PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL. AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.,

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4177, 3 January 1871, Page 3

PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL.

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.,

Retukn of sick treated during the week ending Saturday, December 31, 1870: — Remained last return, 66 ; admitted since, 3 ; discharged, 4 ; died, 3 ; remaining, 62 (malea 53 ; females, 9). Arrangement of cases : Ophthalmic diseases, 2 ; syphilis, 1 ; scrof ula, 2 ; cancer, 1 ; scurvy, 1 ; rheumatism, 3 ; phthisis, 7 ; epilepsy, 2 ; paralysis, 8 ; pneumonia, 2 ; bronchitis, 3 j heart disease, 1 ; albummuria, 1 ; dyspepsia, 2 ; uterine, 1 ; abscess and ulcer, 7 ; wounds and contusions, 4 ; fractures, 2 ; necrosis, 1 ; iumor, 1 j siticture, 2 j scald, 1 ; eufcaneous, debility, 5. . Three men died— one on 26th ultimo of medullary cancer j[of neck and jaw ; one on same date of pulmonary consumption ; one on 27th of fracture of pelvis. Donations of old linen are earnestly solicited. '

Can the singing of a tonic sol-fa choir -be termed a Hullah-balloo ? A Chicago lady lately dropped one of her eyebrows in the church pew» and dreadfully frightened a young man sitting near to her, who thought it was his moustache. "Rusticus," in commenting on the present style of female coiffure, says :—"lt: — "It must be very bad soil that requires so much topdressing." Here is a matrimonial advertisement cut from a contemporary : "A young lady of exterior and pleasant appearance wishes to marry a gentleman, of just the same way of thinking." Several thousand spinsters in Massachusetts, after long years of watchful observation, entirely dissent from the proverb, "Man proposes. " A young lady of Boston, troubled with large ears, is reported to have had & , couple of inches trimmed from them all around by an ingenious surgeon. Why is it natural that a young lady having seven lovers should wish for another ? — Because every young lady wishes to fascinate (fasten eight). It was said of a very handsome woman whose feet were immense: — "She's very pretty, but she upsets completely the ordinary system of measurement by proving that two feet make a yard." " Was it your eldest' daughter, madam, that was bitten by a monkey ?" " Noi sir ; it was my youngest. My eldest daughter had a worse misfortune : she married a monkey," ■ - The wind came up, t the wind oame down, And over the garden wall j ' ' Why should a pretty maiden frown , If a lover choose to call ? The ruffled roses bowed their heads , In a shower of fragrant dew ] - But under the akies you couldn't surmise V*. hioh way the sweet winct<bl©M»v ' It's hey for tossing huds and leaves ' When the -winds of morning blow ! Tell us how long a lover grieves t When ft maiden answers — No! - . For another step. was at the gate, And the heart* th ( at r met^eiti tnje j '?-

