Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 245, 29 July 1876, Page 21

Farm and Garden.

To measure an acre of ground, 70 yards each way is near enough for agricultural purposes. A Western farmer, writing to the American Chemist, says :—Put pulvei-ised charcoal into boiling linseed oil, and paint the posts with it. It is a question if the salt's own elements are called into play by plants. It seems rather to call into activity portions of the manure which had passed into inactive states in the soil, and become unavailable to plants. Its operations on the plant are then of an indirect kind, rendering inert substances in the soil available. To produce forty bushels of corn above the natural production of the soil, Professor Stockbridge says that there would be required of nitrogen 561b5., and phosphoric acid 241bs. To supply the first take 64 bushels cotton seed and 50 bushels stable manure, and the second will be furnished by 2401b5. dissolved bones. Worth knowing and trying, now that the average crop of corn on our older scrub farms is down to 40 bushels per acre. To dress a sheepskin with the wool on, scrape the flesh from the skin and wash in soap and water ; then spread the skin, wool downward, and sprinkle thickly over the flesh side a mixture of equal parts of alum and salt, finely powdered. Fold the skin and roll it up tightly, and let it lie a week. Then open it and rub it with a piece of chalk and a piece of pumice-stone alternately, until it is soft and dry, pulling and stretching it meanwhile to make it pliable.— N. Y. Times. Don't live on your crops before they are gathered in. Credit is the ruin of the farmer, and " the parent of all agricultural troubles." So says the Southern Cultivator, and experience shows the S. C. to be right. If you have more horses than you can feed, sell one or two and reduce your crop. If you cannot afford to pay four hands, discharge two and cultivate less ground. It is better to have a small area wellcropped and to be free of debt, than to cultivate large areas in a slovenly manner, and anticipate the produce at the store. Twenty-four shillings per head has just been obtained for 38,000 sheep on a Barcoo run (Queensland.) A small herd of cattle on the same run has brought £9 per head. The Capricomian says that five yeai's ago the vendors are said to have bought this same run from the Union Bank for a mere song. At that time sheep and runs were deemed almost valueless by shrewd bank directors, and every unfortunate squatter who had anything to lose was unceremoniously screwed up and turned adrift upon the world. Times have changed now, certainly, when in the face of a drooping wool market a run 400 miles from port fetches 245. per head. j HOW TO GET A LARGE YIELD OF CORN. (From the Country Gentleman.) By one course of treatment, and not denying there are in all reasonable probabilities other courses just as good, I think I may have a right to talk about, because of an unexpected success of last year. The result sought for was to obtain the greatest possible yield of shelled corn per acre, and to do it with only the means every ordinary farmer has at command. The acre designated for the experiment was old upland prairie which had been fifteen years in cultivation, and six years j>reviously had been underdrained to the' depth, perhaps, of 30 inches. In the course of 1873 and previously, the acre had been heavily manured from the barnyard, and in the spring of 1874 again manured, and a trial corn crop assayed, which failed to the extent of yielding less than 40 bushels to the acre, on account of the terrible drought of the summer. For the crop of 1575, the land was ploughed the last week in April, and (because at that time another drought was anticipated) a light coat only of stable manure was previously spread. The corn was planted in drills, running north and south four feet apart, and so thickly as to have warranted in ordinai'y seasons that there would be stand enough to thin the stalks standing 9 inches apart in the row. But on account of the cold weather following the planting the first week in May, the seed failed to germinate; and though hearty attempts were made to that end by replanting and transplanting, the stand was never first-rate. As soon as germination showed the position of the rows, the acre was harrowed; and then again as soon as fairly up and green over the ground, and hoeing and cultivation followed thereafter through the season as often as the crop seemed to demand it, or as the excessive rains of the summer would permit. But then, previous to the day of the first ploughing, in order to supply such plant food as was within reach, an old steam sawmill site was visited, and 260Qlbs. of half-dry, old, and exposed, but strong and unbleached ashes were procured, and a large handful placed around each stalk. This was May 25th; the first ploughing followed on the 26th, at which date the corn was from 3 to 6 inches high. During the season, the corn grew as ■« ell as could be expected in such a wet, cold summer, developed stalks of extraordinary stoutness, and eared remarkably well, not over breasthigh to a man. The tremendous rainfall and storm of Jiily 31 and the following day worked considerable havoc by breaking and prostrating stalks, so that about the middle of August, three competent persons, examining the probable yield, found, on counting", that there were not more than 120 eai-s to the row of ten rods, and that the yield could not exceed 80 bushels. Some time in September the corn was husked carefully, each loadas carefully weighed, and the yield, allowing 801bs. to the bushel, proved to be 84 bushels and some odd pounds. If, however, the stand had been as good as the original plan contemplated, each stalk standing nine inches from the other, and each stalk had borna a good

