Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 236, 18 March 1876, Page 22

Farm and Garden.

We learn from the Sydney Mail that extensive experiments are being carried on xvith a view of utilizing the blood from the public abattoirs. The blood, of Avhich from four to five tons are daily taken from the slaughterhouses, is conveyed in covered carts to the Botanic Gardens, xvhere it is deodorized by means of earth. The admixture of soil does not materially affect its fertilizing properties, and the perfectly inodorous compound is noxv being largely sold for manure. The Sydney Mail says :—“No antidote is known to the specific fever of the dog knoxvn as distemper ; the disease must run its course. The rule therefore is to interfere as little as possible as long as the disease is pursuing its normal course. Mild cases require no other treatment but a milk diet and the prevention of exposure to cold and xvet. The animal should be Avatched to prevent its lying in damp ill-ventilated places. If the boAvels become torpid a teaspoonful of flower of sulphur, once or twice a day, may be added to the milk. On the contrary, if the patient be purging, small doses of laudanum, 10 or 20 drops, may be beneficially administered. The simple treatment above specified is in most cases all that is necessary thoughout the xvhoie course of the disease.” M. Adenot, according to the French Circular Letter, experimented xvith feeds of equal rations of nine pounds each of maize and oats, on 48 of his xvaggon horses, extending over a period of 10 months. The animals lost onefifth of their draught power, which they recovered, however, xvhen their full oat ration was restored ; the economy in the xvay of oats disappeared by loss of strength. One-eighth of maize with oats turned out well, but then the maize must be American, not French. How nearly soever related maize and oats may be chemically, in physiological effects they are widely different. Thaer and Dombasle recommend buckxvheat for farm horses, as being capable of replacing in part oats. Their opinion is questioned ; but buckwheat differs in richness according as it may have been when matured or otherxvise. M. Adenot has found a mixture of 13 pounds of oats xvith six pounds of rye very successful. His experience extended over 15 years, the Btable3 containing

not less than 350 draught horses ; the mixture was not equal in producing vigor to oats alone, but was not the less a capital feed when grain xvas scarce. In former times wheat xvas given to stallions during the season of serving, and to mares xvhen suckling ; but wheat fattened rather than imparted strength or produced muscle. In the production and reparation of muscular force beans rank xvith oats, exciting the appetite, and excellent for horses that digest badly their full feed of grain. Field peas are favored by some for fast horses ; improving their xvind, xvhile forming a change of food. Oats being unrivalled, many fanners object to either bruise or break them ; containing less farinaceous matter, they nourish less, in the sense of fattening less. This quality Messrs. Mayne and Baillet attribute to an aromatic principle in the skin, analogous to vanilla, and to which the stimulating action of the grain is to be traced. Now mountain oats, small and light, are more exciting than others because they contain less farinaceous and more of stimulating matters, and hence xvhy many breeders keep stocks of mountain and loxvland oats, giving feed of each alternatively, nex r er mixing, for xvhere the ingredients of rations differ in volume much that is small escapes unmasticated or incompletely mixed xvith saliva. M. Monclar, of Tarn, finding xvine to be so cheap and oats so dear, has employed the former as an element in rations for his horses, and with excellent results. This is the first time xvine has been so employed, but it has been long knoxvn in France to be of singular efficacy xvhen horses are overcome xvith great fatigue. Some sprinkle the wine over the oats, and others administer it as a drink. Horses are very fond of xvine. A correspondent of the New YorTc Herald contributes the folloxving note on seasoned fuel Every teamster who has ever handled green cord wood does not need to be told that every billet is full of sap or water. Timber three feet in diameter xvill have a cord of solid xvood in every 18 feet, and if 36 feet long xvill xveigh about five tons. Hence it will be perceived that a cord of green xvood must form a load of nearly txvo tons in xveight, and he xvill probably conclude that his team has a much greater load than is commonly supposed. It is also obvious that in drawing green xvood the farmer must load and transport three barrels of xvater in every cord, or 60 barrels in 20 cords, alloxving that xvood as commonly seasoned in a summer has lost only two-thirds of its water. In draxving 100 cords of such dry xvood there will be a saving in loading and transporting of 200 barrels of xvater. A barrel of