FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2710, 23 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Brittle Hoofs. — Watch the blacksmith, and do not allow him to hum the hoof with a hot shoe, because it is easier to do this than to trim or file the hoof Hniooth. Hurtling ruins the wall of the foot, so that it will not retain the shoe so long, besides rendering' it so brittle that a heavy strain upon it wiil cause it to break ; and if the shoe comes off on the road the hwof is likely to go to pieces before you can reach the shop. The "Bower" System ok Dairying. —The practice of letting cows to "Bowers," i.e., renting dairymen, has for long worked well in the cheese-mak-ing districts «f Scotland, and on some of the best farms it was found that as much as £20 a year is given far eacfe cow ; that is to say, the farmer provide? the cow, cow-shed, dairy and house for tiv> "Bower" and his family, with given quantities of roots, hay, straw, cake, meal and grazing laud, while the " Bower " and his wifo have only to see to the manipulation and sale of the produce. In many instances the whole farm is devoted to this class of business, but on others part of the holding is used for the breeding of Clydesdale horses for exportation. A Million Boshels oi.- Wheat.— Although people talk glibly about 1,000,000 bushels of wheat, but, very few of them realise what a vast amount that represents. If 1,000,000 bushels were loaded ou American freight cars 550 bushels to a car, it would fill a train over 15 miles long; if transported by waggons, 44 bushels per waggon, it would make a line of teams 142 miles loug. If made into bread, reckoning a bushel to 601b. of flour, it would give each man, woman and child in the United States, a 2lb. loaf of bread. With the above in sight, the reader can better appreciate the following brief statement. There are used annually in the United States about 15,000,000 bushels of wheat in various manufactures, such as starch, food preparations, sizing for cloth and paper; 50,000,000 bushels are required for seeding, and 255,000,000 for food consumption, which leaves about 50,000,000 bushels for export. American Grapes,—Writing on the " Future of Grapes,'' the San Francisco Chronicle remarks:—No candid person can deny that the outlook for Californian wine at the present time is not particularly encouraging. There is a variety of reasons why this is so, the principal one being the inability, financial or otherwise, of the wiue makers to carry their wines until they have aged sufficiently to be marketable ; and this condition of tilings cannot change materially until the growers can build cellars and warehouses and store their wines until the dealers are ready to pay a fair price for them. There is, however, another outlet for the grapes of this State which has not yet received the attention it deserves, and that is the distillation of the grapes into brandy. Europe, and particularly Great Britain, offers an immense market for brandy, and since the French cognac has virtually gone out of existence, and left nothing to take its place, it would seem that an opening is preseuted for the grape brandy of California which may be employed to good advantage. A Woman's Eye for the Milk.— j Withont entering into a discussion of the question of who should do the milk in j, and taking it for granted that wlinra there are many cows it should be the work of the men, the presence of women cannot well be dispensed with in the average dairy. Where dairying is an exclusive business, and a man gives to it all or a greater pari of his time, supervision on the part of the partner of his joys may usually be dispensed with. But whore it is an incidental matter in the farmer's work, the eye of the wife is usually needed over all to insure that neatness aud cleanliness of operations which epicurean consumers like to think has characterised the making of their butter. The masculine milk-maid is usually all right in intentions, and very often in practice, but the keen eye of the other half will frequently detect and prevent the doing of things, not in themselves of seeming great consequence, but, at the same time, not in keeping with making the cleanest, sweetest, and best butter. The Right Man for the Horses. —

Have you a farm hand who knows how to take care of a horse, aud delights in keep ing his team in good order ? If so you have a man whose work should be with the team as much as possible. Anyone who employs two or three or more men will observe that one ia a better horseman than the others; and common sense dictates that he is the one to whose care the horses should be consigned. This is not only better in view of the amount of work likely to be done, but the condition

in which the horses are to be kept. Many an employe seems to know that a horse is a horse, and that is the extent of the equine knowledge. His very first action with the team shows his ignorance of that kind of work and the risk of placing it in his hands. No man who has taken the pains to gather good horses about him can afford to take the risk of undoing all his work by handing them over to a novice to be ruined. One likes to have a supervision of liis horses himself; but with

many busy men this is impracticable. The next best thiug to do is to get an honest and competent hand—not always an easy thing to do—and keep him.

