AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7227, 29 April 1884, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Intercolonial . There has been a great fatality amongst lambs in this district this year (writes the Wairuna correspondent of the Clutha Leader), caused by small thread-like worms in the bronchial tubes, which produce scouring. The cure which a great many have been using, and it seems to be effectual, is one dessert-spoonful of turpentine and three dessert-spoonfuls of milk for each lamb effected. The mixture should be well shaken up, otherwise the turpentine will lie on the surface of the milk. If a cure is not effected within a week, repeat the dose; care must be taken not to give too large a dose, as it will kill. Some were given one dessert-spoonful of turpentine and one of oil, but it was found too strong and the consequence was they lost from five to 12 lambs each. —The paper made the following comment on the above : In our issue of Feb. 15, we gave a cure for this disease, which, we believe, has been proved to be the best ever tried in the country. It differs slightly from that given by our correspondent. The proportion of turpentine and milk should be one to four—not one to three. The worms originate in the intestines, and if they are not destroyed before finding their way to the lungs then fumigation is the proper cure. Lambs should be kept on clean ground where they do not contract this disease.

Mr Menlove recently held a sale of farming stock at his estate, Windsor Park, North Otago, the principal feature being a number of shox-thorn bulls. The first brought out was Alvie's Eoyal Butterfly Second, a white bull, calved March 2,1853, sire sth Duke of Alvie, dam Flower of Brunswick 2nd, by Duke of Alvie. This young bull was subjected to a deal of scrutiny, and came out of the ordeal well. The first bid was 50 guineas, and the competition was brisk between Messrs J. Eeid, of Eldei-slie, Mr Bell, of Palmerston, and Mr M'Kellar, of Otekaike, until 105 guineas was reached, at which figure the lastnamed gentleman became the purchaser. Alvie's Duke of Montpelier, also a young bull, was sold to Mr J. C. Gilchrist. Alvie's Imperial Purple 2nd, a roan bull, calved July 4,1883, sire sth Duke of Alvie, dam Lady Jane, by Imperial Purple, was withdrawn at 30 guineas. One hundred guineas was offered by Mr Bell for Alvie's Earl of Brunswick 2nd, dam Flower of Brunswick, by sth Duke of Alvie, calved July 6, ISB3, but Mr Menlove would not part with this good looking youngster at anything like that figure. A number of Clydesdale brood mares were sold at prices ranging from 9 guineas to 100 guineas, the latter prices being obtained for Annie Laurie, and purchased by Mr D. Carson, Tokoinariro. The three-year-old fillies also brought good prices, ranging from 20 to 38.$ guineas each. The Cl\ ■!■ sOale entires did not find purchasers. 1\: > >■ Victor was withdrawn at 400 guineas. A very successful trial of Messrs Haxton and Beattie's broadcast sowing machine (says an Otago paper) was held on Thursday afternoon on Mr Begg's property, Anderson's Bay. This machine is a recent invention of Mr Haxton's, and is superior to the most common form of seed-sowers in general use among farmers* The heavy projecting boxes are done away with, and their place is taken by an iron cylinder 18ft long, or any length required. Inside this cylinder is an archimedean screw, which conveys the seed along the barrels, so to speak, and distributes it evenly out of the holes perforated in the - tube. The action is positive, so that there can be no choking up on any account, and it mat-

ters not what angle the machine may be working at, there is always the same even distribution of the seed. The grain can be

sown to any thickness required by means of a screw, which closes the holes out of which the seed is forced. The box which contains the seed is capable of carrying &- large quantity; while the machine is a compact structure, and of very light draught. The cylinder which distributes the seed,is made to revolve by means of pitch-chains of a peculiar construction—an invention of the same iu«n, and for which they have applied for a patent. Without any alteration except the opening or closing of the perforations, the machine may be made to sow any kind of grain; and alsoartificial manures. The machine appears to be durable and very simple in construction, while there is an absence of friction in the working parts. Altogether we may say that in many respects it supersedes the present form of implement for a similar purpose, and is well worthy of attention and inspection by farmers. It may be also mentioned that no less than nine medals have this year been awarded to this machine at Agricultural and Pastoral Societies exhibitions.

An invention which is claimed to effect a considerable improvement in the present system of freezing meat, has just been patented by Kobort Niedergesas.-;, of Wellington. The invention has for iu object three improvements on the present mode of creating cold air. The first consists in the great saving of power caused by the diffusion of cold water into the air compressor, in such a manner as to prevent any rise of temperature during the act of compression; the second consists in freezing the meat at a pressure greater than that of the atmosphere ; and the third consists in utilising the heat of the meat, and any heat that find 3 its way into the freezing chamber, and the heat of any available water or other Eaaterial that is warmer than the returning air from the chamber. The inventor claims—(l) The compression of air under constant, or even at a decreasing, temperature; (2) the application of freezing under a pressure higher than the atmosphere ; and (3) the use of a cylinder, in which the returning expanded air i 3 utilised. Mr Niedergesass has given the subject a good deal of attention, and is convinced that if hia invention were substituted' for the system in use at the present, a saving of about 90 per cent in coal alone would be effected.

