Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 220, 27 November 1875, Page 9

Farm and Garden.

FARM NOTES. A correspondent of the Carolina Farmer suggests the following method of getting rid of that terrible pest, the cabbage worm. He says :—“ Great complaint has been made by farmers and truck growers about insects destroying cabbage and collards. My crop was half eaten up. I have made use of kerosene oil by spudding it on the plant and on the ground around the plants with entire success, and seemingly it has promoted the growth of the same very much. One pint will do for about 300 plants—a common pepperbox is very suitable for sprinkling the oil.” A correspondent of the Agricultural Gazette makes some useful remarks with respect to the advantage of ploughing before the winter rains. He thinks that tillage causes all soils to hold more water at all times than they would do if not pulverised, and the deeper and more perfectly the land is pulverised the more water it retains, greatly to the benefit of the crops in summer. If half of a field be ploughed in September (oven if dry), and the other half left not ploughed, if we examine the two parts at any time during winter after rain, the moved part will be found much the wettest. 20 lbs. of deal sawdust will absorb more water than a deal plank of the same weight, and 20 lbs. of pulverised soil of any kind will absorb and retain more water than a block of the same soil and weight. The more condensed any sub-

stance, the less water it is capable of holding. Most soils when consolidated hold water after rain like a dish in the hollows, and all soils hold it like a sponge when they are well pulverised, and much more of it than if consolidated, though not so visible. Besides, land of all kinds has many holes made by worms and other vermin which let the water down if it has not been lately moved, which holes are broken by tillage and made useless for drainage. A correspondent of the Californian Farmer gives the following method of distinguishing between butter and other fats of animal origin ; —A quantity, say 50 grains of butter is put into an ounce bottle half filled with ether, and the mixture is well agitated. If the butter be genuine perfect solution of the fatty matter will take place, and salt and water will be separated, together with curd, which is occasionally present to the extent of eight or nine per cent. The salt and water may be readily recognised and the curd may be proved such by heating a small portion on a slip of glass, when it will dry and fall to powder. If beef or lard be present they will not dissolve in the ether, but fall to the bottom of the solution. By the application of heat, as in the case of curd, the fatty character of these substances is at once shown by their liquefaction.

There is always in milk a small percentage of flavoring oils derived from the essential oils of the herbage consumed by the cow. These, according to the herbage derived from, become ethereal, and escape at different degrees of heat. As the number of species of herbage which a cow usually consumes is pretty large, these oils are escaping all the way from blood heat to boiling. The oils from some plants, like clover, become ethereal, and escape at a very moderate heat, others, like turnips, require a little higher heat; while the flavoring from onions and garlic is not removed by even a boiling heat. But in general the higher milk is heated the more of flavoring oils, whether good or bad, are driven off, abating the flavor of the milk and butter made from it. From the above reason it often happens that while the flavor of milk and butter will be improved by a moderate heat which is sufficient to pass off objectionable flavors, a higher heat will depress flavor by driving off desirable ones. This same reason may explain why some milk is better not to be heated at all. Milk which is made from pleasant-flavored herbage, and is in all respects perfect, is better for buttermaking not to be heated, but the best butter is made from milk which is moderately scalded. If heating is to be done at all, whether high or low, it should be done quickly. The longer it remains hot and the more evaporation from its surface the thicker and tougher null be the skin which forms on its surface, into which both fat and casein enter, and are rendered useless for either butter or cheese. The thicker the skin which forms on the top the more butter and cheese there is wasted. The pellicles which enclose the butter globules become softened and adhesive by cooking, and require constant stirring while heating to keep them from forming into a tenacious scum by the rapid evaporation from the heating milk." The quicker, therefore, the heating is done the less loss there will be in this direction.

