FARM GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2754, 8 March 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Fig : Fattening. — The Agricultural , and Mechanical College at Bryan Texas, in response to a request for experiments upon the various breeds of swine, in order to asnertiin relative cost of fattening, . <*tc.j has announced that it' is willing to accept-the task; provided that representative animals; are furnished by swine breeders by the Ist of J a unary next. Storage ok Eggs.—Wipe the eggs, which should be a - nearly as possible of the same date, and put a layer of them in i»>pipkiu on 1 inch of dry felt,' cover them with the same thickness of salt Put auother layer of eggs, and then. more salt, and so on till the pipkin is full Let the top layer of salt be three times as thick as any other. Eggs so treated and kept in a cool dry plane will be as mood at the end of sis months as they were at first, but care must bp taken to put in only god eggs. Relative Values of Farm Ma.vurks. —The manure froin different classes of stock varies in its properties That yielded by fatting cattle is richest in plaut food. The poorest manure is thai yielded by milking cattle, as the valuable nitrogenous matter an I phosphates have gone off in the cheesy part of the milk Cow dung is the most abundant and least valuable in composition of all the animal manures. It decomposes slowly, giving out but very little heat, hence it is termed a cold manure. Horse dung is more valuable ; it compose- less water and decompose rapidly, hence it is ttirmed a hot Pin dung is one of the richest kinds of animal manure, owing to the varied nature of the ani mal'* food. Two-ykar-old Sihge. —The Field ha* received from a trustworthy correspondent a sample of ensilage whioh was stored in September, 1888, from the after ma'.h of old gra*s. Free use was made of it during the last winter; but when the new gra*n came, a portion of the stack, about four feet high, still remained. Over this about a font of sand was shovelled at the end of May. This residuum has just been re opened, and al th iutfh there is loss on the face, whence » cut had been taken in the spring, there was little or none on the top or sides, which were covered with sand The question whether'ensilage, .can be held over a second winrer seems therefore to be solved. The ensilage was neither sweet nor sour, but inclining' uioro to the latter. Buewkks' Grains.—A. cotnpanv liaboeu started in Kuitlaud to press brewers' graius into a portahle shape. This aim is at present best attained by the Pass burg process, as it can continually trea 1 grains under a nearly perfect vacuum, and hence get the enormous benefit well known to those who understand the subject of a boiling point at 120 deg. Fahr The economy of evaporating grains, which contain 75 per cent, of water, by such an arrangement is considerable, but. a chief gain accrued from a totally diiier eut cou«idoration. The oils, fats, nitro iron, and albumenoid substances that constitute chiefly tho value of any food—all undergo various changes in differing temperatures. Hence the maintenance of most grains at low tempeiatures when rapidly losing their moisture makes a very great difference to the fiual feeding value. Brogdigxagian Maize.—According to the Kansas City Times, a New York lady, whose name is given, having been in Kansas declared that she had seen a carrot 6 feet long, an ear of maize 13 feet long, an;l four potatoes which completely filled the bottom of a one-horse truck Having beeu asked by her husband whether her statements were not just a little bit overdone, the lady had photo graphs of two firm waggons taken iu they were drium through a Kmsa-. town. One repressnted an ear of imiz filling a long waggon, the driver sittinc astride of it, and the other a four-whet', cart- well tilled with 11 potatoes Ay irreverent New York journalist pointout that an ear of maize, as * rule, i-one-tenth of the length of the stalk tlm bears it; .therefore, bo concludes tha maize in Kansas grows to the height of 130 feet. Big-Sheei>.—ln a conte-nporary the great weiirht of Mr T. Pear's pen of Lincoln ewes i* commented on, and theii record— 9owt. Iqr, 4|o. T.he poti of three —isspokep of unprecedented. This is not m, renqirits the Give Stoek Journal In 1887 Mr Roe showed a pen of owes of the same breed, which weighed lOowt. 2qrs. 121bs. The«e really were an unprecedented pen of three ; although rj — ewes have been shown which exceeded the average of this pen. V\ ; e heiieva Air G. Judd's pen of Hampshire ewes of 18f}9— | fj., fflf the pen of the Bewt Oqr. iilba.