AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2579, 3 August 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

Mr A. Mangham, a Halcombo settler, has lost a fine upstanding Clydesdale colt valued at L3O. The animal was staked on a manuka stump, and, blood poisoning setting in, it died in a few days. Every effort was made to save the horse, including the services of a “ vet." from Wanganui, but without avail.

Messrs Karl Bros., apiarists of Ohaupo,. report a fairly satisfactory honey harvestlast season. They estimate the yield at somewhere near 15 tons of marketable honey, which is being prepared for sale in 21b and 101 b tins, as these sizes have been found to suit the public demand better than larger packages. The firm have shipped about 2 tons to test the English market, and are daily e'xpocting a cable advising them-as to price. Should this prove satisfactory the balance of their stock will be despatched to the same market.— Waikato Times.

Lambing commenced last week at Messrs Judd’s farm at Manaia, near Masterton. The Daily remarks that this is exceptionally early for the Wairarapa.

In a sheep worrying case heard in the local court yesterday the plaintiff stated that the defendant’s dogs so worried some of his sheep that he had to kill them to save their lives. His Worship and a few others laughed, while the majority of those in Court wondered where on earth the joke was. Some of them haven’t seen it yet. —Pahiatua Herald,

A contributor to the Waikato Times draws attention to a useful hedge plant in the following terras: —One is always hearing complaints nowadays of : the paucity of good plants suitable for hedge purposes. This harbours the wheat rust or tho leech, but dies out in patches, while another would be admirable were the cows not so fond of it. This being so, the thanks of the community'are duo to .Mr A. Tempest, of Parnell, for his enterprise in introducing and propagating tho “ Kei Apple." It was. Sir George Grey, I believe, who first mentioned the shrub,, which grows wild upon the Karoo,: or sandy plains of South - Africa, and. it certainly seems a perfect hedge plant. . It is a sturdy, stocky, short-jointed grower, an evergeen, and with thorns which grow to six inches long and over, and a “ perfect terror to evil .doers," be they , beasts or human beings. As an added advantage) the female-plants (they are of both sexes) fruit heavily, bearing in great quantity yellow plum-shaped fruit, the size of a greengage, which ' are both pleasant eat. Jug and ndakoan exqmsitejam.' 'OrbEard-; ists would ; do well to bear this shrub: Inmind when planting.

Mr A., Alexander, Waihi, Taranaki, has just finished threshing his wheat crop, and it -is-pleasing., to state-that the: yield; jg good, averaging over 45 bushels to th«j acre, The wheat! is’- a good grain, -well matured, and is spoken of as an hxcellent sample. As an instance of the terrible weather we have experienced it might be mentioned that the threshing was commenced five weeks ago and only finished yesterday. It is gratifying to record such a yield, and the return speaks well for the quality of the Nomimby soil. —Hawera Star,

The result of the shipment of five tons of potatoes per the s.s.-Tongariro, which were shipped in that vessel for Rio He Janeiro, but which had to be taken on |to London in consequence of quarantine regulations, should embolden/the potato growers of New Zealand to consider whether a trade might not be opened in* this esculent. The report on the potatoes referred to reads thus“ The. potatoes have arrived in excellent brder, and ape pronounced to be of superb quality, boiling into balls of flour." When the experiment. Of shipping potatoes to London was tried a few years ago it was not a success, but it must be remembered that much greater facilities are now available for carrying such perishable goods as the potato. That it can be done successfully has now been demonstrated. All that is now required, is organisation ensuring a conlinuous .and regular supply. It is probable that our early varieties would be the most suitable. New Zealand potatoes would be in demand for a change of seed. ' (

Mr W. J. Denbee, at present of Gladstone, has (says the Carterton Observer ) purchased from Mr M. Driscoll his farm of 166 acres, and we understand that he intends utilising it as a dairy farm, and having it ready for his cheese-making for the coming season. The purchase money is X 2200.