It takes but three loads ofx good farm-yard manure to make up the mineral constituents —potash, magnesia, and lime —taken from an acre of land by a wheat crop of twenty-five bushels. Independently of the- wool and mutton question, a flock of sheep has a special value •on an arable farm; the condition of the land is maintained more cheaply and effectively than by any other system of manuring. It is in. recognition oi iliis ikiui IIVmaVU, who We once kept a flock. *B9Mt again and again to the services of tin animal that is said to walk on a "golden hoof." The mat rarely attacks the oat crop, but when it does it is as likely to affect the yield aa in the case of wheat. There is, however, little danger o£ injury to th.& grain* until the affection spreads upwards, and eatabliahea itself on the seed stem above the flag. When there, it intercepts the ascending sap, and thus leaves the grain without nourishment. A close watch should be kept upon the progress of the rust, and action taken accordingly. A correspondent desirejpo know the best means of curing cows from sucking themselves. The following plan is an old one, but it is the best we know of: — Make six bars of the requisite length to extend from the head to the shoulder. Bore two holes in each close to the respective ends. Carry a rope through the holes at the anterior ends, and another through them »t the posterior ends, by wMoh to tie it round tne neck. Itave i3ie bars kept at appropriate distances from each other by knots pn the rope. If properly adjusted, this will put a stop to the sucking The proper time to thin out bunches of grapes, and reduce the crop in accordance with the bearing capabilities of the plant, is after flowering ia'over and when the fruit is set. You may then cut out all the inferior bunches, in fact reduce the crop to the number of bunches your plants can ripen properly, ard at the same time make bearing wood enough for bearing a crop uexb season. In doing this of course you will bo guided by the strength of the plants. Many vines are rr'ned by over-cropping. Scissors are the best things you can use for thinning the bunches and stopping the shoots of your vines. Tobacco is at best an exhausting thing for land. What is the best means of replacing the abstracted ingredients depends upon the circumstances of a given case. It may be potash ; it may be potash with other plaut food. And it ia a question too to be decided by experiment. No one can take a diagnosis of a field and tell all its ills and wants therefrom. But there is this great fact. Tobacco takes immense quantities of potash, magnesia, and lime, and a good deal of phos phoric acid from the soil. Magnesia and lime are apt to be present in larger, and potash and phosphoric acid ia Very small, quantities. The theoretical con.civ.sum is evident. In thousands of cases in Europe and many in America, this theory has been substantiated by experience. To prevent horses being teased by flies, take two or three small handfuls of walnut leaves, upon which pour two or three quarts of cold water ; let it infuse one night, and pour the whole next morning into a kettle, and let it boil for a quarter of an hour. When cold it will be fit for use. No more is required than to moisten a sponge, and before the horse goes out of the stable, let those parts which are most irritable be smeared over with the liquor, namely, between and upon the ears, the neck, the flanks, &c. Not only the gentleman or lady who rides out for pleasure will derive pleasure from ilie •wa.ln.u.t-leaves tlras prepared, but the coachman, the wagoner, and all others who use horses during the hot mouths. Kidney Beans : As the aeed is not formed in tne pods used for culinary purposes, -fete energies of the plant remain unexpended, and are put forth again and again. If, however, a single pod be permitted to perfect its growth, it will thenceforward offer a visible contrast to a neighbouring plant that has been regularly cleared twice a week of all pods fit for use j the latter will remain green and vigorous, whilst the plant on which the single pod has ripened will begin to carry yellow leaves and show other indications of want of vigour. The perpetuation of its species having been insured, the plant has f ulrilled iia- pwpooo, »n<3, tKougk it may continue to exist whilst the weather remains favourable, and even to bear fruit, the latfcei will nut ba produced in paying quantities. Nor can the scarlet-runner bean, although virtually a perennial, be permitted to ripen its seed with {mvumty; the subsequent yield for thp soa« son will be proportionately diminished, jusb as in the Cd3e of other species and varieties Farmers' Paint: Sir, —l beg to hand you the following recipe for a cheap paint for either fences or walls (inside or out). The paint is prepared with the following materials —Skinv milk, 2 quarts ; fresh slacked lime, 8oz.; linseed oil, 60z.: white Burgundy pitch, 20z.; Spanish white, 31b. The lime must be slacked in water, exposed to the air, and then mixed with about one-fourth of the milk; the oil in which the pitch is dissolved to be added a little at a time; then the rest of the milk, and afterwards the Spanish white. The above is sufficient for 27 yards, two coats. If desirable, as the above iafor a white paint, any other colour may be produced by adding a little coloured ochre in place of a portion of Spanish white. —A. Lincolne.—Sir,—l had the south and west portions of the walls of my houses well washed with three ccats of lime, mutton fat, and size which has effectually resisted all damp that previously, when the weather was severe, forced its way through the walls to the great annoyance of the tenants. I believe the receipt first appeared in the London Builder, —Thos. Kidney. Soda, as a Manure! Ordinary washing soda —the hydrated carbon—-has, according to the Scientific Eevkw, been rather extensively and successfully employed as a manure by Mr. Toms, a market-gardener of St. Ives, Cornwall. All manure, strictly speaking, should supply the plant directly with the elements and compounds necessary for its growth and development, and supply to the soil all substances removed from it by the cropping. But certain other substances are used as manures which exert a fertilising influence on certain soils, or for certain crops, by effecting a chemical change with substances already in the soil, and to this class of fertilisers soda undoubtedly belongs, as a substance used as a manure cannot supply to a growing crop that which it does not possess, unless it can develop it from the soil to which it is applied. The substances may be in the soil, but in such a state of chemical combination or mechanical condition as to be of no comparative use to the plant; and. the action of soda, is likely to change the chemical compounds, and so render soluble that which was before insoluble, or by double decomposition, form new chemical compounds, such as me plant requires, of in such a state of aggregation that the plant caa assimilate them into its complex structure. Sir, —Could you, or any of your readers, give me any information or advice respecting white grubs in the wheat crop ? 1 have about 15 acres of wheat in new ground, and about four acres of it is eaten clean out of the ground. I have harrowed that part up and sowed it with barley. What I wish to know, ia there anything I can do to prevent these pests from destroying the remainder ? Ido not know if these kind are common over the country ; their size ia from f to 1 inch and a half long, nearly white, with a dark streak along the back. —Anxious Inquirer. [A heavy rolling would probably destroy a great many of the grubs, but information is needed With regard to the form they assume at other periods of the year; here is a case in which a knowledge of entomology would be useful. In England, when the wireworm attacked the wheat plant) it was enstomary to give a good dressing of soot or salt, or of both together, and follow Tip with a pegged roller. Perhaps * similar course would lie successful -with your wheat crop. —Ed.]

Of Edmund Keap's performance of Luke, ih Massinger'a ," City Madam," it is recorded that an old lady» who had intended leaving Kirn •> Urge sum of money, was so appalled at th« cold-blooded "filliany ho displayed that