FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 2656, Issue 2656, 20 July 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

The Wooixy Aphis.—A novel method of destroying the Woolly Aphis is given in the St. Arnaud Mercury by Mr C. F. Lewis, the proprietor of that paper, who states :—" About tho middle of July last year, the following remedy was tried by me on two five-year-old apple trees, which for three years had been covered with the post The earth was cleared down to the roots for a distance of about IS inches from and around each tree ; I then sprinkled one pound of flowered sulphur round tho roots of each, and concluded my experiment by covering the sulphur with the original earth, and adding two barrow loads of rotten stable manure to each treo. The result has been that neither has shown the slightest symptoms of blight this season."

Condition of Lincolnshire Fakmurs. —A correspondent of the Agricultural Gazette writes that " agricultural matters in north-east Lincolnshire are certainly worse than they have been known for 50 years or more. There is no money left, and how can there be any? Farmers have lost nearly all their capital. No sun here day after day, rainy nights, and the land very wet and cold. All rents are too high. We waut a Land Court, as in Ireland. Corn last year was bad in quality, yield and price. Primrose meetings are a poor remedy for the foregoing. Two quarters per acre wheat, three quarters per acre barley, wool 22s per ton. Wheat is lower every market this new year, although people said it would be tho reverse, and so the poor farmer is gammoned."

A New Fruit Harvester.—A new device, termed Cook's apple picker, for gathering apples from the trees, is attracting attention in the State of New York, and has already received strong endorsement from prominent orchardists. It is a large canvas shaped somewhat like an inverted umbrella, with a parasol (right side up) over the centre. The apples are shaken from the tree upon this canvas, and rolling towards the centre collect in a basket beueath. The implcment(icost£lo eacb. One grower says ho has examined apples picked with this machine after they had lain one day, and they looked better than fruit picked by hand at the same time, while the cost of picking is only one-half that by hand. One machine in an orchard, operated by five men, will easily gather 000 bushels per day. Tho lower limbs have to he bent aside when upper limbs are shaken, and of course some apples have to be picked by hand. The machine has also been wed for gathering pears and plums.

A Fraudulent Farmer.—A strange occurrencc in connection with tho distribution of seed wheat was disclosed at Young, New South Wales, on Saturday, loth inst. The application of a farmer at Marengo who applied for seed wheat was at first recommended for refusal, but on representations afterwards made to the police magistrate, tho decision was reversed, and the wheat was accordingly delivered by the railway authorities on

