FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 464, 22 July 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

DENTITION OF THE PIG.

After a spel' of clear, frosty weather, lasting the best part of a fortnight, tho wind shifted to the North on Tuesday, a mild rain breaking up the frost. Though sharp during the nights and early mornings, the late cold snap has done much good, the land breaking up beautifully during the past few days enabling a good breadth of grain to be drilled in Sue order. All ploughed land will have reaped the benefit of the disintegrating and sweetening effect of the frost, which mellows the soil In a wonderful manner. Stock on swedes also have made good progress during the dry weather, and have fairly reoovered the knocking about previously experienced. The turnip fields, however, are beiog chared off quicker than most graziers would like, and to this cause—more than any other—the heavy consignments of fat cattle and sheep to the Auckland market are due, grazieia prefer#\ng to sell, even in a low market, rather than keep the stock on, onco the feed begins to run short. The glutted markets, with comparatively low prices, are proving a disappointment to those who purchased stores at full rates in the expectation of a brisk demand at this season. The position is also somewhat intensified by the shutting down of the Auckland Freezing Works for a month or two, for the purpose of making alterations and additions. In this connection it will be noted, that by the end of September, Messrs Bevins and Co. will be able to take all suitable stock offering. Appended is their circular, containing some useful information, whioh should be carefully noted, and is will be to the interest of Waikato settlers to give the new firm their oordial support, And by this means help to build up a large export trade. Until this is done stock-breeding and fattening must ever remain the uncertain business it has proved in the past, but with an assured market at remunerative rates for any quantity of the right class of stock by way of export, and consequently a betttr opening for the looal disposal of secondary sorts, stock-breed-ing will become the most important and profitable branch of the farmers' business. During the past week a few early lambs are to be seen about, which youngsters and their dams will require sucoulent feed and shelter. For this purpose young grass, with a few soft turnips through it, or green oats is very suitable, as it furnishes a full supply of milk. All ewes that are close to. lambing should be kept in a sheltered spot, particularly at night, and during stormy weather. A paddock with a clump or two of pines, or oven a patch of rough scrub will make a fine spot for lambing, warmth and shelter during the first few hours being of vital importance to the young lambs, particularly ii of the longwool breeds, which in their early stages are more delicate than the oloie-wools, and blaok-faces. The markets have been fairly brisk during the week, though no advance has been made, save in egga and poultry, which after a smart drop have risen again, the former making from, Is to Is 3d per doz at auction, good table fowls selling at from, Is 9d to 2s 7d. Butter is in full supply, and moderate demand. The heavy consignments of Taranaki make, which were reoeived into the varioua cool ohambera in Aucklaud during the autumn are now depressing the market, aud there is little probability of any further advance this season. 9£d per lb is the top price for best fresh pats, 6d to 7d being hard to obtain for good keg lines.S The following are the circulars referred to above : In connection with the recent sale of the Auckland Freezing Works, I desire, on behalf of the new owners, to call your attention to the facilities now offered for dealing with fat stock suitable for export. The works iu Auckland are being considerably extended in the direction of providing inoreased freezing and storage accommodation. The extension will permit 1,2000 sheep, or the equivalent in beef, being received and frozen daily. For Westfield, plans have beeu designed for new slaughter houses and cooling rooms. Machinery will also be erected for the manufacture of manures, and a fellmongery estubliihed. The arrangements for detraining and handling stook will also be materially improved. These alterations will be completed before the end of September, and will provide for a daily killing capaoity of 1,000 sheep aud 50 head of cattle. The new proprietors wish to afford stock growers every facility for freezing and shipping stook on their own aooount, and will be prepared to deal with all consignments of suitable stock for shipment to London, making advances thereon free of interest or commission, and keeping all charges on the most favourable terms to consignors. The London Agents of the company are Messrs W. Weddel & Co,, of 16, St. Helens Place, a firm of colonial brokers of the highest standing in the trade, and whose connection and experience in the frozen meat business is beyond question. Shippers may therefore rely on their consignments being dealt with to the best possible advantage in their interests. It is intended that all stock frozen for export shall be very carefully graded, in order to obtain for meat from this province a recognised position in the London market. Each individual consignment will be sold on its merits. In order to enable tonnage requirements to be arranged, and to ensure regularity of shipments, may I ask you, if you are disposed to favourably consider shipments on your own acoount, to complete the enclosed circular and roturn to me as early as convenient. I also take this opportunity of requesting your assistance and support in developing a business which must have a very important bearing on the success of farming operations in this province.

