Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 213, 9 October 1875, Page 22

Farm and Garden.

The following sensible remarks on shoeing horses occur in an exchange. The writer declares that it is almost impossible to get a horse hod without having the frogs cut away. All veterinary surgeons, all horsemen all leading blacksmiths agree that the frog should not be pared one particle—not even trimmed. No matter how pliable and soft the frog is, cut it away smoooth on all sides, and in two days it will be dry and hard as a chip. You might as well cut off all the leaves of the trees aud expect them to flourish as to pare away the frog and have a healthy foot. The rough spongy part of the frog is to the foot what ieaves are to the tree—the lungs. Never have a red-hot shoe put upon the foot to burn it level. If you can find a blacksmith that is mechanic enough to level the foot without red-hot iron, employ him. The burning process deadens the hoof, and tends o contract it. Although pigs are despised animals a great deal of money is annually made out of them. It is not generally known, perhaps, that Hungary is a great swine producing and exporting country, and that the Archduke Josef, of Hungary, gave a great impetus to the culture of pigs by breeding large numbers on his estate, called Kisjeno. A correspondent of the Agricultural Gazette says that until 1830 Hungary produced pigs merely for its own requirements, but that at a period of about five years later the transit trade amounted to 200,000 head, which increased from the year 1840 to 350,000 head ; of these, however, comparatively few were bred in Hungary. From 1860 to 1865 the average number of pigs fattened and exported from that country to surrounding states and districts amounted to 422,000 head, more than 200,000 of which were

bred there. Urged on by success, the trade in pigs and the fattening of them increased, and now Buda-Pesth, the centre of the pig-feeding districts, has become a worthy x’ival of Cincinnati in this trade. In 1872 the import to Steinbruch, a small place near Buda-Pesth, amounted to 549,620 head ; the export to 520,130. Of these 21,590 were sold to North Hungary ; to Vienna, 234,470 head ; to Prague, 22,380 head ; exported over Bodenbech, 79,870 head; retained at Buda-Pesth for consumption, 147,250 head. The value in money of the imported pigs amounted to £2,932,057 ; value of maize consumed, £440,000 ; value of export, £3,327,057, or 33,270,570 florins Austrian currency. STAGGERS AT WEST CLIVE NEW ZEALAND. A correspondent of the Australasian says : The staggers in animals complained of by two of your New Zealand correspondents is, perhaps, the result of iuvermination, bearing in mind the season of the year, and if so, kerosene will be found an effectual remedy. Horses dislike it greatly at first, so it is necessary to give it by degrees if administered dietetically, say two drops in a mash or other feed, increasing the dose to six drops twice or three times a day, or otherwise five-drop doses in a minim tube of gin, just poured on the tongue, twice or thrice a day. After a few doses, horses evacuate worms freely if infested with them, as they commonly are at the tall, and immediately begin to thrive. Kerosene is also a specific in gripes, given in the latter way. I have sometimes found a second dose in half an hour requisite, and care must be taken to distinguish gripes from inflammation of the intestines, the spmptoms being somewhat alike. Ergot of rye (secale cornutnm) will produce staggers with purging. The ergot of rye-grass, as Lolium pratensis or Italicum, may do so, aud that of L. tementum (drake) it appears certainly will, though I speak from memory. Tincture of camphor (dose as for kerosene) would be an antidote, or, if not handy, use tincture of opium. Grain doses for a horse of strychnine, laid dry on the tongue, say twice a day, would probably be effectual, and I have had considerable experience with it in analagous cases ; it also agrees with the horse. But having read in the Australasion that olive oil was remedial in cases of strychnia poisoning, and thereupon tried it, I can speak thankfully for its efficacy in two out of three events—the failure being a pup only six weeks old—and -would administer it in cases of poisoning producing similar symptoms. Lime dust picked up with the feedon bare ground would, in quantity, produce vertigo and diarrhoea, according to some authorities, not ready to my hand, and may, as well as water holding an excess in solution, be a fertile cause of the “ coast disease ” where lime and silex (equally pernicious in excess) abound in a comminuted state ; staggers being one of the symptoms of that disease. Nitric acid will neutralise the lime, and sulphuric acid the silex ; five drops in half a wine-glass of water hourly, of either, or of each, if both be necessary, but in that case they must be exhibited alternately till the active symptoms abate, then 10 chops once a day, doubling the water also, for a horse, and for sheep in proportion till cured. The presence of lime in deleterious