NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

If there is one thing more than another the recent dry weather has brought Liberal into prominence it is tho benefits Cultivation, to be derived from liberal cultivation. Every farmer and tiller of the soil, no matter in what capacity, well knows that a finely cultivated soil will retain moisture much longer than a roughly tilled soil. Too many farmers allow the plough to rusb in idleness in the autumn when it ought to be a ; ; work, and leave ovsr the ploughing till late iv winter, or even till sp.ing orettikeis them with their work unfinished. No greater folly could be perpetrated than to leave over ploughing till soring time, exoeoting in the single instance of feeding turnips off the land with stock, when of course ib cannob be avoided. Where virgin soil has to be turned over the very best plan is to plough in spring tima or early summer, as soon as the rush of the other work is over ; then allow the laad to lie fallow to the oummer sun and throughout the winter. The hot, dry weather of fcumraer will drivo away all sourness from the soil, and the subsequent winter's frost will i disintegrate the soil, so that when cross-ploughed ' and harrowed a fiae tilth becomes easy ' of attainment. Land in this fine oondition re^ ; tains moisture where that with open furrows beneath will become parched with drought. Some kinds of grass lands would be far better broken out of lea in the early summer if intended for cropping the succeeding season. This is the case with cocksfoot, which has j matted fibrous roots tbat require a long fallow Ito rot down. If such grass lands are turned ! over in the winter seasvn, after the frosts out the I grass down, the tough roots will scarcely deoay. ! Oross-plcughing would therefore only bring up I tods to the sarfaoe which the oaltivator could 1 not reduce. It is customary in such oases to j depend upon the harrows alone, whioh will t make the weathered surface fine enough, but ! clearly a first-class orop cannot be looked for S under such conditions. The loss of crop the • first year more than equals the loss of grass if i the land had been turned over in the previous i summer. This is a peinfc tb.»t is too frequently • overlooked by those farmers who desire to make ! the most of the summer* grass.

It is the fashion nowadays to think that the most modern ideas are the best ; The Old that progress must mean imPlan provemenb, and that it is a j Beats the mistake to follow old systems in j New. preference to new. This theory I received rather a facer recently | in c, small way, and the old-fashioned plan of • butter-making scored points above the most modern plan with all its improved appliances. It appears that the council of the Devon Counties Agricultural Society held a buttermaking contest at Plymouth a short time ago, with rather startling results. There was an open claw ia which all the competitors (12 in i number) made their butter in the old-fashioned I method of tub and hand. That is, they had no churn, but simply stirred the cream in a small tab with their hands. lam not a Davonshireman, bat I presume that is what is meant by the tub-and-hand style. Each competitor received 9ib of scalded cream, and the weight of finished butter made averaged 6lb 9-Jroz per each competitor ; and the average time occupied in bringing the butter and making it up was only 38min. the quickest time being 33min and the slowest 49mia. In another class for previous prizs-winners there were five competitors who used ohurn, butter-workers and Scotch hands. Each of these received 91b of scalded oream, bat note the different result I Tbe average weight of finished butter was only 51b lljroz, and the average time occupied was lOOmin. A decrease of 14oz of butter in average weight, i and an inorease of 62min in the average time i ocoocied ia doing the work I Of course it must) |

be inferred that the quality of the cream was the same in each caso or the comparison would be of no Value. Similar results were recorded in another class in which raw cream was handed out instead of soaldcd. Students competing in this class rroeived 91b of raw cream each, and used ehucn, butter-worker, and Scotch hands (wooden spats for beating butter). The average weight c of butter made was 31b sjz, and the average time taken 66min. None of these students had previously won prizes. Against these were pitted a class of previous prize-winnerr, who under the same conditions were 112min on an average in getting an average weight of 3'.b 6oa from their 9.b of cream — an increase of 46aain ia time and an average inorease of iloz of butter ; ho that in this olass .the novices beat the skilled competitors in time at a slight loss of weight of butter obtained. There is, however, no mention of the comparative quality of the butter made — its texture, flavour, or keeping qualities. The probability is, I think, that in tbe dairy schools the students are encouraged to get tbe best results as to quality, s.nd little account is taken of the time occupied. In fact, it is probably done in the true " Government stroke," while the tub-aud-hand competitors not having any scientific idesa to work out would go at their work in « slap-dash fashion, dead-set upon scoring points in time. The puzzle is, however, how they moaaged to extract 14oz more buttsr from their crenm than tho competitors with modern training aud »pplinucjs.

