GLEANINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 7

GLEANINGS.

It cannot be repeated too often for the good of fruit-growing that the drainage is a prime necessity for low lying orchard lands in every region. Few persons seem to know that fruit trees will not thrive in cold, wet. undrained soil. Orchards are planted upon level, heavy clay lands, and some of the trees most favourably situated ,do better than others. Yet, upon the whole, the orchard is short lived, because the roots do not thrive immersed in water a considerable portion of the year. Reason and experience teach us, or ought to, that trees and plants thrive best in deep, porous soil. The roots run down deep, gathering the stores of food and necessary moisture, producing a vigorous growth of roots, body and branches, bringing the tree to a strong maturity earlier in the fall than if situated on an undrained shallow soil.

Salicylic acid, whose preservative powers on fruit ought to be better known, is being used in Germany for various diseases of domestic animals. Veterinary surgeons find it very useful for curing sore mouths. Eruptions about the eyes and head of poultry are cured by touching the affected parts with weak salicylic acid. But this acid is now used as a preventive of disease, being given to horses and cattle at the rate of one-thirtieth of an ounce daily to each full-grown animal. ' The acid is dissolved in warm water. Carefully conducted experiments have shown that wood, well saturated with oil, when put together, will not shrink in the driest weather. Wheels have been known to run for many years, even to wearing out the tires. Very many dollars might be saved annually if this practice were adopted. Boiled linseed oil is the best for general use, although it is now known that crude petroleum, on even old wheels, is of great benefit. To keep machinery from rusting, take £oz of camphor, dissolve in lib of melted lard ; take off ttie scum, and mix in it as much fine blacklead as will give it an iron colour. Clean the machinery and smear with this mixture. When mud is permitted to dry upon a newly varnished carriage or waggon, every spot leaves a mark. To avoid this, the new varnish should be washed with clean water and a sponge, and dried with a soft cloth and rubbed with a chamois leather.