quantity in the stomach of the latter might be proven by autopsy. The effects of plants which, eaten in excess, produce staggers, as Solanum nigrum, stramonium, &c., might be remedied by the olive oil, or, according to the rule of “ similia similibus curantur,” which I have great confidence in, from very frequent practical application for 17 years, doses of a drop or two of nicotine in about a thimbleful of gin, preferable to brandy, being itself carminative and free from corrosive acids, repeated hourly till abatement of the active symptoms, would, ten to one, prove specific ; every smoker ean manufacture it ; or tincture of tobacco, say five to 10 drops, would do. Allow me finally to suggest the administration of kerosene in small frequently-repeated doses to sheep by those who have them fluky or infested with lung-worm ; most probably it would penetrate to the liver and bronchia if persevered with, and destroy the entozoa. There might, however, at first be a difficulty in its economical use for flocks. Permit me to add that, where the pasture is ample in proportion to the stock, there animals are, as a general rule, freest from disease, teaching us, when circumscribed for room, to shift frequently, and that with critical attention to adaptability, and on no account to overstock, save with strong store cattle or sheep to eat old fog, unless we have skill and much practical energy to remedy the evils thereof pertaining both to the feed and the feeders. GREEN FODDER. In former papers the culture of maize was treated with a special bearing upon the introduction of the kinds suitable for producing grain. These, we pointed out, have a fine field presented for their production in the new districts being settled upon in the western and northern regions of Victoria, which combine the richness of soil and warmth of climate necessary to bring the grain to perfection. The large consumption of this cereal in the colony, and the remunerative rates usually ruling, were also quoted as incentives to its cultivation. But, in addition to its profitableness as a grain crop, no better plant can be sown for fodder, without a supply of which, particularly in the winter mouths, no farm, and especially one on which cows are kept, can lay claim to good management. Maize in its green state, in addition to being one of the finest fodders for all kinds of stock, has the merit of being able to be made available all through the year. For a summer crop, some of the large varieties should be sown in August, September or October ; and for a winter crop, some of the smaller sorts in December or January. The plan most approved of in maize growing countries, when sowing the plant for fodder, is to prepare the land as previously described for a crop of grain. Shallow furrows are then run about three feet apart, along which the seed is shaken thickly, averaging say an inch

apart. The seed is then harrowed in, and this should be followed by at least two harrowiugs during the following week. When the maize comes up such an implement as the Thomas harrow should be used to keep the plants clean, till they get about nine inches high. Afterwards, the cultivator requires to be used occasionally, to keep weeds down. Planting the crop in rich soil, and, if not l’ich, giving it plenty of manure, either before sowing or along with the seed, together with keeping it free from weeds, are the chief points, and attention to these will be well repaid. A well planted aud well-cept crop will give, according to the richness of the soil, from fifteen to thirty tons of green fodder per acre in about two months from the time of sowing. As maize for a fodder crop requires to be cut while in flower, so that the nutritive elements of the plant may be conserved, two modes for its preservation for future use are adopted. The first is to lay the stalks out to dry after cutting in a similar way to hay. This is necessary before stacking to prevent heating, as the stalks, being rich in sugar and starch, have a tendency that way. Stacking is performed as follows :—Three saplings are set up in the form of a tripod, tied together at the top, and spread out a little at the bottom. Round these the stalks of maize are packed with their butts downwards and their tops sloping inwards towards the central saplings ; the use of these being to promote ventilation, and thereby prevent heating. Maize thus disposed of in a series of stacks in the vicinity of the chaffcutting house is handily got at as required, and the stalks being cut up and mixed with straw, supply one of the best milkproducing foods that can be given to cows. The other system, known as the German method, is not so simple ; but it is said to be very effective, and is spreading in Europe and America. A trench is dug in the stackyard, and made airtight by means of bricklining, mason work, asphaltum, or other material. The maize, as it is brought in from the field, is cut along with straw—one part of the latter to five of the former, well trodden down, and closely covered up. It is essential to have the trench about