Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 176, 26 July 1909, Page 4

Farm and Garden

MEAT <TKKI< I= Y V.l.::< TRH'ITY. u Still another u.n- lias ! n found for electricity -the curir-r -- t meat. A process recently perf :ted will, the originators predict, revolutionise the packing industry.and drive the method of caring now in general use out of existence. For many years inventors have been puzzling their brains over how to apply electricity to meat curing. The idea ' [ was public property. It is only recently that it has been applied i-* a practi- , cat way. It has long been acknowledged that electricity is the greatest purifier known. Physicians use it to destroy germ life. The purest water is that which has been charged with electricity. Accordingly meat has been similarly treated. A lot of meat which had been electrically cured was boxed and sent from New York to Vera Cruz, Mexico. It was protected only by a screen, to keep ; out rats and mice, and a layer of tbin parchment paper. It was kept for four months, then returned to New York. On its arrival there it passed Government inspection. Another piece of meat from the same lot has hung two years in a room where the temperature has never been below , 70. It is said to be sweet and wholesome today. Other equally startling tests of the electric process have been made and*have been successful. The process in its fundamental principle is simplicity itself. The meat is placed in tanks containing brine. The brine is in the same solution which is used in curing esablishments everywhere. Electric currents are sent thorugh the tanks. They drive the salt into and through the meat much more quickly, and distribute it much more thoroughly than is possible under the old method, in which the meat is merely allowed to soak in the brine. The originators of the process claim for it that it is quicker, more thorough and more sanitary than the old method. Under the old method ham is cured in from seventy-two to a hundred and five days. Electrically cured it need stay in the brine but from twenty-five to thirty days. Under the old method bacon is cured in twenty-two days. Electrically cured it remains in the brine only four days. MILKING. Milk may, and often doc*, receive taints during the process of milking which cannot be removed by any subsequent treatment. The cow house should not be cleaned out while the cows are being mi Ike J, nor fodder disturbed at this time. Feeding is best done either before or after milking. Dirty udders must be washed or well wiped with a damp cloth before milking begins. The hands of the miker cannot be too clean, and should be washed or rinsed after miking each cow; the habit of dipping them into the milking pail or wetting them by milk from the udder cannot be too strongly condemned. The first jet or stream of milk from each teat should be allowed to fall on the ground. Milk from an inflamed udder or teat should be drawn into a separate vesxel and fed to pigs. Milk from freshly calved cows should not be used for buttermaking until it has assumed the character of ordinary milk. Clean, quick milking is most important if the milking capacity of the cow is to be maintained and the full yield of butter fat obtained. The milk of each cow should be strained directly i f . is milked through a fine wire strainer or four folds of muslin or strainng cloth. The immediate straining is most important, as without it many particles of dirt would have become disseminated through the milk before it reaches the dairy.

THE BUSINESS FARMER. It is only the farmer who studies his business who reaches success. Thousands of farmers cannot understand why it is that they do not become independently wealthy after many years of toil and trouble. They see some of their neighbours riding to town in their automobiles, and they know that these same neighbours have a comfortable balance in the bank —at least enough to pay for gasoline and repairs. They think that these neighbours are luckier—that Fate has been more kind to them. They cannot understand that these neighbours have become successful because they were good business men.—"Orchard ana Farm." FIGHT NG THE CODLIN MOTH. How to combat the codlin moth is a very live question in Australia, as well as other parts of the world. Up to the present our experts have not pinned much faith in the discovery of a parasite which will attack the pest in the grub state. They point out that this method of attack would not minimise the evil. All the same, much interest attaches to the parasite which was recently discovered at Gosford, and the Departmental officers are probing the possibilities of this friend of the apple producer. Strange to say, only a few weeks ago a parasite of a different kind was struck in South Australia. The expert in Victoria, Mr French, points out that frequently it has been discovered that species of the ichneumon fly lay their eggs in the moth's cbrysilis with good results; but, unfortunately, several insectiverous birds, in *urn, prey upon the insects. These same birds not long ago ate up a ladybird which had been introduced in Victoria for the purpose of warring against the cabbage apbis. Mr French contends that the best method of attacking the codlin moth is to spray with arsenate of lead, thus ensuing 90 per cent, of clean fruit. The moth is gradually decreasing in Victoria because of the general use of the spray referred to. INFLUENCE OF MAGNESIA. With regard to the influence of magnesia on potato growth, the chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society—England—Dr. Voelker, in a report of what was being done at the Woburn Experimental Farm, called attention to the somewhat remarkable results which had attended the use on the potaot crop of magnjsia as an applies*

