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Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 21, 3 December 1874, Page 3

Why ought a pig to be the cleverest' of animals 1 Because he has a hog's head of brains.

Ashes, made from the hard woods contain all the mineral elements of plant food, eicept phosphoric acid. If wheat is. sown on land deficient in phospharic acid, it would not seed out. well. Ammonia would also be needed. No manure pays the farmer as well as those containing posphoric acid. The * London Farmer ' does hot approve of the present pedigree mania, and relieves its mind in the following manner as it remarks upon the unsatisfactory exhibitions of last year : " A careful examination of tbe shorthorns exhibited at tho. first English and Shows of 1873 impressed upon our mind this fact— that the "pure" breeders, wise as they are in their generation,, when "they "mean to sell before long, are far from being, in possession of. the best kinds for making complete carcasses. Among the animals shown at Hull^ the two very Worst bulls were, two very pure specimens of favorite tribes • while at Stirling the various descended specimens of certain Scotch herds, little known in the south, and little in demand even in Scotland in comparison with others of not half their sterling worth," can compete for weight, hardiness, and real beauty, with the majority of our most fashionable herds. For real service to the public at large, as producers of good beef at an early age, and for yielding heifers, qualified to pay a town dairyman, there were cattle shown at Stirling as good as can be wished for. It is to the breeders of these and their imitators, who ought to be at least half the tenant farmers in England, that one must turn for help to put shorthorn divisions to their proper, use. A leader of the opposition is useful to the Herd Book. We don't want all to agree. What a dull world it would be if we did ! But we must agree to admit varieties in excellency. We must test claims to merit by the weight for food bestowed and the price per pound. By all means let those who dream of " style which cannot be expressed in words," enjoy their day dreams ; they will awake when they come to sell in the open market. Ana it is to this that an eye must be kept open. We want more shorthorn breeders ; but we wish above all to have the innate tendencies of value (posessed by the cattle) to be preserved and developed. Cows should milk like Hutchinson's Young Sal, who in twelve" weeks fattened four calves besides reari ing her own — and few better fattened I beasts belonged to the breeders of the Colling period. I To make manure of dead horses costs either a good deal of labor or much waste of fertilising matter, and usually both. Could the horses be promptly steamed and pulverised, after the manner now employed in many slaughterhouses, that would- "be the best way j but with ordinary resources I should say, cut up the animals as a , butcher would do, or in smaller pieces, and stratify with muck. Ashes or salt and quicklime upon' the joints would hasten decomposition and tend to soften the bones. If carnivorous animals should trouble the compost a few bits of tenderloin seasoned with strychnine might be so disposed about the edges as to protect the heap and also increase the supply of carcasses, were there no "higher law" to be regarded. The salt and lime would perhaps sufficiently circumvent the dogs in case reprisal's were not looked for. Cleaning Caruot Seed.— Gather the heads when fully ripe and thresh them with a flail before the stems are brittle enough to crumble or break up. Raka these stems from the seeds, then I put the seeds in some out-of-the-way place until dn*, cold, freezing weather in the winter. By threshing the seed with a flail, when frozen dry, the fuzz can be separated from it by running it through a fanning-mill. The seed and heavy, fine dust will fall through the wheat screen into the screen-box. The seed that goes over the screen can be threshed 'again. After the seed has once passed through the wheat screen it can be separated from the fine dust by putting a grass-seed sieve (or any sieve too fine to allow the carrot seed to go through) in the place of the wheat screen. The fine dirt, too heavy to be blown out, will now go through this fine sieve into the screen- box, and the clean seed will pass over. Two; men will thresh and clean 300 to 500 pounds of seed in a day. Or if H. A.C. wishes to prepare his seed for market this Fall he can do so by drying it a. day or two in the hot sun, after separating it from the stems, as before recommended. When thoroughly dried in the sun it can be threshed and cleaned as readily as when frozen-; but ifc can only be done when the atmosphere is very dry. I frequently see inquiries,- <£ llow to clean cucumber and tomato seeds ?" When the cucumbers are fully ripe, but still sound, cut them into halves, give each half a sudden squeeze with the hand, and nearly every seed will be forced- from the ,.. cucumber. Tomatos may be left till; very soft and the whole jammed up fine,. or they may be rubbed over a sieve coarse enough to allow the seedsand juice to pass through into a tub. : Let the pulp and seed (either cucumber or tomato) stand in a barrel from one' to four days, according to the weather, to sweat just enough to allow the 1 pulp to separate from, the ■ seed. The whole can then "be Washed ■ through several -waters and the seed 1 dried. Care must be taken to ndt let : it sweat long enough ta injure r the ' vitality of % :skinner.-^H.G. SkinQer.