FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2513, 18 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

0 Colonial Fkimt ix Covext Gaudw ■ Makkkt.—Tlie London correspondent o Q Queenslander, writing Ist June, states ■ —At the present moment in most of tin B West End shop windows and on th< • stalls in Covent Garden a large litimlit-i J of so called Australian apples are exposet ' for sale. As a matter of fact they an f fruit from Tasmania. They are perfec r in appearance, and althougli the price: v charged are 3d and 2d each for large am 8 Ud for small apples, they are, I am told 1 having a ready sale. An apple at thi ' end of May was such an unusual thin; e that I treated myself to some in Goven s Garden, and I am bound to say that tin • Tasmaniau apples which I sampled an 0 superior to any which can be bought ii 0 the English market at the prime of tin ' season. T handled at lpast a hundred ii '" the shop where I bought my parcel ant e I can unhesitatingly say that there wen J not three out of that number that hat not beeu in some way bruised before thej " were packed. If Tasnianian apples cai • realise these high prices in the Londoi '' market the growers will have to taki some pains in sending them over. Three halfpence for au apple not much large y than a walnut, and 2d and 3d for large ' specimens, should ensure every intli vidual fruit being carefully packed ant delivered safe and sound. j An Ixuenious Djsviuk.—A pitent ha been obtained by Messrs L. J. Reach ant ? E. P. Culver, California, fur a device usee ' in exterminating the scale-bug. Thi device consists of a large tent of canvas 1 which is boiled in linseed oil, placed oi two frames and divided into halves, Whet ' these halves are thrown together about i tree the enclosure is perfectly air-tight Near the tent-enclosed tree is placed i generator where hydrocyanic gas is made This generator is connected with the in side of the tent by an ordinary pipe, whicl ' allows the gas to enter the tent. Thi ' application of gas lasts 30 minutes. A ' the end of that length of time of application 'tion the tent is unclasped and moved to B the next tree, the gas escapes with th e disappearance of smoke, and the scale ' bugs, the larvie, the ants and everythinj J .else that had been alive on the tree befon the gas was turned on, are all dead, whilt ' the tree is entirely uninjured. It lake, 1 not longer than two minutes to move th 1 apparatus from one tree to another, ant 1 two men can run five machines and troa !f 100 trees per day.—Anaheim Gazette. Fisu as Manure.—The success whicl 1 has followed the efforts of the Norwegiai chemists, Rohart and Jensen, but especi 1 ally the latter, to utilise fish waste as i ' manure, is leading to the establishment o s a French company to act similarly in thi ' case of the Newfoundlind cod fisheries 8 At the Lnffoden Isles, off Norway, thi 1 cod fish come during January into thi 1 sheltered fiords or creeks to spawn in sucl 1 shoals that they have been estimated t< be as numerous as 120 millions to tin 1 square mile, equal to the rabbit seas ii ' Australia, The fish wheu caught an a cleaned, boned, decapitated, and docket 1 of their tails, the oil is expressed from tht ! liver ; this detritus is dried and grounc into a brown powder, possessing the quali- ' ties of good guano and bona dust; that ii the two valuablo fertilising elements o manures—nitrogen, to the extent of 1] ' per cent., and phosphoric acid to 6 pei • cent. Off the Loffoden Islands, 30,00( 1 men and 7000 bolts capture annually 2i 5 millions of cod fish, whose flesh, whet r salted and dried, is exported to Catholit ' countries. Later in the year the herring r fishery takes place. The herring is not 3 netted for exportation, but for manufac ' turinff manure. The fish is pressed by ' machinery for its oil, and the herring 1 cake then dried aud reduced to powder. ' The French company intends to work uj • powdered charcoal in its fish manure. Ei.ASTrc Traces.—For 20 years M. 1 Marey has beeu advocating clastic traces ! for draught horses ; habitually, traces are 5 formed of rope, leather or chains. These, 3 owing to their inelastic nature, subjected r the horse to violent shocks at the comr mencing pulls, as in carts, omnibusses, dniys, etc. M. Cellar, engineer of the ' Great Eastern railway of France, hat 1 for six years employed a sausage spring 1 in the clniu traces of the horses employed 1 to pu'.l the wairgons and carriages short ' distances in the marshalling of trains. He attests that the results are most ; gratifying; fewer traces are snapped, " the efforts of the horses are more • measured and uniform, and drivers have no occasion to behave brutally towards the