Useful to Know.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 859, 17 August 1888, Page 19

Useful to Know.

Manures consisting of potash, phosphoric acid and ammonia, or nitrates, appear competent to grow large crops of wheat con-, tinuously. An English authority has computed that in the last three or four years more pigs have died ill the United States from cholera than have been raised in the British isles. . The value of any kind of farm stock is very largely determined by its feeding the firat year of its life. Breediug counts for much, though every successful breeder knows how greatly the character of a young animal is changed by innutritious or improper food. Professor Arnold has said : ‘ The sooner the minds of dairymen are disabused of the idea that tho ripening of cream and the development of high flavour of butter lie only in the souriug of the cream the better will it be for their reputation and their pockets, and also for the consumers.’ Staggers are the result of congestion of the brain, due to overfeeding. Pigs are more overfed than any other animals, and it is the source of nearly all the diseases to which they are subject. It affects the nerve centres in the brain and spinal cord. Give the pigs no feed at all for forty-eight hours, but only water, then begin feeding very lightly, and give the food in a shallow trongh, so that it can be taken up only slowly. Gum on Peach Tree M. Ottis, Essex Co., N. J., finds that ‘ a lump of gum as largo as the fist ’ appeared on one of his peach trees. Ho asks for cause and remedy. Where gum exudes it is usually due to a wound of some kind, mo3t generally the wound of a borer. Remove the gum, probe the hole with a wire, cutting away if need be, and dig out the borer. If the insect has left the tree, cut away any decayed part 3 around the opening ; if this is on the upper Bide of a branch, put in a plug to keep out the water, and cat so (as. to leave a smooth clean wound, that it may heal if it will.

Color of Yolks of Eggs.— * Malvern Mill,’ Alexandria Co., Va. f desires information why the yolks of eggs are so much lighter in colour from hens raised in the city than those of hens raised in the country ; also if they are so good for setting as the dark coloured ones. The reason that the yolks of eggs laid_ by hens iu cities are of a pale yellow or light colour is that the fowls are deprived of green food. The same is the case with hens kept in small enclosures anywhere. Access to green food in abundance, as fowls have it in the country, produces the rich-coloured yolk in the egg, in similar manner as it pro* duces the golden coloured milk in cows. As a rale ‘ country eggs’ are the best for set* ting. The following two paragraphs are taken from ‘ The Field. ’ Fowls killing rat. —This morning I heard a disturbance amongst my fowls, and on going to them found a cock and hen attacking a full-grown rat, which they eventuallykilled. The hen had a brood of chickens, which she defended with courage ; the cock gallantly assisted her. They made a hole in the rat’s head, and tore open a part of his body.— R. G. Gzaham (St Albans, Hampton-on« Thames). Eggs Cooled During Hatching.—The fol. lowing experience may interest some of your chiokeu-rearing readers : I hatch a large number of chickens every year in Hearson’s incubator. The other day, when turning some eggs which had been in the drawer for a fortnight, I was called away, and left the drawer out. This was at 8 a.m., in a cold room with the window open. I forgot all about it until 6.30 p.m. the same evening, when I found the eggs stone cold. They were valuable, aud' though I considered It nearly hopeless, I put them under a hen. This morning 1 found 65 per cent, hatched out, and strong healthy chijks.—C. (May _9). [The general idea that the vitality of incubated eggs is destroyed on their becoming cold is quite erroneous, as is known to all observant brseders, and definitely proved by the example forwarded by our correspondent. — Ed.]

ROTATION OF FODDER CROPS FOR A SMALL PIECE OF GROUND. Quite a large quantity of feed can be grown on a small lot. Cut oats when just ripe, bind in small sheaves, allow to stand in small shocks until the straw is cured, then, store away in the hay mow to be fed out in the bundle during the winter months. They form an agreeable variety, and a horse will eat them, straw and all, with a relish. After the oats, early potatoes and other vegetables are harvested, the ground may be sown to millet, which in a fair season will make a large quantity o.f green feed. It Bhould all be cut and fed or converted into hay before seed forms. After the millet is harvested the ground may be ploughed and sown to rye, which will be ready to out for green feed the spring long before anything else. If the land is not needed for other crops, follow the rye with oats and the oats with millet. If the soil is kept moderately rich, a good crop of each is almost a certainty. With this rotation an immense quantity of green and dry horse -feed canbe cheaply grown on a small patch of laud, and there will be no chance for weeds. However small the lot some carrots should be grown, to be stored in the cellar for feeding in winter and early spring. For this purpose the Half-long Stump-rooted is best, as it grows to a good size, yields heavily, and is not difficult to harvest. It rarely pays to grow corn for horse feed on a small lot. Immature corn, either green or cured, is not good food fop horses, Fred Grundy.