Agricultural and Pastoral.

Otago Witness, Issue 740, 3 February 1866, Page 14

Agricultural and Pastoral.

OTAGO FARMERS' CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY.

Harvest will now be commencing, and as there is danger of damage from the effects of rain and wind, the greatest vigilance should be exercised in saving the ripening crops. The best indication of harvest time is given by the changed colour of the straw immediately below the head. When this changes from green to yellow — which it does before the body of the sttaw changes — the circulation of tbe plant is arrested, and the head can receive no more nourishment from the roots. We know that it can derive none from the air, and therefore at this period must contain within itself all that is necessary for its perfection, whether it be cut at once or left standing any longer time. If this be admitted, then it is clearly the interest of the farmer to run no further risk of injury from change of weather, &c., and without loss of time to cut it down, and get it safely housed as soon as possible. By commencing harvest at this period of maturity, the risks of bad w ather are considerably diminished, the crop remaining without injury for any short intervals of bad weather ; whereas, if it were fully ripe, as is too generally the practice, a day or two of -wet weather 6ets up the process of germination, whether standing or in the stook, and the sample is materially injured. But this is not the only manner in which the farmer's interests are affected by the time of cutting his wheat ; for it appears that not only is the gross weight of his produce affected by it, but also the relative proportions of its most important constituents — bran, flour, and gluten. It is generally considered that the last process of maturation of grain is the perfecting of the seed-coat (bran). This probably takeß place, to a great extent, after the circulation of the plant is arrested by the drying of the straw at the neck. For mealing purposes, and for ordinary use as food, the Jess the proportion of bran the better. This we Becure by cutting as soon as we perceive the change indicated. If, however, our object is to produce wheat for seed, and not fjr consumption, then it is important that it should be fully matured— that the seed-coat or brau should be perfected, to enable it to preserve the seed for the purposes of vegetation. In this case it is desirable to leave it standing until fully ripe.

The reaping-machine is unquestionably one of the greatest benefits which the application of mechanics to farm purposes has conferred on agriculture. By the use of this machine we not only effect a saving of something like 60 to 70 per cent, on the cost of harvesting but we get it over in far less time, with only half the number of hands, and, withal, do the work far better than it is done by the old mode of fagging or reaping. The only obstacles to the use of the naper are those met wifh in bad farming districts— as surface ■weeds, narrow high-backe i lands, water-fur-rows, small irregular- shaped fields, &c. Ordinary reaping machines will cut nine to ten acres per day, but, with recent improvements, they now cut fourteen acrt s.

Fallow operations of all kinds may be continued during the present month, whenever leisure or weather permits. The horses may be employed in giving another furrow to the bare /allows, subsoil-ploughing, or carting manure. The weeding and otherwise cleaning the helges should be done twice every year, until the hedge has surmounted every abstacle to its growth. The hedge should be carefully pruned the second year, in order that it may get thick and bushy. This is a very easy operation, performed with a hedge-knife, ■which should be very sharp, and the cut should be always made by an upward stroke of the hand. For want of attention to the pruning and dressing of hedges, we are called upon repeatedly to look upon naked, stunted, opea, and unsightly fences. A word aa to carts and waggons :—lt: — It has been proved over and over again, that the use of the long, wide, low- framed body, on a pair of wheels, is more economical than that of the waggon in the harvest-field, as thut of the light, one-horse cart is for taking dung to the fallow-field. Peed milch cows and pigs with the leaves of the mangold which begin to droop, and thereby indicate that they are no longer serviceable to the plam. They will be eaten with avidity, if in no degree decayed. Do not allow the leafy parts of any vegetables to ■wither on the ground ; while they are in an eatable state, convey them to the pigsties if they are unfit for or unnecessary to cows.