A Plague ok Slugs.—A correspond ent of the Bristol Times, complains thai his garden is over-run with slu!r», not-

withstanding 1 that, ho sowed 2ewt. of lirae to half-an acre of land. This season they are more numerous than ever, the potatoes being full of holes with sticking in them, and whole beds of plants have been cleared off. The advice of Miss (i. A. Ormerod, entomologist to the Koyal Agricultural Society, having been aa'ted in the matter, that specialist kindly replied as follows: — "To get rid of slusrs, it has been found to answer to dress the land at dawn and dusk—that is, when the slugs are out at feed—with salt, or a mixture of soot and lime. The soot and limn did best. It is little or no u<e apply. iu<r the dressing once, or at intervals of several days. It must bo applied two or three times, at immediately succeeding periods of dawn and dusk, or it will do no good—for this reason. The slug's can throw off a dressing: of what is obnoxious to them by exuding- a quantity of slime, and thu3 they clear off the dressing and are not materially injured ; but it the

dressing are repeated at short intervals, the slugs (not having had time to renew the slime supplies) cannot clear off tho dressings, and it has been found, on the broad scale of field work, that the above recipe answers well. If a single general dressing is given, the slujra are not by any means sura to be killed, unless it is so strong that it would be a dangerous or fatal application to the plants on cropped ground."

Curing the Cow.—l do not think that the little incident I am about to relate can claim any relationship to agricultural "science," though it un-

doubtedly is akin to "practice." It is

true, as my "special," who is "doing" the International Agricultural Exhibition and Congress at Paris, vouches for it. In a villago near St. Briene, a few days ago, a man called upon a small farmer and convinced him that one of his cows was under a charm, bewitched, had had an " evil eye "cast upon it, or, as it i* called in Devonshire and Somersetshire, was "overlooked." For a dozen francs he pretended to cure the animal, the reAedy being some of the cow's diing dried in the chimney, and the enveloping of tho animal in some bed-clothes!

The farmer's daughter was ill in bed — could not get up, he could oure her, instantly, aud so com-

pletely that she could dance. Asking for sotno brandy, lie drank some himself, and poured the other into the young woman's mouth, and at the same time commanding her to pla>io her arm around hia neck, embrace him, kiss him twice on the cheek, and to dance with him. Owing to the Ktreug' l ' o) th • man, or the cognan, or twtb, and to 'faith," the jjirl performed

some remarkable gyrations in the position described, and the man received ten francs and tbauks for the cure. He had not gone long before it began to dawn upon someone that his neighbour had been duped, especially as the young woman was as helpless as before. Of the effect of the treatment of the cow they were still uncertain. Nevertheless, the'authorities, being less credulous, got hold of the " doctor," who has to suffer three month's imprisonment for his little fraud. Wholesale Destruction of Wheat —English farmers have many troubles, but they seldom are visited with such a complete calamity as is related in the following paragraph which a correspondent gives descriptive of the havoc committed by flying locusts on a 50-aore piece of wheat in South Africa. He says:— " Flying locusts always settle down—and woe betide the spot selected—at sunset, and never take wiug before sunrise. They cannot fly in misty or rainy weather. The invigorating rays of the sun appear to be essential to thuir powers of flight. Should it happen to rain for two or three days in succession, on the ground they remain, clustered in bunches in every available bush and blade, very little of which remains when they take their departure. The locusts havinsr settled on the corn, I walked through it to see what was being done. I then realised for tho first time what a serious thing a visitation of locusts meant. On nearly every stalk of wheat was perched a locust ravenously nibbling the doomed crop. Their method of procedure was to nibble at the curved joints or necks that lie between the extreme ends of the stalks and the butts of the ears, through which they cut, causing the latter to drop, where they lay almost covering the ground, and about one of the most deplorable sights I think I ever witnessed. All this wanton destruction for a mere nibble or two at the most succulent end of the corn stalk. It being now sunset, no means ever devised by man could induce them to take wing and leave, because, as I have said, locusts never fly after sunset. Of course it goes without saying that by sunrise next morning the destruction of the crop was complete, A sad sieht it was to see the stalk standing up stiff and earless, as nearly every ear had been bitten off from the stem as if cut by a knife."

