FARM GOSSIP.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4743, 6 November 1872, Page 2

FARM GOSSIP.

In the matter of agricultural exhibitions I may mention that the Queensland Government felt so much interest in one to take place in Sydney as to appoint Commissioners to see to the proper appearance of the products of the colony next year. These shows increase in importance annually, and while they do so we may expect to find the neighbouring colonies resorting to them. Great efforts are being made to secure the success of the New South Wales Exhibition of 1873. California will be represented by agricultural and mining machinery. China, Japan, Ceylon, and the islands of the South Seas will be contributories. Colonial products will occupy a larger share of space than they have done on previous occasions, and arrangements are being made to show how some trades the hand of the workman is mu'^'^ k v machinery. An attempt, too, is >ing made to develop the ingenuity, Ski 111 ' **£■ I J" h \ Btr *' 1 .. 0 £ the children of the p^ 1 . 6 "^ols, * h * ch P ro " raises to be successful 1 ' The cattle-breeders are doing their best to* Prepare for the occasion, and will not fail tC avail ™.c. e . m " selves of the opportunity, for importation of pedigree stock being virtually BU?,pP c< * we now depend entirely upon the stu^ ' breeders of the colony. When there is no hitching post handy, a horse may be safely tied in t he follow ing manner, viz. : Take the reins and pass them round undernpath the hub outside of the wheel, and give them a hitch on to one of the spokes. If the horse starts, the reins are drawn up, instantly checking him, and ag soon as he commences to back they are instantly loosened. It is quite impossible with this method that a horse can go when he is not wanted to. The plan here described is not a new one at all, and we believe a fixture to attach to the hub to hold the reins has been devised, but it in nowise interferes with the method itself, which,though very simple,is very effectual. Ihe following is the experience of an English farmer of the time which elapses between the earing, flowering, and tho ripening of different sorts of grain. How does it accord with the experience of farmers in this colony ? It is important to make these observations. The creation of a science of agriculture is thereby quickened ; —

On the growing of stiff st -aw, a correspon* dent to an English agricultural paper says :—: — "Mr. Read ia reported to have stated after the discussion on Mr. Mechi's paper at the Farmers' Club, thus : — ' In reference to another subject Mr. Head has stated his willingness to give anybody a fair fortune who would him how to strengthen and increase the , production of straw.' If Mr. Head would wish to be shown how to strengthen and increase the weight of straw, I will, with no hope of remuneration, and especially none of a fair fortune, give him the following recipe : — First let the water out of your land, if subsoil water remain? in it, deeply enough and completely enough to raise the temperature of the subsoil of your land to at least the depth of 5 feet ; then supply your land with, such vegetable pabula as the crop would require that you intended to grow upon it ; then cultivate it, you having, I presume, cultivated it before, but now do so agaiu. I do not mean merely cutting slices of it ■with, a cutting implement called A plough, which merely turns these slices over topsyturvy, but really and as completely as you 'can. Cultivate the land to certainly the depth of 12 inches, and if possible to nearer '24 inches, but say 12 inches, but let there be really 12 inches completely cultivated, and now then and here will be your chief difficulty. You have a prejudice, or I presume you have, that you must by some means or other get into your land two bushels at the least of seed wheat per acre, of every kind of wheat, and at all parts of the wheat-seeding season; and if you persevere in this stereotyped quantity of two bushels, or half a - bushel more or leas, this, my recipe, will ,be useless to you, or probably injurious But now — pray forgive me, Mr. Bead : I would not write this if I did not know that you had a capacious and well-formed case, and that it was very well furnished with good materials — but you have to put in your seed, not, observe, chiefly to produce straw, a 9 this must be a mere secondary concern ; but to profit by my prescription, your aim must be to grow corn ; that must be your aim, and your straw must be collateral. Now, some kinds of wheat are long-strawed, and some short-strawed, and some between the two, and some kinds should be sown very early in the seeding-season, and some may be sown late. Now, if you would have such crops as you will have if you follow my advico, you will put less seed in of long-strawed kinds than you would of shorter-atrawed kinds ; and you put much less in September than you would in November of any kind ; and some kinds of land require less seed than other kinds, and vice rers&. But of whatever kind of seed (wheat I am referring to all the j time), never exceed a bushel an acre ; and of long-strawed kinds, and early in the season, never exceed two pecks an acre ; ' but always before you use your seed see that it will vegetate. But one more thing. You have ! been used, I presume, to steep your seeds or ! anoint them with deleterious lotions, to prevent smut ; but, instead of either of these, ■ you have some venerable pauper woman in your parish or neighbourhood to whom half-a-crown ..would be useful and acceptablegive her the coin, and if she be far enough gone in her dotage she will charm for you, not only all your own wheat seed but that of ' your neighbours also, and, indeed, for the whole country, and prevent smut as effectually as can be done by any other quac2[' smut-preventer. " If you want to make your coat last, make your trousers and waistcoat first. _,

In Flower. In Ear. Begin Harvest. i Wheat. Oats. June 21 June 23 June 23 None. June 7 June 8 June 2^ .None, June 14 June 16 June 23 June 2L June 21 None. Wheat, O*ts. Aug. 8 July 26 Aug. 19 None. July VlBV 18 July 11 Aug. 9 None. July 26 July 21 Aug 16 Aug. 14 "Wheat. 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 June 24 June 28 June 11 June HO June 18 June 29 June 26 Ok d Colonial. -