Agricultural.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 87, 9 March 1876, Page 7

Agricultural.

A PLEA FOJLI SHEEP,

Lately, visiting some of the shjsep farms .*• of r^Lincoln shire, .1 noticed that wßile. the* Midland farmer talked to his horse. and ; even .petted. , his oxen, he treated his sheep as an animal peculiarly devoid of intelligence. >-■ Now, I -noticed among my agricultural friends * this general disregard lor the intelligence or feeling* Of sheep, though to me there is as much sad, pitiful intelligence in the eye of a sheep as there is in the '" patient melancholy " face of a cow. While the farmer has brought the sheep to the perfection of size and shape and profit, that sort of .mutual regard which animated sheep, shepherds, and shepherdesses in the olden days seems to have died out. St. John says, (< To him the porter openeth ; and the sheep hear his voice -j , and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep he goeth.before him and the sheep follow him. for they know his voice." On these words Dr Hammond observes that the shepherds of Judea knew every sheep separately, and that " shepherds of that country had a distinct name for every sheep, which each sheep knew and answered by obediently coming or following to that call." Moreover, they trained up the ram to, collect the flock, a far better device than that of a sheep dog. Homer endorses this in his timile of Ulysses drawing up his men to a ram ordering the flock. Cn "the authority of Philo Judasus, a philosophic Jew, born and bred iijL Egypt, in his first chapter concerning the Creation, says — " Woolly lambs laden with thick fleec.es in spring season, being ordered by their shepherd; stand without moving,' and silently stooping a little, put themselves into his hand to have their wool shorn • being accustomed,- as cities are, to pay their yearly tribute, to man, their king by nature. — f Correspondent of the Gentlemen's ' Magazine.'

Seeds that grow on limestone land should be changed every few years for those which grow on: barren or gravel land, and vice versa. Such an exchange always proved satisfactory. By continuing to, sow. one kind of, seed all the time, the crop will through time become inferior in quality. In regard to, live stook it is the same.

Deep ploughing*, says the l Toronto Globe ;.; .(Canadian paper), is a good practice when- you have deep soil. -It is better forsome crops than for others. Plough deeper for roots than for grain, and specially for corn, since in our short Summer, corn will mature quicker if theiroots are not obliged to go down into a cool, subsoil for nutriment. But with' shallow ploughing you must have plenty of plant food mixed with the surface .soil, since you desire to. confine the roots to that for, the sake ,of warmth. But alove all beware of deep ploughing in, a shallow soil. . • -

As the season for gathering' apples is now approaching*, a few hints as to the storage may be useful. . They ought to have as sweet an air* for their winter home ,as a firkin of butter, •They take in, very readily, the musty odors of the close, moist cellars that are little better than' vegetable pits. And' the difference between a, crisp, - high-flavored : apple, and one that is flabby and. poor, is often simply the differende in the storage they have had. This kingly fruit needs an attention due to its rank -j careful selection, 'gentle . handling, ;a cool dry" room, just safely.aboye the freezing point, and removed' from all rank vegetables or unpleasant odors. ■ If kept in the packing', barrels,: they , will be uninj ured -in a .temperature .where water would, freeze. The season has again come round when homestead fires usually prevail. The., origin "of these are generally so mysterious, and their effects -so' ruinous; that it is the duty of every settler to' adopt all preventative .measures possible. There can.be .very^littfe cfoiiot that the use of the tobacco pipe is a fertile •feource of • such fires-yaiid ; therefore we advise that "No Smoking " ought to be, posted, in every b.aru. .There is not mucli difference bfetweeh.having a horse tliief around* the stables and~ a" man cleaning off horses with- a pipe or cigar in his mouth -. and there is no hired man much meaner than' the one who, when his employer comes around, slips his -pipe - into his pocket. or holds, his; hand over.it.. All such fellows should be paid off and started off. As for; the proprietor hirriself going- into tliß batn .with a'pip.e. in lnsnlduthj no complaint can be made; but ify.his .establishment burn up," nobody should cry unless it be his- wife and- children.^ lightning,, incendiary,^ an & .spontaneous combustion combined do not cause as many barns to be burned as.; the pipe, and generally, .at least one good horse goes too. ' • A Wellington frrm.'has^iist imported some meat supposed fo : be' preserved by a new process. -The-' I?os't 'thus refers j to vtheT'mattefv'T^^Wevwere favored with- an : h3,v^tation t ,fromV;Me?s.r^ JKrull and Co. "to "witness' the "opening of a cask contaihing-.-tfieat preserved by a new-process, invented,, by , a Germati' analytical chemist, which 'Messrs Krull and Co. were^assured would keep meat > /perfectly for -years .under-the most trying, circumstances. VWe went, y ,Sq cKd'a hUmberVof ' g-entlembn interested, in-t^solfrtioti of this important problem-, 7 sb-ilr^a^ delicately put. A min-r. uteilater^he.said scientific investigators ttiighfc have been seen flying in al| directions along the street, holding their

noses with impassioned eagerness. For no- sooner was the;first hoop of the cask loosed, the whole thing blew up'Wi'th a terrific explosion, Scattering tbe ! hi#e ously putrid contents over the more earnest of the V bystanders who had rashly ventured too near. ; The smell was "simply appalling. ' We fear that German analytical chemist is a failure."*

The «• Waitangi Tribune ' has discovered two curiosities in its neighborhood. The first is a cow at Mr Stud-? holme's station. She was imported from Twfold Bay in 1851, at which date she was two years of age, so that the milker must have seen about twenty-, seven summers Previous to the last few years this aiimal has brought forth twins for eight or nine years, and now is in such good condition that there is little prospect of her early demise.