FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1630, 26 August 1871, Page 4

FARM NOTES.

VALT7E OF WOOD ASHES, An old farmer, in speaking of tho value of wood ashes as a fertilizer, says : — "I liave used aalies quite freely for tlio past ten years, and find them to be the cheapest and most trustworthy manure I can use. What a great part of our land needs is potash, and this ashes supply to the soil. Wheat, grass, and fruit trees seem to derive the greatest benefit from the use of ashes ; but vegetables of all kinds thrive and are lesa liable to be troubled by worms than when other manures are used, SOWING SMALL SEEDS, As a rule in gardening operations and the growing of vegetables, small seeds should be covered very lightly. In many instances carrots, parsnips, and onion seeds which are fresh and of excellent quality, when planted, never come up, simply because they are buried too deep ; and the seedsman, under such circumstances, is sure to come in for his share of blame for selling poor seeds, when the fault was not in the quality of the seed, but with the person who planted it. Although there is a great deal of poor, worthless seed sold every year, which, if &own, is sure never to come up, there are plenty of instances where fresh sued is condemned by those who sow it, when the failure to grow might be traced to other causes, and those causes in most instances arise, from improper sowing. ROCKY LAXD. Where land that is encumbered with rocks — especially if they are large, loui>e boulders — has to be cleared of timber at the same time, the two operaiions of burning oil' and splitting the rocks may be made to assist each other. Make ;i iire across the rock in the dh'oction yv\\ wish it to break ; keep it up for one hour, more or lest., When tho rock begins to heat thump on it with the point of a bar where it is hot, and if it has started a scale, remove it, and keep up your iire as before. Tlie heat will swell the rock near the fire, and if the rock is sound will crack it where- it is not hot. If you do not believe it will cr.ick the rock, put your ear to it while the fire is burning and hear it crack, One man, who knows how to go to work, will break more hard pocks with tire m that way than half a dozen with drills and powder. Yon need not thrnw on water, as that will not do the least good. .SURFACE M.VXURE. The new system of spreading manure on the surface, without ploughing it in, is being put in practice by many farmers in England and elsewhere. in answer to a question in The Field, as to whether manure is not deteriorated by exposure to sun, the action of frost, iXrc. , a correspondent replies :—-"The: — -"The same causes that produce ammonia from the faecal matter generate an acid, called humic acid, from the straw. The^e having a mutual affinity, unite, and the resulting compound is humate of ammonia, which is non-volatile, highly soluble ; consequently every dew or shower carries with it this compound, which is distributed to the plant. The soil has the power to take it up from the water and store it awaj*, giving it up again to the roots of plants as required. This plainly shows that manure laid on land is better than if ploughed in six inches deep ; moreover, tho humate of ammonia, being nonvolatile, in my opinion, is not deteriorated by either the sun's ray.-,, or action of frost." uacox cuiuni;. 13' icon is cured in large provision stores in the most simple manner, by sprinkling salt on that part of the iloov (which should be made either of cement or tlags) on which it is intended to lay the bacon, to the depth of an inch or so ; lay tlie bacon on this (skin downwards) and cover all over Avith This you repeat Avith each side. You can pile them up as high as you please, but there is some art in keeping them straight, which is done by putting a blade-bone or piece of wood between eacli side. Saltpetre is added to giA r e the meat a good colour. After sprinkling some salt on it, or wetting it Avith brine, you sprinkle powdered saltpetre over it, at the rate of jib for each stone Aveight of bacon. Hams are cured in the same way as bacon. Bacon should remain in salt for at least ten days, and twenty days is not too long. Light hams, say from 121b to 201b weight, should remain twelve or f< mi teen days in .salt, and heavier still longer. Mess pork and pigs' heads are cured in brine. A\ HEAT (JUOWIXG. A farmer of many years' experience and much success in wheat-growing, gives it as his opinion that many failures in growing that cereal, arises from carelessness as to seed, He #sks ; Why should a man

take more care and go to more cost in selecting breeding animals than in procuring good seed for the crop he intends to grow? "My method," he says, "for many years was, before reaping, to pick by hand the choicest and heaviest ears, and to preserve them for seed with the greatest care ; and by this means I raised, for thirty years, several more bushels per acre than my neighbours, although the soil of my farm was naturally no better than theirs. If farmei's would carefully select their seed as I did, they would have larger returns, and we should hear much less about the failure of crops than we do now. Farmers, as a rule, are the least painstaking people that I know of. " An American writer gives it as his belief that if as much attention were paid to improving wheat a.s is given to grajies, a hundred million bushels might be added to the annual crop produced in the world. MILK PRESERVING. The preservation of milk for family uses constitutes an industry which is now being vigourously carried out in America. Mr Gail Borden, of New York, after spending a fortune in experiments, decided that milk could not be advantageously preserved in a dried state, that is, as " dessicated,"' or "powdered,"' or "solidified" milk, but must be left in a semi-liquid condition. The whole secret of the process consists in extracting the greater part of the water from milk, and then mixing the remainder with sugar. The milk, when so treated, becomes of the consistency of honey, and will keep sweet for almost any length of time, Mr Borden's factories are capable of producing six or seven thousand tins of (»ne pound per day, and the demand for the article is increasing every year. There are eight or ten factories established in America ; one at Mallow, near Cork, in Ireland ; one at Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, in England ; one in the canton of Zug, in Switzerland, and several lin Bavaria and other places. New York is supplied chieily with preserved milk, and London is now obtaining large supplies of the same article from America and Switzerland. A large supply was placed in Paris two days before it was invested by the Prussians ; and, in short, the article will soon be as common in all parts of the world as the currants and raisins of the grocers" shops. It has been found more convenient to supply New York with condensed milk, minus the sugar, than with the sweetened article, the process of condensation consisting in evaporating the water. Milk reduced by evaporation, and without sugar, will keep sweet for a fortnight, while sweetened to the consistence of honey it will keep sweet for any length of time. When required for iise, a teaspoonful is simply dissolved in water.