FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2766, 5 April 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Care of Harxess.—Harness should be occasioniilly well washed and thoroughly dried, and when the washing is done it cannot be thoroughly done, and tbesubsequei.' oiling cannot be thoroughly done, unless the harness is taken apart and washed and oiled part by part. After drying, or perhaps when partly dry, apply neatafoot oil and lamp black liberally, using enough lamp black to colour the hiirneas, and apply a second coat if the leather takes up the first readily and quickly, | Reins Under the Tail.—Horses given to switching their tails over the reins are a nuisance. Few drivers will dispute this fact, or forget how often they have been led to the very verge of profanity while engaged in the arduous work of extrication. A Yankee lady has just invented a simple remedy for use in such cases, and it has proved a marked success. It is merely to fasten near the lower corners of ttie dashboard in front and on each side an inverted hook. When the reins become " tail fast," all the driver has to do is to slip them under one of these hooks and pull upwards, causing thus a downward pull on the other portion, which disengages it at once and without trouble. The Qukex's Success as a Raisf.r of Fat Stock.—Queen Victoria, following up her successes at the Birmingham fat cattle show, took the first prize at the famous Smithfield Exhibition. She did another good stroke of business by selling her prize shorthorn for 150 guineas, equal to 2s 4d per lb. of meat, but Her Majesty is not entirely happy. Her royal temper has been sorely tried by the inconsiderate, not to say disloyal, conduct of certain newspapers. The pompous old Tory print, the Standard, actually inserted a letter from an anonymous correspondent, complaining of the Queen's unfairness in sending her cattle to the shows and pocketing the best prizes to the detriment of working breeders, farmers and others. "By all means," said this unfeeling man, "let Her Majesty show as many animals as she pleases, but let her leave the prizes alone, for how can we poor devils compete against the Queen?" The radical newspapers delightedly took up the question, and the editors have been writing on the subject entirely regardless of the royal feelings.

Farmers Combining.—The Farmers' Federation of the Mississippi Valley is the beginning of a very remarkable movement. The organisation is declared to have been formed to sustain and build up home market!!, iiud has a capital stock of £4,000,000, of which £3,000,000 " is in the hands of a trustee to for ever secure farmers in control." It is also explained that £100,000 of the stoclc has been "set aside to bo issued in the form of debentures to commission men of St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, and other points for their goodwill." It is also stated that " before reaching the consumer the products of the farms of the Mississippi Valley are charged with £2,000,000 annually paid in commissions," and " this company proposes to do the whole of this business of selling through a system of salaried agencies for £200,000 annually." The dividends earned by the federation from controlling the wheat business of the south.went Am fn tio hqhil frn 11 oatnK-

lish a bank," " erect grain elevators," and " build stockyards." Or the £900,000 stock not in the hands of a trustee and for buying out grain commission men, £500,000 are to be held "to meet demands for atoc k that may be earned," presumably among " farmers who do their own shipping, tarmers' alliances," &c. Of the £400,0C0 of stock remaining, £100,000 is to be designated privileged stock, subject to such conditions, &c., "as maybe imposed." Early Maturity ok Fat Stock.— The best hope of the occupier of EDglish acres, says the Field, will depend very much in future upon producing young animals which have been pushed along every day since they were born, without

cvou a uuy a interruption. now, ic stands to reason £ that this cannot be done except the animals are spared the present experience of being knocked about as stores, sent by train or in the dealers' carts from market to market, to be, after passing through five or six hands, fed by somebody who happens to have an excess of perishable food, which must be consumed, or it will rot. Hitherto the supply of meat to the inhabitants of England has been so short that any kind of meat would sell ; now, when oattle oome in by tens of thousands, the consumer has become fastidious, and, having ample choice, will only buy freely what he likes ; and this, undoubtedly, can bo soen to be young, tender meat, and not too fat. This means that not only the meat market, but the farming of Great Britain, is being revolutionised. What once was in demand ig bo no longer. What once was thought a luxury, which only "the upper ten " could look for, in part of the daily fare of well paid artisans, who will give good prices for what they like ; or, if they must economise, will take the cheaper foreign meat than the second rate home grown, anything like what it costs to produce it.

Comparative Profit in Old and YotiNfi Bullocks.—A writer in the Field says Iho demand fof young bullocks and fltnall joints has bean even* more pronounced than in former years. An auctioneer—at u noted live stock mart established by himself-states that old fashioned feeders of three-year-olds were taught a lesson this year as thov have been before. Thoso who will not learn can guin no experience, but their losses may convince them; and this year they saw with disgust, at the mart recently (a cold day) that the young bullocks " were preferred to their own riper animtils. The youngest animals at the sale, were too young for an epicure's taste, the youngest present being a neat, well fed calf bullock, 12 months old. He sold for, £15, and veal or beef must have paid the feeder well. The auctioneer, a farmer Himself of great experience, is probably right in his estimate that bullocks never pay better than when thov are fed well from birth and killed at 18 months old j .or, as breeds aud individuals differ, suppose we widen our latitude a little, and say that they pay better, with tho special feeding, up to 20 months than they ever do afterwards. An old bullock, costing' 12s to 15s per week for his food, is a costly speculation in a time of falling prices; and many of theso great bullocks were held on for Christmas,: when they brought less money than they might have made three months ago,, at a time when beef was Bcaroe. Not only were large animals generally unsaleable this Christmas, but coarse animals were particularly so,

