GLEANINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1442, 12 July 1879, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

Heating apparatus is necessary in the henhouses, if you wish your hens to lay during the winter, as they mast be kept warm. When a cock has passed his prime (three years), all his progeny will be liable to gapes, roup, &c, and tho progeny will be ailing and very poor layers.

Fast horses will be surd to run away with the pavings of the general farmer. Their breeding and ownership should be bft to persons of leisure and amplo fortune. While conceding to agriculture the fundamental posit : on among industries, it should be remembered that a foundation ia little wortli without a superstructure. If all men wero producers, whence would come the consumption ?

Iv Germany, as in France, much attention is being devoted to tho relative geueral values of pure or half-blood Durhams. Opinion is in favour of the htber, as being le3s delicate, better milkers, and putting" up flesh satisfactorily. Put sweet, fresh milk into a clean bottle, set the boUle into a kettle or saucepan of cold water, &o that the water is even with tho milk in tho bottle. Btiug this to a brisk boil. Then cork tightly. Caver the cork with sealing-wax. The milk thug prepired will keep sweet any length of tini3 in a moderately cool place. — Scientific Farmer.

Perhap3 the most momentous question at this moment with French agriculturists is that of free trade and protection. There is no unani mity on tbe subject, though, all lean vaguely to the reciprocity solution. Australia and South America have destroyed our wool clips, say French farmers ; and the United States promise to do the same for our cereals and meats.

In Algei-ia the Arabs preserve their grain in hermetically-clrsed furrows in the soil. The late M. Doyera introduced the principle into France by employing oblong cases in iron, placed in tho soil, but in a position to allow of the itrain hiving a fall to run out. In these longitudinal cisterns there are two "man holes," to fill and empty respectively. The grain must be matured and dry before beiug stored, and it will keep for years, unaltered by evaporation or insects, if the external air be excluded.

Ono half of the moat suprly of the Paris markets comes from Russia, Austria, and Asia Miner. Tho average price of wheat here is 13£f. per cwt., while 'bran fetches from 7f. to 9t. Tho followiug are the prices of a few other commodities per ewt, and in franca : — Oats, 9 potatoes, 11 ; barley the same; hay is 47 the ton best butter, 4 per lb. ; cheese, 2 do. ; and eggs, 2perdoz i n. Beef is, per lb., 2^ ; mutton, 1^; veal, 2 j and pork, H. There is no prospect oF the price of meat" diminishing, and it has been established that the more the consumption of meat increases, the less is the demand for bread.