—to be unprecedented among Down sheep. Tho nearest approach to it is the Suffolk pen of ewes, 7owt. 2qrs. 91bfj , but; then it is impossible to doqbif fuai the modern Suffolk hqs § gypqV ftf the same blopd aa has the ftanjpahire. A psye, vyeiirUi'nir 3Qst- of 141b., alive, would fjate astonished the contemporaries of Arthur Young. Cooked or Uncooked Food fob Pigs. —Cooked or uncooked food for ptea has always been a debatable jioiut, \yitb pig breeders, some it must be i tseing advanced on both sides ( o{ tho question. At several of the agri cultural stations and colleges in America experiments have recently been to test the respective values e| 900,ked and uncooked food for pigs. Iu all of the gam and' advantage have been in favour of uncooked food ; out iu none of the experiment ai;e these so plainly shown at the VVlsconsju station. These trialp were witlj threat care ami accuracy upop pigs of ( various breeds, fed, ojj,p.. series with barley meal niyl iu, imo.tlj.ei; vyith Jadiiua { corn. The uucpplceti, meal waa fed dry , in every iuafcit'ici?, and the oooked meal , vv:as well cooked by steam. In the barley , series the average quantity of cooked ( food required to make 1001b. of pork, , live weight, was G2Blb. Of barley tuga! x ( uncooked, only 589 lb. were In the maize meal series £I'/- lb.' of cooked meal ag-i'inst 463 lb, of .! uncooked meal to make 100 lb. of pork, r live weight. Experiments in cjuree- ; tion at the Ontario College proved tint ]

peaa fed raw gave 100 lb, gain in live weight for 360 lb. of peas, but th#t,47s lb.-of/oooked'pefis wore required .to pro'-" fiiice the affpiei Ram, Trials with, whole jmai/e'jatithpvKansas Agricultural Col -lege pfroved that 't/ie difference"' between cooked and uncooked maize i 6fth in favour of the latter. ..,AN.„EXfIt,IBH u .jQPINIONOP-.AMERIOAI« Chkddar CHkKse—At ii oheese show held recently at Hibridge, Archdeacon Denison said England had lately been invaded not by an army with sruns and swords, •K^y-^VJ&OTX^^^.eA^Cbeddars.'i ;kiid a mure rotten army be never saw. j With regard to their dear friends in ; America, he Raid Home time ; ajjfo to Mr' jLopell, the American 'Minister at Taun,ton •that if anytlrin* was likely to jbrinifthem iintri battle it war tVio cheosn. ' There worn. {H'-lnrge number of people' who would- be 1 ioontent to irive the: hisrhest price for the' ;best, article, but who wnuM not have an 'inferior article 'thriW, into their fane* in border to keep pace m> far at* prices were <ioniierUod with the-American ch'6ene, with !all its bud Bin- llfi. He has been told and! jwjHS very ,H»rry to h.'af .it. by a raiedicul ;tn'in that there had been a o»n.Hidn.r»Hle. .increwse in the mortality of youni; people," atid •be attributed that ' very lartrnlv to the eatinc of American ohen9e. Thore 'waH not a soil and there wa« not a climate, and an lnni; an he lived he should contend for it most earne'stly, in 'which Chedd'ir cheese could be made a« it; that part of. ; Somersetshire. It was the combination ipf both that enabled Sbmorsetnhire people to' produce it, and'be would defy any other oounty in England to prodaoe the same, artible. He= ihad! tasted the imita|ioua of it eent from other,, parts, of; the country,' but he bad been'very ill .after therai 1 He wrote to llis friend wto tried a Cheddar cheoae from the district,, and,had always bought a Cheddar oheese from hiß parish (East, Brent) ever since.' ■ • • ■ ■ ' " ■ j Bursting IJr of a Bio Cattle' Compact.—The report of the committee of investigation into the affairs of the Pt-airie Cattle Company, let, the. light in upon some most extraordinary transactions. With these diseloßures before them, those who embarked their money in the undertaking will hive no difficulty in accounting for its disippearanee. It! was the, pioneer company in the ranse cattle business, and for a time everything went booming, dividends as hiph as 27 per cent being divided, and the shares being rnti up to a magnificent premium. The dividend*, however, were simply paid out of capital. The cost of fresh purchases of cattle was always put down tt> a capital account, and the whole proceeds of the annual sales credited to revenue account. The cattle were sold without regard to the proper maintenance ■if the herd. There is even a letter extinfc frorrr the managing director in Edinburgh ; instructing sales to be mai'e, ho as to pay a dividmd of not less than 25 per cent, which is the expectation here " Nfledless to say, extensive realisations of their shares were made by certain indiviilualsunder th«se circumstances. The then (ihtiirinan, in no longer a shareholder, reali>ed a profit in this way of £(>,600, tba inanagintr director upwards of £9000. moiher director about £17,000, and the \merican vendors upwards of £'20,000. The la«t named appear from first to la-t to have netted a magnificent cum. They were paid £80,000 for so-called " deferred interest," a sum 'of mouey, the committee of investitration say, since proved to have been absolutely thrown away, and £'21 000 was paid twice ovpr for the same cattle. When the mistake wa» discovered some years afterwards, £1000 wan paid b''.cU in cash and promii>orv notes given for £12.000, but »o far they have not been met. VVhat with these lasses and lavi«h expenditure in rauDHfjement it is not surprising; that the assets of the company have diminished with amazinu; rapidity. In 1882 the number of cattle was returned at 139,770 and the value at £722,500. According to tho account of a representative who was sent nut recently to inveNtiifate, tho herd only numbers 56,168, which at an average of £3 per head represents a total value of £168,501. It is now proposed to write down the capital ac'cordingly, and the pen in to be put through £5 per share, or £29i,0)5.

