FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 374, 6 October 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

In Amciica, whatever is known to bo biiper-ex-cellent in quality, is often called gilt edged. Amongst other things this term has hoen applied to the highest quality butter, and in particular to that made by a Dr (a rant, at Enfield, in Connecticut. The following account of the dairy arrangements of this eminent dairyman will be read with interest ; " The cows are carefully stabled, tied with ropes about the neck, bedded with sand on a plank floor, carded or currycombed daily, and their udders sponged before each milking. Every dairy virtue is in vogue here, and the greatest of them all is cleanliness. The winter's feed is prepared in a large i steam-chest of a capacity of about six cubic feet, with rubber packings around the lid ; into this 200 bushels chopped hay and stalks mixed with four bushels of com meal and eight of wheat bran are turned at a time ; about 50 gallons of water are added and the ateam from an engine f)00 feet distant, brought through underground iron pipes laid in cement, is let on twice a week. It takes from 10 to 15 hours to cook a box full, but the engine is used for pumping, grinding, churning, washing, &c, besides. Each cow is supplied twice a day with a bushel of the mixture at a time, and long hay when more feed is needed. The milk goes to a springhouse, the water of which is kept at the right temperature in winter by a novel and ingenious arrangement of pipe-coils from the engine. Cylindrical tin-j>ails 20 inches deep are used for setting the milk ; these are lowored into the water for half an hour, or until the animal heat is expelled, and then drawn up by pulleys and suspended over the water for 36 or 48 hours. The cream is then removed with a funnel-shaped skimmer, which, after ; being dipped in water to prevent sticking, is lowered into the pails, and the cream rushes over the edge. The churn is a clean-washed white oak of the old dasher sort ; a steam attachment is applied, strokes are 48 per minute, which, when the cream is GO degrees, brings the butter in an hour. A& uoon nt, the

