FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2671, 24 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

) A PIiOFITAIiLK E.-Ull, Y GoOSKBXIUIY.— Writing ou Early fimiss iti Uio Chronicle, a correspondent wills attention to tlio lint gooseberry Early Kent, which is friur seven to ton days earlier tliiin any othoi variety. Ono grower iu Kent clearer £120 au acre from this gooseberry alone, J> throuuli the larger price obtained owiiifj 1 to its earliuc.-'S. 3 ¥IiVIT GrllOWfSa IN - GIiUAT BIUTAJN,— Fruit growing , in Great Britain lias oeasei ' to be 'xn industry of minor importance, ' On the authority of Lhe Agricultura Advisor wo are told thaf. laud under fruii ' trees in Great. .Britain has increased fron ' 100,000 to 2H,00U acres during' the pas ' ">0 yeai>. Along with this great expansion 'sion tliero has been n corresponding 3 growth in jam making. Factories huvi ' increased tenfold within the past, 30 years iind where hundreds of tons of sugar wen ■ required then thousands an; u-<ed now. Tasmaxiax Fritit jx London , .—Tin 3 account sales of Tasmanian apples e: 3 Victoria, by Messrs Keeling and Hunt > the consignment being the last of tin 1 season, show that butter prices wen • obtained iu general than for the proviou. > shipments, there being very few soli s under lls 6VI per box, a large majorit; 3 fetching lls, ehielly Scarlet Poannain 3 (Nonpareil) and Stunner Pippins, wliili '-> a few went as high as IGs, 17a, and ISa 1 Some of the cis.-.s were marked ' 'ull.igeil, ■' and, consequently were sold tor Gs or 7 '' each. The Danish Dairy Industry. —Th< J liltlu kingdom of Dennurk, with les J tlian 10.000 square miles (an area no ; t'.vio" !he size of i\ow Jersey) and wit] a population of uear 2,000.000, is a largi prodiu:i:r of buttijr. The milch cow inimlii'i , about 000,000, and the ex-jor of ljuttor, mostly to England, wa 4."),000,030ib5. iu ISS7. This is tiearl; three times the amount exported ill 1577 Tim inereas .-d production is largely du to the establishment of co-op.erativ dairies, and to the use of eentrifuga cream separators. The Dunes have pu in operation the syetem of paying fo milk according to its quality, and thi system has incited dairymen to nior care iu the selection of stock and in feed ins; them. Mi;mane Mktjiod of Slauguteuinc Cattu:.—Aii account was recently pub lished of a German apparatus for teaching slaughterers how to strike with the pole axe so as to obviate the cruel necessity o trying to teach their 'prentice hands oi living cattle. A correspondent points ou that such an apparatus is unnecessary, i slaughtering wcro carried on in th humane inannor practised at Chicago iiwd possibly at other places in the States Ue tells us '.hat the bullocks to bo Uillei are driven into narrow pens from th stockyard, and that above these pens Llier stands ;i initu with ;i repoatijijc rifle, am that as each animal passes below him h lircs a ballet through its brain. Death i instantaneous ; and by simple machincr , tl.e ciiicase is at onco lifted out of thi way and prepared for market. KvciLi.sir Fαrat I;.i:'Li:.mi:.nt.s in Russia —Reference is made in the last I'ritisl consular report ou thu agriculture o Southern Russia fo the increased iinpor of agrioult.untl machinory. Englisl UKinufacturer.s enjoy a monopoly of tin S'llo of portable .steam engines and slcan threshing machines, besides doing a goot bnsiuoss -in ploughs. From inquiries made of those engaged in this trade, the Consul-General gathered that during thi past year about '2~>o portable ateum engines, .'J3O steam threshing machines and 3000 ploughs were imported from England. The Americans do by far the greatest business in reapers and mowers. Great progress, ho adds, has been made during , recent years in turning , out native made agricultural machines. The Lawyer Aiu'le.—An American variety, remarkable for its thick skin, and consequently longkeepiug properties. It was raised some years ago, but having been greatly over-praised, afterwards foil below its.true level. Recently an applo has beeu brought to uotice by the name of Delaware Winter Apple, which, if not the same, is so near that there is no possibility of distiim-uishing , them apart. In de«(!ribinjf tho Lawyer iho American Garden says : — Its greatest merit consists in a skin worthy of the veritable rhinoceros amongst apples. The fruit, with common good care, can be easily kopt till the following midsummer. It is of fair size and beautiful dark red colour. Flesh yellowish, sub-acid and moderately juicy ; quality fair, though some consider it only fit for cooking/' As the time is coming when the export of apples will form a considerable branch of the business, this variety might bo found valuable for that purpose, and appears, at any rate, to bo worthy of a trial. Aokicultukk in .ficusEY.