FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2504, 28 July 1888, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

An Invaluable Machine.—A new agricultural machine for distributing insecticides anil manure is dissuribert in the Mark Lmte Express of 21st May. It is the invention of MrG. 1 ,, . Strawson, NewIniry. It was primarily designed for applying soot, lime, etc., for the turnip flea, but during the construction it has developed into a machine of such extraordinary povver3, and so entirely different in principle from anything ever seen before, that it naturally excited much interest. Originally designed for separation by vibration of the minute particles of lime and such substances, and distributing them by an air current over the surface of the crops attacked by the flea or fly, the machine does this in the most perfect manner that can well be conceived, covering an immense breadth at each round. Without any alteration of the apparatus, it was tried with salt and nitrate of soda, throwing it out in the most perfect pattern as fast as the horso could walk for about 22 feet in breadth with perfection and rapidity. Superphosphate of lime, guano and carbolic powder worn successfully put in aud the machine treated all with equal results and equal indifference. Then half a bushel of barley wa»put in and sown 28 feet wide with a perfect pattern at the rate of about 2 bushels per acre. A different nozzle and a cistern was attached with about a gallon of paraffin ; this it sprayed over the ground litre a flue dew, and it is with paraffin, dilute carbolic acid, and solutions of chemicals sprayed over tho crop that Mr Straw.son hopes to lessen the ravages of the fly. The machine is worked with one horse and is said to cover the ground at the extraordinary rate of 6 to 10 acres per hour.

Tub Bkked that Beats the Record. Under this heading, the leading London journal wril.es as follows :—" The year 1887 was onu in which tho famud blnck polled cattle of Abordeeushire scored many great victories, the most notablo being that it took the championships at the four largest fat Ktock ehowa in the Northern Hemisphere. At our own Sinithfield show the two championships were so won, while at Birmingham the breed won the coveted Elkingtoa Challenge Cup. In America the breed was equally fortunate, the leading sweopttakes being taken at both the Chicago and Kansas shows. These victories arc being made the occasion for very justifiable rejoicing by the breeders of these popular doddifs. Mr R. C. Auld, a nephew of the late Mr M'Combie, has issued a little work, The Breed that Beats the Record, in which he recites previous victories by the breed, and says all that an enthusiastic breeder can cay on the subject. He has followed this with a very practical pamphlet, entitled Breeding tho Blaokskins. This is.intended as a guide f«r beginners in breeding. Mr Auld is himself the owner of the Tillyfour herd, founded on selections from hie uncle's well-known herd at Pinckney, Michigan, and is doing much to create and maintain the American demand for the breed. Another well-known American herd of blackskins is that at Turlington, Nebraska, the private catalogue of which has just been issued. This herd won, at the two American fat stock shows last December, no less than £000 in prizes." Irish Better.—A report on the Irish butter markets by accompany of merchants iu Cork states :—" Genuine butter will be cheap enough this season to enable people to buy it in preference to the various preparations that are sold under the comprehensive name of margarine. It has been noticed that whenever the English working masses can get genuine butter at a moderate price they turn away from the mixtures, and pay a little more money for the real article, but that when the price of butter is very high they, to a great extent, turn to margarine. This season there will be a large supply of butter, both from home and foreign sources, and if we have an ordinary summer and no recurrence of the exceptional heat and draught of last year prices are sure to be cheap. Nothing but a low price will enable the supply of genuine butter to be cleared off, and it must come down to the narrow means of the wage earners to get into consumption. We are happy to be able to report a continued improvement in the make of Irish butter. The fact that the very low price now obtainable for inferior butter leaves the make of it at a positive loss, and does not pay cost of production, has compelled tho farmers to devote greater care to make the best butter. Even with the beat butter in late years, butter-making has not been a very paying business, and is not likely to bo iu future. An increasing number of Irish farmers are fully alive to the fact that they must make good butter er lose heavily; and where the soil or their circumstances and surroundings permit there is a steady improvement both in tho make and in the get up of the butter for market. Last year this was noticeable to a considerable extent, and it hud the good result of bringing Irish butter into favour in new homes and foreign markets. This season there will bo a further advanco in tho same direction, and a largo proportion of tho make of Irish butter will be presented to tho English and foreign consumers of such fine quality, careful make and neatness of package as will do justice to the natural advantages that Ireland possesses as a butter-producing couutry."

Selling Cattle by Live Weight.— The sale of cattle by livo weight is gradually, though slowly, coming into use. In some market places sellers of cattle have refused to pay toll*, as the act allows, bocause weighbridges for cattle Imvo not been erteted ; though iu other places, where they have been erected, farmers have declinod to use them. But auctioneers are taking to thorn, some of the largest

firms announcing tho live weight of each animal before offering it for sale, which does not appear to prevent purchasers exercising their discrimination in tho relative valuo of tho unirnaK In Edinburgh, iho Messrs Shaw havo for somn time been in the habit of weighing tho cattle they sell, dimply marking up with chalk on a slato tho livo weight of every animal as it is brought up to the hammer. Other auctioneers are following the example. A report is nivcn of a sale by a Shrewsbury firm of a lot of cattle from one farm, in which the prices offered varied by upwards of U per lb livo weight. It in considered that it will be not only for tho good of farmers, hut of butchers nlrto, when tho publication of live weight before the sale of fat stock shall be tho rule of every market, as it is not wisn to buy a pig in a bair. Other reports state that the Celling rif live stock by weight iH not progressing satisfactorily in some parts of Britain ; butchers and middle-men are opposed it, as touding to reduce their profited fanners, being- generally conservative as regards old customs and practices, consider it an innovation not particularly requited ; while those who have tho erection and management of the machines are causing so much delay and trouble as to disgust those who would avail themselves of the benefits to be derived from them.—Press.

Ezekiel Ezra Smith, the new American Minister to Liberia, was born a slave and is 36 years old. He obtained an education in the night schools, became a teacher in the public schools, was afterward one of the jubilee singers ; was for four years principal of the graded school in Goldsborongh, N.C., and became Principal of the North Carolina State Normal School in 1888, a position which ho now holds.