The following hints from a contemporary will doubtless be useful to those who without the knowledge necessary to avoid being taken in are compelled to invest in horse-flesh :—“To know the age of a horse the following facts should be kept in mind :—The colt is born with 12 grinders. When four front teeth have made their appearance the colt is 12 days old, and when the next four come forth it is four weeks old. When the corner teeth appear the colt is eight months old, and when the latter have attained the height of the front teeth it is one year old. The two-years’ colt has the kernel —the dark substance in the middle of the tooth’s crown—ground out of all the front teeth. In the third year the middle front teeth are being shifted, and when three years old these are substituted for the horse teeth. The next four teeth are shifted in the fourth year, and the corner teeth in the fifth. At six years the kernel is worn out of the middle front teeth, and the bridle teeth have now attained to their full growth. At seven years a hook has been formed on the corner teeth of the upper jaw ; the kernel of the teeth next at the middle fronts is worn out, and the bridle teeth begin to wear off. At eight years of age the kernel is worn out of all the lower front teeth, and begins to decrease in the middle upper fronts. In the ninth year the kernel has wholly disappeared from the upper middle front teeth ; the hook on the corner tooth has increased in size as the bridle teeth lose their points. In the tenth year the kernel has worn out of the teeth next to the middle fronts of the upper jaw ; and in the eleventh year the kernel has entirely vanished from the corner teeth of the poor jaw. At twelve years old the crown of all the front teeth in the lower jaw has become triangular, and the bridle teeth are much worn down. As the horse advances in age the gums shrink away from the teeth, which consequently receive a long, narrow appearance, and their kernels have metamorphosed into a darkish point ; grey hairs increase in the forehead; the chin assumes the shape of an eagle.” The ravages of our gardens and forests since the beginning of May finally seem to be on the decrease, says the Posma (Russia) Gazette, speaking of the recent plague of caterpillars. Neither the cold weather, reaching away into the middle of May, nor immense showers, affected the uninvited guests, in the least. Without ceasing, and with a gluttony incredible, they destroyed the foliage, more especially that of the apple trees in our orchards, and of the oaks in the forests. There, where the orchards and oak forests are beheld now blanched and stripped, they attack the birchen, nay, devour the grass even, moving gradually westward. It is to be feared that the young crops, too, will be destroyed. To give an idea of the hosts of this vermin, we need but say that the yards and barns were covered by this warlike vermin to such an extent that in going through the streets a feeling of disgust constantly pervaded us lest we might tread on and

crash the disagreeable creatures cn masse. The rivulets, winding through the oak groves of the city, were covered with floating caterpillars as far as H arshine (an arshine is a little more than two feet). The walls of the houses, the fences, all were full of caterpillars, as if covered over by a cloth. The caterpillars on the march arrested even a railroad train an hour and a half on its way. The wheels of the locomotive, greased by the fatty substance of the crushed animals, would notroll on, but instead, revolved on the same spot. The train had to stop, and the track to be cleaned.

Hr. Cameron, the City Analyst of Dublin, communicated lately to the j.loyal Dublin Society some interesting researches which lie has made with reference to the chemistry of milk. He pointed out that the white color and opacity of milk wore not due, as was commonly stated, to the liquid being a fatty emulsion, but that they wore owing to the fact that the fat globules in milk were invested with a caseous solid membrane which reflected light. By appropriate treatment all the fats of butter could be extracted from milk, and yet the residue would retain the characteristic appearance of that fluid. Buttermilk, which contained only o's to o'7 per cent, of fat, was yet a perfectly white liquid. In milk there were fat globules without investing membranes, but they were not numerous. The solids in the cow’s milk never sank below 12 per cent, in the case of town dairy cows, or 11‘5 per cent, in the case of farm cows on poor pastures. In Dublin milk of average quality, and when pure, the solids averaged 13 per cent., and the fats 4'l per cent. From ten analyses of Irish mares’ milk, Dr. Cameron concluded the average composition to be—water, 90'00 ; butter, 0 - 90 ; cheesy matter, P 92 ; sugar, 078; mineral matter, o'4o—loo. Sow’s milk he found to be extraordinarily rich, and to contain water, 8172 ; butter, 5'66 ; cheesy matters, 7'ofl ; sugar, 5'60 ; mineral matters, o'96 —100. It showed no cream on standing. The following hints from the New York Herald on the preservation of manure will be read with interest? —“ On many farms during the busy summer season the cleanings of the pigsty and stables and the various refuse matters accumulating in the rear of one’s premises are suffered to be exposed to the sun, wind, and rain, both wasting their most valuable properties and filling the air with a noisome stench. We have often urged the gathering up and preservation of all fertilising materials, such as bones, chips, weeds, old plaster and lime, kitchen slops, &c., and we now repeat the suggestion. Let all these things speedily find their way to the compost heap. If on the north side of the barn it will be better off than on the south ; if covered it will be better off still. Such a covering can be made without much trouble or expense. Set in the ground six, eight, or more posts, according to the expected size of your heap, and throw over them a shed roof of boards or slabs, sloping to the south. Board up the shanty on three sides, leaving the north open. Now, see to it that a generous pile of muck or its equivalent is deposited just outside of this shed, and you will be ready for operations. Wheel in manure from all quarters as fast as it accumulates, and lay it in rows or heaps the whole length of the shed, treading it down firmly and covering it with successive layers of muck. In this way the manure will be preserved from the action of the elements, and the volatile gasses, which the summer heat so rapidly evolves, will bo absorbed and saved. If any one thinks this won’t pay let him try it and sec. Let every tiller of the soil take good care of the manure heap during the summer.”