The Cultivation of Growing Crops. —There is some difference of opiniou as to how deep it is necessary or best to stir the soil in cultivating the growing crops. There are three items to be secured at least—the destruction of the weeds, avoiding ihe unnecessary robbing of the soil of available plant food that will be taken up and used by tho weeds; mellowing or loosening up the soil, so that the roots can peuetrate readily; and tendering available plant food that is already in the soil, but needs the action of the light and air to make it available If the cultivation is commenced in good season, the weeds are very easily destroyed without the necessity for disturbing the soil more than two or three inchcs deep. If the soil has been brought into a good tilth, as should be done before the crop is planted, it should be sufficiently loose and mellow for the roots penetrate without the necessity, after the plants have commenced to grow, of stirring deeply so that the root can permeate. The natural course of all manure is downward, and, if applied on the surface, and frequent cultivation is given, it will incorporate well with the soil, and the rains will usually carry the soluble portions sufficiently deep, so that tho root will be able to secure the necessary supply to keep up a vigorous growth. As a rule the best yields are obtained by stirring the Boil deep and thoroughly before planting the seed, and then, as far as possible, commencing the cultivation in good season, so that only the surface is stirred. This will be sufficient to keep down the weeds and stimulate all the other asencies to action, among which not "he least important factor is the conservation of moisture. There may, iudeed, be times when it is necessary to stir the soil deep, but these form the exoep. tion rather thau the rule of good husbandry in dry regions.

Poisonous Insecticides i-or Frith Trees. —Professor A. J. Cook, of Michigan, after making a long series of experiments, feels warranted in presenting the following conclusions The arsenates 1 and carbonised plaster will protect against the plum curculio if they can be kept on the tree or fruit".. In case of very frequent rains, the jarring method will not only he cheaper, but raore effective, For the apple,* to prevent injuries by the codling moth and curculio, we can use London purple, one pound to 200 g-allons of water. For plums we mu«t use Paris green, one pound to 200 or 300 gallons of water. If the carbolated plaster is preferred, we should ute one pound of crude carbolic acid to od pounds of land plaster. I This iR thrown freely over the tree, so as |

to strike every plum. These poisons should never be applied until after the blossoms fall. B"as are quite stihcoptible to these poisons, and they will not only in j uro them, but. seriously interfere with their pood work of fertilising- the flowers. There is no reason for spraying trees at so eurly a date, as neither the curcnlio nor codling larviu commence their attack nntil the blossoms fall. Another practical question is the danger of injury to the foliatre of the tree treated. Careful experiments lead to the following conclusions : — London purple is more injurious to the foliatre than is Paris creen, and white arsenic is more harmful than either. With solutions of the strength named above, there is not the slightest dancer of poisoning stock should they feed upon the grass under the sprayed trees. Professor C. M. Weed also related the following conclusions by a series of elaborate experiments I That about three-quarters of the cherries liable to injury by the plum curculio can be saved by two or three applications of London purple in a water spray, in the I proportion of one ounce to- ten gallons, That a sufficiently large proportion ol the plum crop can be saved by the same treatment to insure a fair yield when a fair amount of fruit is "set." That if an interval of a month or more occurs between the last application and the ripening of the fruit, no danger to health need be apprehended from its use. That the spraying of the arsenites is cheaper and more practical than any other known method of preventing the injuries of this insect.