FARM GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1374, 30 March 1878, Page 20

FARM GOSSIP.

At a late Agricultural Show in London there was a novelty in the form of a farmyard manure spreader (Pamphilon's. Patent), shown by Davey, Paxman, and Co., Colchester, which has this advantage over some other inventions, viz., that the spreader is attachable to a cart of any size, and one only is required. The operation is as follows : The man who usually pulls the dung out of the cart into heaps throws the dung into the machine ; revolving tines, on a travelling web, take it round, divide, and distribute it with considerable regularity, bringing it to the rear of the machine, where it is brought into contact with a helical agitator, revolving at a rapid rate, thereby thoroughly parting the dung. The quantity distributed can be regulated partly by a gliding feed-board and partly by the speed at which the cart is made to travel. The machine will deliver from fifty to seventy loads a day, or from five to six acres. , Jk Professor Stewart Btates, in the Nortnf British Agriculturalist, that potatoes are, the most exhausting crop usually sold off the farm. Turnips come next, when they are sold off. Grain crops remove a comparatively small quantity of the manurial elements. The fact that green crops are so far independent of nitrogenous matter in soil is, no doubt, due to their having broad leaves to take the ammonia from the air, and spreading roots to gather what they require from a greater mass of soil. The same remark applies to the legumnious crops— peas, beans, vetches, clover, &c.

The white, and almost opaque, appearance of milk is an optical illusion. Examined by a microscope of even moderate power, it is seen to consist of a perfectly transparent fluid, in which float about numbers of minute transparent globules ; these consist of fat surrounded by an albuminous envelope, which can be broken mechanically, as in the churning, or dissolved by the chemical action of caustic potassa, after which, by agitating the milk with ether, the fat can be dissolved.

In most cases of clean cuts, where there is little or no bruising, the easiest and best treatment is to keep the dirt out and let Nature effect her own cure. Rest is necessary if the injury is near a joint. A dressing of lint, steeped in pure cold water, is excellent.

Nothing i 3 much more essential than regularity — especially in the care of stock. The man who want 3 his own meals on the stroke of the clock often varies an hour ortwoinfeedingorwatering his stock.