—The British Agricultural depaiuncut have issued a leaflet dealing with iho cultivation and growing of fruit and potatoes in Jersey. Respecting , the latter it appears that the cost of production for au acre of early tubers averages from £47 10s, of which not less than £15 gm>s for manure. The profit varies from .£l3 an acre to as much as £2i 10s. In an ordinary season planting takes place in January, and unless the plants arc checked by frosts they are all earthed up by April. The groat point is to have tin) crop ready as ear!}' as possible. As lhe high prices given for the uarlie>t consignments soon fall oil'. Not very many years ago tho chief culture iu tho islaud was tho growing of apples and puaiT, Lul tho applu3 have hwn ro-

placed by potatoc, and vinos and tomatoes h.'ivu been substituted for Homo of ■ the pears. About six-tenths of the total area of land under cultivation is •riven to i potatoes, which yield about eight-tenths . of the total gross return. Only about 1 S.'i ; acres are given to fn>ir.-gnnvin<r, a good deal of which i< carried on under irla.ss. Hi" it"nw<]iifiii!i' is that this small area yields about ,CIS,OOO worth of grapes, (JBOOO worth of tomatoes and about ■ £'2(500 worth of the largo luscious pours so familiar in the Londoifmarki'ts, Ari'Ltcs as b'oot) i'oit. Stock. —It appears from an American paper that the ■ best food for animals is apples, Two cows in an advanced state of illness have, i it is stated, been entirely cured by apples. A horse, given over by ver- ; terinory surgeons, and turned on'; in a Held to die, got access to an apple tree, ate what ho wanted, and immediately , showed signs of improved health. His owner, acting on tho hint, fed the beast , daily on a peek of apples, and in a week [ " you couldn't have bought that horse for :£'2o." Three oows were seen tied up in a , barn, " mourning for something." They , wore given half a bushel of apples, which they eagerly consumed, and ceasing their lamentations, took peaceably to their hay. Some interesting experiments to test the. value of apples for milch cows have also been made, and bean entirely successful. The Courant, an American paper, says that " a large cow, something along in years," feeding exclusively on summer pasture, and producing four wino quarts daily, was put on a diet of four quarts of apples night and morning. This quantity was increased until at tho end of the week she was eating one bushel of the hardest, sourest, windfall apples each day. Such was tho effect of apples as to bring her produce of milk from four qunrtsts rather more than six quarts a day. Another cow, by means of half a bushel of apples nisrht and morning, was induced to give ft daily yield of 12 to H quarts to milk. Similar experiments with other cows produce like happy results. Jaji-makijs'g by Farmeks. —The British farmer used to be accused, and perhaps not altogether without reason, of despising tho minor items of farm production as only fit for women's attention ; but tho ruin caused by foreign competition in cereals has opened his eyes, and he now sees more clearly than he did that no legitimate soursu of profit is to be despised. Consciously or unconsciously, a good many of his fraternity Inve taken Mr. Gladstone's advice, and, aided by the low price of sugar, have taken to jam making on a considerable scalc. Anybody who looks attentively at grocers' windows must have noticed that a largo percentage of tho jam exhibited there is made, not by the regular manufacturers, but by men who grow their own fruit, and their produce is usually distinguished by it« freshness of flavour. Kent has for centuries been known as the " Garden of England 1" Tho soil and climate arc especially favourable to bush fruit, and therefore Kent is a leading jam making county. The other day, under auspices of the Fruiterers' Company the Lord and L'.ldy Mayoress paid a visit to Swanley, around which there is noteworthy fruit and (lower district, some 2000 acres in extent. When we read of 17 acres, mostly under glass, we can understand where Convent Garden gets somo of its fliral wealth ; while the fact that a number of strawberries were quietly reposing in their beds at 3 a.m., hut seven hours later were on sale in London in the form of jam, recalls, but in a pleasant.'.r form, some of the miracles of swift transformation recorded of the Cincinnati and Chicago piggeries. Cheap Essh.age.