FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1825, 12 November 1886, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

Canadian Houses for the British Aemt. .— Colonels Ravenhill and Phillips and Surgeon Matthews, of tho Royal Horse Guards, sent out to Canada by the British Government to purchase horses for military purpose's,'-re-cently waited upon the Industrial Exhibition Association at Toronto, and asked, with a view of bringing out the kind of horses best fitted for such purpose, that prizes be offered at - the Toronto Exhibition. The directors of the ass6ciation decided to accept the proposition,- and prizes were offered for the best cavalry horses and artillery horses. Colonels Ravenhill -atid Phillips purchased such horses as' proved suitable, and also acted as judges. It is likely, If the experiment in Canadian horses is successful, that the British Government will form' a'permanent agency in Canada for the purchase of horses for military purposes. ' . ' ' J .'. Decline in Land Values in Britain. — As illustrating the decline in the value of landed property in Great Britain; the result ' of the recent attempt to sell at auction the Houghton estates of the Marquis of Cholmorideley is significant. The first lot put up' consisted of Houghton Hall, which cost £450,000 for; the building alone, and about 10,000' acres of land. The' best bid made was £3Qo,ooo,'and,the. property was therefore withdrawn. A-'farm of 1322 acres, renting for £900 a year, was next 'put-up and bid in at £24,500. Then a farm/ of -.1081 acres, rented at £744, was bid in at, £31.Q00. Another farm of 1203 acres, renting 'aif,i>6oo, , was bid in at £21,000. Two other farms, one of 600 acres and one of 700 acres, were also Withdrawn because the limit was not reached. 'Altogether, out of 17,000 acres only gome, small holdings and cottages were sold (of the aggregate value of £4500.— New York Sun. '"' • " Weaning Lambs.— Weaning' tame"-is,*to important epoch in lamb life.- It is, so to Bpaak, the date when they are sent intp the world" po

shitt for' themselves; and judging from the Weatings of the old as Well as the young of the flock, the change is doubtless a severe interference on the part of man. But, as a matter of course, the flockmastee is compelled to follow what he considers the most profitable system of maintaining both ewe and lambj whatever his feelings about animal nature. When the lambs Arrive at a certain age, it is ft more economical method of feeding to separate them and the ewes. The amount of nourishment which the ewe provides at her own expense can be supplied ' in a cheaper form by artificial means, and maintaining the condition of the ewes is always an object to be studied in breeding flocks; as wrthout good, strong, and lusty ewes we can never have good lambs,. There are, therefore, two points to be considered in weaning ; but as the change affeots the lambs more immediately than the ewes, the problem is how to accomplish rtso as not to arrest their progress or growth. Whatever may have been the condition of keep previous to weaning, it is afterwards necessary to improve upon it if the lambs are to prosper. The better conditioned lambs are at the time of weaning, the better they require to be kept, and in most cases the food provided should exdebd in. richness that which they previously received, including the milk of the ewes. It is usual to shift the lambs on to some hained pastare, which affords a clean and enticing bite 5 but even then, though the quality of the new pasture is immensely superior, the lambs do not always thrive as well as could be wished. For gome days after being taken away from the grazing they have long been accustomed to, they settle to feed, and "after they do begin to eat, from being so very hungry, they are apt to indulge too freety in the fresh grass, with the result of some serious ailment. A correspondent recommends that, instead of taking the lambs from the ewes, the ewes should be taken from the lambs. Wherever such a plan can be adopted, it is doubtless a sensible one to follow, &8 the lambs will not be so liable to hang about the 'gates, or to suffer from a too sudden change of diet. When the ewes are removed, a little trough food should be given to the lambs, and, as they are well acquainted with their pasture, and know where to find a plentiful supply of water, they will not be ao liable to sustain a check; and any changes that may afterwards be necessary can be overtaken with greater benefit and less risk.— English Agricultural Gazette. TWO Farmers.