THE FARM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 915, 13 September 1889, Page 18

THE FARM.

KOHL RABI AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR TURNIPS.

I have been much interested in reading the opinions of many of your correspondents in recent numbers of the Gazette in relation to the question of turnip culture, and whether it is xrrofitable ; and I thought possibly some, of your readers might be interested, in knowing my experience with kohlrabi, which I substitute largely for turnips. I might state that mine is a small dairy farm, the arable ground being principally light gravelly loam. Keeping a rather large herd in proportion to my acreage, I have to make, the land produce as much cattle food as possible, and cannot find anything in the root way, not excepting mangold, that produces as good results, both in milk and butter, as kohl rabi.

Whether the objection urged against turnips —that of consisting so largely of water—is equally applicable as regards this crop, I cannot say, never having had any analysed. But I judge by results, and my experience in feeding rabi to cows goes to show that one ton is worth —as a milk'producer—at least 1J tons of any description of turnips, with the additional advantage that they may be given ad lib., tops and all, without . producing the slightest objectionable flavour in either milk o: butter.

My cows are now receiving about two bushels of rabi per day, pulped and mixed with chaffed straw, and a few brewers’ grains, and they also eat the tops from the above quantity ; ana my yield of milk is remarkably good—in fact could scarcely be better were we in tlie full flush of spring grass. The quality is also very satisfactory, and any butter we make (the bulk of the milk is sold) is as sweet and well flavoured as any grass butter. For the benefit of those who have not grown this crop, I may say that it can be sown the same as swedes, in April or May and singled out to about the same distance. But I prefer to raise a bed of plants, and plant out after rye or tares cut green for spring and early summer forage. Being of the cabbage tribe, rabi plants out remarkably well. That which I am now using was planted, on land once ploughed after a heavy swathe of winter-sown tares and oats, the planting being completed about the middle of July. No dung was applied for the rabi, the tares haying been moderately manured but a portion received a dressing of nitrate soda, lewt per acre, applied (a. pinch to each plant) after the plants had struck. The yield is about 14 tons per acre where no soda was given, and 18 tons per acre where it received the soda, and would undoubtedly have been heavier, but for the cold in the early part of October, and the prolonged drought (we had seven weeks here, from the first week in September to last week in October, without any appreciable rain). The piece of land is one of the poorest I have —what is termed 'hungry,’and had it been fallowed for swedes, the weight per acre would scarcely have been more, with a far inferior feeding value; and I should have been minus my heavy cut of tare forage. One objection sometimes urged is. that rabi is an exhaustive crop. This I admit, but any crop that gives a high feed value must necessarily be so, and there is no possible doubt that the results obtained far more than counterbalance the little extra exhaustion produced, as compared with a turnip crop. Another objection often made by the men, i 3 the trouble of pulling, the rabi growing with a root and stalk just like a cabbage, the bulb being entirely out of the ground. We surmount the difficulty by cutting off with a carpenter’s adze, a smart blow between the bulb and the ground readily separating the stalk. In this way we cut the rabi much more expeditiously than we could pull turnips. Our summers here are frequently very dry, and in planting out it is often necessary, to use the water-cast, and water the plants in; but they are certainly quite us easy to plant as any description of cabbage, and, once struck, they show great vitality, and stand drought well, and after a long scorching will start off and grow rapidly when rain does come, where turnips on similar land, and with a like experience, of weather, would completely fail as a paying crop. , . ■- Taken on the whole, I believe dairy farmers who manure liberally will find kohlrabi a most valuable croo, and capable of proving as economical a milk and butter producer as they can grow; and if you will publish this letter, it may tend to help some of those who are out of conseit with their turnips.—T.B.G., in the Agricultural Gazette, (England.) NITRATE OF SODA FOR ROOTS. I have for some years used nitrate of soda for all my roots—for mangolds at the rate of lewt per acre, half with-the seed and half when thinned out ; also for swedes, when sown without farm manure, at the rate of lewt soda and 4cwt superphosphate 36 per cent soluble, lhe effect was much marked in 1887 (a very dry gnxniner). *When the nitrate was used, the plants came ten days’ sooner to the hoe, and were quite five tons more per acre than when not used, and this year I found great benefit also. The season was so cold, and the young plants seemed at a standstill till I gave them lewt of nitrate of soda, since which they have improved greatly. For cabbage I oonsider .it indispensable. In fact, I have long since discarded all the special manures sold by the great dealers, and confined myself to buying good mineral phosphate containing 36 per . cent soluble, and best nitrate of soda, and mixing the same to suit my requirements, with now and then a little kainit to supply the potash. By buying the above in the open market you get the four essential ingredients—nitrate, phosphate, potash, and lime, buying each by guaranteed analysis. You know the units in each ; then take any analysis of special manure as your guide, and you can make the same at about half his price.—Agricultural Gazette.. ENSILAGE. The following instructive and suggestive letter is taken from the Agricultural Gazette, (England). I am glad to see your editorial remarks on my letter on ensilage, page 515, because I quite think the opinions you express are shared by many, and the more daylight is let into the subject the better ; so I trust you will allow me space for the reasons which lead me to. hold, what may appear to some, the strong views . I ventured to communicate. We must not, if you please, as yet measure the value of the process by the extent to which it has been adopted I although concerning that which comes under