The hop-growing industry is assuming; large dimensions in the Albury district, Victoria. Over 1500 bales -were lately sent to Melbourne by growers on the Victorian side of the Eiver Murray. Hop-growing i 3 being extended to many new districts in Australia. The Seymour Express has an interesting report of the success of an experimental plot on the farm, of Mr Joseph Nixon, Falconvale, Tarcombe. At Dargo, also, first crops have been harvested. There is no later information from New South Wales respecting agricultural affairs than was given in the cable message published last week. In South Australia beneficial rains have recently fallen over the greater portion of the Colony. Victoria has also been favoured with heavy showers, and farmers have been able to commence ploughing even in the driest districts. The Queensland freezing Company have arranged to send ISO tons of frozen meat to England in five successive steamers. Gleanings. Do not feed much in warm weather. Green food is necessary. Plenty of salt and red" pepper in boiled pig feed is recommended by American authorities. A light sprinkling of lime upon potatoes when stored is an excellent preventive of rot. The seasou that a. heifer drops a bull calf will be as good as any in her milk yield, no matter what her age. Bub on and around warts on animals with salt ham grease every day for two weeks. They will come off without pain and leave the place smooth and soft. A nut that has got rusty on a waggon or plough will start easily if kerosene is poured on it and allowed to stand a short time. If it does not start at once give the nut a sharp blow and pour on a little more oil.

It is a good plan to plough or spade up the poultry yard once a month through the summer. It gives the fowls fresh earth in which to dust themselves, to say nothingof the worms and gravel so necessary to them.

The Coach-makers' Magazine says that lard should never be used on a waggon wheel, for it will penetrate the hub and work its way out around the tenons of the spokes, thus spoiling the wheel. Tallow is the best lubricator for wooden axletrees.

As a general thing it is not a good plan to mix salt with the foqd of stock, as a ravenous appetite might cause them to eat more salt than is healthy for them. Keep the salt by itself in a trough or box where they can lick when they please to do so.

Eag weed is very common in many fields of grain stubble after harvest. It can be set back considerably by cutting with a mower two or three weeks after the wheat is got off. In such eases the clover catch, if a good one, will take the lead and keep the rag weed down so that none will appear the following season. Agricultural lr.nd in Carmarthenshire does not seem to share in the general depression. A farm of i-S acres was sold recently for 54 years' purchase; another let for .£lO5 per annum, was sold for ,£4655; another, containing G 7 acres, let for 9s 3d per acre, was sold for .£IOOO, and various others at from 3G to 43 years*

piu'chase. The carcases of animals dying on the farm, and as many more as can be secured from other sources, should be utilised for manure, not buried or drawn away to the words, but kept where they can at once be used as available manure. Nothing more is needed for this than to cover them with sulphuric acid—oil of vitrei. This will convert the carcase into a thick syrupy substance, with little offensive odour, and which may be advantageously thrown on any compost heap. The oil of vitroil alone is excellent for the compost heap, as it has a sti-ong affinity for ammonia. A Kentucky paper tells the story of a farmer in that vicinity who lost his crop of wheat in a most remarkable manner. The wheat had come up and was looking finely, when there camo a heavy sleet, which covered the field. Before this melted the floods rose, and the water lifted the sleet bodily from the ground, pulling up the wheat with it. The last the farmer saw of his wheat crop it was following his fences down the Ohio on its way to the Qvli, and the field is now as bare as a concrete pavement. Inflammation of the bladder in a cow is indicated by the frequent passing of the urine in small quantities, with some times blood intermingled with it, or thick mucus. It is caused by acrid weeds in the food; by stone in the bladder ; by xise of saltpetre, or other diuretic, or by a diseased condition of the kidneys. The treatment is as follows: Give a pint of linseed oil, repeating it every third day for three or four times; also drinks of linseed tea or infusion of slippery elm bark. After these have been continued for two weeks give half ounce of buchu in gruel daily for three or four days. Green manuring is an operation familiar to every American farmer, but they do n:>t all grow clover, vetches, or Italian ryegrass. In Prance, England, and the Northern States the practice is well known, and its success depends on effectually covering the vegetable matter turned underfte soil in the operation of ploughing. "When it is intended to use the crop directly for fertilisiug, the ploughing should be done just as the flower is about to open, ana when the days are sunny and the soil is

