FARM CHAT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1185, 31 January 1880, Page 2

FARM CHAT.

In the Xnv Zealand Country Journal for the present month is an excellent lithograph of Traducer, said to be the most celebrated and successful thoroughbred stallion over imported to this colony. Foaled in 1857, the horse is now getting into years, though he still possesses plenty of strength and vigor. This champion thoroughbred, as shewn by his picture, has a white blaze down his face, the near fore and off hind fetlocks also bern? white. He is a brown horse, standing just .about 16 hands. He was shipped to this country iv 1862, and for many years after his arrival his history was a somwhat cheqeured one. At one time he was in very bad repute, and was cousdered " a useless*, savage,, bad-tempered brute." He was more than once sold for the sum of £60. However the tide toon a turn ; he got into favor ; was sought after for some of the best mares in the south ; and is known as the sire of many winners on both the Australian and New Zealand race courses His stock generally have sound constitutions, good legs, and are swift runners.

IKISH PEACH APPLE. I have just been tasting the fruit of this beautiful and excellent early apple. dow tender and crisp the flesh, and aromatic the juice as it is gathered and eaten, ripe from the the tree I In such an apple tho people of this country have indeed a prize. It grows well, is a first-class bearer, and what is best of all is not subject to attacks of the aphis. The Irish Peach is deserving of extensive cultivation, and will well repay any care and attention bestowed upon it. Though comparatively new to this colony, it is really an old variety of apple, and used to be called the Early Crofton. Bearing fruit on the tips of the branches, great skill is required in pruning it. Having a straggling sort of growth, to give the tree fair play, it should be trained either to the side of a wall, or to a trellis, which might be easily mede with a couple posts and battens nailed to them.

FESCUE GRASSES. In laying down permanent pasture most fanners admit the desirability of having a certain variety of grasses and clovers, in order not only to have a good, close sward, but of regular succession, of plants. On the average, in some districts three or four kinds of grases, and the small number of clovers are generally sown for pasture. Rye-grass is of course the favorite]with the majority, and from eight lbs to a bushel is often used to the acre. Cocksfoot has its advoctes; but in the Waikato uot more than one to three lbs. to the acre is usually sown. Timothy at the rate of probably, one lb. is used by some. It is somewhat singular that the fescues are not more common. Theyrare most valuablo grasses. Take for i^tance ta>tucfi prtftcitMb) which forms a portion of nearly all ths grass lields in the old country. A grass, this, whose tender leaves are much sought after and relished bystock. It also makes capital hay. Then there is tall fescue (fcdta-a daticor) — a grass of a most productive and nutritive character, but perhaps more suited to stiff soils than to the light lands of Waikato. It is surprising that some of i&e small wool farmers who devote a good deal of attention to raising grass seed j do not try the fescues. There would be a demand for the seed, if it were known that colonial grown could be obtained.

MAKES. A Very important ijnestion ianow before

the farmers of the provincial district of Auckland. It is whether thore shall or shall not be a close season for hares. It appears that petitions have beeen presented to the U overnit ent, asking for the protection of these animals during certain months. Anxious to ascertain the feelings of the public on the subject, communications have been forwarded to the Chairmen of District Boards ; and according to the replies received will the wishes of the petitioners be attended to or refused. For my own part, knowing- the destructive habits of the oreatures, I shall recommend that no protection be granted. In the old country the law as regarding hares is as follows: — "If any person shall in the night-time, take or kill any hare in any warren or ground lawfully used for the breeding or keeping of hares, whether enclosed or not, every such offender shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor ; and if any person shall unlawfully and willfully, in the daytime, take er kill any hare in any warren or grouud, or shall at auy time set or use therein any snare or engine for the taking of hares, every such offender being convicted thereof before a justrce of the peace, shall forfeit and pay such sum of money, not exceeding five Dounds, as to the justice may seem meet." 3?or the sport of a few individuals it would be bad policy to have any such enactment in force in this country. This is preeminently a farmers' question: and the i ppportuntty to speak out should not be allowed to slip away.

UTILISING PISEN. The folowing from a late number of the Agricultural Gazette may prove of interest: — "Cumbrian says, — I may state I beleive that in Cumberland as,in Hampshire, the general opinion is " that manure from fern litter is inferior to that made from strawy" but notwithstanding this impression, it may afford some gratification to know that Professor Voelcke asserts that the fertilising properties of fern are superior that of straw, to whose decision we must all bow. See the Journal of theEoyal Agricultural Society of England, vol. xv, part 1, No. 29. After an experience of their use as litter for more forty years, I am satisfied they will be found pirery great acquisition on any farm * Mre they can be obtained at a reasonable cost, but more especially on stock farms or whete straw is not over abundant. We think we are ill prepared for winter if we have not 300 or 400 cartloads of fern secured for litter, not that we may sell straw, but consume it as fodder, either by chaffing it or otherwise. As regards the quality of the manure, I think I may venture to say that our fields and crops will compare favourably with those of our neighbours. The labourers in this neighbourhood use nothing but fern as bedding for their pigs, and I think they always obtain quite as good a crop of potatos as the fanners in whose fields they plant them. Many years ago, when potatos were not so petted as of late, a small farmer told me that on entering his farm he was shorb of manure fur potatoes, and that he finished by planting in furrows with green fern bedded in the furrows instead of manure, and that the produce was almost equal to those manured. Yeojuan.