water contains about five cubic feet and xveighs more than 300 pounds. In the combustion of 20 cords of green wood 60 barrels of water must be evaporated. Now, it takes six times as much heat to evaporate a pound of xvater as to heat a pound from 50 degrees of temperature to the boiling point. To ascertain the caloric lost xve must find the xveight of xvater in a cord of wood. In his careful experiments on the combustion of xvood Count Rumferd proved that a cord of dry beech xveighs about 2800 pounds, which must be three-fourths of the xveight of the green beech ; that is, a cord of green beech must weigh 3700 pounds, or, taking the mean between onethird and one-fourth, must be more than 4900 pounds. In burning a cord of green beech at least 1000 pounds of water must be evaporated, and 1000 pounds of xvater would fill three barrels of 32 ale gallons, or nearly two hogsheads of 63 gallons wine measure. The quantity of caloric lost in this xvay may be estimated in a rough way by the quantity of xvood consumed in evaporating three barrels or nearly txvo hogsheads of water. Some years ago a chemist ascertained the weight lost by xvood in drying or seasoning. For this purpose he weighed green rock maple and beech, taken from the sapwood and from the heartxvood, and from both together, and dried the specimens carefully in a warm oven, so as to be more free from water than common xvood as ordinarily seasoned. The loss was from one-fourth to onethird of the xveight. This loss was xvater. If the xvood is burned xvhile green this water must be evaporatad and thrown into the atmosphere, and a considerable part of the caloric or heat produced by the combustion of the xvood must be in this way carried off, and be of no use in heating or xvarming. The economy in using dry wood is well understood by many. These views give adequate reasons for it. Yet many farmers do not use proper care in drying and housing their fuel. Some even contend that it is more economical to provide (not to burn) green xvood than dry, as the domestics cannot manage to consume so large a quantity of green fuel as they xvould burn if it xvere dry as tinder. It must be admitted that there is more than a shadoxv of seasoning and sound sense in such a declaration. The important functions that leaves perform (says the Prairie Farmer), not only in the growth of the plant, but the ripening of its fruit, make it a matter of vital importance that the leaves remain xvhoie and healthy during the time that the xvood and fruit are maturing. Here xve meet one of the difficulties of American horticulture. A large part of our plants under cultivation are European species and x-arieties, or their immediate descendants, selected and grown under conditions, meteorologic and otherwise, that render a nexv trial and selection necessary in America. Hence xve are going through anew the process of selection, based on the changed atmospheric and climatic conditions of our peculiar climate. One of the points most needful to notice in this selection is the adaptation of the leaves to our trying climate. Here xve have excessive changes, from heat to cold, and from cold to heat. We have long-con-tinued rains and protracted drouths. We have insects that multiply excessively, and fungoid growths that spread xvith marvellous rapidity. All these are trying to plant life, and first after the blossoms to the leaves. If the leaves are small and thin and smooth they are apt to perish or become diseased, and the fruit and ultimately the plant perish. Year by year xve find varieties of fruit, otherwise desirable, have to be given up because of their inability to grow leaves that will endure-the atmospheric

changes or the insect attacks of our climate. Among our apples xve have a notable instance in that very popular variety the Wine Sop, xvhose leaves in many years and situations fail to produce a good growth of xvood or fruit. The Pryor’s Red seems to be gradually succumbing, for a similar reason, in Kentucky and Indiana, and the evil xvill probably spread as soils become more exhausted. A large proportion of the European apples xx r e have in orchard show by their small and scanty foliage premonitory symptoms of failure. On the other hand, xve find the Russian varieties and the Siberian crabs that are now gaining in favor, and notably hardy and vigorous in leaf, xvith the possible exception of the Tetofski, xvhose leaf is large but xvarningly thin. This subject has received full attention in the case of the grape, xvhose leaves have been more looked to than those of any other fruit. The Concord’s success may be said to be specially due to its large, strong, coarse leaves, xvhich endure all climates and seasons through a wide range of country. The failure of a large number of grapes of excellent quality may be laid to the lack of a leaf with the health and vigor of the Concord. In the case of the peach it xvas early found that many sorts deemed of high value in European climates xvould hardly