FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 382, 14 January 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Castor Pil for Warts.—Apply it us often as necessary and convenient, eo th;t the w:iriß ui i be kept greased and moist with it. For instance with cows, pn. it on the «iarta twice a day, once after cuh milking. Inside of a week '.he wnita will come off, and stay off. This cure will wo.k on human flesh also. The above is given on personal experience.

Paris Greek for Slugs.—A seedsman writes:—l have recently been trying Paris green and bran for slugs raund my seedling petunias and other things, and [ find it a certain cure for these peets. One teaspoonful of Paris green to a gallon dipper of bran, well mixed and then Blk'htly damped is 6trong onough. Sprinkle a very little round the seedlings in fine weather. I am sure that many hundreds of people who are troubled by snails and slugs would be glad to know of so simple and effective a remedy. t X t

Feeding: Dairy Cows Twice and Three Times Daily.-The results are recorded of three experiments on this subject with different lots of cows. The conclusion is lhat for milk production alone it is sufficient to feed twice daily, as feeding three time gave no increase in the yield of mi'k. Physiologically feeding only twice a day is believed to be preferable, as the cows are more quiec under this system. Where the production of beef is the objtct, feeding three times a day is considered advisable as there was a greater increase in live weight under that system. t t t

New Oats as Horrefeed.—lt is a Sopular belief that new oats provoke inigestion in horses, and tend to weaken, not strengthen the animals. The Hippie Commission of the French Army has tested the point by direct experiment. It concludes that new can be substituted for old oats without any inconvenience, and perhaps with advantage, so that nothing is to be gained by delaying the feeding with oats after being cut for a space of two months. However, it is more prudent to accustom the horse to the change by commencing gradually with the younger grain. t X t

Sugar-Beet as FoDDER.—Says the Danwvirke conespondent of the H. B. Herald:—Mr Nannestad, the wellknown flour miller of Palmerston North, is an enthusiastic farmer. On the occasion of a recent periodical visit to Norsewood he expressed surprise that an attempt was not made to cultivate the sugar beet as fodder for cattle. His tri.il of this crop has been attended with marked success, both in point of yield and the quality of the product, His cows relish this article of diet very much indeed, and benefit by its u*e greatly, alike in milk yield and condition. He has saved a groat quautity of seed, and is prepared to supply it gratis to anyone desirous of giving the crop a trial. t X t

Hospital for Stock.—Mr G. Levens of Temuka, has, according to the Canterbury Times, established a sort of hospital paddock for sick animals that are sent to him for treatment. He has fouLd some trouble in getting good forage, and to obviate this difficulty he has devoted some attention to growing lucerne, trifolium incarnatum, and sainfoin. His crops, although limited in area, have provided large quantities of fodder, the sainfoin especially turning out well. Farmers might grow a small area to advantage Lucerne is being grown more f requenly now. Mr A. Beck, of Seadown, has a cap : tal paddock, as well as having it growing through ordinary pastures. On the limei-tone country, near the Cave, it is doing remarkably well. Here it was sown with grass and clover, and proved a great stand-bvin the dry season. t x t

Some Points for Milkers.—ln the course of an address delivered by the Dairy Instructor for the Bute County Council, says the Dairy World, several suggestions were made by the lecturer as to the the operation of milking, which we may summarise as follows. To milk a cow " clean" has always been the ambition of the milker, and when the end was attained ho was perfectly satisfied. But to milk a cow in a cleanly, way, although of equal importance, did not, in a large percentage of esses, come within the seope of his consideration. Good cows have been quite spoiled through bad and careless milking, and there are very few milkers who understand anything about the cow's udder or milk vessel. The cow's udder is divided into two chambers by an impeivious membrane. This dividing substance runs in the same direction as the backbone, and the milk from one chamber cannot pass into the other. For this reason, it is adviseble that a milker should operate, say, on the front and hind teats on the side next to him, and having emptied one chamber of the cow's vessel, should proceed with the other. This is not, however, the general practice. It is customary to operate on the teats of different chambers simultaneously, on the ground that that met 1 od of procedure preserves the natural state of the udder, whereas such a contention is quite contrary to fact. The lecturer stated that he was quite sure that the general method of milking is mainly responsible for much of the malformation in the udder of so many cows. That, of course, is a great evil, as it detracts from the appearance of the animals, aud lowers their money value when offered for sale. t X t

