FARM NOTES FOR THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2254, 23 June 1881, Page 4

FARM NOTES FOR THE MONTH.

Since the first autumn tains, which softened the ground sufficiently for the plough to be set going, the weather has been almost all that could be desired. In some localities, perhaps, there has not been enough rain to supply the remarkably absorbent powers of a shingly soil, which requires a good rain once a week to enable it to retain a moderate degree of moisture. Generally speaking, however, the farmers have had every opportunity to get their winter wheat sown in good order, and a good seed time often gives a good harvest. We seldom get through tLe month of June without haying a thorough soaking rain ; at the experience of many seasons past proves, in nine oases out of ten, such to be the case, and it behoves all good farmers to see that they are well prepared for bad weather. As soon as a field of grain is sown, furrows, or shallow ditches, should bo opened out in the direction of the elope of the land, to carry off surface water from the low-lying parts of tho field, where its presence is absolutely poisonous to the young plants. This work is often left until tho rains come, and the ground is so soft that a great deal of harm is done to the land and the crop by taking horses on it at such a time. This is the time too for looking to all drains and watercourses, which are sure to be more or less choked up with the growth of weeds and a collection of rubbish. Sometimes a large piece of a fence is carried away by the water being unable to find its way through a culvert, and after collecting in a large body it bursts through the bank and takes everything before it. With regard to out-buildings for machinery and stock, whatever comfort may exist within colonial farm houses, the arrangements for the accommodation of farm stock —both live and dead—are in most oases very defective. Neatness, comfort and convenience aro overlooked and neglected, aa not bringing in any hard cash; but to say that those things aro unproductive is, to say the least, taking a very short-sighted and narrowminded view of the subject. Mary farmers are most rigidly economical in the matter of out-buildings, and though the excellence of our most temperate climate may extenuate negligence in this respect, it does not justify it, aa a little consideration of animal physiology will show. Animals may exist in the open fields through the severest winter weather, but it is impossible for them to thrive, and if they do not thrive there is not much chance of their being profitable. It stands to reason and common sense that a beast will thrive better by being sheltered during the coldest winter weather, and that upon much less food than it would require in the open. Actual experiment has proved that, in the case of cattle, lOOlbs of food with shelter is equal to ISOlbs without shelter. It is not, of coarse, within the means of every grazier and stockowner to provide sheds for all bis store cattle through the winter, but there is not a doubt that it would pay him to keep milch cows and fattening bullocks under shelter of some sort daring the' two or three months when the ground is wet and cold, and there is very little grass, and what there is watery and poor. Even a good stack of straw is a great boon to stock, which they never fail to take advantage of, no matter how dry and unpalatable tbs straw may be, they will eat it with avidity. One thing is evident, and that is, whatever the farmer makes for the comfort of his stock during winter, will be money profitably laid out. Careless farming is peculiar to the colonies. In the early days of tho settlement people had to put up with many make-shifts and inconveniences ; and on account of the scarcity of labor had to manage things in a style very different to that they had been used to in the old country. The necessity became a habit, which has descended to the sons of the oldest settlers, if one may judge from the dilapidated buildings and the apologies for gates which are to bo seen on old-establishedjfarms, whose owners can well afford to set a better example to their neighbors. It is scarcely necessary to dwell upon the injury that implements and machines receive from exposure to the weather at all seasons of the year. Ploughs, harrows, grubbers, and such implements as are made entirely of iron will take little harm from the weather if well painted; but how often are reaping and binding machines and wooden rollers left standing in a corner of the field or yard when not required. Machines can be covered at a very trilling expense by putting a light frame of timber over them and covering with thatch. Some may argue that it requires capital to erect sheds for everything, but it must be remembered that if capital is required to buy new machinery, it should be the aim of every good farmer to employ his labor in the most advantageous way, and this cannot be done without good implements, and to keep them good they must be well looked after. There is no profit or pleasure in using an implement or machine that is in bad order, and a few months’ exposure to the weather will do more harm to it than a season’s work.