FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 367, 19 September 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

As an illustration of the immense bovine resources of Texas, it is stated tl>at one breeder there boasts that he will h;v\e 75,000 calves to brand this season. He says that lie branded 63,000 last year, and 70,000 the year preceding. Compare this with a New England faim-yard, with its two cows and yoke of oxen ! Commander John IT. Russell, Inspector of Ordinance at Mare Island, writes to Sonntag & Co, San Francisco, for a pound of the seed of the Eucalyptus Grlobulus, familiarly known to the Californian as the Australian gum tree, which has been ordered by the Bureau of Ordinance of the Navy Department. The seed is intended for planting at Pensacola, Florida, Norfolk, Virgiim, and Washington, D.C., on the various magazine grounds, as an experiment, and the department is desirous of obtaining all the information available as to the means required for the successful culture of the tree from the seed. The Ayrshire cow is bred, and baa been bi-ed for milk ; her inheritance is all in the line for milk producing. Her form indicates it ; her records prove it. When aged and dry, the same functions which ordinarily lill her udder fill her muscles with fat ; but while milking, inheritance, intensified yearly by selection, turns the energies of her system towards extracting materials from her food, and secreting the larger and richer pai-t in the udder. As the shorthorn stands with the grazier, who has tried their quality, so does the Ayrshire stand with the dairyman. By seeking improved breeds, the farmer is adding materially to the profits of his farm, for he is utilising the great power of unerring certainty of inheritance. Every fa mer should have a can of linseed oil and a brush on hand, and, whenever he buys a new tool, he should soak it well with the oil and dry it by the fire or in the sun before using. The wood by this treatment is toughened and strengthened, and rendered impervious to water. Wet a new hayrake, and when it dries it will begin to be loose in the joints ; but if well oiled, the wet will have but slight effect. Spades and hoes are preserved from checking and cracking in the top of the handle by oiling ; the wood becomes smooth as glass by use, and is far less liable to blister the hand when loll" used. Axe and hammer handles often break off where the wood encers the iron ; this part particularly should be toughened with oil to secure durability. Oiling the wood in the eye of the axe will prevent its swelling and shrinking, mid sometimes getting loose. The tools on a large farm cost a large sum of money ; they should be of the most approved kinds. Laborers should bo required to return their tools to the convenient places provided for them ; after using they should be put away clean and bright. The mouldboards of ploughs arc apt to get rusty from one season to another, oven if sheltered ; they should be brushed over with a few drops of oil when put away, and will then remain in good order till wanted.

In a leading article, commenting upon the Polynesian Colonisation Scheme of Mv Vogel, the Hobart Town Mercury of the 1 7th instant, remarks: — Mr Vogel, the indefatigable Premier of New Zealand, has again come to the front, but this time not a.sa stubborn \ indicator of a reproductive public works scheme, but as n prophet of a magnificent future for the " Great Britain of the South." Mr Vogel has submitted to the Governor and the Legislature of New Zealand a scheme for establishing and [ encouraging, by way of subsidy, a commercial com- | pany to trade between that colony and the Polynesian Islands. In submitting his grand commercial scheme, Mr Vogel admitted that proposals of that nature were always open to serious objections, because fears were sometimes entertained of the Government engaging in speculations private persons could carry out ; but lie wjis quite prepared to allow the question to stand on its own merits befoie the Houno. The scheme, vast as its proportions may appear, is entirely consistent with the rapid commercial enterprise of the colony so ably represented by Mr Vogel. Week after week chronicles the arrival of shipments of emigrants, many of whom are young men in the full vigour of life, but whose aspirations reach beyond the mere tilling of the soil ; and it is for this class of young colonists that Mr Vogel, with true sfcatesmanliko forecast, wi.shcs to hold out sufficient inducement to realiue a permanent interest in the , prosperity of tlio colony.