ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1003, 8 July 1879, Page 4 (Supplement)

ITEMS.

The average yield of potatoes in the Buln Buln (N.SW.) district, this season, will exceed ten tons per acre. Do not try to raise a cow for beef and also for milk. Tlie cow that you are raising for beef will not make a good milch cow. If you milk a cow slie is not going to make good b< vf.

An instance of spontanotis inculialiou is reported from a. Western New York barnyard where tlie heat of litter accidentally thrown over a nest ot' eggs hatched out eleven healthy chickens.

Since ISUS tlie people of Kausa:,-, America, have broken and put muter cultivation over 6,000,000 acres of prairie, have organised forty counties, and have built over "JSijii miies of railway. Twe!»-e :jiiarf.s of so<»t in a of- water viii ma Ice powerful i manure, which wiii impn.v tli* of iiowei'K, vegetali'e.-;. or ci either a liquid or solid srete. ••• an excellent toj>-uivs.-.i..g »..i cereal crops. To oho gallon of water add two ounces of unslacked lime and four ounces of Hour of sulphur; boil one hour, and when the liquor is cool, dip the shoe]). Another dip, recommended by Messrs. C. B. Fisher and Graham Mitchell, is to mix 1 gallon carbolic acid with from 125 to 150 gallons water.

If you want eggs in winter never keep old hens. When a hen is three years old the best use she can be put to is to be turned into the soup pot. No matter liow well they are fed and attended to old fowls will not give eggs in winter. Give fresh water, and so prevent them from drinking snow water, which is very injurious to poultry.

Removing the horns from cattle is a frequent practice among English and Irish drovers. It may be done by sawing them off close to the poll and then searing the part with a hot iron, or by the vise of caustic dressings, such as sulphate of copper, and then smearing with tar. It is not a very painful operation, but it has a wonderful effect 011 the disposition of an animal. It is said that the origin of the naturally hornless breeds was from breeding from dishorned cattle.

A correspondent of the Builder says: " Four years since I took an old country house, infested with rats, mice, ami flies. I stuffed every rat and mouse hole with the chloride; I threw it on the floors of the dairy and collars; I kept saucers of it under the chests of drawers, or some other convenient piece of furniture, in the nursery, bedroom, and drawing-room. An ornamental glass vase held a quantity at the foot of each staircase. Stables, cow-sheds, pigstyes, all had their dose, and the result was, that I thoroughly routed my enemies." Mr. Hutclieson, of Dargalong, states that during the threshing process lie was particularly careful to keep tlie wire out of the straw, but allowed a good deal of it to get among the " hulls," or chaff from the thresher. His cattle I on being turned into the threshing yard I went rooting among this chaff iu their I usual manner, and the result is that a I number of them have become totally I blind. Mr. Hutclieson is quite certain I that this unfortunate effect is caused by I the fragments of wire getting into tlieir ,1 eyes. —North-eastern Ensign. J A new process for preserving eggs I for several months has been discovered I by Dr. Phipson. On taking the eggs I from the nest they should be covered I over by means of a bit of wool, with I butter in which is two or three per cent I of salicylic acid. Each egg, after re- I ceiving this coat, should then be placed ■ in a box filled with fine and absolutely ■ dry sawdust. If care be taken that the I eggs do not touch each other, and that I they be perfectly covered with the saw- I dust, they will keep fresh for several I months —perhaps for more than a year. I Dr. Phipson states that he has experi- I mented with this process for two yeai'S, I with most excellent results. H The council of the Smithfield (Lon- ■ don) Club have decided to " consider ■ the advisability" of making alterations I in their future prize sheets for fat stock ■ such as prohibiting animals once shown H from being again exhibited; also for I preventing aged animals competing for I the champion plate, and of still further ■ reducing the number of prizes for the ■ older classes of animals. They very ■ rightly refuses to offer prizes for Guern- H sey cattle, because that breed is espc- I cially adapted for milk and not for beef. ■ The council, however, do not appear to H have the least faith in lean pigs at I Islington, but have , wisely allowed ■ lambs to compete for the breed cups ■ and champion plate in the sheep division, ■ —Mark Lane Express, I Jacob's peeled appears front I the Live Stock Journal that the patrl- ■ arch's expedient is successfully resorted ■ to by breeders even at the present day. H The white cattle of Charolais attracted H great attention, especially from English- ■ men, at the recent International Expo- ■ sition at Paris. Mons. A. Colcon|bet| ■ |an extensive cattle brppijcv of tliftt H district, writing in the above journal of ■ 31st January last, says that to ensure, ■ uniformity of color (white) in that breed ■ it is essential not only the sire and clam H be white, but that all the surrounding" H of the herd, such as the byre the stalls, ■ the sheds, and especially the one i" ■ which the cows are served, should be ■ white-washed, so that nothing but white ■ strikes the eyes of the females. H Every farmer should have a small ■ room, tight and warm, which cfll j H lock, and where he can keep his sma ■ tools. Then he wants a good so l ■ work-bench, with an iron vice side and a wooden one on jftxc, ot'^ 1. For iron-working he wants a solid l ,ieC ® H of iron for an anvil, a sevcn-po UI1( H steel-face hammer, one large and one ■ small cold chisel, two or three punches M from one-fourth to three-eighths of inch, a rimmer and countersink to used with, bit stock ; a screw-plate tli# will Gut ft screw from one-four tli ■ three-eighths of an inch; then, round iron of tbe various sizes » ready-made nuts, he can make any he wishes. For carpenter woi wants a square, a shaving-horse, i> ing-knife, a set of planes, augei - one-half to two inches, a fine ' ia! j with coarse cross-cut and rip-saw, a cross-Qut for logs, and a grindstoiie-^^J