RURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1831, 1 April 1884, Page 3

RURAL NOTES.

Ax American authority advises the cultivation of catnip for bees, which he consideis the best of food. The dairyman's profits come from his good cows, and each poor milker reduces thepiofit made on a good one. Watch your sitting hens, and if an egg gets bioken wash the remaining eggs in tepid water. Hens should not be allowed to sit wheio they will be annoyed with other occupants of the poultry yard. Select the land that you are going to plant in potatoes the next year. If it is in glass top diess with manure and let it lie until the end of winter. Stubble should leceive an application of manure, and then be turned under. If the gtound is wet, and 3on cannot afford to underdrain it, put it to some other use, but do not risk potatoes on it. The Department of Agriculture, at Washington, announces fiat the disease popularly known as hog cholera has disappeared in every portion of the United States. It went as it came without any apparent knowledge of its advent or exit, thus showing how little scientists know of whys and wherefores. Slow milking of cows never secures the full product. The cow becomes tiied of relaxing the udder muscles, and after a time resumes the more natural position of contracting them. This makes much stripping necessary, and a slow milker will never have patience to strip a long time. Partial milking soon dries the cow, and gieatly reduces her value. An American poultry farmer says :—: — Store away a few bushels of dry road dust for the hens to dust in next winter. Give them enough of it, and have it entirely dry, so they can " make the dust fly" all through the hen house and cover the roosts and fill the cracks, and the lice must move out. This does not sound

quite so nice a soapsuds, carbolic acid, kerosene, perfect cleanliness. &c, but it is more practical and more likely to be done on a faun where washing henroosts is not the main business. Dust is also good to sprinkle on young stock, but should be carded and brushed out of the liair after the vermin have left. An experiment was tried some years ago in England as to the relative value of horses and oxen for agiicultuial labour. The oxen ate 2.301 by of turnips a day, each hcs-eate, 1 Gibs of oats daily, both having oat straw ad lib. The conclusion ai rived at was that there, on farms, horses should be employed exclusively. The Dairy says that sulphuious aid is a most effective antiseptic and anti ferment, and may be produced by burning sulphur upon livp coals upon a shovel or a bed of coals and carried into a stable with pei feet safety. It will also be found an excellent method for freeing cl a 11 1 3* rooms and cellars fioni the spores of mildew, which have a veiy injurious effect upon the milk and upon butter or cheese made from milk that has been exposed to them. In fact, from constant prevalence of these spores it might be useful to make a practice of fumigating dailies occasionally, especially after a bad damp spell of weather dining the summer season. "It is much the better way " (says an English wiiter) "to mix alsike with timothy, or the common red clover, or both. When thus mixed they aie a help to each othei. The alsike, being a native of a cold climafe, does not winter-kill, and, bosidis, it acts as a mulch in winter and spiing to the common red, and keeps the latter fiom being destioyed by the hca\ingout piocess. i\s the red clo\er shades the loots of the alsike, which giows close to the surface, it protects the latter fiom the effects of drought The timothy and red clover being both upiight growois, hfb and keep up the ahike trnm the giound, which is very deniable. The stem of the alsike is too fine to suppoit its many blanches in an nought position, and hence is moie inclined to lodge than the common led. FOl the reasons given the ( onibinition of the thiec named plants is veiy linpoitant, and will piove successful w heiever tried.

Tin: Piince of Wales, in his official capacity of Grand Master of Freemasons, lias consented to issue a wanant for a totnl abstainers' lodge in London. Tith, poet Bums has sexeial great eiandehildten living at Cheltenham, England, the gtand-cliildron of his son Lieutenant Colom 1 Bums. Tin, t luce English Masonic chaiitable institutions, which arc supported by the voluntaiy eontiibutions of theciaft, during tho year 1883 icalised a total income 0f£.)5,<)94 14s 3d. Of tins sum the boys' school lecened £24,503 7s Id. the bene\o!ent institution X 15.449 Gs, and the girls' school £12,050 Is 2d. The laigest total attained pievious to 1883 was in 1888, when the sum amounted to £40,703. A (tKKMvx paper, which must be edited by a nimble man, declares that it is wioni; to wiitc m novels that the " sea runs \eiy little more than twenty feet high." The German is light ; and it is equally wiong to speak of a gorgeous sunset, for the sun does not set. or the moonlight sleeping on a bank, for moonlight never sleeps ;or Father Rhine, for the Rhine it, the river, and nobody's father at all. In point of fact, it is wiong to use woids at any time, for woids nlw ays incai. something else. The correct thing is to open your mouth when your hungry, and hold your tongue under any ciicu instances. Explorations iccently begun and still in active prosecution, indicate that the little frequented district of Holderness in Yorkshue, England, may yet become celebiated for its exhumed lake dwellings and their relics. The district was undoubtedly oncechaiacteiised bynumerous lakes, but the sole Mater space now remaining is Honsea Mere, a bioacl sheet more than a mile length. Relics of lake dwellings have hitherto been sought without m.v keel success in England, and the present discoveries are regarded with gre.it interest by aicluiiologi-ts. Pro\ errs WRirrnx nx a Ancilxt Brahmin.— Tin 1 Hist step towaids being wis; is to know that thou art ignorant, and if thou wouldst not be esteemed foolish in the judgment of others, cast off the folly of being wise in thine own conceit. If thou believe a thing impossible, thy despondency shall make it so ; but he that perseveieth shall overcome all difficulties. To be satisfied with little is the gieatest wisdom , and he who increaseth his liches increaseth his caies ; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure. Labour not after riches fiist, and think fchou afteiwaid wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment thiows away all that he hath. When thou doest good, do it because it is good, not because men esteem it ; \\ hen thou avoidest evil, flee fiom it because it is evil, not because men speik against it. Be honest for the lo\ eof honesty. Who is it that affiims most boldlj ? Who is it that holds his opinion most obstinately ? Even Le who hath most ignorance, for he also hath most pi ide. Pursue that which is honourable ; do that w hich is right, and the applause of thine own conscience will be more joy to thee than the shouts of millions who know not that thou de«ervest them.