GLEANINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1813, 20 August 1886, Page 8

GLEANINGS.

— A Maine man says that the way to start an obstinate horse is to take him out of the shafts and lead him round until he is giddy. — The farmer who worries the least, and does more work than his neighbour with less trouble apparently, is the one who is never behind with his work. — There are lots of difference in hired men ; the good ones are not paid enough, and the poor ones are paid too much, says a writer in the New York Tribune. — Stock needs salt, and it is a matter that should be looked after. Many oases of colic in horses and hoven in cattle are caused by a deficiency of a supply of salt. — Experiments are now in progress to make an artificial crossing between wheat and rye, so as to obtain a new and standard cereal for breadstuffs, so says the New York Herald. — In most European countries the number of milch cows to every hundred of the population averages from five to eight, whereas in Ireland there are about 90 cows to every 100 people, and in the province of Munster, the great dairying country, there are as many cows as there are men, women, and children. — Breed so as to have every lamb an improvement upon the average standard of the flock, and sell as soon as they can be made ready all that come below that standard, is the good advice from an unknown source. When the time comes for selling animals of any age do the selecting yourself — always keep the best. They are worth more to you than anyone else, so long as you are not overstocked. — An English farmer has made the discovery that his carefully kept farm accounts, in which every transaction is noted as it occurs, and everything necessary to the calculation which had not actually been bought or sold was valued at market prices, have demonstrated that after making allowance for the large death rate of cows, sheepkeeping has paid him better than dairying by about 30 per cent. — It is a common practice for farmers, when their wheat has been attacked with rust, to make it into hay. A number of sheep on a station in the Murrumbidgee district, which were being fed on rusty wheaten hay, have died ; and the Government Veterinary Surgeon, Mr Stanley, attributes the deaths to this cause. The symptoms are described as a sort of blindness, fits, staggering gait, prostration, and death. — The number of horses exported from Russia during 1885 was 34,101, against 39,659 during 1884, showing a falling off of 5558 for the last year. This is due to the bad state of trade in general, and not to the quality of the animals. There are rumours here of the Government again getting their thoroughbreds from England, Lately the majority of the stallions imported have been bred in France. Their produce have not turned out very well. — Edward Cheever of the New England Farmer says that the character of the Jersey cow has been sadly injured in public estimation by the course too often pursued by breeders in ( saving every calf that has a pedigree, regardless of other qualifications. It has come to be a common saying with some of our best breeders that more than one half of the Jerseys now in the country ought to have been sold for veal before they were six weeks old. — Destroying rats and mice. — The following is given as a certain method for destroying rats and mice. Take five parts unslacked quicklime in powder ; one part sugar in powder; three parts flour of any kind, oat, wheat, or rye ; mix well together, put some of the mixture on a little plate.and place near it a second plate with water. Mice, aftei eating some of the mixture, feel thirsty and drink the water. The lime, being quick, gets slaked in their stomachs, and kills them in a few minutes. — Prof. Long of England says there are in every herd cows that are mere manure-makers or pickpockets. They have the same feed that the rest get, and yet they will not give one-half the milk. The cows are in the herd, yet the trouble is to pick them out. They are generally frauds in the fact that they are the bestlooking cows of all. They give a good mess of milk for a short time and then drop almost out. It pays to get rid of all such cows.