GLEANINGS.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1316, 4 December 1880, Page 2

GLEANINGS.

That the Exraoor is a hardy sheep is well known in England. A Steam-drying machine has been invented by which hay can be cut and stacked in one day. In no other country in the world are so many wheat bags used as in California. Last year no less than 21,000,000 were required. Sew a collection of annual flower seeds. For an expenditure of 10s you can have a gay garden iv the summer. Pan-dcs, if for exhibition, must have frequent applications of manure water, and both shoots and flowers must be kept within limit. Says a writer in the Australasian :— '' If you cannot find out how to grow wheat at 2s 6 i per bushel and live, you will either have to give up wheat growing 1 or die." Goats ought always to be kept in large stables, because they will face fire, and horses will follow them out, though they would not go by themselves. Keep your turkeys growing 1 right straight! from the shell, and you will find that it will pay when pay day comes. Pinks, picotees, and carnations are coming into bloom, and the bursting of the flowers may be prevented by tying a slight band of worsted nround the tube of the flowers. Every farmer should allot a portion of each field to his son, and let him try and "beat the old man's crop." Let th 3 lad keep the pro -.eeds for his wages. A flowergrower in Germany has five acres under crop with lily of the valley : they all fiud their way to English markets. There are many things beaidf-s wheat to be produced upon farms — indeed, wheat growing is not the whole "art and mystery" of farming. Phylloxera, in spite of all the strict Government enactments of Victoria, is not yet, stamped out. to come ? is a query raised by a correspondent of an Australian pfrper. The Evtnoor mutton is of a delicious flavor. There is weight, without that " tallowy" smack which is so disagreeably prominent in the flesh of the Lincoln and 1 eieester. Ro«es are sufficiently advanced in growth to show which are suckers from the stock on which they have been budded, and these, must he removed with a strong hand, and the fly plasrue must be kept down by brushinir, dusting, or syringing. The popular English gnrdenin or paper, The Garden, is making a bold stand for 'he use of English names for plants, instead of the Dog-Latin jargon of scientific pedants. Do mangolds make the butter difficult Au Ex moor rim will give a clip of from I'2ibs to 131bs, the wool being worth obout l-kl pe-' lb. Ewes furnish about 9lb."> each. They are handsome, active sheep, with the face of the Lincoln and the squareness of the Southdown. Wool-lice are tioublcsome in the cucumber frames. The-,* 1 cm bo kept under by placing a little hay m the corners, under which they will gather, when in morning boiling water poured over will destroy them. A novel condition -was attached to the clas-, "butter" at a Into ajrrir-altural show in Victoria. All the exhibits had afte.rw.uds to bo given to the ho.spital ! As one. of the exhibitors aptly remarked, '• Why pounce upon butter only 'i Why not confiscate all the cattle, horses, and other exhibits •'" The Ni tr Yoi k Tribune reprints a clipping from tho Cott"i< Ganhmr. to the effect th.it ;i gentleman with a largo estite in Now Z 'alaud st-.tcs that the effect of transporting bops to that colony had been to kill out lh" honey-sucking birds, some of which have become extinct and other, vory s-oaiee, Mich as tho bell bird. Xitivo bee-, in India hive no need for stor'ng foi a wiutcr'f day, to which they devote much labor in this country. Hay ni«V<ing is something like making broad. One person may turn out a very decent lonf, whilst another will prod-ice a very indifferent pudding from the same materials ; aii'l one haymaker will produce a stack of splendid fodder from a, field, where another would m.ice nothing 1 of it but a h'Mp of very indifferent straw. Lettuce run is quickly to seed in hot weather. Tho only remedy is to give them liber d treatment. Sow thinly, on the rich^t »f ground, where they are to grow without, being transplanted, and whoio they c in bo supplied with an abundance of water. The thistle docs not benefit well cultivated 1 ukl, but to laud which is lying comparatively waste, and which is difficult- to cultivate iutho usual way, it is. of the greatest advantage to have a good crop ot thistles. — Country Journal. In no<rlcctin<r to make the. best use of the ground under their care there is a waste on the part of the farmers. In allowing wpcjs to accumulate and go to seed in the head-lands and side-lands of their fields, they injure themselves and tlu-ir neighbours. By neglecting to try other crops and other sources of income there is waste. Some of tho old stems of cabbage should bs left iv the ground after the heads have b?en cut, as there is usually a scarcity of them at this season of the year. These will throw young sprouts, and be ready for use before the spring sown ones aie fit.

"In tho sweet, balmy, delicious happiness of love's young dream," says an American paper, "m youth will not insist on ciuoi'injr walnuts for his girl, but on peeling them as well. Two years after marriage he will not even let her have the nut-crackers until he is through." The Ikrkpekssiblb Boy. — "The boy stood on the burning deck." Mind, ".stood." We don't believe it. We never were on the burning deck of an excursion steamer that the boy didn't always have the be-<t seat, right where his hat could blow of into the water, and everybody else stood. — New Haven llegihter. Sir Frederick Sleigh Roberts, on whom Her Majesty has been pleased to confer the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, in reward of his services in Afghanistan, was born in the year 1532. He received his first commission as second lieutenant Royal Artillery (late Bengal Artillery), iv 1851, was promoted to a first lieutenancy in 1537 ; he became captain in 1860, major in 1872, lieutenant-colonel in duo course, and was promoted to major-general in 1878. General Roberts received the Victoria Cross for personal bravery in the field in 1858; he served iv the Indian Mutiny campaign at Delhi and Luckoow as assistant adjutant-general, and was present in the Umbeyla expedition of 1563. He held the office of assistant quarter* master -general throughout the Abyssinian campaign ; he superintended the reembarkation of tho whole army, aud wasselocted by Sir Robert Isapier as thebearer of his final despatches. General Roberts married in 1539, Nora, daughter of the late Dr John Bews, of tho 73rd Foot. He wxs nominated a Kuighfc Commander of the Bach iv 1879.