FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2447, 17 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

A Wjuxklk. — Hero is a wrinkle for farmers, supplied by a correspondent : — Where small quantities of grass and other seeds are grown, fanners generally do I he threshing with the old-fashioned flail. But everyone who has swung the flail will admit that it is really " hard graft." The common chaff-cutter has come to the rescue, and can bo utilised as a grassthresher. By taking off the knives and the weight, tho sheaves may be put in at the usual rato, and they will be threshed as cleau and effectively as could lie wished. The usual powers —steam, water, or horse —may bo attached. —Southern Standard. Tuk Codlin Moth.— Although the codlin moth has existed in the colony for nearly a quarter of a century, t.heio appear to be persons who know little or nothing of its nature or habits. A no'se has been made about its appearance on an apple tree at Mooroopna, and it has been recommended to destroy the tree and recompense its owner, as if that would suffice to get rid of tho pest. Tho people of iMooroopna may rest satisfied that if the codlin moth is theio it has "come to stay."-—Melbourne Loader. Un'siiod Hoksks. — A correspondent, writing to tho Times 0:1 the advantage of using horses unshod, says that owners would thereby save not only tho blacksmith's bill, but often also the veterinary surgeon's account, arising out of carelessness in shoeing. The only disadvanta c was that for the first three or four months —that is, until tho hoof his grown tough —-they arc able to do very little work. During that period and always, tho one thing indispensible is to lot the horse stand in the daytime iu a paved stall or oose box, without a litter. Salt for Cows. —A Commission appointed by the French Government to inquire into the use of salt for domestic auimals reported 011 the matter as follows:—1. Salt ought to be givon to domestic animals to replace the saline matter washed out of their food by boiling, steaming, &c. 2. Salt counteracts the iil effects of wet pastures and food on sheep, and prevents foot-rot. 3. It increases the flow of saliva, and therefore hastens fattening. <1. In in-iking mixtures of chaff, potatoes, beet, bran, oil cake, hi:., salt always ought to tie added. 'I.lie daiiv allowance recommended by tho Commission was for a milch cow or ox, 2 ounces ; for a fatting stall-fed ox, 2:1 t,o 4.1 ounces ; for a fatting pig, 1 to 2 ouuees : for a loan sheep, i to y- of an ounce; for a horse, donkey, or mule, 1 ounce. Rust-proof Wiihat.—Some valuable experiments wore tried in Queensland during tho past season, by Messrs Joyce, Bros., of Crcgraore, Dalby, in conjuncture with Dr. Bancroft, and the experiments have proved successful, for, although tested by being sown between linos of rusty wheat they showed 110 si ltiis of infection, and gave a return of bushels per acre, with about 4 tons of straw. The samples which were sent to tho dopartm"al, of A-riuultura consist of three kinds, —a boarded wheat and two varieties without awns. The bearded variety is rust proof on low swampy ground, and the others 011 higher ground. .Joyce, Bros., writing to the under Secretary for Agriculture on the subject say : —"These weeks got no rain from tho time they were 11 high until reaped, and averaged 4GJ- bushels per acre. Although Indiau wheats are generally considered too viteous by millers for making good flour, Messrs Kates and Hayes 011 seeing samples of these varieties offered full market, quotations, and the Victorian farmers who camc as delegates to inspect tho Jimbour land saw the whoat in shoavos and reported that it was tho only cleau wheat or oats entirely free from rust they had seen in Queensland." A Remedy- for Milk Fever.—A very pood remedy against milk fever has been discovered in East Prussia. After tho symptoms of the fever have appeared, which generally can lie seen after the first 21 hours, a flour or wheat bag should lie filled with ice and placed oa the spine so that it reaches from the tail up to the shoulders; at the same time a small iechag should be placed 011 tho nape of the neck and 011 the forehead of the cow, which can best lie fastened on the horns. These ice poultices should be renewed every 2-t hours. The vagina has to be disinfected through an india-rubber tube three times a day with a liquid containing 8 grains of thymol, dissolved iu a pint of water, ami it must be observed that the bowels of the animal should be kept open. The inflamed udder has to be cooled with poultices of vinegar ami loam, which have to lie repeated, especially in the beginning of the fever, until the milk appears again regularly. It is very necessary that the affected cow should bo milked very often (nearly every hour). After the illness has subsided the cow should be fed moderately with meadow hay. Tho principal agent in curing tho illness is the thymol washings of the vagina, the inflammation of which should moderate in 24 hours and disappear iu 4S hours. This remedy has been proved by actual trials on che estate of I'Vcihcrr von Hollcn, a largo landed proprietor at Hohenwalde, near Eisenberg in East Prussia. Sorchidm Sugar Makinc.—Com-Colm-in, in reply to an interviewer of tho St. Louis Republican, said that although wo made over 50,000 lb. of sugar at Fort Scott last yoar, yet on the whole the experiment was a failure, and many left despondent. Tho obstacles havo been surmounted, and the factory works like clockwork, eich ton of cane turning out at least 120 lb. of excellent sugar, and by working 20 hours per day would turn out nearly 20,00-'"to. per 1 day. When Mr Column left Fort Scott there were over 100,000 lb. of sogar on band, being tho result of the firs!, week's work. The Republican asked how. the cost of manufacturing by the new i>rocass compares with the process of milling. It is considerably cheaper, answered Mr Colman. The great expense for heavy roller mills and large steam engines to run them does not havo to bo incurred, and it costs much less to establish a factory under the now process and fewer men to run it, and it, is equally as rapid. Besides that, it does not leave from 30 to 50 per cent, of tho juice in the bagasse, as in too many eases it is left by tho mills. Tho chips are robbed of all their juices by the saturation process. Even in Louisiana it is admitted that from 00 to 40 per cent. , on an average, of tho juice is left in tho bagasse after coming from the mill. The new process will save all this, and will work a revolution in sugar making, North and South. It will onahlo Aincrioa to 00mpete in sugar making with any nation 011 the globe, Lord Samsisuky ox Small HoLni.vtis. •—At an'ovorflovring meeting at Oxford 011 Wednesday last, Lord Salisbury spoke on the subject of peasant proprietorship in the following terms: —Wo hear a great, deal in those times of the importance of multiplying peasant proprietors—multiplying proprietors, that is to say, who have only as much land as they can cultivate. Now, there is a cry with which I havo very great sympathy, and should lilco to see a very large multiplication, so far as the laws of economical progress will admit, of men who live by cultivating their own land. I believe it is tho healthiest and soundest system Ido not think the tenant system, though it has established roots in this country which cannot bo injured, is, from a purely abstract point of view, so sound and wholesome as the existence of a community where each man superintends the cultivation of the land he possesses, and thinkthat is a sounder state of things; but what I want you to bear in mind is that if you want to increase tho number of small owners of land you must not bully the land. The more, you increase th" burdens of the land ; the more you treatit as a land of parish investment ; tho more you inflict upon it, as mauv of our legislators arc prepared to do, every kind of exceptional disability and inconvenience, the more you drive it into the hands of rich men. 111 proportion as th" land as an advantageous investment :s favoured by the State or not injure! by tho Stato it will find its way, according to

economical lawn, into I.lm hands of small owners ; but directly you fix ;iny disabilities, directly yon attach to it any payment or lo.s-» or disability peculiar to it, then it becomes a tiling in which only those can indulge who have surplus money to throw away.