butter granulations appear a tow quarts of cold water arc poured into the churn ; the butter is worked on an oak tablo with an octagon lever ; the bare hand never touches it ; stilt is incorporated according to taste ; the butter is then placed in a close firkin and deposited in the spring-room to be cooled and reworked into balls the following day, moisture being absorbed by a sponge wrapped in a linen napkin. The product last year was about 40001 bs. The following receipt for controlling kicking, uneasy cows, were given by an old farmer and stockraiser :—": — " Tbe best method of controlling cows inclined to kick while handling or milking them is to pass a broad strap just in front of the bag and around over the back cf the animal, draw the strap tight and buckle it. This prevents all play of the chords and renders the animal incapable of kicking, and she can then be handled without difficulty. A few applications will cure the worst cases." Eggs can best be preserved by a coating of drying oil, such as linseed or cotton-seed oil. Eggs have been kept perfectly well preserved for six months by being smeared with either of these oils by the lingers in such a way as to give a perfect coating, and being then packed upon their ends in bran. During that period the loss of weight was trifling, and the flavor was equal to that of fresh eggs. Whether or not this process could be economically used in keeping eggs for market is a question to be decided by experiment, but that it may be used in a small way for family purposes is very well decided. The usual method practised by dealei-s is to pack the eggs in bai'rels or vats of brickwork in milk of lime, which is a thin sort of whitewash. They acquire, however, under this process a peculiar flavor, which depreciates their value to some extent in the market, but that is unavoidable. It is necessary in whatever way they are packed, that they should be kept in a cool, dry place. What purports to have been a successful attempt to graft potatoes is described by a correspondent cfiT 7 he Rural. He began by selecting a specimen ' of the Eail} r Rose and another called the Cherry Blow, a potato of dark red colour, and but very little earlier than the Peachblow — removed the eyes from the Cherry Blow by cutting out a piece of oblong shape running to a point ; in these C2C\ ities inserted the eyes of the Early Rose cut out in the same shape, fitting them in nicely and binding them with bass strings. The first year he succeeded in saving one tuber. The follow ing spring he cut this one to single eyes, planted in good soil, gave ordinary cultivation, and about the Ist of September harvested nearly a peek of good-sized potatoes, possessing the characteristics of both the original varieties in this, that they were earlier than the Cherry Blow and later than the Early Rose, and color about a medium between the two. He thinks that by selecting for seed each year those partaking of the nature of both varieties, he will have a potato superior to the Peachblow in one respect — it will be earlier. The mooted question of graft-hybridization is not to be settled by such a test as this. It does not appear that the experimenter ever examined his sprouting tuber to see if any union took place between graft and stock. The most interesting experiments that have been attempted were in putting together the halves of different potatoes, so as to combine an eye from each. We can recall no clear case of any success. It is contrary to all natural laws that vegetation should spring up spontaneously, but there is no grouiuHbr doubt that seeds when deeply imbedded in the earth will retain their vitality for many years, the limit to which no man has found out. When I came into possession of my present residence, 16 years ago (says W. T. Smedley), I removed a large locust tree from near the house. South-cast from where it stood, some 15 paces, is a gaiden which is deeply dug each year, and each summer I find among the vegetables a growth of sound locust plants, which I remove. That they grow from seeds blown from locust tree which was destroyed 1G years ago admits of not a doubt, for no other tree of the kind stands within a third of a mile. As the germs will remain vital for so long a time, who is able to fix the limit of their vitality? Again, I know and have known for the last 35 years a plot of ground which at that time and for many years previous bad been a flower garden. Thirty years ago it was laid out in a lawn and heavily seeded with grass, in which condition it remained for the next 15 years, when it passed into new hands, who broke it up and turned it into a vegetable garden. Immediately flowers of the old varieties in fashion two score years ago began to spring up, and have continued to do so, though none are allowed to go to seed, nor is any seed sown. Each year it is trenched more deeply and fresh subsoil brought to the surface ; and each year brings us a fresh supply of posey plants, most numerous of which are poppies. But .the crowning curiosity for longevity came forth last season in the form of what our mothers used to know as " blue bottles." No seed or plants of the kind have been seen on the premises or in any of the neighbouring gardens for 20 years, and so far as our vicinity is concerned it is obsolete. If it has not lain dormant in the earth for all the last 30 years at least, where did it come from 1 And if it has retained its vitality for all those long years, who can say when it would cease to germinate 1 The Journal of Horticulture J ia» the following cure for blight on fruit trees : — One-quarter peck or more of quite fresh quick lime, 1 pint of sulphur, and ljlbs soft soap. Choose lime that weighs very lightly, dip a fe>v lumps in, or sprinkle with hot water, and place in a bucket or vessel ; sprinkle a little of the sulphur thinly over it, then add more lime just damp enough to slake, and more sulphur on the top of it, repeating this until all the sulphur is used. When the lime is slaked it Avill be seen that the sulphur is quite dissolved, and is scarcely visible except in the darker colour it has given to the lime. The quantity of lime used is not important, ho long as there is sufficient to dissolve the sulphur. The soft soap should then be dissolved separately, and afterwards mixed with the lime and sulphur, and sufficient water added to make three gallons in all. If the mixture is not thick enough to apply with a brush, clay or more lime may be m added ; if the glaring white is objected to, mix with soot. Mixed in that way, and applied in dry weather, no amount of rain will Mash it off" ; but if lime is used that has been some time exposed tothe air, the sulphur will not properly dissolve, and the first shower will wash it away. Writing to the Times, on Wednesday, Mr Mechi says :—": — " I fear we must moderate considerably our expectations of a great wheat crop. On Sunday and yesterday, from some unknown cause, there was a dropping down of many stems, and many ears appeared suddenly ripe and were dead and shrivelled. Yesterday a visitor to my farm reported having seen similar effects on other districts and this morning, in a letter from a friend 14 miles from here, dated the 6th, he says :—": — " My crops look very well, but my baliff tells me this morning that he yesterday found all the wheat blighted, the same as la.>»t year. I hope he is wrong." It is not possible at piesont to estimate the per centage of mischief done, but let us hope that it will not extend. A writer in a French horticultural journal relates this suggestive experience : — After sunset I place in the centre of my orchard an old barrel, the inside of which I have previously well-tarred. At the bottom of the barrel I place a lighted lamp. Insects of many kinds attracted by the light, make for the fl lamp, and while circling around it strike against ™ the sides of the barrel, where meeting with the tar, their wings and legs become so clogged that they fall helpless to the bottom. In the morning I examine the barrel, and frequently take out of it, ten or twelve gallons of cockchafers, whit hi at once dc-

stroy. A few pence worth ot tar employed in this way will, without any further trouble, be the means of destroying 'innumerable numbers of these insects, whose larvae are among the most destructive pests the gardener or farmer has to contend againat. A novel application of photography is described by an Italian correspondent ot the Philadelphia Photographer. He had some fruit trees that needed pi uning, and there was no one in the neighbourhood who could attend to the work in season. He, therefore, photographed the trees, and sent the pictures to an experienced primer in Turin, who returned them after marking whore the branches were to be cut. The artist then pruned the trees himself according to the directions. Not twenty miles from Ulverston, in North Lancashire, may be found a tenant farmer and Shorthorn " enthusiast" who gave 220 guineas for a bull and sold it for 400 guineas ; for another he gave 1,000 guineas, and has 1,200 guineas offered for him ; for two cows, costing him 600 guineas lie has had 1,000 guineas offered, and for another has refused 145 guineas profit. Does not a profit of 925 guineas on five animals show something more than mere enthusiasm and pluck' — Cumbrian.