FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 May 1898, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

A New Farm Implement. What appears to be the coming implement with the farmers in the United States is what is called the weeder. On all soils that are not too stiff a clay or too stony it is said to do admirable work. The implement makes a dust mulch and kills the weeds. •I- x + " A Proper Sort ok Girl."—A gentleman resident in the Pohangina district (says the Manawatu Standard) had some 7000 sheep destroyed in the recent bush fiies, and, in the ordinary course of correspondence, he sent a copy of the Standard containing an account of his loss to his sister, resident in England. This lady immediately concluded that his loss would put him to serious financial inconvenience, and at once cabled out £SOO, which, it is needless to say, was as welcome as it was unexpected. This is one of the advantages of having a generous sister. -i- + -IAmjora CioATs. —It is said that there is no animal that will increase the grass in a pasture like the Angora goat. He trims everything that shades the grass, and every one who is the least acquainted with the growth of grass knows the effect of diminishing the shade. The Angora goat is by nature a browser and not a grazer, and this is wherein he is so very valuable as a gleaner. He can be made equally valunble as any animal on the farm, by tho lustrous fleece he grows (known in commerce asemohair), which finds as ready sale as the fleece of the sheep. The meat is ecjual to that of the sheep, and the increase about the same. The care of the Angora goat is very much the same as the sheep, though he eats with far more relish, and will live on much coarser food. + + + Victoria in a Deplorable State. — The following is (says the Lyttelton Times) an extract from a private letter received from Melbourne a few days ago : —" lam informed there will be no dairy season at all in Victoria this year. There is no grass in the country, the paddocks and whole country are as bare as a road aud what cattle survive the winter will be scoured to death in the spring. We are even now dependent on Mew South Wales for vegetables; they have had a good season there, I believe. Last Saturday morning very inferior cabbages fetched 6d each wholesale in the Victorian market (Melbourne). Really good butter you cannot get under 2s per lb retail. You can buy cheaper, of course, but it is only fit for pastry." + + -IHolding up Milk.—The " Stockman ' says in relation to the habit of cows holding up their milk that, there are several remedies that are vouched for to cure a cow of this trouble, but kindness and patience may always be relied upon to cure if persistently used. The trouble is caused generally by improper treatment at calving time, or rather, when the calf is taken away sho thinks that something is wrong and refuses to let the milker have the milk. Some dairymen use a weight placed across the loins. This serves to divert her attention, and sometimes effects a cure. Others try an inviting feed of some kind, which will make the cow forg ct that she wanted to bold up her milk. This, after all, is the main thing—to establish such relations between the cow and yourself that she looks upon you as her friend, and if you do this and haTO a little or a big patience the habit after a timo will almost Burely wear away. -r" -!- + Frozen Meat for Egypt.—The proposal for Ihe establishment' of a trade with Egypt in Australian frozen produce is, the Leader learns, only one branch of a great enterprise in which the company of English capitalists concerned is prepared to spend no less a sum than £500,000. A scheme has been formulated under which the company will eventually extend the produce trade to the whole of the principal Eastern ports, including Hongkong, Tokio, Colombo, Bombay, and Singapore, special steamers being built or purchased for the purpose. The company now arranging for the new trade has given a substantial proof of its business intentions by spending £23,000 in the purchase of a piece of land near the Sydney wharves upon which to build stores for the accumulation and treatment of vaiious kinds of produce for export. Later on, it is understood, a similar depot will be established in Melbourne. + + + Hardiness of the Siiropsiiires.—Mr Ralli, of Balaklava, South Australia, had a very satisfactory experience of the Shropshires during the late drought. He writes to Mr A. Macscll, of Shrewsbury, England : —" I arrived home all right, and found that 32 per cent, of my flock of sheep had perished during the 1596 drought, although the run was 23 per cent, understocked, and that iustcad of marking several thousand lambs, some 500 wcic all my share for the year's increase. I must tell you 68 per cent, of my merino ewes died, and that those left gave ouly S percent, of lambs, whilst the Lincoln crossbred dry sheep lost 48 per cent, of their number. And now for a Shropshire comparison with these breeds:—l lost one ewe of my stud flock, and this by a clog, and the sheep, Mr Kempe tells me, had by no means the best of the country to live on, and were wholly unfed by artificial meaii3 ; but the best test of their hardihood comes from the grade flock?. These numbered one-fifth of the sheep. Their loss has been but 8 per cent., aud their increase 55 per cent. Mr Kempe also tells me these grades had more to withstand than the others, as they were thought to be hardier, and so were given worse country to run on. This evidence of the Shropshire's value to this country of uncertain rainfall is, to mc,overwhelming." + + -r Corinc; Bacon ix Brine.—We are all familiar with the practice of curing pork in briue, but it is a novel method to treat bacon in the same way instead of dry-salting. This novelty, like a good many others, comes from America, and the brine method is spoken of by a writer in an American paper as being very simple and efficient and loss wasteful of grod meat. It appears that all' that is needed is a clean watertight cask and a few gallons of water for each pig. The water must be salted until it will float an egg. Then the sides and hams are put into the brice and left for 14 days ; then the brine is poured off, the meat taken out and put back in a different position and the brine poured omit again. In another 10 days the bacon can be taken out and smoked. The advantage of brine-salting consists in keeping all the juice and flavour in the bacon, thereby making it tender and pleasant instead of diy and tasteless. The writer advocating this plan says that the best juices of the meat pass off in the blood which comes from bacon when first treated with dry salt, while in brine nothing escapes from the bacon, and the salt penetrates every part alike, and consequently all is equally salted, which cannot be said of dry-salted bacon. Moreover, there is a crust of salt on the outside of the dry-salted bacon which has to be cut off ere the meat is fit to eat, and this waste does not occur in brine-salted meat. The writer of the article advocating this method concludes by saying to his readers: "Try some of your bacon in the brine, and you will be sure to adopt the plan.'' Russia is said to own 3,000,000 horses —nearly one-half of the whole number in existence. Sea weeds do not draw nourishment from the soil at the bottom of the sea, but from the matter held in solution in sea water.