FARM TOPICS

New Zealand Mail, 5 February 1902, Page 55

FARM TOPICS

The high price of linseed oil has created a great demand for substitutes, many of which are claimed to be “just as g c '°d,” and most of them are used for diluting and' adulterating the genuine article. As a matter of fact, unless the buyer is extremely careful, and gets : an original package from first-class liead- ! quarters, it is a difficult matter now to \ get the pure oil. Linseed oil contains j a peculiar gum that dries easily and ' rapidly by oxidation, and leaves .a hard i surface similar to varnish. The diffi--1 culty with the cheaper oils that have i been tried for the same purpose is that | they have no drying qualities. Tins de- , feet is supposed to he remedied by the j addition of chemical and patent driers, ! composed more or less of litharge, also ;by the addition of varnish, gums, or j resins, etc. Of the oils long used for i this purpose, corn oil has some advantages, owing to its light colour; cotI tonseed oil has about the same colour : as linseed, but neither have any drying j properties. Petroleum,' more or less j crude and refined, and other oils, which ! are often selected oil account of their j low price, are also used as ingredients in making up this artificial oil. !***»# | Sore teats is rather vague; it may \ mean almost anything, as reference to ; the definition of sore in a dietionary | will show you, and an ointment that j would be good for sore teats arising | from one cause is not necessarily good j for all. The term is, perhaps, most frequently applied to chronic erythema, ; a disease of the skin of the teats in i which there are chaps or cracks, with I ulcerations of a sluggish character. It may occur under a variety of circum- ; stances, hut the trouble is mainly coii- | fined to newly-calved animals. In cows ! with very delicate skins this disorder is ! very liable to develop, and is difficult to cure, owing to the necessity for re- ! gular milking. Sometimes imperfect | removal of the milk on account of the | soreness of the teats gives rise to a i worse trouble in the shape of mammitis ! and loss of one or more quarters. Wet | milking, and leaving the teats wet in j cold weather, is a fertile cause of soreI ness. The proper thing to do is to treat j each case on its merits, hut perhaps the ! most useful dressing to keep on hand j for general purposes is camphor and | elder ointment. Any chemist will sup- ; ply you with such a compound, or it | may be made by mixing one half-ounce ! of finely powdered camphor with four | ounces of elder ointment. "Another useful dressing, especially when flies are ; troublesome, is glycerine and carbolic ! acid. In many cases it is necessary to i draw off the milk by means of a teat , tube or syphon. A laxative dose, twelve | to sixteen ounces of Epsom salts, Is useful in cases of erythema mammill arum. —“Farm and Home.” * * » * * j A return issued as a Parliamentary paper gives the total area under crops in Ireland in 1901 as 4.630,480 acres, a | decrease as compared with 1900 of ; 28,252 acres. This year the area returned under grass was 10,578,409 acres, an increase over 1900 of 15,037 acres. The area returned as fallow was 10,907 1 acres, a decrease of 1622 acres. The area under woods and plantations was | 311,648 acres in 1900, and 308,962 acres ! this year, and under turf, bog, marsh, ; barren mountain land, etc., 4,787,003 acres iu 1900 and 4,804,525 acres in 1901, an increase of 17,523 acres. Between | 1900 and 1901 there has been a decrease of 4104 in the number of horses 1 and mules. on the other hand, ’ exhibit an increase of 63,485, while ; there has been a decrease of 8231 in sheep and 49,475 in the number of pigs. . # » * • *

This is truly the age of progress (says ; the “American Horseman”). Nothing is being neglected to develop and bring to the utmost perfection the capacity ! of the thoroughbred to cover a distance 1 in the shortest possible space of time. ! For those whose locomotion can be im- | proved by cunningly devised plates, and for ordinary plates placed with rare ! mathematical precision, the blacksmith ; has become a veritable wizard (in both ! running and trotting worlds). For ! those with extra tender or delicate mouths has been introduced the catgut bit. Blinkers have been long in use to make a supdniervous or restless horse look right ahead, instead of sideways, and the humble but effective rubber band has been put to a multitude of uses which would have made trainers of a past day stand aghast. Sand baths, sweats, legitimate tonics, etc., have had the ground fully covered, and ' now we have reached the stage when j veritable equine spectacles have made ! their appearance. Glade Run has al- | ways shown a dislike to liaving mud or dust thrown into his face, and his owner : recently ran him .in a pair of blinkers, ; the eye holes of which were closed by 1 celluloid, which, while effectively preventing flying debris from reaching the

eye, did not impair the vision, and being practically unbreakable, did not have the element of danger which would attach to glass. They proved wonderfully effective, and while the horse did not win, he ran a greatly improved race, neither stopping or propping, but running well up to his leaders in a totally different maimer to his usual performance under similar circumstances. It is npt improbable that the idea may be given a wide trial, as many horses will not- run from behind.

It lias been estimated that 2 per cent, of all the cattle in the United States - perish annually of blackleg, and that the loss to the cattlemen of the country by this disease reaches every year the enormous sum of £4,000,000. Between the ages of six months and two-and-a-half years is the period when animals are most subject to it. A striking peculiarity of the malady is that highgrade cattle seem most susceptible to its attack. Blackleg is caused by a germ which, introduced into the blood of the animal, multiplies with astonishing rapidity. Infection may be through wounds or slight abrasions of the skin. In some instances it has been communicated to cattle tlirough their food or drink. The disease is highly infectious and spreads rapidly. So far as known there is no cure for blackleg. Happily there is a sure preventive—vaccination. The method is essentially the same as that employed in the vaccination of the human family against smallpox. It has been extensively used iu many countries and with the best results.

