Farm and Garden.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 700, 3 November 1909, Page 2

Farm and Garden.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES. (All Rights Reserved.) SMALLHOLDINGS. To those contemplating taking small holdings, it would, perhaps, be as well to point out the fact tha there are several qualifications necessary to command success. In the first place, a man taking a small holding must be physically strong, energetic, and with previous experience in agricultural pursuits. In the case of a small holding of say, six acres, a good way to arrange it would be, one-third old turf partly planted with standard fruit trees, the remaining two-thirds being reserved for vegetables for market, and providing the soil is suitable, fruits, also strawberries and flowers for cutting. It will not pay to grow cereals on a holding of this size, especially when vegetables which are worth two or three times the money can be grown on the same area. One breeding sow, a stock of poultry, and fattening ducklings would be very suitable stock, and if milk is a consideration a few Angora goats would be found profitable. On small holdings deep cultivation is imperative, and this cannot be done by employing one-horse implements, although on light land the one-horse plough will be found a very useful help. The small holder to secure the best results should market his produce, and not sell to hawkers and dealers. To cultivate six acres on the basis of two crops each season, outside help would often be required, or a larger proportion must be kept in permanent pasture. A deal will depend on the class of land, its quality, texture, situation, and proximity to market

EARLY ASPARAGUS. All who have the usual appliances for forcing and heating- should endeavour to obtain an early supply of asparagus. One of the best ways is, to make up a slight hotbed with stable manure. leaves, and tan —the two last-mentioned materials ,if easily obtainable, will do well to mix with the manure —in a melon pit, or under an ordinary cucumber frame about 2$ to 3 feet high. On the surface of the bed place a few inches of light soil, leaf-mould, or sifted potting refuse, on which to place the plants, because such material does not act so effectually in repressing the heat as ordinary garden soil. Take up the

roots as carefully and completely as possible, and place them closely together crown upwards, shaking the soil well amongst the roots, and covering them with about three inches of the same kind of soil as placed on the hotbed. Water well, to settle the whole. Except in very cold weather give ?. little air at all times, only covering during the actual frost. From time to time apply fresh linings of hot manure, and should cold wind or rain set in cove: the outsides of he beds with old carpets, sacks, or other things which will keep in the heat. To keep up a regular supply of succession of beds will have to be made up. rA steady temperature of 60 deg. will force this plant better than a higher one, so the object of the grower should be to obtain that heat in a regular manner. WATER FOR STOCK. It is scarcely necessary to point out that all kinds of live stock should have a regular and sufficient supply of clean, pure water, and in order to secure this the whole of the drinking water supplied to the animals in the sheds should be filtered. The sketch shows a very simple filtering cistern, adapted for rain water or where an intermittent supply is derived from a pump., A narrow division at one end of a large cistern is made by means of a partition.

as shown in the illustration. This partition must not quite reach the bottom of the cistern, a small space being- left through which the water is enabled to pass from the large division to the

small one. The water to be filtered is admitted to the large division first, and passes through the narrow aperture mentioned above up through the filering medium in the small part of the I cistern, from whence it is drawn off at the outlet pipe. As the water is drawn from the smaller division, that in the from its tendency to find its level, will pass through the aperture and up through the filtering material as before. The filtering material mav be arranged as follows : —First a layer of clean round pebbles and pieces of broken earthenware is placed at the bottom, and above this some small clean gravel, then coarsely-pound-ed charcoal, next a second layer of gravel, finishing off with some clean sharp sand.

It is not an easy matter for those who are starting to keep pigeons to make, up their minds which breed to choose. If Jiving in a town, avoid those, of a light colour; black or dark birds look much nicer—no matter how many smuts are flying about they will h,-. fresh and clear—but in the country nothing is prettier than an entire whitj flock. Start with the best birds you can get, and let them be of some thoroughly good kind. First-class birds cost no more to keep than inferior kinds. There are so many to choose horn that it is difficult which to recommend, but the large kinds are perhaps the most likely to be useful. The Carrier and the Blue Rock are the

STARTING PIGEON KEEPING

oldest varieties or all. The Homer is a great favourite, so also is the Tumbler ; both are full of interest and capable of being very highly trained. The Dragoon is almost as large as a Carrier, and a descendant from the Horseman. The Pouer is the most curious of all pigeens. It is impossible to breed these birds unless some ordinary pig-eons are kept to hatch their egrgs and bring up their young for them, as they cannot be trusted to do this themselves. Also, they degenerate; if not repeatedly crossed and re-crossed with fresh stock. The Nun is an extremely pretty bird, so also is the Magpie; both are quite easy to manage. Fantails are tame and gentle; better birds ca'nnot be kept. The Jacobin, Barb, Turbit. Owl. Trumpeter. Ru<nt, Antwerp, Tippler, Mookee, and many others are all worthy of notice, and each possesses some characteristic entitling them to consideration.