploughing often permanently injures their crop-producing powers. Clean culture to hoed crops tends to exhaust soils of their humus, and this is why the old cotton fields of South A raerica became so poor. It has been found that the growth of clover, cow peas, etc. ,soon restores these lands to a high degree of fertility, if all needed potash and phosphoric acid applied to the clover and cow peas. Soils most in want of humus are sandy, aud sandy loam soils that have long received clean culture •without the application of farm manure.

Mucky, peaty cbiy and prairio soils do not need humus for man}' years after they are put iu cultivation. An ordiuu'v prairie soil ncol" no humus added for about ten years after it is first |ut, into cultivation. THK PLUM CU.lCtTfi'.O. In tin: orchards covering a radius of 10 miles around Adelaide the advent of the Curculio beetle is causing considerable anxiety to growers. Reports from South Australia are to the effect that this peat has made most pronounced strides during the past year, and threatens to rival the codliu moth' in destructiveuess It* this species is identical with tho plum curculio of the United States, then every effort should be taken by the authorities iu this colony to keep it. out, assuming that wc are so fortunate as to be as yet free from its presence. In Mr French's (the Victorian Government entomologist) work on "Destructive Insects," lie deals with (his insect as follows: The Plum Curculio belongs to the great family of tho so-called Weevils, amongst which is Leptops, that well-known destroyer of apple and other trees in Victoria, also many others too numerous to mention here. There is considerable doubt as to whether we have this pest here or not, but some years ago, it will bo remembered that one of our best known pioneer amatuers, Mr D. Carson, of Kew, submitted specimens of an insect which he found attacking his plums, and which, if not really identical with this species, certainly resembles it in its more important economy. We may, however, at no distant date have to deal with this most dreaded pest. The notes here given are takeu from Matbew Cooke's excellent work on insect pests. " Living in plums, cherries, pears, nectarines, apricots, quinces, and apples, a yellowish-white, footless grub, which undergoes its transformations iu the earth." This is undoubtedly the worst enemy (in America) with which the fruit grower has to contend, in fact its operations became so extensive that the raising of plums has become almost entirely abandoned in several sections of California. The female Curculio makes a small hole in the fruit with her snout, then turns around aud therein deposits a single egg, after which she gnaws a crcsceut-shaped slit around and partially under the egg. This precaution is probably taken in order to prevent the fruit from growing over and thus destroying the egg. This crescent is a pretty sure indication that the fruit upon which it appears is infested with the Curculio, although upon apples and similar fruits the growth is so rapid as to obliterate the growth of tho fruit in a short time. Each female is supposed to have a stock of from 50 to 100 eggs, and to deposit from 5 to 10 a dav. The period of egg-laying is extended to a period of about two mouths The larva which hatches from the Curculio is a small footless worm, somewhat resembling a maggot, except that it does not taper so much, and it has a distinct head. It is of a glossy yellowish-white colour, but partakes more of the colour of the fruit which it infests. There is u lighter line running along each side of the body, with a row of minute black bristles below, and a less distinct one above it. The under part is reddish-brown, and the head is yellowish or pale brown. When fully grown, it measures about five lines in length. As soon as it reaches its full growth the larva deserts the fruit (which usually falls to the ground before ripening) aud enters the ground to a depth of a few inches, where it forms a small cell iu which to pass the pupa state. It remains in the pupa state about three weeks, •when the change to tho perfect insect takes place. The perfect insect is about two lines long, and is of a dark brown colour, varigated with white, yellow aud black. The snout is rather longer than the thorax, the latter being uneven. The wing cases have two black tubercles on them, oue on the middle of each suture; behind these is a broad band of dull yellow and white. The thighs have two small teeth on the under side. This insect lives not only in the fruits mentioned in tho head of this article, but also iu the black knot infesting plum and cherry trees. The perfect beetles feed not only upon the fruit, but also upon the leaves, and even the bark of newlyformed twigs does not escape its attacks. The number of broods which this insect produces in a year is not definitely known, but most authors regard it as being singlebrooded. The perfect beetles hibernate beneath pieces of wood, <fcc, lying upon the ground. REMEDIES RECOMMENDED. To lib. of whale oil soap add 4oz. of flour of sulphur, mix thoroughly and dissolve in 12 gallons of water. To half a peck of quicklime add 4 gallons of water and stir well together. When fully settled pour oil' the transparent lime water, and add to it the soap and sulphur mixture, add to the same also, say, 4 gallons of tolerably strong tobacco water. Apply this mixture, w hen thus incorporated, with a garden syringe (or spray pump, which is vastly the better method—C. F.) to your plum or other trees, so that the foliage shall be well drenched, if no rains succeed for three weeks, one application will be sufficient. Should frequent rains occur, the mixture should be again applied until the stone of the fruit becomes hardened, when the season for the Curculio's ravage is past. Dr. J. 11. Linter, State Eutomo of New York, in his second report, gives us a good hint which we would do well to note. He says, " On the ridge, or near Lake Ontario, ten miles to the northward, the Curculio attack has been increasing for several years, and was quite serious tho preceding year. Almost every farm of a hundred acres had from 5 to 20 acres of apple orchard kept in permanent pasture, yet but little fruit could survive the combined attacks of the Codliu Moth, the Caukerworm, the Curculio, etc,, unless stock were kept in the orchards to feed the grass closely and pick up the fallen fruit." The excellent plan adopted by careful growers of picking up all the fallen fruit, and either using it as food for stock or destroying it, is one which cannot be too highly recommended, knowing as we do that a large percentage of fruit which has fallen through the attacks of grubs, contains grubs iu some form or other, aud is, as a rule, quite unfit for human consumption.