my personal knowledge I am glad to report a satisfactory increase, irrespective of such fluctuations as were caused by the drought of 1887 and the floods of 188 S, Of course its introduction, like that of all r.ew things, has been unavoidably retarded by the uninviting results of some of the early efforts. First came silos expensive and offensive in smell; then countless attempts at stacking, put up in a manner which made success impossible. The erroneous doctrine of not putting pressure on and time for heat to rise—true for a, silo, but fatal to stacks—has done much to retard the process through the over-heated failures it has caused. However, Home was not built in a day. Probably the first few haystacks were not quite what we should now call good ones. Those who have worked hardest are only just beginning to know the rudiments of their trade. The spread will be more rapid as farmers get to see, what few indeed have yet seen, such a 100-ton stack as I saw a few days ago, of which the farm bailiff said, ‘ Why, plenty of hay-stacks have more waste about them than that one ’ —and it is not the best I know of. Another drawback has been people imagining that any sort of rubbish would make good ensilage, and that any person, with or without proper appliances, and without experience, coula make it. Meantime, the advantages of the process has had to be valued and proved on inferior specimens. Good as the results have been, it is only reasonable to look for still better from what is now being done. Specimens from my own this year s stack were to be seen on the Aylesbury Company’s stand at Smithfield Show, last week—a piece taken from within one foot of top, another from one foot of bottom, and a third from middle of stack. The expense of appliances also need not now be looked upon as an insuperable obstacle when is is considered that a press, for 100-ton stack can be got for £l9, against which, as compared with haymaking, must be set the cost required for it of hay turner, hay sweep, stack poles and gear, stack covers, etc. In stating that ensilage will entirely supersede turnips, I certainly ought to have qualified to the remark to make it read as it was intended, for purposes for which, so far as it has been tested against them- —such as fatting cattle, milk cows, and young stock —until, as in these cases, the superiority of ensilage has been established. Of course, we must admit that for a special purpose such as you allude to (viz., folding sheep on light land), a use may still be found for turnips. Of course, it is only on light land that turnips can be eaten on by sheep. But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and, so far as I know, it may yet turn out that a heavy crop of tares and oats grown on the best of real turnip land, if. properly matured and properly stacked, ensiled, and fed to sheep, on sound old pasture land, would fatten them more to the advantage of their owners, even though he has to consolidate that light land by rolling or otherwise, instead of at the expense of the sheeps’ feet paddling in the sloppy mud. Many of us have proved the value of ensilage to lambing ewes, and from the letters I have, I think it likely we may shortly hear results ot fattening sheep on it also. Perhaps some of your readers, have already done it and would give us their experience. v

Now the point on which we really join issue is, to my mind, a crucial one, viz., you say you cannot agree with me that *it is wasteful to make hay even in the finest of weather.’ .1 beg leave distinctly to hold to this, and consider it has, been proved up to the hilt all along the line.