animals when they are unable to effect an immediate start, as heretofore. The horses display less fatigue, because there is less violent expenditure of ', strength. The spring will be applied to ■ the traces of the parcels vans. Germany j has, in the Tfonleschoner, a kindred spring. ! The Model Dairy at the Glasgow Exhibition. In a report on the Glasgow Exhibition in the Mark Lane Express, it is stated that the Model Working Dairy co,nbines more positive value and interest than almost any other exhibit. It is accommodated in a separate building 70 feet long by 40 feet wide. The Dairy is fitted with the principal kinds of machinery employed for such work in this kingdom and on the Continent. An engine of a somewhat strong character and other machines are in position. To the visitor the mechanism appears splendid, and obviously points out how simple, after a little study, becomes the art of butter making on the principles now being illustrated by the De Laval separitors, as shown by the London Dairy Company. The most striking features arc immediate separation of the cream from the thus obtaining the use of the milk and cream from 24 to 3u' hours sooner than by the usual process, and consequently giving products, especially in regard to skim milk, of unusual freshness and excellent quality, as anyone can ascertain by taking a tumbler of tho skim milk in the verandah of the dairy. It tastes rich, and by using a separator, a much larger percentage of butter is obtained than the most efficient hand-skimming can effect. In addition to the De'Laval's patent steam turbine separator, there are machines from the Continent, the Delaiteuse, of French invention, being, for instance, a centrifugal butter drier, which will relievo butter of every vestige of butter milk or other moisture without pressure or injury [to the graiu. Danish and Swedish systems differ very much from the Scotch and English, inasmuch as the cream used by them contain much more milk. About 100 gallons are supplied every day, and the creain taken by different forms of separators. The separators used abroad are set to throw 20 per cent, into the cream can, while those upon the English market throw only 10 per cent., thus making a much thicker cream, containing a much higher percentage of butter fat. By the London Dairy Company, as well as by ladies from Liverpool and Manchester, from Munster, in Ireland, and by practical dairy workers iu Ayrshire, Scotland, the dairy is conducted, and several Danish and Swedish ladies have also appeared, the whole of them in national dress. The dairy is the largest which has been provided in an exhibition, and is much admired by the agricultural visitors. Grain Fertilisers. The new report by Sir John Lawes, on the resultof the Rothamstedexperiments, contains some further interesting information with regard to the use and benefit of sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda on cereal crops. With the view of making his figures thoroughly intelligible to farmers, Sir John adapts them to the ordinary market weights of the different manures. On this basis he informs us that 1 cwt of sulphate of ammonia increased the wheat crop by bushels; while the cwt. of nitrate of soda gave an increase of 6 bushels. In the barley experiments the cwt of sulphate of am. monia gave an increase of bushels • while the same amount of nitrate of soda

gave an increase of 9 bushels. Although results thus obtained were much higher than hud been reached in ordinary farm practice, owing to the even distribution of the manures, and the extreme cleanness of the soil, the nitrogen removed in the crops was probably not more than onethird of that applied in the manures. Tho remainder was left in the soil. to be used by a future ernp. " And," said Sir John, " it is ahno.-t certain that in the ordinary practice of agriculture much less than one half the nitrogen in tho ammonia, salts, or nitrate of coda would be found in tho crop to which it is applied." One section of the expetimont throws some Unlit upon the destination of the residue of t.he manure not taken up by the first crop. For the last five years a portion of tho wheat and barley which received minerals and ammonia or minerals and nitrate of the precious year showed 110 increase of crop over tho land which is always under mineral manures. Where salts of ammonia were used there was a irain of 2|; bushels of grain per acre, but no gain in the straw. On the barley, on the other hand, the gain by the minerals where the nitrate was applied the previous year was It bushels and 2:f«wt. of straw; while the gain from the previous application of salts of ammonia was uearly 14 bushels per aero and close on Suwt. of straw.