FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 306, 28 April 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

The age of a cow affects tho quantity and quality of her milk — that of heifers containing less butter, but more caseine and albumen, than an equal qunntity of milk from older cows, other things being equal. Observation has shown that milk of the best quality, or of the greatest qnantity, is not given until the cow has reached the age of four or five years, and had two or three calvos ; after which, they are not materially reduced till the animal is unfitted by age for milking purposes. In many experiment! made to test the value of the milk of different cows for the manufacture of butter and cheese, it has been found that tho milk of cows from six to ten years old will produce from 40 to 60 per cent more cream than the milk of their offspring at the age of two years ; and that the milk of the old cows has a less specific gravity of from eight to ten per cent than that of their ovrn heifers at the age of two, although standing side by tide, in tho same, fed with the same food, watered at the same time, and treated in all respects alike. It is evident, then, that a young cow should not be too hastily condemned for the butter dairy ; but if the milk of her ancestors is rich in butter, hen will prohnbl v be so at the same age. Bat the milk of young cows ditfer in richness nearly in proportion to the size they finally attain at maturity. Cultivators generally bay» to pay a high price for artificial manure, and even for an article which, with a little skill, they could make themselrea during the winter months or on rainy days, when they have little else to do. We give a recipe for a cheap, good fertiliser, which has been used successfully by farmers in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We recommend it especially for potatoes, and it has been used with success on corn and other products. It is as follows : Take 1000 lbs of good mould, sieve and screen it to get the gravel out and make it as fine as possible, then spread on a floor or some suitable place ; add 100 lbs sulphate of ammonia, 100 lbs common salt, then mix with a rake. When thoroughly mixed, add 25 lbs pearlash and 25 lbs sulphate of soda, mix well, then add 400 lbs ground bonn, 25 lbs best Peruvian guano, and 150 ground plaster of Paris. Mix. the whole thoroughly, .throw on a pile for forty-eight hours, and it is fit for use. If it is- to be used for potatoes in a district where ffies t aphis or other insects are numerous, 5 gallons sulphuric acid may be sprinkled over the mass. Care must be taken not to use the acid in a confined place, as the fumes sre bad. If it is spilled on the floor, do not throw water on it, as it generates great heats when in contact with water. Sulphuric acid sprinkled on the ground will kill insects of any kind, and its fumes are especially fatal to the potato fly. On clay and olay loam, the more you stir the soil the more plant-food will you develop. But it takes time. A wet clay soil will bake and perhaps " burn " in tho sun ; but drnin it and reduce to a fine tilth by repeated ploughing* andharrowings, and it certainly will not sun-burn. Wo all know that a good summer-fallow retains far more moisture than land that has been "shaded" with a crop of oats, barley, or peas. A correspondent asks whether in the absence of stable manure, bone-dnst would make a substitute, and how it should.be applied. — Meadows need potash, which bone-dust does not furnish, but if 200 pounds of bone-dust and 10 bushels of wood ashes could be applied per acre, early in spring, the meadow would be greatly benefited. 100 pounds of ground gypsum per acre would be also a help to tho bone and ashes. The Jersey breed of cows, as domesticated milkers, are working their way into favour both in England and America, as family pets and butter making cows. They are accustomed to kind treatment and plenty of food in their native island, ond their true place seems to be in the village and its suburbs, or places where but one or two cows are kept, rather than with a herd upon a largs farm. Sweet pickles are mnde from pears, peaches, plums, apples, and other fruit, as well as from watermelon rind, the fleshy part of ripe cucumbers, <fco. The material is oooked in water until soft enough for a stnw to pass pasily, and when cool placed in a jar with a few cloves stuck in each. To 7 lbs fruit take 3 lbs brown sugar, 1 quart vinegar, 4 oz cinnamon, and 2 oz cloves. Boil the vinegar, sugar, and spices together for a few minutes and 1 pour over the fruit. Eepeat the boiling for three days in succession and put away for use. Every farmer should keep coal tar on hand, and a kettle for heating it. When setting posts they should b« seasoned, and the bark taken off, thon drop them in hot ta*, and they will last a life-time. It is the practice to breed from animals from two to three years old, while they do not arrive at maturity till five or six years old. To get good stock by this means is simply impossible What would farmers think of planting unripe corn. The ill effects of breeding in and in- is not so detrimental as this practice. Hardy stock cannot be secured by this means. A Committee appointed to visit the exhibition of the New York State Poultry Society, to obtain a condensed and trustworthy account of the best breeds, addressed, questions to several well-known poultrymen, and received answers, of which the following is the gist, and which they regard as entitled to much consideration :—l.: — 1. What breeds are at present most prized ? A. Different breeders disagree, but it is at present thought that the majority prefer the Houdans, dark and light Brahmas, and Leghorns. 2. Are pure breeds preferable ? A. The pure breeds are- preferable to halfbreeds, as layen, but not quite so hardy. 3. What fowls are best layers? A. White Leghorns and Aylesbury ducks. 4. Which grow fastest and make most dressed meat ? A. Creve Coeurs, light and dark Brahmas, and Aylesbury ducks. 5. For eggs and flesh both, which are best ?. A. Houdans. 6. For flavour and tenderness of flesh which breeds excel ? A. Houdans, Dorking, or Game and Rouen ducks. 7. For mothers, which have you found best ? A. Game and Dorkking. 8. Is the Dorking hardy in this climate ? A\ No. 9. What feeding and range do you recommend ? A ground feed in the morning mixed with warm water, whole grain at night, a little meat occasionally in the winter, with some broken oyster shell, all the rango possible, and a good warm house are all that is necessary. 