FARMING ITEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5314, 6 April 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMING ITEMS.

The Honet-Slingee.— -The inventors of the extractor or honey-slinger, a machine which empties the honey from the combs by centrifugal force, without injury, so that the combs may be returned to the bees, marks a great step in apiculture. Thus virgin honey free from foreign admixture is obtained, having the flavor of the flower from which it is drawn. To consumers of honey r a few facts are necessary to preserve them from imposition. Nice white comb speaks for itself and is generally admired, .but the price many lovers of honey cannot afford. It makes a beautiful dish for the table, but is not better than extracted honey. All comb is wax, and wax in the stomach is perfectly indigestible. Extracted honey is the pure liquid honey as it is taken from the combs by the honey-slinger, free from any foreign admixture. It is entirely different from what is known in the market as strained honey. Consumers help to impose upon themselves by the false idea that pure honey will not granulate. They desire uugrannlated honey, and. dealers will attempt to supply the demand. Almost all pure honey will granulate when exposed for some time to light and cold. The granulated state is a fine evidence of pure honey. Much of the jar honey heretofore sold in the markets, and recommended not to granulate, is a very inferior article, composed largely of glucose, or some inferior substance. Granulated honey can be reduced to its liquid state iu a few moments by placing the jar in warm water. When thus liquefied it so remains for some time before again crystallising. Consumers may be sure of a good wholesome article by purchasing granulated honey and reducing it. —National Bee Keepers, Mammoth Rte. —lt will be remembered that in June last samples of the Mammoth rye obtained from America by Mr Augustus Morris were distributed to agriculturistsinnearly every district in the colony by our Central Agricultural Society. With each sample a request was made that the results of trials would be forwarded to Sydney. Very few accounts are yet to hand, but two samples of the rye in ear have reached the office of the society. These seem very well grown, with a good stiff straw and full heads. The grain is not quite equal to the seed, but still it is good, being in one case fair and plump. In the subjoined notes from the growers there are no particulars of the quantity sown or the dates of sowing and harvesting. However, they speak for themselves. Mr. J. F. Castles, of Cavan, near Yass, writes to the secretary :—“ I send you a few ears of Mammoth rye, which were grown on a limestone soil in the driest season I have known for many years. The wonder is that it matured at all, but under favorable conditions of soil and season I doubt not but seventy bu-hels to the acre might be grown.” Mr. • Merritt, of Woodside, Parramatta, also produced some very fine sampes of rye, which are shown in a green state. In the county of Cumberland, particularly near Sydney, we have accounts of the trial patches having sufferedfromrust. —Sydney Mail.

Somehow the usually clear and practical minds who prepare the agricultural reports that reach us from Belgium, Germany, and France appear to be son? rwhat mixed regarding the merits of Durham cattle. The dairy business is so closely connected with the production of beef in the former country that we are not surprised to find occasional bur.-ts of disappointment with the Durhams; they feed too heavily to be equal competitors with Jersey or Flemish cows for dairy purposes. That the F each breeders for the English market should be found cooling iu allegiance to thq Durham as a beef-maker, is peculiar. Such is the case, however, and no satisfactory reason is given for the change which would appear to be coming over Continental public opinion as to the comparative merits of Durhams and other breeds which are not mentioned with the distinctness that would enable us to make comparisons as to their respective suitability in this country. A method of treating milk in order to preserve it for forty-eight hours or longer has been adopted in the cheese factories, and looks as though it could be applied here. Large quan-; titles of milk are received in these factories,: and, as it was found absolutely necessary to have the cheese made all of one quality, various methods have been adopted for preserving that which came first to hand until a sufficiency could be obtained. Steam is the agent now employed. The milk being put; into a vessel large enough to hold all that has been stored, steam is brought into the body of the milk by means of a pipe, and it is heated up to IdOdeg. This is found to drive off all disagreeable odors, and to so amalgamate the milk that when, after the further treatment, it is either churned or made into cheese, the ira-. provement is reported as very decided. After remaining a few minutes at the heated temperature, the milk is cooled by passing cold' water through it in a series of pipes, and around the vessel also by means of a jacket.. When reduced to the temperature of the at-: mosphere a close-fitting lid is fixed over the milk, which then remains sweet for the time desired, and is much more readily worked' into butter or cheese, and mixes better with new milk, than when it has stood over without steam treatment.