You admit second-crop clover and grass, tares, and trifolium are better made into ensilage than into hay; but, excuse me, I did hot say second-crop of meadow-grass. At’the best it only makes sour ensilage, and, in my humble opinion, is better left in the.field and eaten on it. The question between us is-—ls it more wasteful to make first-crop meadow-grass and first cut of clover into hay or into ensilage ? In 1884 I tied up two cows standing on boards with sawdust (no bedding to eat which would vitiate the experiment). Old land meadow hay, of the finest quality, was carefully weighed to them, chaffed, and allowed adlib. They ate 29st of 141 b fbr the two in seven days. Next week the same ate 28st of whole hay (not chaffed). Out of same stack, following week, same cows ate 72st meadow grass ensilage, cut from same field as the hay was taken from. This, in round figures, equals at the rate of 4J tons per ,year per cow hay, against 11 tons per year per cow ensilage. Now, take land equal to 1 ton hay per acre, the equivalent to which in ensilage is 4 tons, and you will find it takes 4J acres made into hay to keep a cow for twelve months, and only 2| acres to carry same cow if made into ensilage. The same experiment with two other cows, under other superintendence at another farm, gave practically the same results. Again, in 1884 I stalled ten bullocks, remarkably level in age, size, and condition. Again no bedding. Five were fed on ensilage ad lib., and five on best hay and swede turnips, both ad lib., and each lot some ration of cake and meal. The late Mr Jenkins, secretary to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and fifty or sixty gentlemen who came with him on a silo-inspecting tour, saw them, and the first two were killed for the inspection, one from each lot. Result: the two lots came ready for the knife, pari pasu, so far it was a dead heat —but it was found that the hay 'eaten by the hay and turnip lot had came off same acreage which the ensilage had,, which had fed the ensilage lot without the help of turnips—therefore, the whole of the turnips had been consumed to replace the waste occasioned by drying into hay instead of making into ensilage—and I may add the turnips came off a nearly equal acreage to to the hay and ensilage, and were a good crop. This result is much the same as shown by reference to the Royal Agricultural Society’s . experiments at Woburn, winter 1884-1885, report book October, 1886, when two lots, from .bullocks, each on silage alone, were pitted against two lots, four bullocks, each on hay and roots —making two separate trials. In the first trial the hay lot ate 451 b swedes andlllbhay per day each, and the silage lot ate 501 b per day ensilage. In the second trial the one lot 451 b swedes and 101 b hay per day each, and the other 43§lb silage. Daily increase in live weight was in first experiment with hay and roots 21b soz per day, with silage 21b loz ; in second experiment, increase live weight, hay and roots, lib 12oz ; silage, lib 7oz daily. The fattening of these animals, like mine, were therefore practically nearly equal, but I wish to call particular attention to the fact that if in the first of these trials the 111 b hay had ~\ been ensiled, its equivalent in ensilage (multiplying by four as before), would have been 44 lb., whilst 50 is shown to have sufficed to produce same result as required, 451 b per day turnips in addition. In second trial this shows itself still more plainly, as we find that one lot eat 451 b swedes, and the other 43glb silage ; whilst the grass which made the 101 b hay would have made'4olb silage within a fraction, sufficient to have produced same/result without the help of the turnip crop in addition..-: n In the winter 1886-1887, report bp.o,Jc,;QpJfcpi)e?!,ii3 e 1887, The Royal Agricultural Society conf,^,

dncterl another experiment, which being devoid of complication with roots, meets our case, and if possible still more distinctly proved the useless waste which ensues from drying good meadow grass into hay. At Woburn six bullocks were fed upon hay made from 15 tons 7cwt 2qrs 2!b of grass, cut on same day, side by side with 12 tons ISewt 3qrs_ 151bs, which were made into ensilag'e, yet the hay from the above larger amount was all consumed before the silage from the smaller amount fed to six other bullocks, and the increased live weight was : Bu'loeks receiving hay, l‘9Glb par day. Bullocks receiving silage, 1951 b per day.

