FACTS FOR FARMERS. KITCHEN GARDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 177, 26 June 1873, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS. KITCHEN GARDEN.

Complaints are often made that old gardens fail to produce certain kinds of vegetables, and that it is immaterial the amount of manure used— the result is the same. There &MxulQiibt that the soil requires renovating by cropping with a totally diffeieut description of vegetable matter. In such cases it is no use to merely alter the cropping from peas to cabbage, and so on. The only plan to bring back such land to productiveness is to crop with some cereal, such as either oats or barley, uhich, if not required for use, mAy be judiciously dug in. If this system is adopted often, such complaints of worn out soils would soon cease Very seldom, or in fact never, do we hear of market gardens losing their feitility, which we affirm is attributable to the faot that, generally after each culinary crop, the land is sown with either oats or barley for gieen fodder. We might also advise, in cases above referred to, that, instead o5 usiug large quantities of manure, some new soil would be a great benefit. We would wish also to warn our fiiends against the. use of road -side trimmings and street sweepings, collected for garden purposes, as both aie pretty sure to contain all the most noxious weeds known, including knot-grass, cyperus hydra, and allium odorum, or sweet scented onion. Many gardens have, to our knowledge, been mined by the use of the articles refened to, and containing either the seeds or bulbs of the most baneful weeds known to modern gardeners. The knot grass is so well known as not to need a description. The hoe must be kept going amongst all growing crops. Plant out cauhfloweis, and sow for late ciopping a good supply of Stadtlifllder. This variety possesses great hardihood, and is a splendid kind for summer use. We may mention that it is no use to plant out this description of vegetables, unless the land is thoroughly rich, so that the growth may be pushed on. We might also advise that seeds besown in early spring for the production of cabbage plants, as they will give better results than even the old plants divided. Many of the old varieties of peas are again coming into general cultivation — such as sciraetar, Prussian blue, &c ; sow them largely, and on no account plant them too thick. The old and well-known fantail dwarf is perhaps the moat productive pea know n, an/1 cannot be too largely, planted. The seed of this particular Liiid should be placed nearly one foot apart, and four feet between the drills.

In the discussion of wheat culture, ab a late agricultural convention in Newport, New Hampshire, Mr Pattee, of Warner, gave a formula for reducing bones, as follows : — Place them in a large kef tie, filled with ashes and about one peck of lime to a barrel of bones. Cover with water and boil. In twenty-four hours all the bones, with the exception, perhaps, of fcho hard shm bones, will become so much softened as to bo easily pulverised by hand. They will not be in particles of bone, but m a pasty condition, and in excellent form to mix with muck, loam or ashes By boiling the shin bones ten or twelve hours longer, they will also become soft. This is an easy and cheap method of reducing bones. If the farmer w ,11 set aside a cask for the reception of bones in somo eomenient place, and tnrow all that are found on the farm into it, especially if one or two dead horses come into his possession, he will be likely to find a large collection at thp end of the yoar, wmc'i would prove a valuables adjunct in the manure heap.

The Mabeia&e of Miss Kf\ke with the Sheriff op Morocco. — It is reported from Tangier that the rramt marriage of the Sherif of G-uazan to Miss Keanc, and his subsequent mode of life, Ins not having secluded her aftor the- manner of the Mahomedans, and not having insisted upon her renouncing her Christian tenets, is looked upon as a great outrage upon the precepts of the Mahomedan religion. The intelligence of the marriage is said to have caused a painful sensation at the Court ot Morocco, and notwithstanding the Sharifs exalted position, the Sultan had sent despatches to the governors of the provinces, expressing his indignation at the Sherif s conduct, ordering them to warn him that if he does not immediately return to his possessions at Quazan, and conform to the precepts of the faith, make atonement for past errors, and lead a life of piety, such as becomes the sacred (in Moorish eyes) position which he holds, his estates will be confiscated, he will be deprived of his prerogatives, and, if caught, thrown into prisou. This decree of the Sultnn lias given great satisfaction to the Moorish community at Tangier Both the Sherif and his wife have disappeared, and it is supposed that they arc concealed in some foreign legation in Tangier. The position of Miss Kcane is considered critical, she being regarded by the Moors with feelingsof hostility. Relatives of Miss lyeane request London papers to state that they have received accounts which prove the above report to bo much exaggerated, the lady being in no real danger, and, Sir J. D» Hay, the English consul, having himself expressed the belief that a reconciliation between the Sheri l and the Sultan might shortly be expected. As the Sherif, who is a wealthy man, agreed, it is said, upon his marriage to settle $35,000, or upwards of £7,000, on Miss Keane, which would fall to the share of that lady if the marriage should bo now dissolved, the Sultan has offered himself to pay this sum as ono of the conditions of the divorce for which ho stipulates. In any event, the Sultan insists that the Sherif shall give up his enjoyment of European society in Tangier, and consent to reside for at least three-fourths of the year on his estates at Wazan or at Fez. The Sherif, probably more alarmed by the threatening attitude of the people than by the ftilminations of tho Nultnn, at oneo placed himself under the protection of M. Tissot, the French Minister, and spent a couple of nights under tho hospitable roof of the French Legation. It is reported that he has been offered on the part of the French Government an asylum in Algeria, and an annual pension of $10,000. According to. another account, though i,\\e Sherif 1 and. Sherifa are under the protection of the French Location, it seems they drive about in public, the lady having given up none of her English ways. Epicurus says " gratitude is a virtue that luis commonly profit annexed to it." And " where is the virtue," says Seiieca " that has not ? " But still tho virtuo is to be valued for itself, and not for the profit that attonds it.