— Two farmers we know own two farms which join. One farm contains 50 acres, the other 110. The farms are in New England, Farmer A, with his 50 acres, has time to go to church, to the picnic, and Grange. Time and again, while out riding with his family, he passes by Farmer B, toiling in the field with never. a thought for anything but labour. '.Farmer A's wife has a horse of her own, "whioh^ she can drive as she likes. The boys and girls have books and magazines and .the time to read them. Mrs B has to beg for clays for a horse, and then must take the old mare that can only be induced to hasten out of her slow walk by a thorough application of the Stick.- Every rod of the smaller farm does its wbrk. Manure is a respected friend. The crops faised are" those that sell for cash. The «oil does not run out, because the farmer makes a businesss of. 'keeping it up. On the larger farm there are weedy pastures. The manure is put- into small strips of the best land. The grass is never fertilised. The soil is expected to make up in area what it lacks in quality. Farmer B, makes money, for he never spends any;. "He* looks across at his neighbour and sneers, ,Do these extra horses, these books, and papers pay ? Not ..a cent in cash. Farmer A puts it like this: "Neighbour B's idea of true profit is different from mme — that's all. He wants hij in hard' cash ; I'm ready to spend a part of name. in comfort. I can't spend my money to a better advantage than in making my family contented, I ' could save this money and buy "more land, but I like my little farm. I feed it, jafid it keeps its strength. Why should I spend thebest part of my life in continually grubbing for-jnoney that will never benefit me ? " Now, friends, which plau do you like better ? Which are you following ? What is your idea of true profit? Is your money in the bank, or is it in.vested in happiness? Think it over.-— Rural New Yorker. , Welsh Sheep. — As an instance of what good specimens are capable of doing in the way of bringing grist to the mill) says a writer ma Home paper), I may mention what a little Welsh ewe, which I bought along with several others from a small farmer, did. It was some years ago, when prices were good. I gave 20s for her, and put her, like the rest, with a Shropshire ram (or a half-Shropshire ram, I forget which). She produced twin lambs, a rather rare occurrence with Welsh sheep, and was therefore placed in rather a better pasture than the rest of the flock. Shetad also a little trough food (mixed cake and command at the end of the summer I sold her two lambs to the butcher for £3 5s the pair. I 'kept 'on the ewe, and she continued to produce twins, with one or exceptiosn, for many years ; and at length, when very old and without atooth in' her head, I put her with a lot of fatting sheep, and she got quite fat— in fact, one of the best of . the lot,— -and I sold her, at the very low price mutton was then (last November) fetching, for 19s 6d.. I kept all the ewe lambs from her for breeding — most of them also produced doubles and turned out valuable ewes — for which purpose I always put her to the best Welsh ram I could find after the first year. All this seems to show that the breed is capable of becoming a rent-paying one, even perhaps in these hard times, and on other farms than those of the Principality alone. The diminutive size of the , Welsh sheep might be fully accounted for by .the hardships aud privations with which they have to contend. But when to this is added the . lack) on the part of the great bulk of farmers, of . any proper, selection of breeding animals, the wonder is not so much that the breed is small, but that it has continued as it is, and has not been completely extinguished. It speaks volumes , for the inherent vigour and hardihood of those sheep that they are incapable of being deteriorated below the present well-defined type, although for centuries everything seems to have combined to render them puny and worthless. 1 A New Plough. — We take from the Implement and Machinery Review the following notice of the " Oliver American chilled plough," ■which,U it'is capable of doing all that is claimed for iir, is likely to prove a boon to agriculturists : ">We_hear that the Oliver chilled plough is in growing popularity. One is designed to turn furrows 9in by 16in, aud a larger is equal to turning a-furrow^ 7in to lOin deep and 16in Wide. Scotland is a good field for Oliver ploughs. Wallace and Sous, who have just obtained the sole agency, have imported 800 of • these implements, notwithstanding that for six years previously the same districts were well worked by the predecessor, Mr Thomas Scott, pf ; Bonnybridge ,.»» it •„ Baid that tbis plough H«?? *V y h ? lf more work an <l requires only halt the draught of an ordinary plough, besides pavpog 30^er rtftt. in wear and tear.