Arv in order to facilitate decomposition. Sly three-fourths of the organic matter Jhußburied have been derived from the !fmo<phere, and the land so treated obfSni its fertility from the even distnbuSn of the nitrogenous crops, which are SSinposed at a very low but certain rate. vl-ticnl men of largo experience consider th " value of a green crop ploughed m as ,»nunl to the droppings of cattle winch have been fed on three times the quantity. The rrcat fact behind this all important action \ the decomposition of the nitrogenous ronipounds which yield ammonia and nitric ■uud from which nitrates are formed. ' Keep vour pigs in good clean fields: give them access to pure water, even though vou should be compelled to dig a deep Well for that purpose—a good pump aud plenty of suitable troughs, cleansed every week will cost but little, and will always prove a valuable outlay. Provide, also, in the driest part of the field, a good shelter both from sun and rain. A few rails properly arranged, two or three feet from the "round, covered with a stack of straw or coarse grass, will be an attractive place for the entire drove. In troughs near by their resting places, two or three limes each week, place a composition of salt, soil, red pepper, and ginger. To four parts of the first two articles, add one part of the latter. Our common red popper will do very well. They should, however, be well pulverised, and all the ingredients thoroughly mixed. Most healthy animals will readily devour salt. To obtain it they will also tike the alkali and stimulant. ' The compound will not Injure bird, beast, fish, or man. It is not offered as a patent remedy, but simply as a preventive of the iniurious effects of foul gases and the pestiferous filth in which hogs have been allowed to wallow. Continue their usual feed, whether clover, bran, meal, or corn. The best instrument for testing the value of milk hitherto invented (the American Agriculturist states) is. the so-called lactoseope of Professor Feser. This shows, with considerable accuracy, the percentage of fat. Butter contains about 85 percent of fat: cream, such as rises in a cream gauge, about 22 to 25 per cent, which is equivalent to, perhaps, 30 per cent of butter. Pat being the most valuable constituent of milk (whether in the form of cream or butter, or as an ingredient of cheese, or as giving flavour and money value to milk when sold as such), forms a safe gauge as to the purity and value of milk, whether tested at the creamery, as received from the farmer, or in the city, or family, where it is used as food. The action of this instrument dependsupon the fact that the opacity of milk is chiefly caused by the globules of cream. So that when water is added to milk until we can see through a certain portion of it, we are able to do so because we separate the cream globules to that extent that light can pass through between them with a certain degree of clearness. Now, if we measure the amount of water added, we have quite an accurate gauge for comparing different samples of milk. To break np Sitting Hens.—Do not drench them in water, nor put them in a barrel with an inch or two of water at the bottom, nor tie them up by one leg to a tree, nor any of those cruel practices, which our fathers, in their ignorance, used, to quench tlie natural instinct. But take them from the nest, put them in a large coop in the open air, under a shade tree, if the weather is warm, and feed them largely with everything that yon give to your laying hens. In many cases, the fowl commences to sit when she is in good condition to keep on laying eggs, if we can but get the notion out of her head that she must be a clucking mother. She needs, perhaps, the material for egg shells, which may be easily supplied. Furthermore, she should not be put in a small coop, where she will sit do em and not obtain exercise; better put her in a pen having no floor, but loose earth, where she may scratch for a living. Activity will tend to forgetfulness of the sitting fever or desire to sit. It is well to provide, also, for social activity, and to this end a cock may be introduced to a pen where sitting hens are kept. He will talk in his own language, scratch with the would-be sitters, and soon eggs will be , found, when you may be sure that the time has come for more freedom.

Experiment has shown that for the best •welfare of crops a soil should not be more than from one-tenth to one-third full of water; that is to say, most of the larger spaces between the solid particles arc empty of anything except air. Thi& healthy condition sometimes comes about of itself, ■when an open subsoil lets the water run away freely from the surface; but usually artificial draicage is necessary to secure it. One of the most marked good effects of this imderground drainage, whether natural or artificial, is the improvement in the temperature of the soil. If this surplus water cannot pass off below in due time, it must be evaporated into the air, at the inevitable cost of a great quantity of heat which would otherwise have served to warm the sail; a wet soil, like a wet person coming oat of a bath, is cold. The less heat a soil must lose in this way the greater will be its reserve stock, useful not only for the production of crops, but also for their protection against cold. The sun's rays do not warm the air as they pass through it; they warm the soil and the rocks ; these then throw out or radiate this absorbed heat into the air and warm it. The lateness of a frost in any locality depends, therefore, not a little on the reserve supply of keat in the eoil; and this again depends largely on the freedom of the soil from surplus water during the heated season. A "well-drained and properly dry soil will not only give a larger and better crop than an nndrained and wet soil, but its crops will not suffer any harm from early frosts that may ruin the harvest of undrained fields.