two yards wide, the same in depth—the sides to be vertical, as admitting of a more equal pressure ; the length will depend on the quantity of fodder to be stored. Air and water are excluded, and after extracting for consumption the quantity necessary for the day, the opening is again closed. In parts of Bavaria, a mixture of tares, peas, and maize, is preserved in the trenches. Whichever way is chosen for its preservation, the cultivation of green maize will repay increased attention at the hands of our farmers, as supplying a fodder by means of which at certain seasons the profits of the farm may be increased at least one-half. WOOD ASHES AS A FERTILISER. Amongst the list of manurial agents that deserve attention in a country like New Zealand, where many thousands of tons of timber are being annually cleared from the land by the application of fire, wood ashes should receive a place. To the merits of wood ashes in respect of being rich in one of the most important elements required for vegetable growth, whether in the grainfield, the pasture, or the orchard, special allusion is made in a recent paper in the Scientific American. Every agriculturist now-a-days has, it is assumed, some general idea of the principle of restitution ; that is to say, the elements necessary to the growth of vegetables must be replaced, and if they are not, the crop either fails utterly, or at best is deficient in health and growth. The amount of these elements, phosphorus, lime, potash, and several others to be replaced, varies according to the vegetables cultivated. Thus a potato crop from seven acres and a half of land takes away the seed constituents of four wheat crops, besides about 600 lb. of potash The average turnip produce of the same area removes the seed constituents of four wheat crops, and about 1000 lb. of potash. Similarly also grapes, clover, peas, beans, lucerne and nearly all leguminous vegetables remove potash in immense quantities. Mr. K. T. Staiger, the Queensland Government analyst, in a late report on the coaise of fluke, attributed that disease largely to want of potash. He stated as his reasons that the grasses or plants that essentially require potash salts are always the first to disappear with feeding, if not properly supported with manure, and that in the production of yolk in the wool, sheep require a large quantity of potash, as evidenced by the fact that one pound of fine wool, in the grease, contains, according to Maumene and Rogelet, two and a half ounces of yolk, yielding one ounce twenty-six grains of pure potash (potassium carbonate). With reference to the power of wood ashes to supply this necessary element, Professor Storer, of the Bussey Institution (America), gives the latest data. He says that the analysis of thirteen samples of house ashes showed a range of from 6 to 10’8 per cent, of potash, and up to 4’6 per cent, of phosphoric acid. The thirteen samples as to potash averaged 81 per cent., which is the proportion of the chemist’s potash or oxide of potassium, and corresponds to about 10 J; per cent, of the potash of commerce. The phosphoric acid is also a valuable fertilising material in the majority of soils. The balance of the elements contained in the ash, viz., silica, alumina, iron and manganese, lime and soda, are inconsiderable, so that on the potash first and phosphoric acid second, mainly depend the value of wood ashes as a fertiliser. The material is, besides, a useful dressing for the ground about orchard trees, as it not only improves the soil, but prevents in considerable degree the inroads of insects in the roots and bark. Potash is worth in Melbourne fid. per lb., and phosphoric acid ss. per lb., wholesale. 100 lb. of ashes contain, as shown above, 10 lb. of potash and 2-\ lb. of phosphoric acid, amounting together in value to 17s. 6d. Ashes contain essential components of all crops. They should not be mixed with other compost (there is no gain in so mixing them), but applied broadcast directly to the soil, whether it B grass or arable land. Espe-

cially are ashes excellent for orchards. They should not be heaped right about the bodies of the trees, but spread over the roots which extend as far from the bodies of the trees as the branches do. Ashes are especially valuable as top-dressing on old grass lands, or on lands cropped with grain. For root-crops they are equally important ; indeed there is no crop grown, and no land cultivated, that is not benefited in a greater or less degree by the application of ashes. A NEW POTATO DISEASE. What is stated to be either a new form of potato disease, or the old form under a new manifestation, appears to be affecting the potato crop in different parts of the old country. At an early stage of the development of the haulm it becomes paralysed, and turns yellow ; the leaves curl and become densely spotted above and below with small dark spots. Mr. A. Dean, a well-known potato cultivator at Bedfont, attributed the disease in the haulm to the fact that owing to the drought of last season there was existing in the seed tubers much dormant