FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2489, 23 June 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Warming the Drinking Water.—A dairyman tried warming the water for his cows to- drink in winter, and the increase of butter in ten days paid the expenses of piping the trough.

Roup in Fowls.—Ronp or diphtheria is, without doubt, contagious among fowls. It consists of a thick yellow matter in the nostrils, and throat, and sometimes in the eyes. At first a solution of chlorate of potash, one drachm in a teacup full of water, may stop the disease ; but if it does not the remedy must be lunch more active; and a solution of nitrate of silver or sulphate of cupper should be used instead. A pinch of chlorate of potash dropped into the throat will bo useful when the solution fails.

Applying Manure.—The best way to apply farmyard manure is to plough the land roughly, then spread with a broadcast machine, ail 1 harrow it under. The manure is thus placed close to the roots of the plants.

Evening Primrose as a Veoktablk. —The roots of Oenothera biennis are edible, nourishing, nice, and largely used as an article of diet in some part 3 of Europe. The root is dug up at any time, but mostly 111 autumn, and is boiled like seakale, salsify, and scorzouena, and served with melted butter.

Experiments which have been recently carried on at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station show that the seeds of such common weeds as the daisy, shepherd's purse, flock, sorrel, etc., when fed to horses pass through their digestive organs with unimpaired vitality. But wben they were exposed to a temperature of from OOileg to llOdeg Fah. in a compost heat for a week, their vitality was altogether impaired if the compost was moist. If it was dry, they retained the vitality.

A Co operative Butchers' Shop in France. From the Field." I mentioned a few weeks ago, when writing about the meat trade in France, that several syndicates had been formed in Prance for the sale of meat direct by the producer to the consumer. Most of them are conducted upon the same principles, and it may be of interest to your readers to translate the statutes of the society founded at Dijon, which is a fair sample of them all. Clause 1. Under the title of Boucherie Syndicate Co-operative, a limitedeompany is formed at Dijon for the purpose of encouraging the rearing of stock, and furthering the development. Clause 2. The duration of the company is ten years, but it may be dissolved before that period, or prolonged beyond it, at the instance of shareholders representing half the social capital. Clause 3. The social capital is fixed at 20,000fr (£S00), divided into two hundred shares of lOOfr (£4) each. These shares shall be to hearer, and he repaid upon the dissolution of the company, pro rata to the capital. Clause 4. Three-fourths of the shares shall be paid upon allotment, and the other fourth when called up by the board of directors. An inventory shall be made every quarter, but the dividend will be paid only upon the inventory taken at the end of the year.

Clause o. Out of the profits as shown by this inventory, 10 per cont shall be set aside for the fund, 20 per cent shall be paid to shareholders as a dividend, and tho remainder shall be divided in equal proportions between the sellers of stock to the purchasers of meat from the company. Clause 6. The company shall be under the management of a board composed of nine members taken from the shareholders, and elected for three years at a general meeting. In conformity with the law, the general meeting shall elect two inspectors, and tho council shall select from among its members a president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary. The duties of these officers shall be strictly honorary.

Clause 7. The board shall be re-elected one-third every year, aud the retiring members shall be re-eligible, a single share to qualify for election to the board.

Clause 8. The board is convoked by the president, the resolutions to be passed by a majority, the president hiving a easting vote ; five members to form a quorum.

Clause 9. The board has unlimited powers for the administration of all thy affairs of the company, and it is also authorised to confer temporary or permanent authority upon any onu or iovrra! of its wt.tf.!:/»;•»_ or ev«>n ujwn outsiders. The board is not to be hokl personally or collectively vespousibls for any matters relating to its administration.

Clause 10. The butcher's shop shall be managed by a person selected by the board, and the manager, who will attend to the puchase of stock and the sale of meat, will be called upon to find security.

Clause 11. Once in six months the council shall call a general meeting of the shareholders and sumbit to it the report of the inspectors, the accounts of the board, and a general report of the proceedings. These meetings shall be held in May and December, the members of the council being elected in December.

Clause 12. The general meeting represents the whole of the shareholders, and its decisions are binding, even upon those who are absent. Each shareholder is entitled to as many votes as lie lias shares —up to, but not exceeding, ten—aqd ho

may be represented by proxy at any meeting,

Clause 13. The general meeting is convoked by the board.

Clause 14. The company slnll be dissolved in event of half the subscribed capital being lost.

The Codlin MothTO THK EDITOR, Sir, —Those who attended the fruitgrowers meeting held in Auckland on Friday last, thinking the Oodlin Moth Act, would he thoughtfully discussed, must have been greatly disappointed. One feeling pervaded the meeting, viz., Do away with the Corllin Moth Act, and listen to nothing else. Several fruitgrowers claimed to be quite equal to cope with the pest, yet their statements divulged they had still a deal to learn about it. The value of Paris green was extolled by tin: majority, with the exception of one irentleman. who declared it would only perpetuate the moth by destroying its natural enemie'. Quoting in proof Dean Swift's well known lines : — For smaller fleas have lesser fleas Upon their leps to bite 'em, Smaller fleas have lesser fleas, So ad infinitum .

