FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.
More Poison. —Another specific has been discovered and used for the destruction of rabbits by Mr M'Androw, a resident of the Geelong district, and last week a public trial of his method was made in an old vineyard on the road from Geelong to Newington and several adjoining properties. The specific consisted of slices of apples well seasoned with strychnine, which it is reported the vermin greedily devoured, with terrible fatality to themselves. In all 1261 rabbits were found who had succumbed to the poison. It is not stated why apples were chosen, when tho less valuable turnip or carrot would have been even more readily taken. TiruContiis Moth. —It would appear that more than one spraying , with Paris green is necessary to bo effectual in destroying the grubs of the Oodlin moth in spring. In a "ruport by tho United States' inspector of fruit trees, it is stated that where sprayed once only one-fourth of the fruit was saved, bnt on those twiee operated upon not more than 1 to o per cent, of thn fruit were found to be infested, while the worst suffered only to the extent of about 18 per cent. Charcoal for Cows.—Writing on charcoal for cows the Guernsey Breeder says soft wood charcoal, especially willow, ought always to be kept in the cow stable. If a cow does not look bright, give a teacupful in her bran or other food and wet up. If her breath is bad, her horns hot and her nose dry, she is dyspeptic and feverish. Give her charcoal. If she has hollow horns, sure and no mistake, give charcoal—half a teaspoonful each meal for three or four days. It is an excellent thing to give charcoal all round once a week as a regulator of stomach and bowels. Plant Labels.—Names written on zinc with a common black lead pencil will endure for many years. When first the letters are written they show very indistinctly, just as if written upon glass ; but in a few days they grow more distinct, and finally show as plainly as if upon painted wood. An indelible ink that will last for a dozen years may be made of 12 grains of bichloride of platinum to 1 oz. of distilled water, It should be specially made up, as tho iuk of this description usually kept by chemists for test purposes is much too weak. Tho writing should be done with a quill, not metallic pen. The zinc must have a bright surface when written on, which is easily obtained by slight rubbing with fine emery paper. Wash for Fruit Trees in Winter.— Take a common bucketful of good slacked lime, a bucketful of clay, 2 quarts of coal tar and strong lye, potash or soft soap 3 or 4 quarts, adding water enough to make a good whitewash. Glean the soil from around the collar of the tree; then apply the wash to the tree from the ground up as high as convenient on the limbs. It will destroy the bark louse and give the trees a bright, clean, healthy appearance. It will loosen the rough bark and prevent tho boring insects touching the tree?. Mice or rabbits will not trouble tho trees, and if attended to regularly the bark will look like if it had been polished. If found too troublesome to wash the young shoots, they may be operated upon by means of a syringe. By dressing peach tree 3 with this, or a similar mixture, they will remain free from the attacks of aphides of either kind. Fruit-growing at Home.—A correspondent of the Daily News, writing of fruit growing, makes a remark which applies to agricultural produce generally. He says :—I am convinced that the only way to drive out foreign fruit from our markets is for English growers to go in for quality. If I want to buy an apple in London, I have to buy American or Canadian fruit. If I want pears or tomatoes, I have to buy French fruit—though, mark you, all this is sold as English fruit by the retailer. But some of you readers will say, ' I have heard that fruit-growing does not pay.' Of course it will not if improper varieties are grown, and even these grown in the wrong way. Our English orchards are a disgrace to the country, and until this state of things is altered we shall have to go on paying enormous sums to Continental and American fruitgrowers for fruit which could be better grown iu our own country. M. Pasteur's Scheme.—M. Pasteur's scheme for the extermination of the rabbit pest, by the communication to the animals of the microbes of chicken cholera, has been tried with extraordinary success on an estate near Rheims. The place \\ as infested by rabbits, which the gamekeepers were unable to exterminate either by ferrets or by shooting, so it was decided to give M. Pasteur's method a trial. His nephew, M. Loir, operated on the land by placing near the burrows small heaps of hay, which had been damped with a preparation containing the microbes of chicken cholera. On the following day 19 dead rabbits were fouud outside the holes, and when the burrows had been dug out scores of animals were found dead. The experiment, so far, appears to have been a complete success, though it remains to be seen whether any evil consequences are to be apprehended from it in the way of the extension of the disease to other animal life. Oluo Margarine,—Some difficulty has arisen in carrying out the new Margarine Act, owing to errcrs in drafting. Room hasbeen left for doubt as to whether or not officials taking samples of butter, or what professes to be butter, for purposes of analysis are bound to pay for the goods which they thus abstract. Lord Thrinjy, who has been appealed to on the subject, declares that the words ot the section "are so absolutely ambiguous that it is impossible, in the absence of a judicial decision, to arrive at any certain conclusion as to their meaning." Then, again, there is the section requiring all margarine sold by retail to be wrapped in paper "on which shall be printed in capital letters not less than a quarter of an inch square—Margarine." Now, how is it possible to print the letters square in any dimensions? Finally, the obligation to register every manufactory of margarine is rendered meaningless by the fact that no power of entry is given to the officers of the local authority, nor any control whatever over the methods of manufacture. Sugar-beet Culture.—The culture of sugar-beet is being inaugurated in California. It is found that a crop of sugar beets will yield £10 to £15 per acre, which is twice as much as the Kansas farmers get for their sorghum cane, and three or four times as much as tho California farmers get for an aore of wheat. Beets should be grown on the same land, however, only every third year, and some fertilisation is required to keep up tho soil. In Germany, where the best results from beet culture have been obtained, the crop has been found tho most profitable one that can be raised, even though expensivo commercial fertilisers are liberally used, and in the last 20 years, Gorman farmers have grown prosperous in the business. Germany produces a little over 1,000,000 tons of beet sugar, GCO.OOO tons of which are exported, and only 400,000 tons kept at home for consumption. One important fact in the beet sugar manufacture in Germany is that it is pursued on the cooperative plan. There are 402 factories in the country, and two-thirds of them are owned by the farmors themselves. Beets are worth from l(is to 20s a ton delivered at the mill, and 12 to 20 tons per aore oan bo raised, tho quantity and quality depending on the soil. In France tho beets are cut up by machiuory and the juice expressed and eonvcj'od in pipes to tho factory, 10 miles distant. This eaves hauling, and preserves tho refuse for fertilising purposes on the farms,
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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2450, 24 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)
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1,359FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES. Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2450, 24 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)
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