In connection with the enclosed circular, we beg to intimate that we are prepared to purchase during next season all fat stook suitable for export, at full current values, should you prefer to sell here in preference to shipping on your own account to London. If you will advise us what quantity you anticipate that you will have suitable for export, and the approximate dates of readiness, it will afford us an indication of the space it will be necessary for us to arrange for with the Shipping Companies. Our buyer will attend in your distriot and pay cash on delivery for all stock purchased by us. The seller to yard for inspection at an agreed date, and deliver at nearest railway station, or as may be mutually agreed. We trust that tho lines we indicate will result in a largely extended business between us.

Scab in Potatoes.— A potato grower of some experience iu cultivating many varieties gives me tho following recipe for prevention of soab:— Dissolve 2soz corrosive sublimate in 2gal hot water. After an interral of some hours dilute to 15gal. Placo the mixture in a wooden or earthen vessol. Place potatoes in coarse bag or sack, and immerse in this solution for one hour and a-half. Take out of the solution and dry, and plant in usual manner. A Visitor's Impression,—Mr A. H. Turnbull has just returned from Auckland, whoro he has been arranging for the enlargement and improvement of tho freezing works recently purchased by him on behalf of a syndicate. He is strongly impressed with the prospects of tho nroYince as regards the frozen meat industry. Ho visited the Waikato and noticed a great improvement during the last ton years. What the land wants, however, is moro cultivation. Attempts have been made to form permanent pastures before tho soil has become sufficiently settled, and on account of its porous nature artificial manures havo, to a large oxtent, failed to give any benefit. Cultivation would correct this, and would prove that there was no neoessity to grow gorso instead of root crops and grass.—Weekly Press,

Pera's Flour Test. —Tho following mode of testing the quality of flour is simple and roliable :—A small quantity of flour is taken and pressed, usually with a piece of glass, into a bevelled frame, upon a slate or stone slab, the frame being sufficiently full, and having its bevel largest nearest the slate, so that it can be lifted away from the pressed flour. The latter is then hold under water for a short time, until the outside flour has absorbed water enough to convert it into a kind of dough resembling batter. After being set up to dry for some hours it is examined, and tho colour of the flour, together with all specks, will bo apparent even though the latter were quite unobservable in the dry flour. An Important Law in Stock Fkkding.—Early maturity is what our flook and herd masters should breed for. It is many years since the British farmer found out that quick returns in the way of being able to breed early-maturing cattle and sheep helped him to hold his own against foreign competition. A great change has come over the stock-breeding world within the last 20 years, ' Baby' beef has taken the place of the meat that took the producer five or six years to grow. Christmas shows in the old country only encourage early-maturing animals. In New Zealand time seems to be no object in growing cattle fit for the butohor. In summarising the results in early maturity experiments conducted in lowa, tho following remark ocours, and it onght to be oarefully noted by breeders and feeders: ' The law of diminishing returns for food consumed as animals advance in age towards maturity is conclusively established and should be kept in mind by the meat producers, since economy of production is one of the important factors in the determination of profit, and the advantages are all with the young and growing animals as compared with the one that has praotioally attained its growth.'

Potato Digger.—Mr A. M. Waters, of Medway street, Gore, is, says the Southern Standard, taking out a patent for an improved potato digger, bagger, and separator. The machine consists of, an iron box furnished with a steel sock in combination with an elevator carrying an endless canvas belt, to whioh are fixed at regular spaces wooden or iron straps, which receive and carry the potatoes to tho top of the elevator. The separators oonsist of two riddles having different sized meshes, and worked by a cog-wheel fixed on to one of the hind wheels of the machine, to which is attached an iron shaft, whioh causes riddles to osoillate vertically, and by a reoiprooal motion by means of endless belts delivers the potatoes to the right and left sides, the large potatoes going to one side and the small ones to the other. As the potatoes arrive at the top of the elevators, bags that await them are automatically filled. Tho invention is an important addition to the labour-saving machinery used for agricultural purposes. It will be drawn by horses and will require the attention of two men. It will do the work thoroughly as well as expeditiously. In districts suoh as North Otago, where potatoes are grown extensively, there should be a large demand for the machine. To Obtain Early Potatoes.—How to obtain extra early potatoes is a problem which has engaged the attention of cultivators for a very long time in many parts of the world, writes R. D., in the Australasian. The method of sprouting the tubers in sand is becoming a favourite one in Amerioa, and a trial, extending over two years, under tho auspics of the Agricultural department, has been attended with success. The tubers were set in sand in shallow boxes, with the blossom ends up, the boxes being placed in a room where the light was rather subdued, and the temperature between SO deg. and 60 dog. Vigorous shoots soon appeared from the exposed eyes, and a month after they were placed in sand the potatoes were planted out, the position they occupied in tho boxes being maintained in the field. The tubers were not cut. Similar paralled rows of whole potatoes, selected from those in the storage room, but not exposed to the light, were planted adjoining those spronted in sand. Cut seed of the same varieties were also planted at tho same tim e. As they grew the sprouted potatoes took the lead from the start, both lots of whole seed kept ahead of the cut seed. The digging proved that the sand sprouted lots produced better tubers, and a yield 10 per cent, larger than the others. The following year a somewhat similar experiment was carried out. The whole potatoes were divided into two lots, one being placed in sand, under the conditions employed the year before, and kept moistened, while the other lot was put in boxes and placed in a light, dry room, where the temperature averaged 60deg. The first result showed that tho tubers sprouted in sand produced table potatoes ten days earlier than the same varieties unsprouted, and the yields were also substantially greater. There is, of course, some extra trouble involved in sprouting the potatoes in sand, and care has to be exercised in planting, so as to maintain the shoots intact, but where extra early fpotatoes are required the plan is a good one, and the additional yield more than compensates for the time and trouble involved in thus preparing the seed.