ansxver here at all, especially the serrate varietes, which our cultivators, especially in the Mississippi Valley, are generally forced to discard. We might extend this article by multiplying instances ; but we xvill resist the temptation. What xve desire to do, and if xve have done that we have done enough for the present, is to call the more general attention of our readers to the importance of thick leax r es. Seek varieties that have strong leaves, and strengthen xveak-leaved varieties by manuring and high culture, xvhich, judiciously applied, strengthen and fortify foliage against weather changes and insect attacks. “Mr. Jocelyn, of Little Valley, Nexv York State,” says the Rural New Yorker, “ manufactures some excellent cheese made from sour skim-milk and sour buttermilk. It resembles in flavor and texture good sound whole-milk cheese. He has been careful to let his countrymen knoxv that he is in possession of some wonderful secret, xvhilst he has admitted that he used alkalies to correct the acidity of milk. Ultimately he has patented his process, and he now gives the method by which this cheese is manufactured. He says :—‘Set the milk long enough for the cream to sour before skimming, thus making more and better butter. Churn and mix this sour buttermilk with the skimmed milk, and the acid has destroyed the fibre in the milk, so that it will make a tender cheese. Noxv, if we should proceed in the old xvay xve would have a mess of Dutch cheese ; but instead, xve heat out rapidly, and xvhen at the proper temperature xve add alkalies sufficient to neutralise the acid and saponify the remaining grease in the milk, so that xve have a smooth curd, a clear green xvhey, and as our curd goes into hops it is no more sour than one that is made from sxveet milk. The secret of this milk remaining so soft and being so durable is owing to the saponification of the fat, it being thus evenly distributed among the minutest particles of the cheese, and being saponified, it never can become rancid ; and as I have said repeatedly, this is the most durable and wholesome cheese, and to my mind the most delicious cheese that can be made.’ In his first dark hints respecting his discovery, he used to say that, in addition to the use of alkalies, he used a certain ‘ vegetable substance,’ the name and character of xvhich he held a secret. There is noxv no mention of a vegetable substance. The use of alkalies (soda, potash, &e.) is not new. Many cheesemakers in America claim to hax T e done this years ago. Possibly Mr. Jocelyn supposed that because potash xvas manufactured from ashes from the burning of wood, he xvas warranted in calling it a vegetable substance. The patent, it appears, cannot possibly be sustained. Still a lesson may be learned of some benefit to cheesemakers, who xvill now thoroughly investigate the subject. Although alkalies have been used before, they have not by all accounts been used to such advantage. The difference between good and bad cheese of any kind depends upon only slight variations in manipulation, and if Mr. Jocelyn really makes sound marketable cheese, of good quality and flavor, by the use of alkalies, there is no reason xvhy other cheesemakers cannot do the same, if they turn their attention to it, and perfect the system which has again momentarily been introduced to their notice—especially if, as is asserted, his patent rights cannot be sustained.” When a sheep takes to jumping fences, the habit must be cured, for it cannot be endured, justly remarks a correspondent of the Weekly Neivs. One breechy sheep infects the flock, and ruins all the rest. Sometimes a valuable sheep that cannot xvell be spared acquires the habit, and some plan other than making mutton of it must be adopted. A plan xve have seen followed xvith success is to hang a light board around the neck .by a broad strap. The board should be of such a size and so hung that it xvill strike against the sheep’s knees when it tries to jump. If the sheep that leads the flock into mischief—and there is generally but one incorrigible leader—be thus treated, the trouble xvill be prevented. THE NEW VARIETIES OF POTATO. “ Big potatoes” and “ big crops” occupy a large share of space in the English horticultural journals of October and November. The American varieties continue to furnish sensational paragraphs, each more highly seasoned than its predecessor, and but form the seeming authenticity of the statements they contain, xve should be disposed to regard them as brag. The greatest xveight recorded as having been groxvn in the United States from 1 lb. of seed xvas l 018 lb. ; the grower xvas Mr. H. C. Pearson, of Pitcairn, N.Y., who exhibited the produce at the great potato trial last year. It is noxv stated in the Garden that in the spring of 1875, Mr. Ford, the gardener of Mr. Bromley Davenport, M.P., at Capesthorne, purchased of Messrs. Hooper & Go., Covent Garden, a single pound of each of two I American potatoes—Snoxvflake and ' Eureka.