Mr. J. Wrighton, of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, writes as follows to the Mail on the subject of what he calls “ potted hay:”—“Early in June you allowed me to call attention to the possibility of storing grass in trenches in a green state. Since then I have received a large number of letters, asking for such particulars as would enable the process to be carried out with success. To such inquiries I have answered that, although I had seen the ‘ potted hay ’ greedily eaten by stock, it had not been my good fortune to witness the process of preservation carried out practically, but that all agriculturists with whom I have conversed described it as exceedingly simple. The details of the process have been so clearly described by M. Goffart, in a pamphlet upon maize cultivation, published early in the present year in Paris (Masson), that I venture to make you a translation of the passage in which his method of proceeding is given. M. Goffart has preserved green rye and maize, both above ground and in trenches, after a manner similar to that described by me in a former letter, and there seems to be no reason to doubt that the same process might be applied with equal success to grass in this country. The passage is as follows :—‘About 60 metres from my stables I opened a trench upon the bank of an old pond, in compact clay, perfectly impermeable, and of a hardness such that a pickaxe was required to open it up. The trench was 10 metres long, two wide, and two deep. I lined it with masonry of half a brick thick and well cemented, and the bottom was also paved and cemented. The side walls were made vertical and not inclined, which seems to me only rational. The pressure is exercised vertically, and inclined sides appear to mo contrary to the end for which they are intended—to facilitate and not to prevent the setting or sinking of the mass. A chaffcutter (by Richmond and Chandler) was placed upon the edge of the trench, and being worked by a five horse-power engine, filled it in less than ten hours. The chaffed maize was spread over the area and trodden down (fonlc) by two persons until it rose about 40 centimetres above the level of the masonry. This raised portion, compressed like the rest, was disposed as a long mound, and covered with a light coat of long straw, and then 40 centimetres of wellflattened down earth. I watched the result for several consecutive days, and filled up the fissures, so as to prevent any spaco from forming between the covering of earth and the preserved maize, which would be highly injurious. My chaffcutter delivers the maize iu lengths

from one to two centimetres. I prefer the former length ; it gives to the preserved maize the appearance of a compact pulp, reduces if (at once) to the least volume possible, and does not permit the air to lodge between the small morsels, which it does when they are longer. The smaller the maize is cut the loss will it sink afterwards, and, in consequence, the less chance is there of its altering. ... At the side of this trench, which inspires me with the greatest confidence, I have excavated a less one with vertical sides ; but this one I have not lined with masonry, and the maize rests in contact with the soil. Here lam less sure of a perfect preservation.’ Those of your numerous readers who, during this extraordinary wet season, may wish to try the experiment of making a little sour or ‘potted ' hay may find the above details useful.”