FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2964, 14 July 1891, Page 4

FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

« _ Indian Wiikat Pjumpkcts.—The reports from tho Punjab, the principal wheat producing district of India, uro satisfactory. Tho rainfall has been so copious .is to injure very low lying Jande, but what has injured perhaps half u million acres at most has, in tho tropical elim.ite of India, added vastly to tho fertility of nearly 7,000,000 acres. Fine weather was reported to be needed on 4th March, but later advices by cable spoak of hot sunshine and tho favorable ripening of tho harvest.

Thk Eitkcjt ok Crkam Separatoiis on tub BiTTKU Industry.—From tbo last report of tho Danish Agricultural Ministry, it appoars that sinco tho introduction of mechanical cream separators ten years ago tho increnso iu tho production of butter has been enormous. In tho two years ISB3-S>s tho exports of this article from Denmark roes from 19,000,000 to '2G,000,000 lb and then by leapejund bounds it attained its present figuro nearly 00,000,000 lb per annum. This astoniehing development is attributed to the separators, which not only permit 10 per cent, moro butter to be extracted from a given quantity of cream, but enable producers to work greater qunntitieu than wiih poHsible under tho old system. The number of associated dairies continues to increase, and many of the old ones are being enlarged and improved.

Polled Angl'sCattle.—The AberdeenAngus breed is quickly making headway in England for various purposes. In addition to tho ever increasing number of herds of pure bred polls that are being founded all over England, it is encouraging to find that sires of thin breed are now extensively used for crossing purposesIt has bsen proved that cows of almost any breed, m,»ted with Aberdeen-Angus sires, produce good butcher's beasts, and accordingly this valuable property they possess haa opened up a very wide market for tires of the breed south of tho border. Wo would warn breeders, however, that great care should bo taken in sending south none but animals of the most approved type and quality, as this market depends altogether on the results obtained ; it will bo well to bear in mind the animal that is not good enough for the best pure herd in the country will not be good enough to represent tho breed in a cross herd.—Farming World.

Chicago Dressed Meat: Another Straw roR Yankee Farmers' Backs.— The crusade agaiDst the imports of American meat would appear to have flooded tho markets of the United States with immense supplies of Chicago dreseed beef, which would otherwise have been shipped to Europe. In all the States cast of Indiana and north of the Ohio river the competition of this product is said to have brought about a great decrease in the number of young oattle kept for fattening, it beiug maintained thr.t the western meat can be sold lower thiin the actual cost cf the home grown article. This form of competition, which at first only affected the large cities, bus beon gradually extended, until the towns and villages are now beinir supplied with refrigerator beef, and in some rural districts even the farmers theraselres are served by itinerant peddlers with Chicago beef. It is complained that not only docs this product competo disastrously with the loeal butchery by underselling home grown meat, but growers of stock are ijiven but oeo market in which to sell, and then only in keen competition with range and herd cattlo fattened npon tho public domains, or on cheap lnuds which recently formed part of it.—Live Stock Journal, i

Factory System ok Butter-making : A Defect to be Rkmedikd,—Dairying, as it has hitherto been known, is fast ■ becoming a thing of the past and is being replaced by the factory system, worked on co-operative lines. This, so far as it goes, is entirely satisfactory, as on our factories mu3t mainly depend the profitable maintenance of the export trade now opened up with England. It is only when large quantities of butter are made in factories that uniform excellence can be hoped for. Butter equal in all respects to the best factory made is manufactured in many private dairies, but, speaking generally, it must be admitted that the percentage of bad butter makers greatly outnumbered the good under the old system. So far as the factories are con-, cerned, however, they cannot be said to be established on sound Hues until the milk suppliers are iu a position to keep them going all the year round, and this is only possible when farmere syetematis cally set about feeding their cows when tho natural grass is deficient in either quantity or succulence. This can only be done by providing a sufficiency of green fodder or ensilage for winter feed, Shipments of butter should be sent away regularly the whole year round, apd not spasmodically. Such a state of affairs can never be brought about so long as the haphazard proceeding of depending on the natural pasture alone is followed. The business of butter production must be just as assiduously attended to as any other oommeroial undertaking. It will never do to have the milking sheds empty for half the year and the butter factories idle when they ought to be profitably employed.

New Dairv Appliances Among recent French dairy novelties is a creamor or milk-eotting apparatus, known as the Ecremeuse Flament. The creamer consists of three conical basin shaped vessel*, intended to receive the three milkings of the day. In France the oowe are frequently milked three times. At the bottom of each vessel the point of the cone is a tap, through which the milk can be drawn off. It is claimed that dirt, whioh U found in most milks to more or less extent, and whioh ia caused by carelessness in the cow house, finds its way into the cone, and it drawn off first; noxt follows tho ikirn milk till cream may be expected. The last milk is then drawn oft separately, and if any eream ia found in it it is kept, and subsequently skimmed, churned or added to the nream. The vessels are aleo placed in a bath or reservoir of cold water standing on four legs, and covered with wire oovera, which admits tho air without inseote and dirt. The creamer la made in different sizes. Another inaohine, which is adapted for dog power —the little animal turning a wheel from the inside—is the separator of Gilsou of Hautmont. The maker claims that a dog weighing 30 kilogrammes ca'J exercise the forco of four men at a speed of 1-4 revolu-

tion per minute, and work four hours each day. A single dog, too, will work the separator, churn and butter worker at oucc. That an arrangement of this kiud ia practicable may be inferred from the faot that wo reoently saw mangolds pulped—other work being similarly preformed—by an Ayrshire bull, who worked one of the American machines which was exhibited at tho Windsor Royal. The auimal was very easily taught ttud did hie work with ease and regularity. The separator inveuted by Melott, of onewoman power, skims, aeccrding to the maker, 50 gallons an hour, and costs £•22. The Pkmai.i: Veortartan.— A party of vegetarians, who were boarding at a water- cure raUbliahmont, while taking a wnlk in the fields, were attaoked by a biill, which chased them furiously out of his 'That's your gratitude, is it, you jjreat hateful thing , ? ' exclaimed one of the ladies, panting with fright nnd fntiiruo. ' After this I'll eat beef three timea a day !'