GLEANINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 7

GLEANINGS.

Wool removes sulphur, and therefore, sheep pastures are improved by plaster or sulphate of Houdans are generally admitted to be the best all-round fowls ; Hamburgs produce the greatest number of eggs ; and Spanish those of the largest size. A San Gabriel cow has made a good record. In four weeks this season she gave 86i pounds of butter and in a single week she gave 24^ If there are odd, ill shaped corners on the farm, .they are quite suitable for artichokes, as they can be fenced off from other crops, and the hogs turned in. When the pastures have too far failed it is better economy to plough them up as fast as possible, and sow them to pasture grasses and seed to oats, to ehade the young shoots and tender roots. t A cow that is milked three times a day will give more milk and yield moie cream than one that is milked at intervals of twelve hours. When the udder is filled, a process of absorption goes on, and part of the milk is lost. ** Every farmer and every resident of a small town should have a good garden. It will furnish a surprising amount of food at no expense and little outlay of labour. An aore of garden, well cultivated, will produoe half the requisite food of an ordinary family. . The air supplies most or tbe organic matter, and thus helps to keep the land good when we sell off part of the products, which area part of the farm or soil itself. , It will pay to take the milk from copionsmilkers at intervals of eight hours, as nearly as possible. A cow that is milked at 5 o'clook in the morning, 1 o'olockfo the afternoon, and 5 o'clock that night, will yield from 10 to 20 per cent more milk and more cream than if milked twice a day. . , One ton of good bone dust contains about as muoh nitrogen as 8£ tonß of fresh stable manure, and as muoh phosphono aoid as 110 tons of fresh stable manure ; but one ton or stable manure contains more potash than five tons of bone dust. Warm and and airy stables, great cleanliness with animal and her products, judicious feed ma of cows, and feeding of pastures, are the mdispensible means to supply milk in quality, quantity and soundness, capable of resisting Cows remove more from the pastures than their droppings uupply ; therefore it is a good plan to spread manure over them, sprinkled with plaster, to save the ammonia, for the young grass in the early spring. Mrs Lonnesbury, of Stamford, Ct., raised a turkey, which was sent to President Johnson in 1866, that weighed over 47 .pounds, though under two years old. The prize turkey at the Paris exposition weighed 43 pounds. A paper read at the recent dairy fair in New York shows that Denmark, with about onetwentieth as many milch cows as the United States, exports aB much butter aB that country, although it can be produced on American farms at half what it costs Denmark. Pure water and salt must be supplied to milch oowb ad libitum, aa 87 per centof the milk conBißtß of water, and where salt is sparingly supplied the digestive powers of the. cow are enfeebled, and the milk is defective in keeping quality, and probably, also, in quantity and of our farmers would adopt the system of mixed farming, financial success could hardly fail in being the result. . The running of a farm year after year to gram and hay, sellin* them off for consumption, is haying its effect upon the best of our land, as shown in decreased production. Grass causeß tbe most liberal secretions of delioious milk. But this condition of young, succulent, and plentiful grass cannot be relied upon as alone sufficient food for the largest milk production for more than 60 days of the whole year. The rest of the 305 days the oows must have extra feed. According to the Georgetown El Dorado County Gazette, tt. Demuth, oi Bear Creek, mows as fine potatoes as can be found m the State. He first seeds his land with red clover, outs it for hay the first two years, then ploughs it under and growß one crop of potatoes, after whioh it is again seeded to red clover. He rotates from one field to another. He also useß "SSrolur'eaw should be paid in cleaning milk cans. Many cases are on record of diseases in families from using milk infected with SSus germs from foul milk cans. Mikmeu upon again receiving the cans should cleanse them with boiling water-and it should boil. The largest percentage of flavour in cheese and butter are found in young grasses, but in very young fodder corn these essential qualities -caseine, butter, sugar and aroma-are deficient, but improve up to the time of early flowering, when the sweet corn fodder ib at its best, and should be fed with shorts or bran, sprinkled over the cut and wilted fodder. Three oowb, entered for prizes by the Duke of Buooleuoh at the recent show of the Ayrshire t Agricultural Association, were turned out oi the ring by the examiners on the ground that their teats had been " bound with tape to give them a nicelyvrounded and compaot appearance," which scores so many points in a severe competition. Eule for selecting young steers for oxen :— See that the curls in their faceß are at the same height ; the gentler are those with curl between the eves: the lower theourl the quicker and more wild : if across the nose the animal is apt to be <* OBS sif there is 2° ° arl v be . e l h ' m or he 5« as this indicates lack of enough intelligence to feed themselves. Treatment of a worn -out meadow. -Meadows that have been run down beoome sod bound r covered with moss, sorrel, or other weeds may be renovated without ploughing. The old sod needs to be disturbed, but a thorough harrowing or a chopping of the surface with a disk hawow will disturb it sufficiently without ploughing. Fresh seed is needed, and a dressng of lime may in many cases be all that is required in the way of a fertiliser. If it can be afforded, a moderate quantity of fine manure used as a top dressing, and harrowed in ]u6t Before sowing, wil be of great benefit. The work may be done at any time before September, so that the grass and clover, the latter more particularly, should be well set before severe frosts occur. Orchard- grass will thrive upon soils that are not rich enough for timothy; but it is better to have the ground good enough for the latter even if the former is to be sown. Grass is a crop for whioh the soil can not be too rich, for if the growth is excessive it can be cut at any time and made into hay or fed green.