Notwithstanding anything that can bo paid in favour of old fashions in eonAdrantages tioction with butter-makiDg, il of the ii quite certain tbat the old plan 1 Separator, of getting cream from milk canj not compare with t.he uew ia | ai.7 respect whatever. The slow and cumbrous method of setting and skimming milk is not I only a waste of time, but; also of cream, for it ! has been proved and demonstrated that the separator exfcraots more cream from a given quantity of milk bhan can be dona by the old process, however carefully conducted. The loss of butter fat by setting aud skimming is greatest in hot weather, because then, in the ordinary dairy, tbe milk gets Eour long before it throws up all its cream, and if not skimmed before tb.9 milk cornea ooured the quality of tbe butter w.ll suffer. In very hot weather, unless the dairy be very cool, as much m 25 or 30 per cent, of the cream may be lost, and that is a serious lass in a large quantity of milk. Moreover, there is the difficulty of keeping du*t and illsmells from the milk while standing many hours in bob, windy weather. It is a great advantage, also, to have sweet skim milk from tho separator for calves and children as compared with bhe sour or curdled stuff that is often given to calves in hot weather. The batter made from separated cream is also more uniform in quality, because the cream i* not subject to the ever-cb&nging influences of the weather and state of the htmosph«re. Whatever advantages c»n be claimed for the separator in conneotion with one dairy are increased when applied to a creamery, on account; of the increased commercial value attached to a uniform quality on a large scale. The butter from a single dairy may vary week by week, and the quality one week may please the customers, while another week it may be quite the reverse. The creamery or factory, however, corrects variations of quality, and should turn out a good article according to its grade. A supplier may send in tainted milk occasionally, but it rarely escapes the vigilance of the manager. Tho weak point in associated dairying is the power of even the smallest tune to affect the whole, bat careful and watchful management prevents that danger from being a serious objection to tha system. At any rate, the separator cannot be blamed for «uy suoh thing, and its advantages are ao apparent that the only wonder is that every dairy far removed from a creamery or factory is not provided with one.

A Me Roberts, of Victoria, has captured a very large number of prizes in bufcter- " A Colonial making, and seems quite satisChampion fled that his method cannot be : Butter-maker, beaten. In describing bis i method he says the cream should be cooled ss soon as ib comes from the separator by standing the cream crock in cold water. He never churns cream until it has ripened three clear days. The churn is first rinsed with boiling water and then with cold water. To every lOgal of cream he adds two teaspoonfuls of saltpetre and six of sugar, both dissolved in boiling water and put into the churn when cool. Hs does not stop churning when the butter first granulates, but continues till the butter is as large as marbles. He bhen works all the battermilk out in the batter-worker, preferring to

Last summer one of our grandchildren was sick with a severe bowel trouble. Our doctor's remedies had failed ; then we tried Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy, which gave very speedy relief. We regard it as the best medicine ever put on the market for bowel complaints.— Mra E. G. Gregory, Frederickstown, Mo. This certainly is tha best medicine ever pat on the market for dysentery, summer complaint, colic, and cholera infantum in children. It never fails to giv» prompt relief when used In reasonable time and the plain printed dlreotions are fob lowed. Many mothers have expressed their: sincere gratitude for the cures 16 has effected. i For salt by all leading ohemißt*

work it oub igstnad et washing it out. He says he has mede but'jer by this dry process — i.e., working instead of washing— for 29 years, and Always found it to result in butter of good keeping quality. After the buttermilk has all been worked out, he pats 2!b of salt and 12oz of preserviras to every 1001b of butter for exporb; to every pound of butter for local markets. Mr Roberts dees not say why be objects' to washing the butter to remove the buttermilk, but it cannot bo because he is afraid of weakening the flavour. Everybody knows that cold water has no power to wash out the flavour in the slightest degree. If anybody i*> in doubt about it, let them put a little taint of onion in the cream or milk and then try to wash it out of the butter after churning.

