FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2516, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Tamwortit Pigs,—The svndy-colored Tamworth is, perhaps, the oldest breed of pig in England, but, till lately, has become almost extinct beyond the limits of its native district However, the extiaordinary property it possesses of ycilding a great proportion of lean meat is now being recognised. The Tamworth breed is coining to the front. Many specimens

won honors at the late Roy.il Show in Norwich (England), and the demand from purchasers in England is n>w very considerable for home breeding and also for export. Wild Horses.—Horsebreeders and ranchers in Nevada, U. S. A., are complaining very much of wild horses. In the Shellback Mountains are bands of 150 to 200 of these horses, each under the leadership of powerful stallions, and these make regular raids on the ranchcs, and run off the horses of the ranchmen. A horse once gone is gone for ever; for the wild horses are cunning and wary, and will not let a man get withiu rifle-shot of them. Some time ago a party of fifteen experienced sportsmen started out with the object of killing as many of the " boss stallions " as possible, and in a ten days' hunt only managed to kill one. The most ugly beast alive is one description of these wild horses. Cold Storage.—The Corporation of London has recently decided to erect cold-air chambers in connection with the slaughter houses, at the Foreign Cattle I Market, in Deptford. A plan was prepared, and has been adopted, showing eight chill rooms on the ground-floor with

accomodation for 400 carcases, with facilities for travelling machinery from the adjacent slaughter houses and ample space for additional rooms when required. The cost will be about £13,000, and the expenses, including interest, will be £3,200 a year. An average of three years being taken, 178 bullocks were killed daily at the market. At the charge of Is Gd per beast for twenty-four hours, if

the whole number is sent to the chambers the annual receipts will be £4372, and ii only two-thirds, £3248, without reckoning sheep and pigs, which might be sent in small numbers. Polling has to the cattle breeder a different meaning from that which it conveys to the mind of tha politician (said a London paper). It refers to that operation intermittently objected to by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the sawing off or otherwise removing the horns of the stock. The customary defence has beon thnt the operation was humanity in the end ; but, like many other pleas which assume that the end justifies the moans, it is apt to break down in practice, Tims a fatal

encounter lately tuok place in a field neai Dufftown between two cows, a shorthorr and a polled cow. One of these was observed to give the other a punch in the ribs, when they immediately took up n position like knights of old before tilting, and then rushed at each other. The polled cow laid the other dead at her feet. Had the two been horned, there would have been "breakages" but in all probability no death. PROPORTION OF CARCASE TO OKI'ATj.— lt;is well known that during the fattening of an animal the increase of t lie carcase proceeds at a more rapid rate than the increase of the offal. An ox or sheep, which in a very lean state might be one-half carcase and one-half offal, might in an extreme case contain 70 parts of the earcasc to 30 parts of offal. This extreme slate of fatness, however, is only readied when animals are fattened for prizes not for profit. It is probable that by far the largest number of oxen or sheep sold to the butchers yield from 04 to 60 per cent of carcase upon their fatted live weight. The live weight of the animals was not alone sufficient to tell them how much carcase they contained ; but when it was combined with the knowledge derived from the feeding, the appearance of the animal, and. in fact, all the knowledge the practical farmer ought to possess, the information derived from the scales became much more valuable.