the 15th inst.j on the magistrate's orde; It was at onoe convoyed to Watson Bros mill, and the manager was asked to ex change it for flour. Seeing the Govern mi'iit murks, Ihe manaper refused to liav< anything to do with t.he wheat, and re ported the nvittor tn the police m igis trute, who at o::ce went to the man. II admitted having ull'erud tho seed whe.i for sale, and it has since been ascertain™ that the man's land is already sown The in liter has lj-.-en reported to the de paitment, and proceedings will probabl; be taken Tkavklmsi; Dairik.s.— Argus -.—Tin interest evinced by the farmers and (lair; men of Victoria in the operations of tin Government travelling dairy is having ; practical result. The display of tin plant in country districts was begun ii August, since which date it has been ex hibited in a great number of towns Thousands of funnels have watched tin machinery at work and have been si impressed with the value of the labou saving appliances that they have formei no less than 22 dairy factories in Gipps laud and the Western and North-West era districts. These establishments have been formed on co-operativi principles, hilt have been in existence fo so limited a period that their hcneficia efl'ects have not yet been fully demon ■itrated. The Minister of Agriculture i confident, that they will prove cf tin greatest value to the farming community and it is probable that at an early dat he will commission an expert officer ti visit them separately, and report whethe they have given any perceptible and rea stimulus to the dairying industry in tin colony. Co M PAR ATI VIS VaLUK 01' AOTUCCL ti'Ral Products. —-Jn ISIO one bushel o corn would buy one pound of nails. Ii 1 SSI) one bushel of corn will buy tei pounds of nails. In ISI6 a pair o woollen blankets cost as much as a cow in 1SS!) a cow will buy live pairs o woollen blankets. In IS IG it requirei sixty-four bushels of barley to buy om yard of broadcloth ; in ISS9 sixty-fou bushels of barley will buy twenty yard of broadcloth. In ISIG it took twenty dozen eggs to buy one bushel of salt; ii ISS9 twenty dozen eggs will buy tei bushels of salt. In ISKi it required : bushel of wheat to buy one yard o calico ; in ISSU one bushel of wheat wil buy twenty yards of calico. With thesi figures before them, who can justly clain that farm products are not improving The outlook for the productions of tin farm is certainly hopeful. The farme can exchange his crop for more of tin necessaries of life than at any forme period in the history of our country.Wall Street News. Feed axo its Ekkkct.s on thi Flavour ok Buttkk.—We all know 1 ow a somewhat rancid flavour in buttei often noticed in autumn is attributed t< the " fall of the leaf," but some cxperi ments have now been made upon tin influence of special kinds of foods whicl tend to show that farmers might do mucl to improve their butter by dieting theii cows. Thus ensilage and hay produci hard butter, while grass and clover pro dnce the softest, l'ea straw diminishe the yield, and barley straw taints tin butter with a bitter taste. Potatoes givi a hard insipid product, but turnip: properly mixed with other food give ricl milk and well flavoured butter. Cabbage* and their allies must be given in limitef quantities or a bitter taste will be pro duced. Similarly with corn feed_, whea and barley give a medium consistency pea and vetch meals make the butte hard, in complete contrast to the sof product resulting from oats. The fat o oats, however, is very white and make inferior butter; that of maize meal i much better. Linseed oil calce make poor butter, while cotton seed meal make the finest. The action on the digestiv organs is also to be considered, and it i found that bran has a good effect in thi way. Hence the most desirable food fo butter cows after grass and clover i made up of inaize meal and bran it: equa parts, and as much cotton seed meal a can be given healthfully. Sheep Ruaiuno : Pkrobntaub ok In ckka.sk. —The percentage of lambs rnnret in a season is generally acknowledge anions: sheep farmers as a fair criterion o the character of Ihe (lock, as well as i sure indication of the skill of the shep herd or manager. Different breeds o sheep arc not, of course, equally prolific but given the same breed and similai conditions as regards soil and locality the number of lambs reared tells pretty accurately how the different, Hocks havi been managed. Wo have before us tin return of the present lambing scison fron a number of merino flocks in the Camper' down and Colao districts, and from the.sj wc gather that the number of lambf raised this year will average about So pei cent. Now whore wool-growing is thi principal object of the grazier, the increase of the flocks may not bo a mallei of first importance, but at the same tinn a return of only 85 per cent, in lambs in ft good season is altogether too low tr enable us to speak favourably of the man a»ement. Australian flockowners car hardly afford to write off 15 per cenf. foi barren ewes in a season , and it is dent that a little more attention to the detail* of management and selection in breeding flocks would bo amply repaid by a larger crop of lambs, not to speak of numerous other advantages that would certainly accrue. A comparison of the average yield of lambs from flocks of different breeds throughout the world may he interesting. Iu untoward seasons or with bad management the number of lambs reared varies considerably, but the following statistics of several different flocks may be accepted as affording evidence of fairly average results. In a small flock of Southdown ewes on an English farm the percentage of In nibs is MO, iu a larger of Shropshire ewes it is 1-15 ; iu another lar<ro iiock of Oxford Down ewes it is 12!) ; in a flock of Hampshire ewes it is 110 ; while in North Wales and tho Fell country in the North of England the Welsh and Hnrdwick breeds givo a percentage of about 03 lambs. In Scotland the usual return from Leicester-Cheviot flocks on arablo land is 140 lambs per 100 ewes ; while on the hills in good seasons tho Blackfaced and Cheviot breeds produce about 95 per cent. In France and Spain Merino flocks rear on an average 97 lambs per 100 ovres. In Texas and the western states of America the Merino areed yields in good seasons about 90 per :ent. of lambs, while in the finer climato if the Pacific Slope the yield is sometimes )ver 100 per cent. At tho Cape, where ,he management is cai'eless, the number >f lambs reared runs about 75 per cent. — jeader.