These were duly planted In the presence of certain witnesses, and on the 13th of August, Snowflake, the earlier of the two, was lifted in the presence of numerous witnesses, who superintended the weighing, when the crop was found to be 638 lb. Wonderful as this was, Eureka, a week later, gave a still greater surprise ; the produce being 1,052£ lbs., thus exceeding by 644 lbs. the greatest weight ever recorded in America. Some explanation of the phrase “ grown from one pound of seed,” should certainly be given when such startling results are promulgated. Partial explanations of the system under which these enormous weights are produced have been given from time to time, but they would hardly be compatible with the simple statement above given, in which the ■planting of the seed is recorded. The seed, it is said, was planted on a certain day in the presence of certain persons. It is not said that after growth had commenced the young shoots were taken off from time to time and planted out ; and had such been the course, some reference to it should certainly have been made. The American potatoes, especially Vermont seedling, possess, in common with many old varieties, the property of producing tubers along the stems at the axils of the leaves. A stem of a coarse kind of fluke was lately brought to us covered with embryo tubers, and it was obvious that had the stem been laid in the ground, a large extra crop would have resulted. This is one of the plans by which the immense crops of American potatoes are raised in the United States and in England, but even under that method, and after allowing for the division of every natural eye into two or three sets (another part of the plan), the statement is almost incredible that nearly 1 100 lb. of tubers has been produced from one pound. Turning to potato lore generally, we find a difference of opinion on the merits of the American varieties. Here, in Australia, growers have learnt that the quality of potatoes depends chiefly on the character of the soil —that new land rarely fails to yield healthy and well-flavored tubers. The scarcity of new land in Great Britain has prevented home growers from discovering, as generally as in this country, its value for producing potatoes ; there can be no doubt, we think, that the prevalence of disease amongst potatoes has been due chiefly to the exhaustion of some element of the soil which is essential to the potato ; at all events, when they are grown in this country for several years upon the same plot of ground, they cease to be healthy, dry, and floury, and become waxy and worthless. Cannot our chemists supply the explanation ?—The Australasian. A ERUIT GARDEN IN FRANCE. (From the New York Tribune.) The fruit gardens of Montreuil are situated mostly on a hillside having a southern exposure and overlooking the famous Chateau and Bois de Vincennes. They are distant about two miles from the exterior line of Paris, and sitting quietly on a Sunday morning under one’s vine, if not one’s fig-tree, can be heard distinctly “ the cymbals glorious swinging uproarious in the gorgeous turrets of the Notre Dame.” One hundred and fifty proprietors cultivate in walled enclosures about 800 acres of land, and the amount of wall space on which fruit is grown is between 500 and 600 miles in length. This 800 acres is divided as near as may be into rectangular spaces, each 40 feet wide by 150 feet long, and surrounded by walls about nine feet high. These walls are built of rough stone stuccoed with a cement nearly white, and having on both sides at the top a projecting roof six inches wide, which is also formed of cement. Each enclosure has 150 feet exposure to the east and 150 feet to the west, which are considered the best, and 40 feet exposure each to the north and south. On the walls facing east, west, and south are grown peaches, which are the largest crop, apricots, nectarines, and plums ; on the exposure to the north are pears and chei'ries. The trees are trained flat, directly against the wall, without any intervening lattice work. The branches are secured by pieces of woollen cloth fastened by a nail, which is driven easily anywhere in the stucco. The twigs are made to take any direction, and almost any fancy form desirable. Thus, on one wall, in large letters two feet high, is the name “ Lepere,” underneath the decoration of the Legion of Honor, each letter hanging full of ripening fruit. On another wall are the marks where formerly a peach tree was trained into the name of “ Napoleon,” but which some Communists made a special trip to destroy. Fruit tlms grown on walls is large, abundant, ripens early, and has a magnificent color, and pruning and picking are within comfortable reach. The land inside each enclosure is devoted to strawbei-ries, dwarf pears, apples, flowers, and vegetables. The reflection of the heat from these almost white walls increases the temperature many degrees, and the peach tree thus finds under a Perisian sky the climate of a southern zone, and every year, almost without exception, a golden harvest is gathered of not less than 22,000,000 of peaches. This method of growing fruit extends back about three centuries, during which time it has been brought to the greatest perfection. The soil and exposure at Montreuil being peculiarly adapted to this purpose, this locality has a special reputation, not unlike that which attaches to special vintages of wine, the grapes for which are grown in some sunny hillside nook, or under the protection of castle walls. In 1815, when the allied armies arrived before Paris, the appearance of this strange checker-board of walls for growing fruit arrested the Rusian army 24 hours—they fearing an ambuscade; but as soon as the Cossacks discovered the true nature of the enclosures they commenced to gather the fruit and destroy the trees. The cultivators then appointed a committee of three to visit the Czar Alexander, at the time occupying the Palace d’Elysde in Paris. To plead their cause the more eloquently they prepared a basket of their finest peaches, some of which measured 14 inches in circumference. Alexander, previously informed that the cultivators solicited an audience, received them kindly, admired and enjoyed their lusci-

