RURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1866, 21 June 1884, Page 4

RURAL NOTES.

It is well known (says tho Melbourne Weekly Times) that all wheat harvested by the stripper or threshed by the thieshing machine is more or less damaged for seed purposes, and that the cracking of the outer covering of the grain renders it less impervious to the effect of the pickle than hand threshed wheat. Consequently, strong pickle greatly retards the germination, or in a manner destroy it. Many fanners reserve a small plot e\ ery year of their wheat crop for seed purposes, and this they thresh with the flail. The advantages aie obvious. Fifty per cent, less seed is required per acre, and there is always a certainty of an e\en and lrgular growth in the crop. The object of pickling the seed aciording to the popular belief, is for the destruction of any spores of smut or rust that may be adhering to the grain. Many practic.il farmeis are of the opinion that frequent changing of their seed is as effective a preventive of smut as pickling, and that wheat should never be sown for moie than three years without a change. Others, again, find the surest way to obtain pure seed is to be used that of their own selection, i.e., to reserve any plots in the field that show a superiority over the surrounding growth. Collect the gram obtained theiefrom until sufficient has been seemed to sow a fairsized area. With care this does not take \eiy long, and then you have n pure and even quality of seed, which will ripen more icgularly than the mixed varieties at present predominating in our markets, and while yielding more prolifically would also enjoy greater immunity from rust, smut, &c, Colour in cattle seems with many breeds to \ary with the tastes and fancies of the breedci3. Tho history of the Hercfoids shows that the original breed w»is of a "silver grey" colour. Ben Tompkins popularised the yellow red with white face, and in modern times nothing but " blood red " will go down with breeders of fashionable stock. The original colour of the Aberdeen polls vailed between dun, bundle, and black, and it was not until Mr Watson, of Keillor, established the black-and-all-bl.idv that all other colours were tabooed. In no other breed have the colours been su long and determinedly fixed as in the Bhoi thorns. The hues of that breed may vary from a yellow red, a fa\ ourite colour witn one of the Bates tribes, to a deep blood led, characteristic of one of the Duchess tribes, but in no instance has any of the shorthorn tribes departed from the orthodox red, white, or roan. At the last Islington fat stock show it was made apparent that, numerous as are the bleeds of cattle, and various as are the colours, it cannot be said that fixity of colour lias yet been thoroughly established, for one of the best animals exhibited was a polled beast shown by the Piincc of Wales, which was neither black, red, nor even brown, and amongst several other breeds the hues were such as, in the opinion of one writer, Vto drive any manufacturer of dress fabrics wild from the hopelessness of imitating them." In every operation of husbandry, as in all things, the farmer should have before him a well defined purpose, and steadily pursue it. The system of ensilage is spreading in the country. Every week there are reports of the opening of silos, and the results aie usually declared to be satisfactoiy. Probably there will be a very laigi 1 number of silos constructed in time foi the growing fodder crops. — Home paper. When meat is exposed directly to thick smoke of a fire of any kind, the lampblack will accumulate on it, giving it an unsightly and unsavoury appearance. This may be avoided by sewing up the meat in bags made of thin cloth ; this will admit the creosote and keep off the coarse smoke. Bacon having a beautiful golden colour is ticatcd this way. Ciiitun' Oktkx. — The American Dairyman says there is one point that should be impressed upon the daily man's mind, and that is, if he wants to make a firstclass aitiele of butter he must churn often. Never let the cream get over tlnee days old, no matter how cold it may be kept. If cold it will get old, flat and fi inky. If sour, the whey will eat up the best globules. Churn as often as you can. WiDh Tires tor Farm Waggons. — A great saving is effected by making waggons rscd on the farm wfth tires thiee to four inches wide. The wheels will not sink into the giound, and the diaught is consequently much lighter. English faim waggons are generally built in this way. On ordinary roads wide tires make the track better instead of cutting the ruts more deeply, as narro .v tires always do. To destroy slug 0 , take one ounce cor-i-osive sublimate and disolve it in a, close vessel, inaquaitof boiling water. When thoioughly disolved, add to it six gallons of told water, and with a rose watering pot apply it to the places infested. It vv ill have still more eftect if every ounce of sublimate is made into four gallons of mixtuieand the giound gone over the day after w ith a second watering of puic water, which will carry the destiuctive power deeper into the ground. This plan not only destroys th" peifect slug, but the eggs, larvaj, and pupa of everything it reaches. " A Dairymaid " asks, " What harm is there in taking butter from the churn, or working it with the hands, if they are clean, any more than there is in using the hands in kneading dough for bread, to w Inch nobody objects ?" In reply to this, so far as cleanliness is concerned there Is no difference. Both are alike untidy, as the ptespiration of the hands will be itnpaitedto the bread and butter alike. The hands also impart warmth, which does not injure the bread but does injure the butter. If the hands are plunged in water as hot as can be borne, for a little while, and then into cold water, aud well rubbed for a few minutes, the blood may be diiven away, and the hands so chilled that perspiiation will be wholly stopped for a short time, and the soiling of the butter or bread from perspiration will be temporarily prevented ; but the mechanical effort in working butter with tho hands is bad, because it makes so much friction, and when accompanied with a little warmth it makes the butter greasy, MKing butter with the hand is very different from pressing it with a ladle. The hand makes the poorest kind of a butter ladle.

Dit HoiXANr onco aaid that^the greatest blessing a young man can enjoy is poverty, The greatest task in this world is to convince young men that the doctor spoke the truth. " Did you put your arm round her waist ?" asked the counsel in a breach of promise case " Weil, yes, 1 did," admitted the plaintiff. " She asked me to, and I never decline a pressing invitation like that." Artificial eggs are beginning to be quite well known in the market in some portions of the country, but now it seems that artificial oysters are the latest things in deceptions, and numbers of " manufactured bi-valves " are said to be passed off on the Paris public. Hitherto, although the oyster itself could be well imitated, it had been-found impossible to make the substance adhere to the shell like nature, but an ingenious personage has invented a c;lue which overcomes all such difficulty. The exact composition of the imitation is not stated, but copper is a prominent ingredient. Life in the Bush— Then and Now.— It is generally supposed that in the bush we have to put up with many discomforts and privations in the shape ot food. Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T. B. Hilt, who ".has 1 himself dwelt in the bush, if food docs consist chiefly of tinned meats his Colonial Sauck gives to, them a most delectable flavour, making' them' as well of the plainest' food most enjoyable, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper his Impuoved Colonial Baking Powder makes the very best bread; scones, . cakes, and, pastry far superior and. more wholetome than yeast or leSven. 1 ' Sold by all' storekeepers who can oby Ho it from any merchant in AwUana;