Machine versus Hand Milking.— Milking machines are now in protty general use in the old country and in Amerioa, one pattern especially, the ' Thistle' machine, is much in favour. It has always been claimed that machinemilking in much more cleanly than handmilking, and one would naturally suppose that such would be the case. However, a certain professor in the Ontario Agricultural Colligelseems to havo been doubtful on this point, and has been making a bacteriological study of the machinedrawn milk and hand-drawn milk for the purpose of comparing the purity of the two. The investigations were made during the four summer months of last year, and the result as made knewn, is greatly in favour of the hand-drawn milk which contains a very muoh less number of germs than milk drawn by the ' Thistle ' machine under precisely similar oircumstances. Not only was there a greater number of germs in the machine milk, but also a greater variety, no less that 25 species being discovered hy tho usual bacteriological means, and all grown in pure culture in sterilised milk. The germs in tho hand-milk wore, generally speaking, of the samo kinds, but the putrefactive species were much more numerous and varied in the hand-drawn milk. Now, I kavo always been nnder the impresiion that one of the chief advantages of the milking machines is their cloanlinoss and protection of tho milk from dirt of any kind, It seems only reasonable to suppose that the air tight oups fixed by suotion around each teat would protect much of the pollution which is unavoidable, even with the exercise of the greatest care in connection with the friction of the hands and the exposure of the milk in the bucket while the operation is progressing. The machines also provide for the covering of the buoket whilo tho milk is being drawn, and to the casual observer it would appear that tho possibility of the ingress of impure germs was reduced to a minimum." The professor's investigations havo, however, proved that such is not the case, and he proceeds to give his opinion aa to tho causes whioh produce the unexpected result. Ho thinks that germs on the hairy portions of the udder are drawn into the pail by the puliation of teat cups, and that [inability to thoroughly dense the oups and rubber connections may assist in accounting for the excess of germs. Ho also thinks that oocasional falling of the cups, etc, upon the cowshed floor and constant contamination from material full of germ lifo must bo taken into consideration. Whether these bo the true oiuses or not, I cannot say, nor do I suggest others more probable, but I suppose the fact remains that the professor's investigations are reliable whatever causes may be in existence to acoouut for his verdict.