Food Value of Egos.— Jtislong since the experts discovered that a hen's : egg contains more albuminoids hut rather less fat than an equal weight of butcher's meat. Also, that 1' lb of the mixed yolks and whites of eggs contains more albuminoids but rather less fat than. an equal weight of butcher's meat. Also, that 1 lb of the mixed yolks aud whites of eggs can produce fully 2 oz. of the dry nitrogenous substance of, muscle or flesh; But, according to the Chemical Trade Journal, Dr. Freseniust now carries the comparison further. He shows that an average egg contains an much alimentary matter as 1J lb of cherries or grapes, lj lb of apples, 2 lb of gooseberries and 4 lb of pears respectively. Freseniua's comparisons of the egg with divers fruits, as above'noted, aro not a bit more interesting than his comparison of the potato with certain familiar fruits as a nutriment. He makes it known, as the result of his researches, that 100 lb of potatoes are, in point of nutritionsness, equal in value to 114 lb of grapes, 127 lb apples, 192 lb of pears and 325 lb of plums. From this it <vill be seen that the potato has it by a long way. An averago hen's/egg before being boiled (it loses weight because it loses water in boiling), may be taken at If oz., an egg weighing 2 : }- oz. being very large. Tho fact brinps into relief the full significance of the foregoing figures —tVe contrast between If oz. of egg stuff and 32 oz. of pears. Fresenius's comparison, of course, has to do only with tho mized white and yolk.

j Success of Devon- Cattle at ! Smitit- [ field. —At the Smithfield Club Show in ! 1888 a Devon steer won the champion cup as the best in the show, and this year one of the " rabies" was placed for the best ox or steer, the animal beating him beintf her Majesty's grand shorthorn, which subsequently won the champion prize. At the Chicago show a Devon came to the front by winning, against all breeds, the grand sweepstake on the blocks. The Breeders' Gazette, Chicago, in the report of this show says:—"The decision was with the Devon, and so the beast that had received very little attention on the hoof, as the sweepstake prizes were being placed, showed the lordly ' red white and roan," the crack Herefords, the far famed Scots, and all the rest a Clean pair of heels at 'the death.' It is impossible for us to conceive of a finer grained, mealier, or more delicately flavoured cut of beef than the rib roast from this champion Devon supplied us by Messrs Morse." The superior quality of Devon beef has been recognised for ages, and from this breed have been cut more " barons for the royal table than probably from all other breeds put together.. Her Majesty appears to have a great partiality for this breed At the annual fat stock sale, which took place at the Shaw Fiirm, Windsor, on 6th December'last, out of 38 bullocks catalogued 30 were Devons (which are reported as having been bred on the royal domain), 6 blue Polled Gulloways, I Hereford and L shorthorn. The Devoiis were generally admired and were a grand lot, with beautiful symmetry and quality. They sold readily, one of them miking the top price of the sale, £71, the whole 30 averaging £34 Bs.

Lessons From Last Harvest.—The Melbourne Leader' writes as follows, and the advice given may perhaps be of some benefit to Waikato farmers :—lt was pretty clearly demonstrated during the past harvest that early sowing is the bent known preventive of. rust. Wheat growers should, therefore, keep that fact in mind, and make every possible endeavour to get their crops sown as early as possible in future. Another fact of equal importance was also made plain this last harvest, but not for the first time—that

all tlie heavy yields of grain were obtained only from land Which had been properly ploughed and worked before seeding. Now, with these lessons staring them in the faco, why should farmers continue to lose valuable time before commencing to prepure their land for another crop, and when a commencement is made to perform the work in a hurried and superficial manner ? This kind of farming will have to be abandoned ; and for the present attention should be given to ploughing, which is the foundation of

crop growing. Bad ploughing cannot be corrected, and :bad ploughing' is easier than good ploughing. Holding the plough handle is not ploughing. Good ploughing includes ploughing to a depth proper for the particular soil. Some soils are to be ploughed d«eper than others; ground for some crops is to be ploughed deeper than for other crops. It may be proper, for instance, to plough sod land deep or shallow, to invert fully the furrow or to place it on edge, in order to suit the ploughing to the soil, the crop to be grown and the season of the year. Henee no invariable law for ploughing can be laid down. And because of this, intelligence and thought are required of the ploughman who does his work properly. The wise farmer will put his most intelligent, careful workman at the plough, leaving the harrowing, rolling, etc., to the boys. He will also put to the plough his team that is best matched in gait and endurance, and whioh walks the most steadily. With a team made un [ of a fast walker and a slow, walker, or of which one horse lags, or does not walk true to the furrow, it is impossible to do good work. He will also give the most attention to the condition of the soil when the plough is to be put into it; for if the land is ploughed out of condition, the result is more serious than if it had been harrowed or rolled out of eondi-

tion. Some soils may be ploughed when quite damp, others only when not damp. Some may be well ploughed when the weather threatens; but to plough some soils ju«t before a heavy rain is labour thrown away. Also the time of ploughing properly depeqds somewhat on the crops to be planted in the ground. If land lies for some time after ploughing before) wheat is sown it is all the better.