One of the reasons given us by a gentleman—who is himself a successful sheep breeder —for the breakdown of the sheep market in Sydney, is that the New Zealand sheep sold there last year are not doing Veil. The difference in climate, and the chances of feed are very great as between the two countries, and our heavy, loug-woolled sheep would be at a disadvantage on poor feed alongside the merino, which travels far in search of feed, and is a good forager.— Advocate. With reference to the sheep stealing nuisance up the coast, the Rangitikei Advocate suggests that the farmers should raise a fund from which they should offer LIOO reward for the detection of any offender. It is pointed out that the LIOO would mean only a very small contribution from each farmer, and the possibility of earning so substantial a reward would open many a keen eye on flocks of sheep which now pass them unobserved. The possibilities are, however, that it would have such a deterrent effect upon would bo sheep-stealers that the reward would never be claimed.

A ton of clover hay is a fertiliser with an analysis of two per cent, of nitrogen, half of one per cent, of phosphoric acid, and over two per cent, of potash. Is it as good as a mixture of nitrate of soda, dissolved bone black and sulphate of potash —or of wood ashes and ground bone? No. Why not ? Because the hay is coarse and hard) and the fertility in it is not available for plants. , Tiet us grind it and pulverise it, both with machinery and acids, so that it will dissolve in water, and it will be ns valuable ns the other sub stances. That is what the cow does with it. To be sure, the cow takes part of the manorial value out in the form of moat or milk, but it is this grinding and fining that makes the difference in value between a manure pile and a straw stack. See, too, how the manure pile is made richer by the addition of strong grains to the cow’s rations—as it is by adding muriate and bone to the pile itself? —Farm and Field,

*Tbe most plausible theory for the separation of the butter fat iff cream by the churn, says the Anxcritan Agriculturist, is that the fat globules in milk and cream being surrounded by a thin layer of liquid milk serum, the concussion of the churning causes the usually round, uniform, floating globules to harden into irregular shapes, which results in their adhering to each other until the enlarging granules of butter can be seen by the naked eye. For some time before the butter “ comes,'' or tile Cream “ breaks," the fat globules have been massing together, and the usually rapid increase in size after they ara-viaible is due to the greater surface exposed, just as a rolling snowball grows fastest at the last. The factors which affect the completeness of the churning are stated by Director J. L. Hills, of Vermont, to include the food of the cows, the period of their 14'ot'ation, the creaming and ripeuiilg, the size and kind of chUru, with the heat and density of the cream. There seems, however, to be ho relation between the sourness of the cream, the temperature, the curd in the butter, and the time needed for churning.

Mr Chirnside, a well-known Australian squatter writes to tho Aitsfralosian strongly recommending the use of lucerne for sheep affected with stomach worm. In the course of his letter ho says : —“ I purchased about 3000 crossbred weaners at Ballintore, and put the majority of them on Euraok and Weering. They were affected with stomach worm when I bought them. I lost a few of them, and I observe they did best in paddocks whore they could get a little green picking. About SOO of the very weakest of these weaners, the most - affected and: in very low condition, I trucked to the Little - River railway station and put them into a green lucerne paddock of about 100 acres at my farm here, named Greenmeadows, at the mouth of * the Little River. This was in the beginning of January of that year, or about that time. About 30 died after they were put on, after which they improved so much and rapidly that I had them all sold fat in the end of July and the beginning of August, realising 10s 6*l each. -Thisis what I call Nature’s drench, and I believe it to be the best of all. I have proved the efficiency of lucerne this year again at the same farm with .80 crossbred weaners, also Very weak and low from stomach Worm, which I purchased at BleakhoUse sale in the end of December last. Four died; tho rest are now fat and fit for market. .

An extraordinary incident recently occurred in Cambridgeshire, where a pig was found alive after having Been buried in a straw stack for fourteen weeks. Threshing had been, going on during the third week in January, and i the, pig had evidently , at that time crawled under, a small quantity of straw, and ultimately- the'Stack was erected over it. Its position was' 9ft from, the nearest outside of the stack. Therefore, for fourteen weeks it had been buried without food or water, and with only as much air as could be obtained through 9ft of the straw stack. Ic was merely skin and bone when found, but by carefully feeding it with small quantities of warm milk it is now making favourable progress towards recovery.