Everybody knows and likes good butter, and there is no difference of opinioa What Is Good about what is good butter. Good Cheese 1 butter is good butter, aod there* an end of it. We don't hear people ssyiug that they like one kind of butter in preference lo another kind. It is not; so with cheese. No two paople agree in their tastes regarding cheese, and so we cannot speak of a good cheese ia a general way as we do with butter. Some people like what is called a sharp or hot- cheese, but the majority prefer what they call a mild cheese. Now a mild cheesa is of a nice silky texture, solid but smooth to tbn touch — that if, when a portion of it is pressed between the finger and thumb. I do not pretend to be an expert in cheese-making, but I know what constitutes a good cheese iv my opinion. The tough, leathery cheese that cracks and gets hard when cut is invariably hob in taste, and soon breeds maggots in tho interior. It is said that the character of a cheese is decided by the treatment of the curd, and that all the moisture must be driven nut of it in order to avoid giving the chocse a hot or sharp flavour.

Parana is a seaboard province in Brnzil, where an English pastoral company Pasture In has receir.tly acquired a large Parana. area for grazing purposes. In the centre of a chain of mountains which risss near the sea coast the country is a table land 3000 ft above the sea level. This elevated region consists generally of plains sovered with grass and forests containing a good percentage ot auracsrias. Mr P. A. Callan, who went to spy out the land for the English company, says ho was much surprised v/ith the excellence of the climate. During the day the Enn is almost invariably hot, but generally accompanied by an agreeable sea breeze. The nights are cool, with copious dews. In winter there are slight frosts, but snow is almost unknown. Water is abundant, rivers and stream* cutting the S'ato in all directions. The coastal mountain range interposes a barrier which arrests and condenses the moisture-laden cea •winds, and thus waters the land. Drought is unknown in Parana, which is neither subject to excessive rains cor tempests. The grass it luxuriant and varied, and where the land is unoccupied the abundant herbage has to be burned to make w»y for the succeeding growth. Sheep do well. «nd Parana skould be one of the wool and mutton producing centres of the immediate future. It is ono of the finest pastoral countries in the world, and in the hands of English or American pastoralists it would soon take its place in the world's market for the supply of wool and meat. The upland plains of Par Aim grow about to perfection, although most of the ■wheat used in Brazil is imported. In the meantime cattle-grazing is the chief industry, bub the time in not far distant when the State of Parana mint be a region of busy human industry, both pastoral and agricultural.

A. French veterinarian has discovered a curious fact regarding the invasion of An incubating eggs by microbes. A Interesting' man had placed 100 eggs under Discovery, sitting hens to be hatched, and was naturally surprised when pnly 20 came out. He examined the eggs, and lound a green cpot in the big ends of all the nnhatohed eggs. A veterinarian was consulted, and found the green spot was caused by * parasitic fungus common to domestic animals, cut how did it get through the shell of the egg and destroy the embryo ? After much investigation M. Lucet ditcovered that tho straw of the nest was full of spores. He se'ected 10 found eggs, placed them in a nest of wadding, apd sprinkled them with the spores. After a time the eggs displayed the green patch on the big or air end of the egg. This points to the need for care when setting hens. The nests Require to be absolutely olean, aud the nesting taateriel should also be clean and fresh. Ageicola.

The New Zealand Times states that some Incitement was caused at Flimmerton on New sfe»'r's Day by the conduct of a number of youths, who were out in a boat with a number of ladies. They commenced to rock the boat Amid the frantic screams of the ladiea, and presently capsized ib. Nothing worse than a ducking of the passengers and orew resulted ; but those responsible for the accident deserve a Igand thrashing