GLEANINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1295, 16 October 1880, Page 3

GLEANINGS.

Nbveb Troth with dull tools, for they require too great an outlay of strength, both of man and beast. A tract of 50,000 acres on the Northern Pacific railroad has been bought for a oolony from Belfast, Ireland. The farmer who has plenty of stock -will find manure-making both simple and easy. For the land there is nothing better than good barnyard manure. But in cases where there are not stock enough on the place to yield a full supply, it is the best to resort to compests. The feet of cows that have been kept in dirty yards or wet pastures, or in mud, are apt to become sore between the claws and around the hoofs. The proper treatment is to wash them clean with soap and i water, and apply common tar to them. The cleaner the stable or milking yard, the better brushed or cleaned the cow, the j neater the milker in Ms or her person, and the less exposure the milk to the air, the I longer it will keep sweet, and the sweeter and purer it will be. Milk absorbs odors more rapidly than almost any other known fluid. Odors are absorbed ohiefly by the butter globules in the milk, and retain them to a great extent through and after churning, when of course they will be found in the butter. The Royal Agricultural Society of England paid £1158 Is 8d for police protection during their last year's show } £770 for refreshments and entertainments in show yard ; £690 for steward's hotel expenses and entertaining foreign visitors ; and it took another £617 to i'nrnish a teut for H.R.H. the president— not at all bad for an English "shout." It is of the vtry utmost importance that stock should have good, pure water, and plenty of it. The thirst of animals during the hot weather can really be imagined from judging it by the human thirst ; and to deprive the animal of a sufficient drink is about the worst speotes of cruelty that can ba inflicted upon the brute creation. The agony of excessive thirst is simply terrible. One of the principal French breeds of catr-le, the Charolais, white in colour, has been the basis of a successful experiment, crossed by the English shorthorn, in producing • ' shorthorns' ' that invariably come white. It is now proposed to extend the range of the experiment, with a portion of this French herd, by the crossing with the nearest representative of the mediaeval white cattle, a cross-bred bull from the Chillingham wild herd. P&ralyeis of the hind quarters in pigs is sometimes caused by inflammation of and consequent effusion upon the spinal mar' row, causing pressure and loas of nerve power. Sensation and power of motion may often, be restored by the application of a mild irritant to the loins. Turpentine or a thin paste of mustard rubbed upon the loins over the spine generally leads to a cure. It is brought on by oold and damp quarters or exposure to cold raine, and is more frequent in young pigs than in old ones. Lambs are subject to a similar complaint, arising from the same causes. A chill will sometimes produce it very suddenly: The cause of poor butter is not on aocount of developing a slight acidity in the cream before churning, but from a great variety of causes -which dairymen should fully understand (says the American Dairyman.) They are — first, bad milk; setting milk in impure atmospheres ; allowing it to absord the fumes of the stable and other noxious emanations; and second, overchttrning and overworking so as to injure the grain. Also leaving buttermilk in the butter; for the casein, on exposure to the air in a moist state, especially in "warm weather, becomes rapidly changed into a ferment, which, acting on the volatile fatty matters of butter resolves thenvinto glycerine and butyric acid, caproic ?cid,' and caprylic acid. We believe that cream should be obtained as soon as possible from milk, and before the milk becomes old and decomposed ; but the idea that cream is rotten where a slight acidity is developed we should be sorry to have dairymen accept unchallenged. The point which we desire to make is not that we are opposed to making bntter from sweet cream, but rather to correct the inference which might be drawn from our correspondent, that a development of slight acidity in cream is the cause of poor butter. ThemakerH of poor butter must look for the causes in a different direction.