In addressing the annual , meeting of the Penrith Farmers’. Club, Mr Graham, Edengrove, said he, hoped no farmer would lend himself to the cry that almost every animal on the face of the earth was diseased in some form or other. There was no healthier district in England than the breeding counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Tuberculosis . . was a disease engendered in heavy milkers, kept to a mature, age perhaps in unhealthy conditions, and perhaps with a slight constitutional failing. But when brought Inp in a healthy way with proper food, and treated in a proper manner, under sanitary conditions, there was little to fear. It was a disease which appeared very little' in young cattle, and mostly in aged cows of deep milking breeds. It had been shown that the meat of cows that had the disease was hot unwholesome, and : the milk was not tainted unless there was a disordered udder, in which case; the animal should at once bo put into the field and sold to the butcher. The chief danger no doubt was in town dairies and places where cattle were kept in a forced condition and fed in a forced manner. He hoped the farmers in that part of' the country would not go wild on this tuberculosis scare, which was: sitnply ; a red herring in the path. Mr Graham also insisted upon the necessity of adequate inspection of, foreign agricultural food products. —English Agricultural Gazette,

An English farmer, Mr James Peter, of Gloucester, tells hows he entirely prevented abortion of his cows- after the .disease had prevailed among ihem for a number of years. He miied with : enough hot water to make a.bran mash ono-fpurth ounce of cruder carbolic, acid; This; was all the cows could be made to eat at first, ;but the dose of carbolic acid was gradually increased to one-half; ounce; for- reachanimal. Carbolic'-acid is .an excellent germicide. The odour , from it may have ■destroyed pestilential.germs. : . In addition tb giving this dose to'the cows it would be; -well to wash the cowshed thoroughly with -this Or: some other,', germicide wherever abortion has been prevalent. Abortion, though, often caused by -accldentsp frequently becomes a pestilential disease, and the disinfection of the stables and premises, where milch cows are kept is necessary to prevent liability to it.

“ Why don’t the butter come ?" after churning - for, perhaps, two hours with no signs of butter. This is certainly: a reasonable question (writes “ Thistledown " in the Australasian). During the winter season certain difficulties are encountered in the dairy which are, not often met with at other times. Among these are an unaccountable bitter taste in cream and butter, and what is known as obstinacy" in cream, when prolonged churning fails to produce butter. Every little while questions about suoh' trotibles come’ to hand from puzzled dairymen. The first place to look for the cause is the temperature of the : cream in the churn. A-reliable thermometer -should be -owned by every butter-maker. The stated temperature of 62 degrees Fihr. for cream ready to churn is better than no rule, but needs frequent modification. In warm weather churning may be commenced at 60 degrees, and in the winter time cream should be heated to 65 degrees before churning begins. But judgment is neededin all cases. Every lot of cream has a particular temperature at which it ought to-be churned; to find just what that is may not be easy. But when the cream is obstinate in churning the temperature should be changed. If it foams let it stand a while, reduce the temperature slowly four or five degreeslhy pouring in

cold water and try it again. In cases where the cream is found to be too cool a very simple remedy is to stir in enough warm water to raise the whole to the right temperature. Cream from certain cows has sometimes to be churned at an unusual temperature, in some cases very high and in others very low, in order to secure the butter. Again, “ obstinacy "in cream may not be due to temperature at all. Occasionally the cause is found to lie in the feed. This is especially noticeable where succulent food is given to cows which have been long without it. So when there is trouble in churning, which is not due to temperature, it is advisable to alter the food for a time. Other causes of refractory cream are*—Keeping too long; mixing fresh cream and ripe cream; sudden changes of temperature; bad' water; feverishness in one or more of the cows resulting from fright or bad treatment.

A German farmer, in sheet ■ absentmindedness, sprinkled some beer on some plants one night, and was amazed next day to find 177 dead snails lying about the plants. With the object of further testing the efficacy of the liquid, he filled two saucers with beer, and placed fresh lettuce leaves in them, with the result that he found next morning the lettuce untouched, and 218 dead snails.