disease that had not during the winter developed into rot as was usually the case. These tubers when planted, although apparently sound, had yet, when they came in contact with the moist earth, developed disease—had, in fact, rotted; hence the immature haulm. In all cases where the seed tubers were cut they were quite rotten, and in the case of whole tubers found under the diseased haulm they would be found firm, but would prove to be diseased wheu cut. The appearance of this disease in the American kinds more than in the English ones he attributed to the fact that the American kinds produced large tubers, which have to be cut before planting, hence the greater mortality amongst them. THE TURKEY RANCH. In a paper upon the California ranch system, in the June number of the Atlantic Monthly, the following occurs :—“ Of the vineyard, the orchard, the mountain bee-ranch of Los Angeles, the strawberry garden, the mulberry grove, and many other forms of the ranch with which I am personally less familiar, it is not needful here to speak. But there is one other deserving brief mention, because it is so characteristically Californian, and that is the turkeyranch. Along the base of the siena for hundreds of miles, between the foot-hills and the plains proper, there is a strip of rolling land, arid, gravelly, and uninhabitable. Certainly no human being can gain a livelihood here. But a Californian would extract blood from a turnip. What have we ? First, grasshoppers ; second, a little, harsh, miserable plant, called by the Americans mullein, by the Spaniards •polco. Its prickly capsules are as full of farinaceous seeds as they can hold. Just the place for turkeys, but it required a genius to think of that. It is very curious to see a man on these desolate and burning wastes, afoot or on horseback, herding five hundred, one thousand, sometimes two thousand or three thousands turkeys in a flock, and perhaps assisted by a shepherd dog, who gently admonishes the stragglers. But, in Californian parlance, ‘ it pays.’ I know an old man and his son who are said to clear three thousand dollars a year in the business. A man is considered to be getting pretty well down in the social scale who will circle turkeys ; but when he comes to town at Christmas with his cribs of fat gobblers at sixteen cents a pound, no true Californian will refuse him respect. Ho is the more entitled to that tribute because he has gained an honest living where nature seems to have displayed her ingenuity in making it impossible.” THE GRANDEUR, BEAUTY, AND UTILITY OF TREES AND SHRUBS. (From the Otago Guardian.) 1. Trees are not only in appearance the striking and grand objects of the vegetable creation, but in reality they are those which contribute the most to human comfort and improvement. If cereal grasses and edible roots are essential for supplying food to sustain human existence, trees are not less so for supplying timber, without which there could neither be the houses and furniture of civilised life, nor the machines of commerce and refinement. Man may live and be clothed in a savage, and even in a pastoral state, by herbaceous production alone, but he cannot advance farther ; he cannot till the ground, or build houses or ships, he cannot become an agriculturist or a merchant, without the use of trees. 2. Trees and shrubs also supply an important part of the food of mankind in many countries, besides all the more delicate luxuries of the table and the noblest of human drinks, in every part of the globe. The fruit of the palm, and of other trees of tropical climates, is as essential to the natives of those countries as the corn and edible roots of the herbaceous plants of temperate climes are to us. Wine, cider, arrack, and other liquors are the products of trees and shrubs; as are also our more useful and, exquisite fruits, the apple, pear, plum, peach orange, mango, and many others. Not to insist in detail on the various uses of trees and shrubs, it may be sufficient to observe that there is hardly an art, or a manufacture, in which timber, or some other ligneous product, is not in one way or other employed to produce it. 3. The use of trees in artificial plantations in giving shelter or shade to lands exposed to high winds or to burning sun, and in improving the climate and general appearance of whole tracts of country, in forming avenues to public or private roads, and in ornamenting our parks and pleasure-grounds, is too well known to require to be enlarged on here. Everyone feels that trees are among the grandest and most ornamental objects of natural scenery. What would landscapes be without them ? Where would be the charms of hills, plains, valleys, rocks, rivers, cascades, lakes, or islands without the hanging wood, the widely-extended forest, the open grove, the scattered groups, the varied etching, the shade and intricacy, the contrast,