—Tho Rev. Tlarry Jones published the following favourable result of an experiment in making ensilage cheaply and on a small scale : — '' Last .summer, at Birtoumorc, in Suffolk," he writes, " I had a hole dug 3 fact long, 4 feet wide and G feet deep. This was filled with tares cut one wet day at tho eud of June and carted straight from the field. Two good (Scotch cart) loads were stamped into the grave till the top of tho stuff was a foot, beneath the surface of the field. Then a thin layer of straw was placed on it, the earth shovelled back and stamped down. As the stuff shrank this was done throe times, and the buried tares were left till 27th February. On opening the hole then wo found that they had become excell n nt ensilage, which perfumed the air around the moment it was uncovered, and was at once greedily eaten bv the horses and cows to which it was offered. But, being very strong, it was mixed with three times its bulk of poor barley chaff. This mixture, with a peck and a half each of sliced mangold morning and evening, was found to be excellent diet for six young bullocks, who throve upon it. They were shut up in a yard and had nothing else for some five weeks. Tho ensilage, moreover, when mixed with chafl gave no flavour to tho inilk of tho cows which ato it ; and there has been no waste, for tho top layer, which seemed to be tnouldv, and was therefore put on one side, is being eaten now freely. Tho whole cost of digging and filling tho "silo was about 7s Gd. Wo had no roller, boards, stones, nor any pressure but that of the soil, which was shovelled and stamped in, and the only implement used was the spado." Beet Sogak.—While casting about for new fields of enterprise, tho sugar beet industry seoms deserving of inoro attention than it lias hitherto received at the bauds of tho Australian community. Ever since chemistry became a science it has been known that certain species of beets contained a largo percentage of sugar. It was not until tho beginning of the present century, however, that any organised effort was made for its extraction and use in commerce, and it is only about 20 years ago since it assumed any impoi'tauco among European industries. But the last 10 years havo witnessed au enormous increase in beet sugar culture, until at tho present time more than onehalf of the sugar consumed in tho world is made m Europe, and from the sugar beet. The entire production of tho seini tropical countries which export can siu'ar, viz., Cuba, Java, Brazil, Peru India, Egypt, Louisina and the Sandwicl Islands, is about 2,000,000 tons annually On the other hand, the annual Europear product of beet sugar reaches 2,5-46,000 tons, distributed about as follows .-—Germany, 1,115,000 tons; Franco, SOS,OOO tons; Belgium, SB,OOO tons; Austria, 558,000 tons ; Kussia and Poland, 387,000 tons: Holland and tho minor States,

50,000 tons. Sorao experiments have been made in the Eastern States of America at beet culture with no great success, bnt recently the enterprise has been taken up in California, and results have proved the conditions of soil and climate to be so favourable that California expects shortly to supply tho whole of the United States with sugar from tho culture of tho sugar beet. Tho soil and climate of the Pacific Slope resemble so closely those conditions in Victoria that there seems good reason for recommending this industry to the attention of our Agricultural Products Commission,—Loader. ■Soil ExirAn.sTinx axd its Causes.— It is admitted that the yield of grain per acre from tho great majority of the wheat lands of Australia has greatly decreased within reccnt years; and while various reasons have been advanced as the cause of this decrease m the productiveness of the soil, farmers seem to forget that one groat factor in promoting the result is the very common practice of growing hay and carting it away from the farm. It needs no argument to prove that the selling of hay and straw, particularly where the crops are allowed to mature, without _ the return of an equivalent must in time reduce the soil to barrenness. Everyone knows that what is taken from the soil by the plant must- he plii nt food, although the soil is not the only source of this article. Now, this plant food has a maim rial value, and the question is how to return it most 'economically back on the farm, Nature's way is to return to the soil as inneli as is taken therefrom. Is it impossible for us to do the same ? We think not. The breeding and feeding of animals pay to a greater or less extent, the returns varying with the knowledge and experience of the farmer.

Dairying, sheep breeding, pig raising all pay a living profit if conducted in a business-like manner. All the above mentioned branches of farming consume the products of the farm, aud return to it nearly .ill the plant food. This gives mi increase of income, because the productive powers of the farm increase from thU method, making the keepiug of stock more practicable. Thus we can see that no fanner am afl'urd to sell the hay and straw produced on his farm, and that the best use In; c\n m.ike of these is to convert their, into butter, pork and mutton. Leader.