We are not toid how much of the silage remained, but the report says the six bullocks were kept on it for a few days longer. If 13 tons of grass made into hay will keep six bullocks a few days longer than 151 made into hay, and keep them better into the bargain, I think little more need be said. A parallel trial was contemporaneously held, also under the authority of the Royal Agricultural Society (see report book, October, 1887), but this time at Wilmington, on a farm belonging to Mr Evans. Here f<mr bullocks at 221 b per day of hay, four others G7lb ensilage. Daily gain in live weight per day was, the hay eating lot 1.31 b, ensilage lot I.Gib.- Here, again, it will be observed that a much greater weight of grass had been turned into hay, and produced inferior results to a smaller quantity made into ensilage, and the report states that jt was calculated that the cost of each lb of daily increase was—from silage 7§d, from hay 9d. Now, for the information of those who know nothing of what a properly made ensilage stack is like, and might still think that the ensilage itself is better-than hay, yet that there may be some slight counterbalancing waste through mould on outside of ensilage stacks more than there is waste at top, bottom and sides of a haystack, —permit me to say that either through my bad writing or the satanic influence of your printer’s devil, the following errors crept into my letter as it appeared in your columns—viz., respecting outside waste of stack, * whole bugbear ’ should have read ‘ old bugbear,’ the word old alluding to the fear of it before stacking ensilage was tried a.-ain. ‘ Six to eight tons of loose, mouldy stuff ’ should have read ‘ G to S ’ inches. The Judges of the Roystl Agricultural Society, reporting upon, my stacks of 1885, put the outside waste at 1J per cent —trifling as this is, recent stacks ha*»e still less. When I wrote that no stack, even those of comparatively small size, should under any circumstances exceed 3 per cent, I was well within the mark. A twelve ton haystack may easily have 7scwfc waste of tops, and bottoms, and sides, and that equals 3 per cent. Seeing is the most convincing argument. My ensilage operations are, as they always have been, open to inspection. Anyone may cms and see the stacked ensilage and stock of all ages fed on ensilage alone, and this winter, without even cake and meal, farm horses as usual, ensilage alone. I stick to my text, ‘it is wasteful to make hay even in the finest of weather.’ In fact, in comparing the. two, it is found that the top, bottom, and side waste of an average properly constructed ensilage stack is considerably less than that of an- average haj’staclc.

Croft, near Darlington. C. G. Johnson,

MAIZE CORN- _ A thoughtful and instructive paper on ‘ Economy in Feeding,’ from the able pen of Mr F. J. Lloyd, lecturer on agriculture at King’s College, which appears in the Live Stock Journal Almanac of the current year, ought to convince the most sceptical that chemical science, when pioperly understood, is not a task-master, but a candid friend in need to every breeder and keeper of live stock. The German scientists have provided valuable tables from which may be compounded palatable and digestible foods, the nutritive ratio of each being established by careful analysis. Undoubtedly, an intimate knowledge of the constituents of the various cattle foods now on the market, both for feeding and fattening, for work and for the manufacture of milk, flesh, and fat, is of vast importance ; and too much stress cannot be laid on there being no excess of albuminoids, carbo hydrates, or fat. In the I’rofessor’s brief table of the average of the most usual of these feeding stuffs. I observe maize-meal returned as containing 87‘0 parts of dry matter, 10‘fi of albuminoids, 69 7 of carbohydrates, and 5‘5 of fat. But this, I venture to subm t, is too general, and consequently to some extent, misleading. When' we consider the flexibility of organisation of this co-mo-politan millet, which lias a sort of fascination for the fanners of almost every country from the warmest regions of the torrid zone to the north-west of Canada with its short but hot summer, the analysis of one variety w ill by no means hold good in all. With us who know little of the plant, save a very useful green forage, maize is maize, and fed promiscuously alike to every animal on the farm from the horse to the hen without regard to the marked diversity in the chemical constitution of the numerous varieties of corn. Having of late years had occasion to somewhat closely study corn-cane, I would call attention to its wide range of varieties, one and all, more or less, differing in their feeding qualities and values. Being so easy of hybridisation fresh samples are, constantly appearing. The action of manures, the wide differences of soils and climates, and the influence of diverse modes of planting and culture, all contribute to give a different ratio to the compuiient parts of the corn. The sbuthern gjowths of the United States contain less oil than those of the north. For instance, flint-corn meal will keep sweet for several years, whereas the Tuscorara farine sours in a short time. Dr Salisbury has furnished the analysis of the five leading varieties-:

Of the seventeen varieties grown by the New York State Agricultural Society, or under its auspices, the average yield of which, to entitle the grower to a premium, must exceed sixty bushels to the acre—not one analysis in point of nutriment comes out like another, and in many cases the diffeience is very marked, Preference, however, is given to the northern yellow variety as being the best for man and beast. Tmeorara corn, which contains neither igluten nor oil, is a softer and better horsefood than the flinty kinds. Virginia white seed corn, said to be the most productive of any, h*s no starch, and less gluten and oil than these flinty kinds, and also being soft is suited to stable use. Early sweet corn furnishes a

large supply of the phosphates with the addition of sugar and gum, but little starch. _ Itice corn, so called from its kernels being in size and shape somewhat similar to Coralma rice, containing more oil and less starch, is found to Lie invaluable in the poultry yard, and is worthy oi the attention of our pheasant breeders, Ofcner varieties are of special value in the dairy, in the process of manufacturing pork or the hacon-curer s pig, and in feeding every animal known in agriculture save and except the horse expected to do fast work. It seems, therefore, that we should discriminate between the manifold varieties of maize and turn each into its special channel. VV. A. Kerr.

FRENCH COACH HORSES. The recently introduced coach horses of France have proved to he a great acquisition to the horse stock of the United States. They have come rapidly into prominence among American breeders, and seem destined to fill an important place between the light road horses and the heavy draught breeds. _ The French coach horses are high-bred, combining the blood of English and Arabian -thoroughbreds with that of the Norfolk trotter. For two hundred years the French government has maintained haras or horse-breeding establishments where every effort has been used to keep up to the highest standard. The total number of stallions in these has gradually increased, until at present nob fewer than 2500 are owned by the government. There is also a, class of approved stallions in the hands of individual owners. These include coach, draught, anrl other styles of horses. Of the government and approved coach horses, nearly, if not quite, all trace back, by different lines, to English thoroughbreds and to the famous Norfolk trotter Phenomenon, with an occasional dash of blood from native Arabs brought directly from the desert. With these three for foundation stock, a style of horse has been developed which combines symmetry, good size, and great nerVe power, with stylish and graceful carriage. They weigh from 1150 to 1400 pounds, have bloodlike heads, powerful shoulders and flanks clean limbs, perfect feet, and a style of action which bespeaks their high lineage. They have not the speed of the light American trotters, but are admirable as coach, brougham, or carriage horses. Crossed on the native mares of the country, thsy produce a-grade which comes as near as anything can to answering the call for a general purpose horse.

EXPERIMENTS IN WHEAT CULTURE.

Professor Bljunt of the Colorado Agricultural College, having first made an elaborate study of the habits and needs of the wheat plan, conducted a series of experiments in its cultivation with the following results :—First he planted upon an exact square acre seven and one-third pounds of hand-picked wheat in rows of eighteen inchus apart, and at harvest thrashed out sixty-seven bushels ; again upon one-fourth of au acre he planted thirty-two ounces of selected seed, and the product was eighteen bushels ; and again, upon seventy six square feet he planted seventy-six kernels of extra fine seed, weighing forty-five grains, and the product was ten and one-half pounds, or nearly at the rate of one hundred bushels per acre. These results are not more remarkable in the excessive yield from a given area than in regard to the yield from a given portion of seed. Agricultural discussion too often directs attention to a result without sufficiently analyzing the means by which it is obtained. A pertinent feature of these experiments is tho saving of an amount of seed which, averaged upon the entire grain acreage, would add annually a vast sum to the wealth of the nation. If we should throw into the sea annually 50,000,000 bushels of wheat and a tion of tho other cereals, tho world, would cry out at our improvidence. Yet if Professor Blount’s conclusions are correct—and they are supported by such collateral

evidence —we bury this amount in the ground, where it is not thrown away, but where it actually decreases the resultant <jrop. Farmers generally will say that the results secured by the above experiments are nqt attainable upon any extended scale. Probably not, to the average farmer, because having so much land to till, he must etill sow his eight acres per day. It may occasionally ocour to one of particular intelligence that it might be economy to produce his hundred bushels by the thorough cultivation of two acres rather than by superficially working upon eight. Such a one will find that exact and scientific methods are practical as well.