I The Fungus Pests. Although hardly any orclnrdisf Gun recollect a season in which the various fungoid po-tn from whioh the produce of 1 our orchards is so liable to puffer have ! been no scarce as thfy are at present, it in, however, well, an their re-appearance may he certainly expected in future yean to •nuke inquiries and take notice of what I has be''n effected elsewhere towards their prevention or eradication. These minute cryptosamic plants are more numerou- in , the United Statos of America than the* aro in Britain, and it is in the former , where the greatest pains have'been taken and the most numerous and successful experiments made for obtaining a know- ; leds-e of their nature, their life history I aud the means for their suppression or • Hvoid'inr.e i A writer in American Garden and i Forest, one of the best periodicals of its r kiud, rotnarka that experience during the - Hummer of 1889 encourages the belief that wo have in the - solutions of copper nul , phate a defence against many of the fungus pests whioh so seriously threaten , the prosperity of our agriculture (includ- , ins.' horticulture). In 1888 the efficacy Qf ; what is known as the Bordeaux mixture . us a preventive of mildew and blank rot of the grape was fnllv proved, Tbl* I yeir, he «,ivr, experiments have taken » wider range, and manv of the so called lisfiascs of plants have heen sucoe-iuftilli rented. The apple leaf rust (Rop<fcelia pvriit-i) »u C to an occasional Rfwt,v* i'l.if with the B-jrdeanx mixture, The q tince blight* (Morthrara Mespili and H ■nricrwmia Tynnniaj) are likewise pre'filter) ; K'ltnmosparium maonlat.nro and 'ho Tunarns whi. h aau-e* the bligStf fif "!><«ve» and cracking of fruit of th,e pear iay now be regarded aa nflrter the con- • r..| Of the copper solution*. The solution also found bo preventive of the "'""to (Mac.roiporium SMam) and •ilso proven(h the rnfcof i o'atn (Phvtophtho.ra infe-tana'. which freqnentlv cau»e* great. diatruotion among the orops at 'b/>ut the time plant* are in blossom and the tubers one fourth grown, t}«s deadly hl'iiht invades the aweep* over it liirp fire, so that in. a week every plant is dead or ■ tsh.pu relates the particulars of an "?s»esWUt with the peachblow potato, of which he planted five equal plots of three rows each. Before the pjaafcg mos-oraed, spraying was noai.aiauced and repeated on the outride rows, leaving one i« tV® centre untouched. The sprftyaj plants oontinued to thrive the arrival of the frost, but of that which was unsprayed, the plan's were atrunlr with the blight as soon as they blossomed and were Inject Tho potatoes having heen ftvpis, Jound that the eron of the_ o,nt> sorayfitj yielded 3461K,, wliil« tVe vijeH' of tho unsprayed i lot 'Was lqijh. of small-sized, unmarketable timbers. Of the Bordeaux mixtjye, employed the formula is 61b. of sulphate of cooper (hhie v\t?olj, dis«olvod in 4gal. of hot water > 4lb. of fre*h lime, dissolved in of. cold water; mix the two soluMons and dilute with cold water to make 22 gallons. The writer believes, however, that t!v„ ammnniHßiil solution of carbonato Cv copppr will be found ai officiant a fuuariqiVle a« the Bordeaux mixture., and it. has tho advantage (if being more readily pubpared and'njaro easily distributed in ' spray. Its formula is carbonate of copppr, ;io?, ; ammonia, 1 quart.; mix ; then •ii.luSa the mixture with cold water to 1 make 22 gallons of liquid. Fron\s»ridry experiments made the writer concludes ' that. it, is the copper in solution which is specifically antidotal, fe> fungus germs and not the other qaianoueut, sulphuric acid of the sulphate. He found the uopperas of iron) had litt.'e a^efc.