10. What is your opinion of poultry-raisins; on a large scale ? A. It can be done with great profit if the grounds and houses are large enough. Every hundred fowls should have at least an acre. .Respecting the use of salt as manure, Professor Charles Eggert, lowa University, writes : — As a partial answer to certain inquiries about the value of salt as a fertilizer, the following faots may prov« of interest : 1. Neither of the two elements of common salt — chlorine and sodium — is found in the majority of plants. Sodium exists only in the sugarbeet and in certain plants growing near the seashore, &c. (sa'so'a, salicormia, &c.) These plants, including the sugarbeet, belong mostly only to one family, the Clenopodse. Ever since the Frenchman Peligot (vide transactions- of the Paris Academy, November,. 1867); examined this matter, the fact, as just stated, has not been contradicted. Neither the grain or straw of wheat, nor the wood of the oak, the leaves of the tobacco plant, nor the roots of parsnips, nor the tubers of the potato, contain any sodium* Although all plants contain largely potassium, and this element is so nearly akin to sodium, investigations have satisfactorily proved that, in most plants, the latter can never be substituted for the former. Certain sea plants that coutain sodium can be easily made to substitute potassium for it, but not vice wersa. 2. Experiments with puro salt have demonstrated the fact that the soil is not bonefitted by it. Cases seemingly in contradiction with this fact are known, but they formed jjo exception inasmuch as salt is often impure, and its impurities, particularly magnesia, one of the most powerful mineral manures, have been proved to be the real cause of tho beneficial effect. 3. There is, however, one possibility left where salt may directly aid vegetation, viz. : when the soil contains at the tame time a great proportion both of lime and of organic nitrogenous substances. In such a case there will be formed of the carbonate of lime and the chloride of sodium (salt), chloride of potass and carbonate of ioda. The latter, by oxidizing, affects the organic matter and thereby changes, sometimes in little more than two months, into what is well known as Chili saltpetre, a most valuable mineral manure, by virtue of the nitrous and phosphoric acids it contains. Without the salt this process would likewise take place, but it would require very much more time. A correspondent inquires as follows : — An opinion prevails that air-slaked lime is not as good for whitewashing purposes as water-slaked. Is this correct? What is the chemical difference, or is there any, between water-slaked lime and air-slaked ? When stumps, roots, leaves, &c, are burned, will the ashes from them be as rich in fertilising qualities as if they were allowed to gradually decay ? and will not the ashes of burned weeds make as good a manure as the remains of the same when they decompose ? What is the cheapest and best remedy to purity cistern water, and keep it from stagnating or smelling in|warm weather ? Thit is important to many. — Eeply . When stone or caustio lime is treated -with wator, a definite portion of lime unites ohemically with a definite portion of water, and forms hydrate of lime. When stone lime is exposed simply to the atmosphere, it absorbs both water and carbonate acid, which contort* it into a mixture of hydrate with the carbonate of

lime, the latter being of o very different nature fiom the J former, which accounts for its inferior inlue for whitewash-H ing purposes. Stumps, roots, and weeds had beller be burned and the ashes used as fertilizers, but leaves are such excellent materials fora compost heap that they ought never to be used for any other purpose. It is impossible to say whether the ashes from a given quantity of vegetable matter would yield as much avaiable manure to the soil as the same 4 material more finely divided by the process of decay. In ' practice the results would vary much with the character of the soil. In a soil deficient of humus, the rotting vegetable substance would assist the retention of ammonia and do good. Ongrojndof a different kind, a re liimed bog for example, it would only tend to make a soil, all c idy too loose, still more so, and would do harm. The only trustworthy method of purifying cistern water is by filtet ing it through lorne substance like charcoal. Alum will do little or no good ; it will spoil the water for all domestic uses. Chloride of lime would not answer to put in the cistern, but it might bo spreod upon the ground around it, to destroy the odour from the stagnant water. The following instructions for preparing ground for flower beds will be found useful to all who desire to surround their dwelling with choice flowers :— Procure a load or two of leaf mould, fine swamp muck, or black and fine street dirt ; spread it a few inches thick on the ground, rake out all the course tufts of grass and stick*; mingle with the mould about one- third its bulk of sand ; add several bushels of iron turnings and ironiilings, if procurable, t*n busheli of w ood ashes, and ten bushels* of coal Mhes, sifted, and a few bushels of slaked lime will do no harm. Let this mass be raked over, at least everyjmonth during the growing season.. By forking it over every noxious weed will oe destroyed; and by the follawing- season a mellow comj post will be prepared that will be exactly what all flowers neodl for developing stems and leaves in the most admirable perfection, and petels of exquisite beauty. If the compost heap were to receive all the- soap-suds of the kitchen 'for -a year,the food for flowers would be largely increased. The following from the •' San Francisco Market Review " will enable penonsto realise th» extent of the operations of some of the Californian wheat growers : — H. J. Glenn, an .enterprising faamer of Colusa County will put in on his "little" farm near Jacinto, this year 40,096 acres of wheat, from which we make the following estimate :— At 25 busheli per acre— which is not a high estimate for the-prospect of the present season,- the yield will be l,00",000 bushels or 60,0iJ0,0D01bs. At 137 lbs to the sack it will require 430,000 sack«. At 300 tons per barge load on the Sacramento River it will take one steamer two 5 ears to deliver the wheat in San Francisco, allowing one trip per week ; and it . will take '20 ships of 1300 tons each to deliver it in England. A But the most important calculation jet remains to be made, especially to M? Glenn, and that is the net profit from the 1,000,000 dollars that the wheat will bring him on the ranch at one dollar per bushel.