FACES FOR FARMERS. DRYING- FIGS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 328, 20 June 1874, Page 2

FACES FOR FARMERS. DRYING- FIGS.

Ills Excellent the G-overnor of South Australia has received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies a tiespatch enclosing the following; report from the British Conbul at Smyrna, on the method of drying figs in Asia Minor, witk a few remarks on tbe mode of their cultivation :—: — Report upon the method of drying figs in the District of Smyrna (Aid in.) When the figs become thoroughly ripe they fall off. They are gathered up every morning and placed on ground prepared for the purpose, as used for drying grapes. After remaining there for ten or twelve days, the figs are placed into sacks, and conveyed by the railway and camels to Smyrna ; they are allowed to remain some days exposed to the air in open magazines. Great care is taken that no water or dow falls upon thorn ; as, wherever touched a black spot is visible, and the fig gradually decays. The figs grow to great perfection in the district 'of Aidin only. All attempts to cultivate them elsewhere have failed of success ; that is to say, the skin of the fruit becomes thick — does not contain the delicate flavor* and sweetness as figs grown in Aidm. The Pacha of Egypt planted some thousands of trees, but, owing to the dew, tho crops were injured and could not bo packed, although tho fruit was good before the figs foil. The soil in which they grow is a rich dry soil, and they are easily propagated by cuttings. In districts where tho male fig does not exist, when tho fruit is at a certain size a long string of male figs is passed over each tree to fructify it. Without this the fruit is almost useless. Great care is taken to keep the ground well worked around tho root of the tree. These trees frequently grow large enough to cover a space of six or seven yards in diameter. Eoiit. War. Cumbehbatcii, Consul. Smyrna, 21th February, 187-1.

The impression prevails among those who use freely fruits which are put up in tin cans, that they are injured thereby, and this impression is in many cases correct. We have long contended that all preserved fruits and vegetables should be stored in glass, and that no metal of any kind should bo brought in contact with them. All fruits contain more or less of vegetable acids, and others that are highly corrosive are often formed by fermentation, and the metallic vessel* aro considerably acted upon. Tin cans are held together by solder, an alloy into which lead enters largely. This metal is easily corroded by vegetable acids, and poisonous salts are formed. Undoubtedly many persons aro greatly injured by eating tomatoes, peaches, &c, which have been placed in tin cane, and we advise all who contemplate putting up fruits to use only glass jars for the purpose. — BoUon Journal of Chemistry. While a certain amount of salt is absolutely necessary for the health of stock, it by no means follows that its indiscriminate use is either needful or safe. On the contrary, salt used in excessive quantities is highly dangerous. It then acts upon the stomach and intestines as an irritant poison, and cases of death have occurred through permitting cattle and hogs to consume too much of it. When stock are allowed free access to it they will take a small quantity very often, but if denied a frequent supply they become ravenous for it, and aro in danger of eating it to excess. The safest way is to use a small quantity regu2arly in the food ; a quarter of an ounce daily being amply sufficient for a cow or ahorse, and a fourth of that quantity for a hog or a sheep. If stock are salted once a week no more thau one ounce at a time should be given to a cow, and a quarter of an ounce to a sheep or hog. It should also be given in such a manner that no one animal should eat more than its share. It may be given scattered thinly in the feeding trough with more safety than in any other way excepting when it is mixed with the feed. Regularity in its use is the most conducive to tho health of the cattle. We find it necessary to give this caution because some of our readers have been led to suppose, very erroneously, that as salt is a good thing, stock can not have too much of it. According to tha Revue Borticole, experiments with the sewer water of Paris, in the cultivation of certain lands below the level of the city, commenced three years ago, have been of the most satisfactory character ; nnd the eagerness that the farmers now exhibit to obtain permission to use these waters on their lands, wherever it is practicable, is justified by the great increase in their value, many of them having previously been of little worth. Thus certain lands now rent for six and seven times as much per annum as formerly. Preparation of beet leaves for fodder, which Mehay maintains is an entire success by his method, as ho so prepares the leaves of the beet as to render them cabable of preservation for soveral months at the same time greatly improving their qualities as food for cattle. The method consists simply in placing them in baskets and immersing them in a tank containing diluted hydrochloric acid of 4 degreos of ßeaume. The result of this is to greatly condenso tho volume of tho leaves, and to render it necessary to add more fresh ones to fill up tho basket, which has to be again immersed, and firmly allowed to drain off. The leaves may then be placod in beds, in dry earth, and kept until needed for use. According to a report of a committee who examined tho results of this process, domestic animals become extremely fond of the leaves thus prepared ; and, indeed, milch cows fed with them aro said to give a large increase of milk, with a decided improvement in the qnality of the butter. The tendency to diarrhoea in cattle pioduced by the fresh beet loaves seems not to be developed by this prepared fodder, and for this and many other reasons it is strongly recommended to agriculturists. The California fields arc ploughed with what are called gang ploughs, which are simply four, six or eight plough share? fastened to a stout frame of wood. On the lighter soil, eight horses draw a seven gang plough, and one such team is counted on to put in 640 acres of wheat in the sowing season ; or from eight to ten acres per day. Captain Gray, near Merced, has put in this season 4,000 acres with fivo such teams. A seed sower is fastened in front of the plough. It scatters the seed, the ploughs cover it— end the vovk is done. The plough has no handles, and the ploughman is, in fact, only a driver ; he guides the team ; tho ploughs do their own work. It is easy work, and a smart boy, if his logs are equal to the walk, is as good a plough*, man as anybody— for the team turns the corners, and the plough is not handled at all. It is a striking sight to see ten eight-horse teams following each other, over a vast plain cutting ' lands' a mile long, and when all have passed, leaving a track, forty feet wide, of ploughed ground. On the heavier soil, the process is somewhat different. An eight-horse team moves a four gang plough, and gets over about six acres per day. The seed is then sown by a machine which scatters it forty feet, and 6ows from seventy.five to one hundred acres in a day, and the ground is then harrowed and cross harrowed. When the farmer in this valley has done his winter sowing, he turns his teams and men into other ground, which he is to summer fallow. This he can do from tho first of March to tho middle of May ; and by it he secures a remunerative crop for the following year, even if the season is dry. This discovery is of inestimable importance to the farmers on the drier parts of these groat plains. Experience has now demonstrated conclusively that, if they plough their land in the spring, lot it lie until the winter rains comes on, then sow their wheat and harrow it in, they are suro of a crop j and tho summer will have killed every weed besides.