The conceit is agricultural, and reflective upon human nature. Two dairymen are speaking. One says : “ I have seen good cows, fed with the best of feed, and yet they have: not given the desired quantity of milk, and the reason was irregularity in feeding. This thought came to me as I was conversing with a neighbor the other day. Ho. said : ‘ I can’t make it out. Now, there’s Mr. Blank, his cows ain’t a bit better than mine, yet he beats me all holler in milk., I can’t see into it.’ We walked around to his hog pens, and had hardly got there before we heard the squealing of half a dozen pigs. • ‘ There it is,’ said he ; ‘ I can’t go within a half mile of those pigs without they yell as if some one was sticking them.’ ‘Shall I tell you the reason 1 ' Or first let me ask you a few questions ? When do you feed?’ ‘ Well, I get up in the morning at five, sometimes at half-past, sometimes a little later; sometimes I feed the critters before breakfast, sometimes after ; depends upon what I’ve got to do.’ ‘ How about noon and night ?’ ‘Well, if we are out in the fields, we generally get dinner first, and feed after. But if we are around the barns or house we feed before dinner. At night, generally feed before milking time.’ 1 Then you do not have any stated time, and not let anything else interfere with it?’ ‘No ; I don’t suppose that amounts to anything, so long as they get fed.’ ‘Thereis where your great mistake is. ' There is where your neighbor is ahead of you. Deferred hope, and restless expectancy are poor feed for animals.’ ”

To sow grasses over large areas of country, where, for the time, the most elementary cultivation can be given, requires a means of

sowing or distributing seed much more rapid than any sowing by hand ; and this can be secured by using centrifugal seed sowers. These machines scatter seed from a disk, and do their work with absolute regularity. They are made for hand-power and for horsepower. The former are carried by a’ man, who holds the machine in frout, slung by a strap round his shoulders. The whole affair weighs about 101 b., so that the sower can carry a quantity of seed as well. As the grass seeds generally are light, the sower can start with the full of a bag, or about half a bushel, in the feed sack or hooper which is attached to the machine. The sower, with this contrivance, turns a handle, and the seed is sown from 10 to 20 feet on each side as ho moves along. But for seeding bare land on a largo scale the horse power seed sower is the machine. It is set upon a waggon or dray, to the bed of which it is readily bolted. A portion of the machine is then bolted to one wheel : of the waggpn, and from this wheel power is obtained for driving the sowing apparatus. The whole concern weighs about lOOlbs., so that the waggon can, in addition to the machine, take seed enough for hundreds of acres. The seed is emptied into a hopper over the sowing apparatus. Said hopper will hold a sackful of seed. The distribution is regulated by! a screw; any desired quantity can be sown per acre or per mile. The seed is distributed perfect regularity, and a!s quickly as a horse can walk ; the distribution is complete from 20 to 30 feet on each side of the vehicle. The seed cau be sown just where required, or iu a regular stream, so that bare places are readily covered. Were such a process followed on lands that are made bare by grazing, and the seed covered by barrows following the sower, immense stretches of country would be renewed with the most desirable grasses quickly and at very little cost. Wheat, oats, barley, or other grain are sown by the process referred to, and miles of country are thus brought under crop. ■

Killing Poultry. —The French mode of killing poultry, says the Prairie Farmer , causing instant death, and perfect bleeding without disfigurement, is aooompl shed by opening the back of the fowl, and with a sharp-pointed amt narrow-bladed knife making an incision at the back of the roof of the mouth, which will ri-ide the vertebra and cause immediate death, after which the fowls are hung up by the legs till dead. They are then picked while warm, and. If desired, without scalding. In this way the skin presents a more natural appearance than when scalded.