FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 10

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Feed the Boil first — this will feed crops, cattle, and men.

Paint of any sort laid on green timber rather hastens than arrests decay. Farmers of experience unite in the statement that a crop of oats ia the least exhaustive of any cereal — that in fact it takes very little from the richness of the soil.

Whale oil soap, or carbolic soap, applied in suds to the legs and sides of cows, will rid them of those great annoyances, the flies. In low and moist pastures the loss on milk is often very great from flies during the summer. A farmer in St. Lawrence Co., N. V., made the best of butter all through dogdays, with the mercury at 90 degrees, by using large tin tanks, 28 x 40 inches, and setting his milk a foot deep. The tank he set in cold water, and thus kept his milk from 36 to 48 hours without souring.

A farmer who kept a strict reckoning with his pigs found that a bushel of ground corn and the meal scalded is good for 201b of pork. If the pig is fed on the cob it makes only 101b. or 121b. of pork. The most money is made by getting a nine months' pig to weigh about 3owt.

There has long been a general idea prevailing that anybody oan be a farmer, that brains and knowledge are necessary for doctors, lawyers, and merchants, but not for farmers. This great mistake is slowly being corrected. It requires just as much, sagacity to be successful in farming as in any other business or profession.

Wet Soil.— The Alta California says :—: — "Never plough wet soil. We have often urged the attention of the farmers to this subject, as one of great importance. Any traveller among- our farming districts can see large tracts of land that have been ploughed when wet and unfit to be worked, by observing large heavy clods of earth, which, in the hot season become like heated brick, burning all the roots of grain or other produce near to it. Besides this evil, no grain can vegetate and grow upon soil thus cultivated, nor can that soil give back as much nutrition as if ploughed when in right condition, and upon a warm and sunny day when light and warmth can penetrate into the soil and thus greatly benefit it. We are confident that farmers lose from ten to forty per cent, of their crop by inattention to this matter ; by a little care at the proper time to plough, by examining the soil, and selecting good sunny days the soil will send np its voice in a halo of dew-, drop clouds that will wreathe the ploughman with, its approval of his good sense. As with farms, so with orchards, vineyards, and gardens. No soil should be worked when wet and soggy. If the soil continues wet long, drain it well and it soon will be in working order, but never attempt to plough, spade, or •work it, unless in good condition. Those who think our cultivated lands must grow poor as they grow old, will find reflection in the fact that not many years back the average yield of wheat per acre in England was about ten bushels — it is now over thirty bushels.— Brains accomplished it."

Harvesting operations are now general In the Oamaru district. Labour is reported to be abundant.

From Kaitangata we learn that the farmers generally are of opinion that a better season than the present one for crops of all kinds was never known in the district, and that if the weather continues favourable, a very abundant harvest will be gathered.

Some of the farmers in the northern district of Canterbury have already delivered their crops in Kaiapoi for shipment. They appear, the Lyttelton Times says, to have been trying to economise labour by threshing the grain out from the shooks, instead of adverting to the usual proceeding of stacking it. This, of course, oan only be done by farmers who are fortunate enough to own a threshing machine or able to procure ono whenever their crops are ripe ; but though some of our gram buyers objeot to this process, we cannot see that it would make any difference in the quality of the grain, provided it is perfectly dry before being put into aaoks. Nearly aU the grain to hand at present is of good sample, but the farmers generally appear to have been out of their reckoning with regard to the probable yield.

Our Waitahuna correspondent writes :—: — "The want of water for saining purposes still continues, and work is, in|many instances, retarded. Repairing, enlarging, and constructing races keeps a number employed in the meantime, and when the wet season arrives mining matters will improve. At present money is scarce and trade dull. The lengthened drought forcibly shows the want of water for mining in this distriot. Operations being interrupted at many olaims causes enquiry as to the merits of other ground, and many a spot long overlooked is judged fit for a olaim when water is available. Considering that the water supply has been short for several months, it is almost surprising how the escort returns keep up so well. — Harvesting is now general throughout the distriot. Light showers have fallen within the past fortnight, and have very much improved both grain and root orops. Muoh of the former coald scarcely fill for want of moisture,"