FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2769, 12 April 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Carrots for Milch Cows.—Carrots have always been considered one of the finest foods for a cow, and we have.never heard of them giving a bad flavour to milk. Grated carrots have even often been used for colouring butter, while some hold that cows fed with them will yield milk more richly coloured. We cannot think that they can give an objectionable flavour, but this can be easily proved by reducing the quantity and watching the result.—Exchange. The Rat Piague in England.—Latest advices report that the rat plague in the fen district of Lincolnshire still continues to cause much uneasiness amongst the farmers. Enormous destruction has been wrought in all directions. The runs in the stacks aro as large as rabbit burrows, and, in many instances, half the produce of some crops have been destroyed. The woodwork of the buildings has been gnawed through, whilst the holes in the drain banks are so numerous as to form a kind of vast honey-comb. The potato and mangel pits have been attacked, and the young plants in the fields, such as wheat and beans, are seriously eaten away. Many attempts have been made to check the ravages, and although a very large number of rats have been killed, they appear almost as numerous as ever. The Queen's State Coach Horses.— The Queen's State horses are " creams " and " black«." Both breeds originally came from Hanover in 1820, and tho studs at Hampton Court, where they are bred, are the only pure specimens of the breed. Since their sojourn in England not a mixed coloured animal has been born, which argues well for their purity. The creams are of a curious cream colour, with very silky manes and tails almost touching the ground. Their eyes are white, with pink centres, and their noses are pink, almost like human flesh. They are very tractable and sagacious. They are used only on great State occasions, and the effect of the eight horses, with their massive, handsome harness, attached to the gilded coach, is very fine. Tho blacks are no leas than 17| hands in height. Their coats have a marvellous gloss, and their jet black tails touch the ground. The blacks are used on minor State occasions, and by the Prince of Wales when he holds a levee or appears at any State affair for the Queen. Wash for Red Scale. -Insect Life for October, 1889, of the United States Department of Agriculture, contains the following formula for the resin wash for red scale Resin, 20 lb; caustic soda (70 per cent, strength), G lb ; fish oil, 3 lb ; and water to make 100 gallons. In preparing this wash the necessary materials were placed in a boiler and covered with water, and then boiled until dissolved, being stirred occasionally during the boiling. After dissolving, the preparation was boiled briskly for about an hour, a small quantity of cold water being added whenever there was danger of boiling over. The boiler was then filled up with cold water, which mixed perfectly well when added slowly and frequently stirred. It was then transferred to a strong tank and diluted with water to 100 gallons. Neither the leaves nor the fruit was injured, while a large proportion of the scales were destroyed. Those which escaped were either on the fruit or the underside of the leaves. The cost of the wash is 80 cents per 100 gallons, or four-fifths of a cent per gallon.

An Excellent Idea you a Cool Room.—Mr W. Fairless,of Baulkaimuigh, has recently struck an idea, which if carried into effect should serve the purpose of a cool storage room, on a simple principle, for use on farms. He says a cool room constructed on the water bag principle could not fail to be effective. A timber frame-work could be constructed with a double lining of waterproof canvas down the sides and on the roof. The two sheets of canvas would be two or throe inches apart, and the interstice filled with water, thus keeping a thin water bag all round and over the room. The floor, if constructed of brick, would be constantly kept moist by the drippings from the bags, and the whole atmosphere would be delightfully cool. All who know the low temperature of water kept in a bag hung in a draught, can readily understand that the application of the s nne principle to a room would necessarily make it very cool. A canvas fly could be thrown over the roof, which would serve to shade the place, and at the same time create a draught. Of course, the great difficulty would be in making the walb watertight, but no doubt careful tacking and closing of the corners would overcome the trouble. The cost of waterproof canvas for the purpose would be somewhat heavy, and the material would not be very long lasting, but the idea might well be put to practical account in a small way, so that its utility or otherwise may be proved. If the difficulty of leakage could be overcome, and the material could be reudered less destructible by any process, perhaps the simple method of constructing a cool room, which has been devised by Mr Fairless, would recommend itself to the farmers and dairymen generally. Cleveland Bays.—ln a paper read the other day by Mr F. Wilson Horsfall, Potto Gransre, before the Northallerton Agricultural Society, he said:—"There is no better breed of horses in the world for working our strong land than the Cleveland Bay, and the mares, if required, can breed a good foal every year as well, and I much regret that they are so scirce amongst farmers. Where is 'he animal that din go to so many different kinds of work, and do each as well, if not better, than aiiy horses cin do the only one they have been acuu-lomecl to and trained for ? They will wovlc'a Shire or a Clydesdale to death on ordinary two-horse ploughing land; thoy can run our dog-carts to market quite fast enough for the presont times, either with a heavy load or a lisrht one behind them ; and, as for breeding, what can't they breed ? I'll tell von, gentlemen, what they can breed, and that is the best of weight carrying hunters, and the very best of carriage horses when crossed with thoroughbred sires such hunters as we now seldom see, but nevertheless hear about from what used to be the hard riding men of Cleveland and North Yorkshire; and most of the best cart horses that used to be sold out of this district 15 or 20 years ago were bred off Cleveland mares and by a strong carting stallion. But, perhaps, unfortunately for the country and good for us as farmers, owing to our American cousins having found out the sterling worth of this best breeds of all horses—in fact I may say the only pure-bred general purpose horse we have in England—we are breeding them to swim the Atlantic instead of to work our land and take our wives to market." Farming in tiie Eastern Counties.— In an article contributed by Mr Clare Sewell Read to the East Anglian Handbook, he says:—"The English farmer seems to have come to the conclusion that the area devoted to corn growing must be still further diminished. Time was in EastAnglia that stock were grazed in order to grow corn ; it appears likely that corn will be mainly grown in the future to graze and litter the stock upon the farm. If stock will not pay for the natural and artificial foods they consume, it is no use expecting a profit from the increased corn crops which their manure will produce. All this points to more grass and less arable land. The Eastern counties are no doubt less adapted for grass than any other part of England; thsy are essentially a corn growing district, but it is no use striving to grow what will not pay. Very little of the land of East Anglia can readily be converted into permanent pasture, but there is no reason why the old four-eourse rotation of cropping should not be altered by allowing the grass seeds to remain down two years 1 instead of one. No doubt some semi- 1 permanent grasses must be sown to sup- ' ply the place of those which may die off 1 in the second year, but a useful mixture of seeds need not cost more than those ' which are usually sown for one year's ' layer. By adopting two years' seeds the 1

East Anglian farmers might, keep more dairy stock, rear more cattle, and have a better run and more suitable food for the flock in the winter, instead "of overfeeding the ewes with turnips. But, alas! many thousand acres of our arable land are farmed under agreements which still compel the husbandman to rigidly observe the old four-course shift, and to sow wheat on one-fourth of his arable land after a one year's lay. He must not think of growing barley after wheat; he must not have above a certain proportion of mangels, or white turnips, or clover seed; he must not sell hay or straw—in fact, ail that he is to do is to grind on like a horse in a mill in the same old path that his grandfather trod, although grain is 50 per cent, cheaper than it was, and meat, dairy produce and labour 20 per cent, dearer. Farm agreements which contain such re-trictions are a disgrace to any landlord, and are an agricultural scandal in the last decade of the 19th century."