Another gentleman broke into verse also, declaring there never would have been an Act at all, only that fools rushed in where Angels feared to tread, and passed an Act of Parliament, whilst thoughtful, experienced men were puzzling over a remedy. He forgot the proverb, "Delays are dangerous," The proposal that all blossoms or fruit should be destroyed for one year, was met with derision as utterly unworkable The majority appeared to think that stopping the importation of fruit was an urgent step in the right direction. That the infection ever coines in the fruit is impossible. It is imported in the cases, not in the fruit, and it comes here in the cocoon state. A case of drapery or what not, might harbour it just as easily as an apple case, though not so readily perhaps, as the apple cases are brought in proximity with the infected orchards, As all countries of the world now have this pest, to stop its importation is clearly an impossibility, Were an attempt at extirpation to be made as the act proposed it might be useful to stop importation of fruit, but if mitigation only is to be tried it is needless. Several statements were made at the meeting, that tho apple worm is to be found on other trees, notably the Pear, Medlar, Karaka berry, Rata and Acorn. These assertions will in all likelihood prove incorrect and the ravages observed traced to some other insect. All authorities I have at hand (and experiment bears them out,) state that Carpocapsa Pomonella (as the name indicates) attacks only the apple. We have another pest here, which we will hear more about in a year or two, viz., the Winter moth (Cheimatobia Drumata) a pest quite as bad as the Codlin Moth, which appears about the same time (a little earlier) and possibly has deceived observers of the codlin moth, though in no way resembling it. A feature of the fruit growers meeting not to be passed over, was the murmurs that Waikato wished to rule the roost, a feeling or antagonism silly and unjust. Statements made at the meeting that the pest was local in orchards, however surprising, are borne out by experiment. Trees 12 feet apart are very differently affected, and time will show I think that Paris Green is getting credit for results not always due to it. Where trees were completely mothed last season and where no Paris Green has been used the same trees are nearly clean this year and others virulently affected. We are still in a haze as to wh it the violence of the pest will be iu our climate. In Englaud it breeds a fecund moth once a year only and is possibly a blessing in disguise (very pretty disguise too) as it thins the trees and causes little if any loss where cider is made and pigs are kept in the orchard. Here in the early part of the season the apple worm enters and leaves the cocoon state iu a fortnight and yet some worms will continue a whole year in the cocoon. How many are tho rule and how many the exceptions has yet to be found out. Mr Hawkins, of the North Shore, who removed all the fruit in his orchard to a close match lined room found that the moth came to life for a period of several months. During the warm weather in April last I found numbers of the moth alive yet unable to fly, and the inference is that our mild autumn will briug the moth out when there is no means of propagation, and thus destroy it, Seeing that an attempt at extirpation is hopeless how would the following do for a mitigation. It would suit equally the lazy and industrious. Make it , compulsory on every owner of apple trees to attach an apple worm trap to each tree every season. Inspection to be locally i.e., by men chosen from a majority of the fruit growers in the district of a Highway Board No pay to be given, and Government to pay at leaat half of the expense incurred. I enclose you what I base the proposition on in the shape of a newspaper clipping. Putting the price of the traps at 4.1 each, the fruit-grower would be a large gaiuer if he had to pay all of it. Still it would be manifestly unjust that he should pay anything, if we had small pox, it would be rather absurd to tax the sufferers for the extirpation of the disease. Paris Green and the band treatment would possibly do a great deal more to rid us of the moth, but if we cannot have them, we had better try to get what will mitigate and what we can have. The gravest objections made agaiust the Act were that it would interfere with privacy, that a policeman or an inspector, who possibly would not know an apple worm from a rabbit, and who cculd not understand the niceties of an orchard, would dictate to those who had been spending their energy and their knowledge to discover remedies. After a seasons careful observation of the apple worm, I do not think it is much to be dreaded. We are now in the first flush of it, and have yet to learn how it will develop in our climate. Birds as a corrective, especially swallows were suggested at the fruit-grower's meeting, but the suggestion was not swallowed. As fruitgrowers, we are but a short time in New Zealand, and yet we might be reasonably classified as pest importers and pest exterminators. Meantime the importers have the best of it,—l am, yours etc., W. S.

A CODLIS MOTH TPAP, At the invitation of G. W. Thissell, wa went out to his place last Tuesday morning to look at his codlin moth trap and to seo it in operation 011 the trees. We gave it a close inspection; and herewith give the fnots in relation to the trap as we saw it Tho trap is mado from common wire screen cloth cut in strips eight inches in width, and in length varying with the different size of the completed trap. About C v I toil-is 'if the distance from top to bottom nf the wire cloth is rivited a band of tin two inches wide, perforated with holes a little larger than the, meshes of the wire screen. This is done in order that if the larva, or worm, is too large to go r p:isso* m'of the screen, he wili get through too hales in the tin, Before putting the trap on the tree tho trunk is I thoroughly cleaned aud a strip of burlap is tied securely round it. Then the trap is put on, and the edges tacked to the trunk, and it is ready for business. When the apple that has been stung by the moth drops from the tree, tho worm leaves it and makes its way to the trunk and ascends until it strikes the trap, which it crawls j into through tho meshes of the screen or the holes in the tin secretes itself under the burlap and proceeds to spin its web for the cocoon in which the pupa developes into the moth. When the moth is hatched there is 110 possible escape for it, as it is too large to go out where the worm went in, and it consequently dies. We saw numbers of the moth in Mr Thissel's traps most of them dead, but enough of them alive to demonstrate the futility of their ondeavours to escape. When it is known that a female will sting from 150 to 200 apples before it dies, it can readily be seen what a saving to the fruit this trap must be. We never saw finer-looking or cleaner apples than

hang on Mr Thissell's tree anywhere, and the trees themselves are healthy and vigorous looking. Mr Coates, of Napa, and Professor Klee, State Inspector of Fruit Pests, havo both seen tho workings of the trap, and both are of the opinion that it ia just the thing that is needed to make apple growing a success. Mr Coates has a number of the traps in use in his orchard and intends putting more in this fali. They are cheap, simple, and effective, which ia all that is needed. Mr Thisaell will have them on the market, from now on, and he is prepared to fill all orders he may have fur them.—", San Francisco Chronicle," August 2(ith, 1880.