Roots for Pig Feed.—Last week we published a paragraph recommending the U6e of turnip aucl mangels in conjunction with ekim milk as feed for pigs, and in this connection the following from the pen of Professor W. A. Henry, the well-known American authority on feeds and feeding, will no dcubt be interesting :—Extensive experimonts in the use of roots for swine feeding have been conducted by the Copenhagen Experiment Station. When mangel wurzels, which are among the most watery of the routs, were fed, from 81b to 101 b were required to equal lib of grain in feeding value. When sugar beets were fed frem 4ib to 51b only were needed to serve as a substitute for lib of grain These results, then, are confirmatory of those by the American investigators just reported, where Clslb of roots, on an average, were equal to 1001 b of grain. One is led to conclude from the data of these trials that the dry matter of roots, is worth as much as that in the grains, such as corn, barley, &c. While in this country roots are often cooked when fed to swine, the Danes almost uniformly feed them in the raw condition. The Copenhagen Experiment Station investigators conclude that 40 per cent, of the daily ration of the pig may be advantageously made up of root?. Slaughter tests by the Danes show that pork from pigs fed on roots is fully equal to that resulting from the use of grain alone. In regard to which variety of roots should be used the Danish experiments are again instructive. It was found in comparative trials with carrots and mangels, and between the different varieties of beets, rangirjg from mangels, which are rich in sugar and dry matter, that so longs as the roots were palatable, it was the quantity of dry matter rather than the variety of roots which governed the value. t t t

Dookikg Horses' Tails.—By the narrow majority of twenty-five against twenty-one votes the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society at their meeting iact month adopted a resolution to the effect that " at and after the Maidstone meeting of 1899 no foals with docked tails be allowed to be exhibited at the Society's country meetings ; that at and after the meeting of 1900 tho same rule shall apply to yearlings as well as foals ; and that at

and after tho meeting of 1901 to twoyear olds also." The outstanding fact is, says the Live Stock Journal, that there is an undoubtoil demand for docked horses, boih for riding and driving, and that the time to dook the animals si as to inflict tho minimuJß of pain in when they are foals. The decision of the majority of the Council of the Koyal Agricultural Society will therefore trial to prevent the breeders of the United Kingdom from being allowed to supply the demand. At the same time it must not be forgotten that tho Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals have announced their intention to pros'cute all pprsons who dock horses, and their action will no doubt be greatly strenthened by the resolution of the majority of the Council and the declarations by which it was Supported. Unless the fashion for using docked horses suddenly changos the demand will no doubt continue to be supplied ; but not by- home breeders The discussion at the meeting of the Council of R. A.S.E. clearly proved that a great deal can be said for and against docking, under such circumstances one would have supposed that the more prudent course would have been to have left the question alone, and allowed breeders to act according to their discretion and the necessities of trade.

Materials Used for Dressing Whkat Against Smut. —The following .ieport was presented by the Consulting Chemist of the Royal Aaricultnr il Society of England at a meeting of the Society held on November 2nd, and is published as a warning to farmers:—ln consequence of the prevalence, in some districts, of smut in wheat during the past few years, more attention has been directed of late to the dressing or steeping of wheat seed before sowing. There is reason to believe that in addition to several recognised materials employed effectually for this purpose, the commonest being perhaps sulphate of copper (known variably under the names "bluestone" and "blue ?itriol)" there are other materials of little or at least doubtful value, which the farmer if not careful, may find thrust upon him. One such case was recently brought to my notice. A very large farmer and extensive wheat grower sent mo two samples of materials sold to him as " wheat dressing.' and which ho had been using. Both of these were bright in colour. The one was found to be genuine blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), buttheother showed, on analysis, the following composition : - Sulphate of iron ... ' ... 98.75 Prussian blue ... ... 1.06 Sand 19

100.00 This was merely sulphato of iron coloured blue with Pruesian blue, so as to make it look like sulphate of copper, the purchaser no doubt thinking that he was getting the latter, the appearance of which was familiar to him, On making further enquiry 1 found that this "mixture was sold, under the following description, " Finely-ground vitriol, specially prepared as a dressing for wheat. The price paid was 28s per cwt., that of sulphate of iron being 4s per cwt, while sulphate of copper would cost about 20s per cwt. Unfortunately inascauoh as the general term •' vitriol " is applicable alike to sulphato of copper and sulphate of iron (the former being " blue vitriol" and the latter "green vitriol"), it is doubtful ■what remedy a purchaser would have, but that the second preparation was a " colourab'e imitation of sulphate of copper is clear," and so it is well to put farmers on their guard against such. .t X f