• ■* “« * * | A correspondent of the “Pastoralists’ i Review” states that he has been very successful in exterminating rabbits at a ; minimum of expense by filling up the burrows with -earth, then covering up the hole with a square of wire netting well pegged in with pieces of wire, and placing earth on top of the netting, so that when the rabbit'comes up he fills the burrow behind him. If on examination the hole is still open, fill it again, and put more earth on the burrow. It takes from ten to fourteen days for the rabbits to die in the burrows. * * * * *

Some time ago we quoted a paragraph from a French journal to the effect- that an alleged cure for foot-and-mouth disease had been discovered by a French veterinary surgeon. More recently an announcement was made that at a sitting of the National Congress of Medicine at Pisa an Italian gentleman, Signor Baccelli, Minister for Agriculture, announced and explained a method discovered by him for the cure of the same disease. The treatment consists in injecting sublimate of mercury into the. veins. He prescribes the following doses: —For 'calves, two to four centigrammes for each injection, according to the seriousness of the case; for adult animals, four to six centigrammes. The solution should contain 75 milligrammes of sodium chloride (common salt) for every four centigrammes of sublimate of mercury. Out of fifty-two cases of the disease at Civitavecchia, fifty-two were cured. In Sardinia, where the Baccelli method was also employed, there were twenty-six rapid and complete cures out of twenty-six cases. In short, all the cattle that underwent the treatment in Sardinia and elsewhere were promptly and completely cured. The subject has been taken up by the officials of the French Veterinary School at Alfort, and the official journal of the Department of Agriculture, Argentina, announces the intention of experimenting with the cure on first opportunity. *****

I According to the “Buenos Ayres Standard,” the cattle ranches there are having a very bad time of it. The scarcity of rain and the frosts have wrought terrible mischief. Stock are dying from hunger and disease, and the young crops are withered and ruined. In some places no such frosts are said to have been known for forty-three years. From one district—Cordoba—the worst accounts of all come. No rain has fallen for over six months. The cattle are dying in all directions, and the crops are a complete failure.

• * » * • The first gram elevator to be constructed in Scotland of any size on the American principle lias been contracted for by a firm in the United States. It is to be erected at Leith, and will cost £IOO,OOO and be capable of holding 1,000,000 bushels and of discharging 8000 bushels per hour. It is to be worked by electricity.

From many parts of Victoria there comes the news of a terrible hailstorm and gale that have devastated thousands of acres in crops. So severe was the hail that- in many places the galvanised iron roofs were cut almost to pieces and holes made large enough to let an egg through. Poultry were killed' and maimed in all directions and orchards had their trees stripped of both fruit and leaves, while the standing crops were beaten down flat 'without hope of recovering. * * » •

Emperor William has erected luxurious stables for 300 of the Imperial horses in the Sclilossplatz, Berlin. On the ground floor of the new building, which is threo storeys high, are the stables for carriage horses. The saddle steeds are accommodated on the first floor, these horses attaining their stalls by means of an inclined passage. On tho second and third

storeys are housed 200 of the liuper.. j riages, which are raised or lower ~-j required, to the ground by means . ,_-j----tric lifts. Most of the Emperor s m.s.s are of German.breed, but a good many.are English thoroughbreds, the rem&i..cer being Hungarian. These latter are Kept for four-in-hand driving. Half-a-dozen ponies for the use of the young priiu-t-s also find a place in the stable. A li-cval museum and a covered court, in which the Emperor may take riding exercise during bad weather, form part of the new structure. * # a • *

For horses which are easily excited and run away a new method of restraint has just been adopted in Paris. The motorcar is responsible for frightening horses which have bolted and caused fatal accidents in the gay city and the Prefeet of Police is experimenting with a new invention. An extra pair of blinkers are mounted on tho ordinary blinkers and kept back by a spring, which is controlled by an extra rein passing between the ears of the horse to the hand of the coachman. When the horse becomes restive and inclined to run away, the driver quietly pulls the rein, the extra blinkers fall into place, and the animal is completely blinded. It is contended that the most vicious or nervous horse would be cowed by finding itself in complete darkness, and the experiments are said to have proved eminently successful. -»****

It is a good many years now since an. ingenious German exhibited at a livery stable off Picadilly his wonderful mechanical horse, which he guaranteed would throw the finest rider that dared to mount hint. The machine was carefully shaped and clad in the hide of a horse with flowing mane and tail; it might, in repose, have passed for a wellstufted specimen but for the pivot on which it turned aud the stout steel shaft which entered its belly below the girths and communicated with the machinery under the floor. This mechanical horse when "set going" imitated the movements of a wild, unbroken colt, and was master of all the tricks known to the Australian buckjumper. It was a "fiend in equine shape/’ to use the words of a popular author. As soon as the ambitious horseman had paid his shilling and climbed into the saddle, it began its tricks, rearing straight up on end, plunging with its head between its knees and heels aloft, and wheeling round and round with its back arched in the pleasing fashion of the accomplished buck-jumper. It lay down, bounded upon its feet again; in short, committed every iniauity known to bad equine nature. Of course, it got the better of every man who attempted to ride it. Long after a real horse would have given in from sheer exhaustion, this German “nightmare," if it may be called so, bucked and kicked away with the tireless vigour of well-made machinery Hough-riders from the military schools, from the colonies and shires, came to try it, and retired sooner or later upon the mattresses spread to receive them. Some of the adventurous stuck to the saddle so successfully that the inventor had to cause his mechanical beast to perpetrate tricks unheard of among horses before he could unseat them. It was mechanism against flesh and blood, and the former was bound to win.