FARMING NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 169, 7 November 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMING NOTES.

Bulls that are constantly confined are apt to become vicious ; but much depends on the keeper. Any keeper who systematically maltreats a bull, or appears timid in going about him should be discharged at once. There is considerable art in bringing up a bull properly. Scratches or cracked heels. — The following is given as a simple remedy for scratches and cracked heels: — Mix flours of sulphur and glycerine into a paste, using sufficient glycerine to give it a glossy appearance. Apply the paste at night, and in the morning before going out apply plain glycerine. Mr R. W. Bundle, of Pladstow, Cornwall, has a ewe which dropped two lambs January 2nd, 1879, two on November Ist, 1880, and three on January 30th, 1881, together, ten lambs in two years and one njonth. All the lambs are doing well, seven of them having been reared by the ewe. — Mark Lane Express. The value of sheep. — A farm can be stocked with sheep for less than with cattle, horses, or hogs. Sheep will come nearer to utilising everything that grows on the farm than other animal. Less labour will be required for getting feed and stock together. The returns wiil come in sooner and of tener than with any other farm stock except hogs. Less money is required for sheltering and fencing, and less labor is involved in herding, where outside pasturage is accessible and preferred. And finally a handsome income on the investment can be had

without the sale of the animals themselves. If the ground is prepared for turnips as for a crop of barley, there would not be so much uncertainty about the crop. A good deep and fine tilth, enables the seedling to spring rapidly into rough leaf, and escape, to a great extent, the ravages of its enemy the " turnip fly." The English farmers' method of turnip growing is like gardening on a large scale. The ground is thoroughly pulverised and well manured before the seed is sown, and then follows the after managemet of hoeing, weeding, thinning, &c, which entail the expenditure of more labor than colonial farmers can afford.