ous fruit, and gave to each one a ring set with brilliants. Then, when he heard that the soldiers were destroying the trees which produced such magnificent peaches, he sent a mounted aide-de-camp with an order to the Russian troops to evacuate without delay the district of Montreuil. COLOR IN SHORTHORNS. (From the Live Stock Journal.) Now that the question of shorthorn colors, and especially that of white, is being pushed to the front, the following may be interesting even more than at the time it was written. It is an extract from an address by John Hitchman, M.D., as Chairman of the Derbyshire Agricultural Society, in 1862, and was subsequently published by request for circulation amongst the member's : Color is at all times uncertain in the offspring of the shorthorn, because no one color has ever been sought for continuously for a long period of time. White, or red and white, is perhaps the primitive color of their tribe ; but fashion in 1815 demanded white, and subsequently red, and now, for the past 15 or 20 years, roan has been in request —this very color requiring a blending of red and white to produce it. A white bull and a red cow will produce a number of roans in the first instance, but the pi'ogeny will produce red, or white, or patchy mixtures of the two, according as either parent may have left the stronger bias in this particular. It is because of this variation in color that the admirers of the Hereford and Devon tribe of cattle taunt the shorthorn as being not only a parvenu, but an artificial product—a made animal, with a constant disposition to rnn off to some one or other individual type, of which it is a compound. Now, notwithstanding that there is a race with the “ alloy ” of Galloway in its blood, yet is the oi’iginal shorthorn as distinct a tribe as any other of our races, and has probably an ancestry as remote ; and I am as positive as I am of my own existence that a uniformity of color as unvaried as any other class of animals could be secured in process of time if breeders were unanimous in determining one of three colors, namely, red-and-white, white, or red. So long as roan, which is a compound color, is determined upon, so long will it be a matter of the greatest possible uncertainty what the actual color of the progeny may be. Certainly roan is a very beautiful color, and the variety which it leads to makes a herd of shorthorns a most picturesque object in the parks or meadows of a nobleman ; but still this variety detracts from its dignity as a tribe, and lessens its effect when viewed as a herd in the stalls, or grouped for sale in the market. I say that this uniformity may be effected, because even now there is a kind of unity amid all this variety ; for if we cannot determine what the color of the future calf will be, we can at all events predicate what it will not be ; we know that it will not be entirely black, or have any patch of that color. Black or anything approaching black would taint the fair fame of the shorthorn as assuredly as would a woolly scalp, a flat nose, a protuberant lip, and a dark skin in her progeny sully the honor of a Virginian Iday. Perhaps there have been more good shorthorns of a white than of any other color. Although it is now very unpopular—unpopular because it betrays dirt, and is difficult to keep unsullied—and erroneously unpopular, as implying weakness of constitution, it is as hardy as any color. Stick to facts and not to fancies. In what colors does nature robe the animals which spend their lives amid the regions of eternal snow ? What is the predominant color in the Arctic hare, the Esquimaux dog, and the Polar bear ? Of what color are the bodyends of nearly all feathers, especially the feathers of all water-fowl occupying cold latitudes ? What color has instinct and experience alike sanctioned as the proper one to husband and preserve the heat of the human body ? Let no man who puts on a white shirt condemn white color in his ox as a sign of “ nesh.” A white cow maybe “ nesh ” but the same cow would have been as “ nesh ” or “nesher” if she had been of any other color. In determining the color and the texture of the hair and skin, the influence of the male predominates where both have an equal hereditary tendency ; that is, supposing that the female had through six successive generations been red, and the male through as many been white, the progeny will partake more of the latter color. Bear in mind that this effect will follow only where the hereditary bias towards a special color and character of hair is equal in both of the sexes. Look at the mule, carrying always hair of the coarseness and color of the ass. Reverse the procedure, let the horse be the sire, and the “hiny,” or as I have heard it called in Derbyshire, the “ foulart,” will have the hair and the color of the horse. From early childhood I have reared birds, rabbits, and other pets, and have never known an iustance where the male has not influenced mainly the color and texture of the external coloring of the body. If you pair a male goldfinch with a hen canary the mule progeny will resemble the goldfinch. Place a Dorking cock with Cochin-China hens and the feathers of the offspring will resemble mainly the Dorking. Reverse the procedure ; let the Oriental be the lord of the harem, and the scene is changed, the offspring of the Dorking hens will be far more like Cochins in their feathers than Dorkings.