How a Champion Cheese was Made. —Mr J. Wallace, Lochlea, Oratgie, who was bo successful at the Kilmarnock Dairy Show and at Loudon a few days before, has sunt the North British Agricu'tutist particulars of how the champion cheese at Kilmarnock was made. The champion formed one of two cheese exhibited in a class confined to Ayrshire, ia which they were first. The two were made on 27th and 28th June respectively, the champion being one made on the latter date. In each cise, the half the evening's milk was put into the vat at once, the other half being put in milk pans, and kept until the morning, when it also was put in the vat before the morning's milk. The starter (Drummond's) was added after the whole of the milk was put together in the vat, the particulars as to temperature &c, being as follows. —Temperature of evening milk iu morning, 61 degrees; quantity of milk, 112 gallons ; quantify of srarter used, gallon; second tested at, 22 ; time of ripening, 65 minutes ; temperature at which rennet added, 85 degrees ; quality of rennet ; 4£ oz, (fully) ; time when added, 7.45 ; time of coagulation, 50 minutes ; temperature heated to 100 degrees ; time of heating, 50 quantity of curd, 115 lb ; time at which the minutes, time settled in whey, 50 minutes ; curd was milled one o'clock ; quantity of salt, 2 lb soz ; time when salted, 2.10 p.m. The companion obeese, which was first along with the champion cheese in class 6, was made substantially as above, the quantity of starter used, the quantity of rennet put in, the time of coagulation, the temperature heated to, and the time of heating being all exactly the same. The temperature of evening milk in morning was, however, 62 degrees, against 61 ; the second tested at 25, in place of 22 ; the time of ripening, 35, against 65 ; the temperature at which the rennet was added, 84, in place of 85 ; and the time settledin whey, 65, against 58 minutes There was also a difference in the amount of etird. but this is naturally explained by the fact that the original quantity of milk used was only 108 gallons, as against 112 gallons in the other case. It is not intended, in publishing these details, to suggest that this is the only perfect method of cheesemaking, and that makers should forthwith adopt it in their practice. Circumstances manifestly vary too much for unv rash conclusion of the son ; all that is claimed for the figures is that they are realised facts, and that, as stated at the beginning, they arc the fundamentals on which at least one admittedly superfine chtese was made. ISLINGTON DAIRY SHOW. The London Times give 3 the following results : Out of 37 Shorthorn cows exhibited, 25 were entered for the butter test, which is determined by the results obtained from the 24 hours' milk yielded on Wednesday. The first-prize Shorthorn cow in this teat is Lady Henry Bentinck's roan cow Procter, which obtained a third prize iu the inspection judging on Tuesday. It is unfortunate that no details are known either concerning the age or as regards the breeding of this remarkable cow, which furuished no less than 31b ]£oz. of butter in her 24 hours' milk She is, however, a big roomy roan cow, of the well-known Cumberland and type. Far behind her conies, as the winner of the second piize, Mr J. F. SpeDcer's seven-year-old cow Gaiety, which won the first prizn on inspection, but regarding which we know nothing, save tint, as stated in our report on Weduesday, she is probably Derbyshire bred. From her 24 hours' milk the yield of butter amounted to 21b 4Joz Out of the large number of Jersey cows and heifers 20 were entered for the butter test. Three prizes were offered, the first of which goes to Mr W. McKenzie Bradley's five-year-old Beresford Gift, which took a third prize on inspection. Her 24 hours' milk yielded 21b 14oz of butter, and her butter ratio —that is, the number of pounds of milk required to furnish lib of butter—works out at in. The second prize is awarded to Lord Braybrooke's five-year-old Vervain 3rd, which was unnoticed by the inspection judges. Her butter produce is lib. 14|oz and her butter ratio works out at 15*01: The third prize falls to another of Mr McKenzie Bradly's cows, which with a yield of

lib. 13joz of butter has a butter ratio of 19.45. For the 17 Jersey cows which actually competed the average number of days in milk wo'ks out at 109, the a\eragp milk yield over the 24 hours is 321 b. the average butter yield lib 14oz„ and the butter ratio 17 - 44. A special prize of £3O was offered by a member of the English Jersey Cattk•Society lor the cow of any ape or breed yielding the greatest weight of butter at any two of the following shows in 1898— the Bath and West of England Show, the Tring Show, and tho present Dairy Show. The challenge if so it may be regarded was well justified, for the prize goes to Mr Mckenzie Bradley's Jer-ey cow, Tuddie's Queen, just ootioed. She yielded 21b of butter at tho Tring Show, and, as we have seen, 21b 14oz of butter yestirday, the total of 51b placing her at the head of the list. Fifteen cows of any other breed or cruss were entered for a butter test in which a silver medal was offered for the best cow of each breed or cross. Five such medals have been awarded. The best as regards butter yield is Mr Charles Birdsey's six-year old Welsh cow Pansy, whoso butter yi Id of 21b represents a buftrr ratio of 22 G 6 The other silver medal cows are Mr George Long's Guernsey-Shorthorn crossbred Nancy—butter yield 21b butter ratio 25'95 ; Mr J. F. Spencer's Kerry cow Bibrahani Belladonna—butter yield llb7|oz., butter ratio 17-66 : Mr Alfred J. Smith's Red Poll cow Tamer, butter yield lib l\ox., butter ratio 29 57; and Mr J. D. T. Parson's Guernsey cow Fan XL, butter yield lib. Boz., butter ratio 20'2. Of the cows just named Pansy took a fin»t prize on inspection, and Nanay a second prize, whilst Babraham, Belladonna, and Tamer woe highly commended.