New Zealand Butter in America —Some time ago we reported that the United States Department of Agriculture in pursuanoe of its policy in giving the producers of that country the fullest information regarding their competitors had puichased sample boxes of several typical brands of Australasian butter, and would exhibit them at several of the State fairs. This purpose was duly oarried out, and a report on the butter has been obtained from the Chief of the Division of Dairying, and is published in the June number of the New South Wales ' Agricultural Gazette,' aa follows :—'The number of packages bought amounted to five, bearing respectively the following brands : 1. Australia—'"Bangalow.' 2. Australia 'Ululu.' 3, New South Wales—'Berry Creamery, Shoalhaven, N.S.W.' 4. Victoria—' Anderson's Merrimu Butter Factory.' 5. New Zealand—' New Zealand Dairy Association, Auckland.' The packages were purchased in the open market in London and Manchester, between Deo. 25, 1898, and Jan. 5, 1899. They were takon from the supplies then available in those marketi, and were carefully selected as fair representatives of the respective sources of supply by one of the most discriminating buyers in Manchester. lam not able to ascertain for certain when they were shipped to London, except that it was either in Ootober or November. All the packages were cubical boxes, holding 561 bof butter each. The butter landed in New York about the middle of January, being shipped in cold storage. In New York, through some mintake, it was allowed to remain for several days out of cold storage. It was then shipped to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at a temperature of from 35deg to 60deg Fahr. It was exhibited at the place last named, at Elgin, Illinois, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, at different dateß between the middle of January and the last of February. In connection with these exhibitions and the transportation between them, the butter was subjected to a considerable variation in temperature. The butter had been critically examined and scored by three experts from New York, Boston and Chicago, upon the basis of suitability to the markets of this country. The results were as follow, in the order already given :—l. Australia, 80 points. 2. Australia, 83 points. 3. New South Wales, 83 points. 4. Viotoria, 84$ points. 5, New Zealand, 91J points. Samples of all the packages have been oarefully analysed, and were found to be comparatively dry, ranging in water eontent from 10 to 12 per oent. The New Zealand sample contained onlyß-10ths of 1 percent, of curdy matter, which is here regarded as extremely low, and which probably accounts for its retaining its flavour so well. All of these samples of butter were found to be fairly strongly borated, or treated with preservative, e.g , butter from New South Wales, which was claimed to contain but one per cent, of added salt, showed 3.66 per oent. of ash, whioh is more than any other lot of butter imported with the single exception of an Irish sample, which was salted beyond reason. Professor Smith, Director of the Experimental Station at Michigan College who saw the packages at Grand Rapids, stated that notwithstanding the adverse conditions to which they weie exposed, thoy ranked equal, if not superior, to the best fresh American butter exhibited. All who saw the exhibits were especially pleased with the general appearance and packing of the butter. This is probably the severest test to which Australasian butter has yet been subjected, and tho position taken by the New Zealand sample in comparison with some of the choicest brands of Australia, is distinctly gratifying.

In the early days of live stock exhlbltion in the United Kingdom a constantly recurrent cause of complaint, on the part of conscientious breeders and exhibitors of pigs, was the misrepresentation of the ages of animals shown in different classes by unscrupulous exhibitors. The evil attained such magnitude that the executives of the leading societies prescribed a dental test of all the animals entered in the competitions. From the very first the peremptory enforcement of the ordeal was pvonouncedy effective. Emboldened by previous snceessful deceptions, and ignorant or doubtful of the practical exactness of the dental test as applied to swine, many of those with whom the mal-praotlces were customary, ‘still trusting In their luck, sent forward over-aged pigs for competition in the more youthful classes. The dental inspection by veterinary experts detected the attempted frauds, and the exposure of the perpetrators was so pronounced that when not specifically prohibited by resolution of the executive of a society they were virtually excluded from taking part in subsequent competitions by the odium attached to their names. In show pigs, whenever there appears the slightest ground for suspicion of the entry as to age, the dental teat should be resorted to ; at the same time the examiner should boar in mind that as in sheep aud In cattle, exceptional circumstances as regards breeding, feeding, and special treatment for exhibition will accelerate development of the teeth of swine. With the exception of eows and boars for breeding purposes, pigs ordinarily kept on farms are not permitted a long term of life, and are not likely to ocoassion disputes as to age, nevertheleie it is advisable that farmere inform themselvee of the ordinary course of dentition In ewine. This follows according to to the Live Stock Journal, London ; A pig has 28 temporary teeth and il permanent teeth, and they are cut and changed as follows: At one mouth old, the temporary corner luolsors, and tusks, and the second and third molars are well up. The central incisors aud first molars are being eut.

At two months, these are well up, and often there are signs of the sppearance of the lateral incisors.

At three months, tho temporary set of teoth are all present, and there is a wider gap between oorner teeth and tusks than at birth.

At five months, there are signs of cutting of the pre-molsra and the fourth molar; the former are not always well developed, but the latter (fourth molar) is very constantly appearing at this age. At seven months, or from seven to eight months, tho oorner permanent incisors are beginning to be out,

At nine months, these are well up, and tho permanent tusks (especially in boars) may be through. At from 10 to 12 months, the fifth molar is cut.

At one year, the central permanent incisors are about being out. but are not always through for a month or more after this.

At one year and three months, the first, seeond, and third molars are up, but the crowns are not worn, these teeth appear very regularly. At about 17 or 18 months, the sixth molar is cut, and the lateral temporary inoisora are being shifted, and the permanent ones appearing, but may not be both quite up.

At two years old, the lateral incisors are quite level with centrals, and show signs of wear, and the sixth molar stands well away from angle of the jaw.