tioi-i t<> the soil at the rate of about two cwt. per acre. For some years Scotch experts have been recommending the application of carbonate of magr.esia to the soli for the potato crop and the use of sulphate of maenesia has been successfully tried in experiments in Norfolk. It seems, however, rather questionable whether it is advisable to apply magnesia in a separate dressing. Farmyard manure, of which potatoes usually get a good dressing in Scotland, contains a proportion of magnesia, and in cases where farmyard manure is applied in moderate qunatities, it is usual to supplement the manure by a dressing of artificials including potash salts. Kainit contains more than 20 per cent, of the sulphate and chloride of magnesia, and the form of potash salts known as "sulphate of potash and magnesia" contains as much as 31 per cent, of these salts. PERENNIAL RYEGRASS. A well known Canterbury authority says: "Increased experience has confirmed belief in the folly of so many farmers sowing only perennial ryegrass such as is offered on the market nowadays. The persistent practice of taking seeds from young grass paddocks is bringing about a position perfectly hopeless in the matter of perennial ryegrass. If the percentage of annual rye-grass, in the samples said to be perennial, that is sown could be carefully estimated, it would run very high indeed, and would stagger the farmers. Much more careful action will be required to make sure that the perennial ryegrass that is sown is really perennial if farmers wish to get the full capacity of the land.

Among domestic animals used for f milking purposes might be mentioned the buffalo, employed for draught and plough in various parts of Asia and in some parts of South-Eastern Europe; the yak, used as a beast of burden in * Tibet, whose milk is very similar to that of the cow, and is used also to make butter and cheese; the camel, in Egypt an many parts of Asia; and in the Arctic regions of Europe and | Asia, the reindeer, upon which the | Samoyedes and other nomadic tribes are dependent for their existence. |i It is often said that the cow which f gives 1000 gallons or more milk a year is useless by the time she is seven or eight years old. According to records ' of the Highland and Agricultural Soil ciety of Scotland, heavy milking cows : appear to live quite f>s long as those producing half the quantity. Since 1 these records began there have been many instances of cows from 15 to 17 ■ years old giving large quantities of good milk, and there are two of 20 1 years, one of which gave 878 gallons, ! of an average of 3.70 per cent, of fat. Straw used in moderation and judiciously is a feeding stuff that can be employed with advantage. A soft cloth is better to rub the dirt from a horse"? leg than a comb. Some 1 horses are very sensitive about the use 1 of a comb on their legs; a cloth they ■ will never object to. | The evils of drought can be consid- | erably minimised by the storing of : ensilage. It is rslimatcd that a ton iof cnsiliage will feed 1000 sheep per day. Forests regulate the distribution of rainfall and lessen the frequency of destructive effects of floods. Potatoes are hard on land and will soon exhaust the fertility unless judiciously rotated with other crops. Experiments have shown that the natural richness of cow's milk is inherited, or is an individual peculiarity , the same as the colour of her hair, and feeding does not change it. Cows' udders should be brushed clean and rubbed with a damp, coarse towel before milking. Be as particu- ; lar with your hands, your clothing, and the udders of the cows in milking as you would have your wife be in making bread. What's in a name? Over 3000 : fancy names for margarine were submitted to the English Board of Agriculture for approval last year. "That j which we call margarine by any other name doth smell much sweeter." Silage is cooling to the system and laxative, and is of all foods most relished by the cow. It is much better to cut your fodder and feed it to the cows than to turn ; them in the paddock. There may be poor silage, just as there is poor hay, but with corn properly matured, and cut finely and slowly into a good silo, there need never be any bad silage or bac' results from the feeding of it When pigs are farrowed in winter it is necessary to have dry, warm quarters, but after they are a few days old they should be put in an airy pen connected with a sunny yard. When one of the wise men of Greece was asked what was necessary to render life pleasant, comfortable, and successful, he gave the laconic reply, "Experience." Many farmers are afraid of the work and expense incurred in the erection of a proper shed for implements, but this is a "penny wise and pound foolish" policy. Artichokes are found by some authorities to be excellent food for cattle. I They are greedily eaten and cattle I thrive on them.