VALUE OF CULTIVATION. Experiment and experience teach that the highest aim of cultivation is not to keep down weeds, but to conserve the moisture of the soil and render the fertility which the land may possess more available. Following the same line of thought we are finding out that weeds are injurious as much for the water they take out of the soil as for the fertility they remove. The dry weather which prevailed aver a large area of the Northwest afforded the intelligent farmer a splendid opportunity to put his soil in position to best help itself over the disaster which impended. The main point to be remembered in fighting drought is that a crust must not be allowed to form on the soil, for if it does the water passing upward from the soil is rapidly conveyed to the surface and evaporated. To prevent this evaporation gardeners often npilch their grounds in a manner entirely of course, ip the Dpt the farmer can accomplish the game object by converting the upper, layey of the soil into a mulch by finely pulverising it, A couple of inches, or even an inch, of finely pulverised, mellow soil resting upcu land that has previously bean well ploughed, will conserve the moisture to a most remarkable degree. It is probably correct that land needs more cultivation in times of drought than in wet sea. sons.

‘ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’ A day spent in harrowing a corn field, before the corn is up or at any time until it is three or four inches high, provided the right drag is used by tho light man, is worth three days’ work later, on. Half of the labour of corn cultivation should be over before the corn is an icch high. The same is true of potatoes, where a day is given to mellowing the soil before the shoots appear, is worth many days after tho plants have gained some size, One can never work land

in the most economical way, where the labour performed and the crop returned are counted, until he fully believes—and is governed by that belief—that cultivation does not mean merely fighting weeds, but rather that it is calculated to render plant food available and hold moisture where most needed. —Breeders’ Gazette.

ANGORA GOATSThe white silky-aired goats of Asia Minor have become a permanent element in the live stock of the United States. After their first introduction, so many obstacles to success were encountered that it was for many years a doubtful question whether they couldflourish in any part of this country; but experience has shown what conditions they require, and they are now bred and kept in some parts of the country with less uncertainty than attends sheep raising. Small importations were .made forty years ago by Dr. J. B. DavL, of South Carolina, who was followed by Mr. Chenery, of Massachusetts, Col. Richard Peters, of Georgia, and others. About twenty yeais ago, A. Eutychidei, a native of Angora, brought over a flock of goats, and made vigourous efforts to bring them more lax’gely to the notice of the American public. After several years of doubtful success he returned to the Old World to engage in farming in Thessaly. But he left many flooks here, and the ; r subsequent success is largely the result of his enterprise. Texas is the home of the Angora goat industry, although there are many other sections of the country equally well adapted to it. The goats will endure great, vicissitudes of dry, heat, and cold, but a damp climate is extremely unfavourable to them. They flourish best at considerable altitudes above tide-water. Though not as indiscriminating in matters of diet as of the common goat, they have a special fondness for twigs and shrubs, and are made doubly useful in clearing off brush pastures, while furnishing flesh and increase. There is no fixed type of these animals. In their native provinces of Asia Minor there are quite distinctly marked local variations, but the type most usual in the United States is found in Angora, the province from which they derive their name. They are described as follows by G. A. Hoerle, secretary of the American Mohair Growers’ Association : 1 The body of an Angora goat should be long and as round as possible though it as round as that of a sheep. The back should bo straight, so that hip and shoulder are about equally high from the ground : shoulders and quarters heavy and fleshy, and the cheat broad, indicating good constitution. The legs should bo 3hnrt and strong. The head ia in shape like that of a common goat, but less coarse and cleaner cut. The horns are heavy, of spiral-like shape, inclining backward and a little to tho outside. Except just-the face and the leg 3, from the backs and knees down, the entire animal should be densely covored with mohair, and neither the belly nor the throat and chest should be bare, and the denser, finer in fibre and longer in staple the mohair tho more valuable tho animal. Buck fleeces of the finest fibre should weigh when the animal is at its best (that is when four years old) five pounds, and never less than four and a half pounds. Coarse-haired animals should clip seven pounds, eight pounds and better. The hair should haug on the animal in ringlets and Should not be shorter than nine inches, but with very fine goats it ia often as long as twelve inches and folly sweeps the ground. The evenertho lengthanddenaity of hair the better; Seen from a distance the body of a well-fleeced Angora goat Should appear like an oblong rigbLalngled square. ‘ Ewe 3 are somewhat fineraad shorter in fleece, ostnparityely lower at the shoulders, heavier quartered, and narrower chested than males. Their horn 3 are short and very thin, and ourved backward. No good ewe should have less than threo pounds at a clip, when four years old, and aoavse- haired ewes from four pounds upward. Fur grading up oommon goals for low grades, a coarse-haired, lieavy-fleeced buck gives the best results, but afterward a finer fleeced animal should be used. As extiimimtors of brush, goa+shavo no equal, and as their droppings are full/ as good as those of sheep, they are no doubt the most valuable of the two in brushy localities ; but when it can be dono they should be kept together in the same pasture. However, don’t forget that only the best kind of a wire or lumber fence will keep a goat/ The primary object of raising Angoras is the fleece of mohair. Whether the flesh is a palatable article of food is a question which once excited much discussion, but may now be regarded as settled. Within the present year a shipment of them was made to Chicago, slaughtered, aud the flesh sold for food. The general verdict was in its favour, the meat from the young "animals being pronounced excellent mutton with a suggestion of venison flavour. Of course, not much could be expected of lean, old, or ill-kept animals. —American A griculburist.