Thousand Headed Kale

Professor Maldon has sent mo tlio following very practical remarks on the growth of this forage plant Very much has been written and paid iu favour of thousand-head kale, and, as a rather large grower of it for several years, I am throughly convinced of its great value and should bo sorry to fiud that it had earned a bad reputation in any district. I have noticed that it has been grown in this neighbourhood during the past season with only moderate success, and I should like to point out that it is very much due to the fact that it has been drilled too late in summer, though it is also due to a great extent to the lightness of the soil. I have seen several fields where it has been drilled in among turnips, in the same way that rape very often is, and in most cases it has given nothing like the keep that rape would have done. In the first place the soil iu this district is gener. ally too light, except in the valleys, to grow heavy crops of it, and as a rule rape would be more profitable. No crop is better adapted for sowing in amonir turnips than rape, as it produces bo much keep at lambing time; but kale is much slower in growth, and if drilled in .June or July is quite unable, unless very excessively forced, to make a good show until quite laie iu the spring. I do not think that it is at all mlvfcaMc to attempt to sow kale in the place of rape, espociallv on such soils as are usually met with about hei;e. Kale does very much better

when it is transplanted, and it is much more economical to grow it in a small sooil bed than to drill it whore it is desired that it should mature, for then it holds thu land so lon>r that two seasons are required to get the result that ought to lie obtained in one. On these thin soils I would recommend that it should be planted so as to bo a heavy crop just before the first summer cabbages como in, as then it wool 1 hive a sppoi il value for getting up sheep and lambs for the early fairs and ram saks. The early cibba'jrs fire often fed before they have jrot. tlieir best, and a few* acres of kale would save tliem. To get this crop the seed beds should be sown in April, or Mure'.-, and the plants put in at any con. venieut time during summer. There will bo a good crop in winter time, if the land is in fair condition—but if the grower has patience lie will have a tremdous crop in May and Jnne, and if he does not feed it, too hard —that is, if the stems are not peeh d—lie will have another very

heavy ei'"p in autumn. The other time when it might be profitably grown would be to sow the seed bed in the first week of August, and transplant as soon as the plants arc fit; a little nitrate of soda dropped round each plant will repay itself. Tliey may be transplanted any time between October and March, and will make a fair feed in June, and, if not fed too hard, will give another good feed in the spring before the land is required for barley. If they arc planted with the view of being allowed to grow to a full size, tliey must not be planted nearer than 2 feet (j inches either way. Like all cabbages, they cannot be done too well, and without good doing they arc not profitable. Plenty of superphosphate in the seed bed, and a good dressing of nitrate of soda and salt when transplanted, form the best artificial dressings

for them. On heavy land they can be grown to be fed at all seasons of the year, but for any special purposes they are not so suitable as either rape or turnips on light chalk soils. I might add, I have also attempted to grow the hardy bistopped kohl rabi among turnips sown in June to be fed in the autumn ; these cannot mature at that time if sown so late. They are a variety of cabbage and require more time, and should bo sown not later than the beginning of May or transplanted early in June, but then they are suitable for autumn feed. The early small top variety is the kind which would answer the purpose best; it is fit to feed in October, but will not stand frost. The hardy variety makes splendid feed on good soil in the spring, as it stands almost any amount of cold, and produces an early top which is well adapted for lamb feed. The tops also make a sweet and delicately flavoured green at that time, being but little inferior to asparagus. I have farmed in a district where kale, cabbages, and rabi do better than swedes or turnips, so that must be my apology for making these remarks.—" H. F. M." in Bristol Times.

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