. ear, the yield might have been expressed by the following figures :—l2O : 84 :: 215 : x equal to 142 bushels. Now, to show that the ashes were mainly instrumental in producing the earing, which was very good indeed, I invite the reader's attention to a field of eight acres, a few rods off, where on a rich piece of land, sloping down to the north, and receiving the drainage of a broad ridge to the south of it, very heavily manured from the stables, cow-houses and pigpens of an adjoining city, part spring-ploughed and part fall-ploughed, planted the same week, with the same seed, where a full stand was obtained, and good cultivation followed, where there was prodigious stalk and leaf growth, and where the ears pushed fully two feet higher than on the trial acre—but finally, where the tape line and the scales gave a yield of corn less than 50 bushels to the acre. The results following these comparative experiments, go to show that the phosphates and mineral salts increase development of cob and grain at the expense of height of stalk and leaf growth, and that to get the largest number of pounds of shelled corn per acre, something more than barnyard manure must be applied. THE UNITED STATES CATTLE TRADE, (From the New York Times.) The live stock trade of the south-west has become a matter of millions, and the time has come for the annual " drives " from Texas into Kansas and Colorado,preparatory to marketing beeves for the Eastern trade. A herd of two or three thousand upon the trail presents a fine sight, tramping along in Indian file, stringing out for a distance of a mile or so over the prairie, and feeding upon the spring grasses as they go. The distance to be made is generally from 250 to 350 miles, and it takes from thirty to forty days. When they reach the vicinity of a shipping point they are often herded out until good prices prevail, and then sent forward to Kansas city, Chicago, St. Louis, and other points. The annual drives from Texas run from 350,000 to 500,000 head. They do not all go into the market, but many work their way across the plains into Colorado and Wyoming, where the stockmen are giving attention to the breeding and improving the quality of cattle, and the buffalo grass upon the old buffalo ranges and the springs and creeks keep them generally fat throughout the year. In estimating the future beef supply good judges place the number of cattle now in Texas at 3,500,000, with half as many more upon the Western plains, distributed as follows : Western Kansas, 450,000; Colorado, 600,000; Nebraska, 375,000 ; Wyoming, 200,000; New Mexico, 150,000. The shipping stations are year by year further west; this season Dodge city and Ellis are the coming points. Some believe that this will be the busiest season the stockmen have yet seen, and that the shipments from Dodge city will alone reach 300,000 head—someplace it at 350,000; and there may be in all over 500,000 of cattle to go east by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe* roads alone, while from Ellis and other points on the Kansas Pacific from 75,000 to 100,000 head will be shipped. The prices of cattle in Texas this spring are about as follows: —Yearlings, 4dol. to 4.50d01.; two-year-olds, mixed, 6.50d01. to 8dol.; cows, 7dol. to 9d01.; beeves, 14dol. to 15dol. But large herds are often gathered up at figures much below these. There is a good deal of money in these "drives." It is the removal of 4,000,000d0L to 5,000,000d01. from Texas to Kansas. And it is noteworthy how this property increases in value as it nears market. At Dodge city, Ellis, or Ellsworth, it has increased 25 per cent.; at Kansas city it is more than 100 per cent. And when it goes into consumption the cuts that bring from five to seven cents per lb. at San Antonio or Galveston are worth 18 to 20 cents at Kansas city or St. Louis. The difference is even more marked than this. In the stock-breeding counties of Texas steaks are two or three cents per lb., while in Chicago they bring from 20 to 22 cents. In the shipments to Eastern markets there is a large quantity of dressed beef. This is a new feature of the trade. _ At Los Animas, the junction of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe" Railroad and the Kansas Pacific, three large slaughter-houseß have been established. During last winter they kept from 70 to 90 men at work, and dressed from 700 to 800 beeves per day. They are packed into refrigerator cars, each car holding from 40 to 50 beeves. Dodge city expects to see busy times this summer. The dingy town will be riotously lively for a few months now, but by another season it will have to subside probably in favor of Granada and Los Animas, and they in turn give in to some more desirable shipping points in this Western and westward-working cattle trade. WORTH CONSIDERATION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —The sudden and extraordinary advance in the price of wool three years ago had the effect of raising property-holders generally from a state of almost utter bankruptcy to that of comparative wealth. Lands that had been lying fallow for years immediately increased in value, for now there was the necessary capital in the country to purchase and develop them ; and over many fat and fertile runs might now be heard the bleating of countless sheep, and the ringing jingle of cattle bells. Everywhere there were signs of industry and prosperity. An impetus had been given to trade ; noble and richly freighted vessels were now ploughing their course from all the home and foreign marketcs to every New Zealand port, and immediately their cargoes were discharged they were as quickly and richly freighted forth again. Every branch of industry realised the benefit of the increased value of our staple export, and nothing seeped wanting to make us a flourishing and fruitful country. But it is much to be feared that this sudden prosperity may have a very disastrousending. Men who had for years struggled and

writhed to get out of the hands of their agents, were at last, through an almost miraculous intervention of Providence, free ; and the unaccustomed felicity of having a balance at all at their bankers was altogether too much for them. Property holders and general traders now launched forth in speculations they would previously have paused over before ever contemplating. Nine-tenths of them invested their uttermost farthing in ventures of land and commercial stocks far beyond their requirements or the requirements of trade ; and already the folly and ruin of this unwise and hasty desire to make wealth at one bound are apparent, and the signs of distress are becoming painfully evident. The amount of paper discounted and dishonored on maturity during the last six months alone is as unhealthy a sign of a coming crisis as one would desire to have. But, again, we have a glutted market and stagnant trade, with a sure and steady fall in the price of wool to depress us still further. That there is a crisis impending no one can fail to see, and to avert it, if possible, we would counsel prudence. In a great measure this state of things has been brought about by most unhealthy competition in trade. Profits have been cut so fine that they do not give interest on the money invested, and to this, combined with the great amount of rashness in the conduct of business generally, are mainly attributable these ruinous consequences. I am, &c, Pkudence.