and the variety of form and color, conferred by trees and shrubs ? A tree is a grand object of itself : its bold perpendicular elevation, and its commanding attitude, render it sublime ; and this expression is greatly heightened bv our knowledge of its age, stability, and duration, lhe characteristic beauties of the general forms of trees are as various as their species, and equally so are the beauty and variety of the ramifications of their branches, sprays, buds, leaves, flowers, and fruits. The changes in the color of the foliage of trees, at different seasons of the year, alone form a source of ever-varying beauty, and of perpetual enjoyment to the lovers of Nature. What can be more interesting than to watch the development of the buds of trees in spring, or the daily changes which take place in the color of their foliage in autumn ? But to point out here all the various and characteristic beauties of trees would be to anticipate what I shall have to say hereafter of the different species and varieties enumerated in various collections. Shrubs, to many of the beauties of trees, frequently add those of herbaceous plants, and produce flowers unequalled both for beauty and fragrance. What flower, for example, is comparable in beauty of form and color, in fragrance, and in interesting associations, with the rose ? The flower of the honeysuckle has been admired from the most remote antiquity, and forms as frequent an ornament of classic as the rose does of Gothic architecture. In British gardens what could compensate us in winter for the arbutus and the laurustinus, or even the common laurel and the common ivy, as ornamental evergreens ; for the flowers of the lhododendron, azalea, kalmia, and mezereon in spring ; or for the fruit of the gooseberry, currant, and raspberry in summer ? And what hedge plant, either in Europe or America, equals the common hawthorn ? In short, if trees may be compared to the columns which support the portico of a temple, and as the sculptures which ornament its frieze, it is not to be wondered at that trees and shrubs should have excited the attention of mankind in all civilised countries, and that our accumulated experience respecting them should be considerable The first characteristic instinct of civilised society is to improve the natural productions by which we are surrounded ; and the next is, by commerce to appropriate and establish in our own country the productions of others, while we give our own productions in exchange ; and thus the tendency of all improvement seems to be to the equalisation of enjoyment, as well as to its increase. Notwithstanding the use, the grandeur, and the beauty of timber trees, it is a fact that, compared with herbaceous vegetables, the number of species distributed over the globe is comparatively small. The palms, the banana, the pineapple, a . j other plants, popularly or botanieally considered as trees or shrubs, though some of them attain a great height and thickness, are, with very few exceptions, of no use as timber. Almost all the timber trees of the world, with the exception of the bamboo, belong to what botanists denominate the dicotyledonous division of vegetables, now called exogens ; and perhaps there are not 1,000 genera of this division on the face of the earth which afford timber trees exceeding 30ft. in height. The greater part of these genera, supposing such a number to exist, must belong to warm climates; for in the temperate zones, and in the regions of warm countries rendered temperate by their elevations, the number of genera containing timber trees 30ft. in height, as far as hitherto discovered, does not amount to 100. The truth is that between the tropics the greater number of species are ligneous, while in the temperate region there are comparatively few, and in the frozen zone scarcely any. It may naturally be expected, therefore, that in the temperate regions there should only be a few timber trees which are indigenous to each particular country. In Britain, for example, there are not above a dozen genera of trees, furnishing in all about 30 species, which attain a height exceeding 30ft. ; but there are other countries of similar climates, all over the world . furnish other genera and species, to what is at present an unknown extent ; and it is the beautiful work of civilisation, of patriotism, and of adventure, first to collect these all into our own country, and next to distribute them into others. While Britain, therefore, not only enjoys the trees of the rest of Europe, ot North America, of the mountains of South America, of India, and of China, .she distributes her own trees, and those which she has appropriated, to each of these countries respectively, and, in short, to all parts of the world, lhus contributing almost imperceptibly, but yet most powerfully, to the progress and equalisation of civilisation and of happiness it must be interesting to the philosopher and the philanthropist to know the precise position in which we stand relatively to this kind of interchange of natural productions. Much as has been done within the last century, there is reason to believe, from the number of countries unexplored, that this department of the civilisation of the great human family is yet in its infancy. A. McGkuen.