KILL THE WORMS. The Pacific Rural Press publishes tfie following remedy for the hosts of wo.rtns, that are devastating the orchards and vineyards throughout the State. Jt says ; There Beenqs to be an unusually wide distilbrtiooi of leaf-eating caterpillars this spring, CqtTjqrms, sear sawfly larv*@, pear slugs, etc., are reported in quantity in different parts of the State. For all these leaf-eating pests there is a remedy, and that is Paris green, using one pound of the poison to 180 gallons of water and applying in a fine spray, being careful that the Paris green is continually agitated to prevent its settling to the bottom of the vessel. It does not dissolve in water, but is merely mechanically mixed with it and is thus carried to the leaf. If soap is dissolved in the water before the Paris green is put in, it is not so likely to settle, but must still be agitated. We have given this prescription several times before, but readers don’t seem to romember it or to pay any attention to the subject till the worms are on them. HOW LONG HAS A SHEEP BEEN KNOWN TO LIVE WITHOUT FOOD UNDER SNOW ? In the winter of 1873-74, on a high-lying farm in Peefcleshire, I knew a black-faced ewe

hogg, which lived thirty-five days absolutely without food, as it was on its back beneath a heavy wreath of snow. The wool was rotfcen off its back, but it not only rallied, but lived to be an old ewe on the same farm, and had a lamb every year.—J.P. On the farm of Kineston, Kinross shire, there were nine black-faced ewes under the snow forty-nine days. They had no food of any kind at the time: At the break of the storm they eatne out of the snow very poor, but all able to run about and gather their food on the bare places on the hill. After a few days they were put on better food. .All the nine had a lamb each in lambing time, and they went on the hill all summer, and did as well as the other ewes.—D. M‘D.

A solution of sulphate of copper has been app'.ied to fruit trees in Constance with great success, so far as protecting the young buds from birds and insects. 'The solution was made by dissolving four pounds of lime in water, and one pound of sulphate of copper in thirty-two quarts of Water, then mixing the two anc adding one pound of soot and clay enough to give the liquid a semi-fluid consistency. Probably the addition of the kerosene emulsion so popular in this country would be an improvement on this mixture.

The famous Bradstone Hall Devons, one of the most noted and oldest established heids in England, are medium in size, with plenty of lean flesh without coarseness. It has been tho aim of the breeders of this herd to get a good head, deep forehead, long face, fleshcoloured nose, deep, broad chest, a back straight and as wide as possible, sides deep, the rib 3 long and well sprang, and with good sirloin rumps. The tail hangs plum and the coat is nice and curly, with a soft, mellow skin, not too dark in colour These cows are quite heavy milkers, and the steers at two and one half and threo years weigh from 1000 to 1200 pounds. Mr. Bicltle, the proprietor, predicts a revival in the prices and demand for Devons both at home and abroad, as they are worth more per pound for the butcher than Short horns, and are less expensive to x - ear.

Constituents. 1 2 3 4 5 Starch 3G06 40-85 30-2£> 49-22 40-34 Gluten 500 4-62 5‘69 5 40 7-69 Gil 3" 4i 3-SS 3-00 3-71 4-0§ Albumen .. 4 42 2:64 6:00 3-32 3'4Cj Casein lS)2 1:32 2'2Q :75 :60 Dentriue 1'30 5.40 4-61 l:£)t) 3:00 l?ibre 18-§0 21-26 26 so 11-96 18=01 Sugar anc} extract 7-25 10 Oil 5‘20 9-55 8-30 Water 15 02 lO'OO 13-40 14-00 14-00