FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

When to Water Horses.— The best horsemen do not water a horse for an hour and a-half after eating. The old saying is that a horse has more sense than a man — as he will not drink too much. This is one of the greatest mistakes in the care of a horse. He will drink too much when heated and the stomach empty. He will also drink too much when the first heat caused by digestion commences. Study these questions, and learn how to feed and water horses during the heated term. — Rural World,

Care in Subsoil Ploughing. — Subsoil ploughing is to be recommended where the underlying soil is equal to that on the surface. In the case of a strong, deep, loamy soil, that for years has been ploughed but 3in or din in depth, a large number of roots will be found 2ft or more deep. These, with a portion of the salts contained in the lower soil, can advantageously be brought to the surface. Whore the upper layer of soil has become filled with vegetable matter, then a mixture of a few inches of the undersoil, whether clay or loam, of a sanely and clayey nature, will have a beneficial effect. On the other hand, if it is proposed to subsoil in a location where there is only sand or gravel to brirg to the surface, then, if this is done, there will simply be made the poor exchange of a few inches of good soil and fairly productive for a worthless and entirely barren soil, We have in mind an amateur farmer who, having read of the wonderful effects of subsoiling, determined to tost its merits, and ploughed under a thin soil, bringing to the surface only gravel. After the job was completed his field appeared like a newly-gravelled road, though as an agricultural experiment it was a failure. The soil, though thin, which he had turned under had taken ages to accumulate, and had produced fair crops of corn and barley. By judicious management his land in its original condition would have produced a fair crop of grass. The material now on the surface, worthless for present crops, would require hundreds of loads of manure to fertilise. At the outset it would neither produce buckwheat nor clover. By first applying manure in liberal quantities, then green manuring would aid in supplying the needed elements of a fertile soil, Judgment is necessary in every farm operation. No set of unvarying rules will give remunerative results. Before attempting subsoiling, or even very deep ploughing, make sure that the soil belqw the surface is worth bringing up. In many cases it would be hotter, if it were possible, to sink the,' subsoil still deeper, instead of bringing it any nearer the surface. — Eastern Journal,

, The Polled and Hereford Victories in America.— At the great fat shows recently held in Chicago, Kansas city, U.S.A., polled Aberdeen-Angus and Hereford two-year-old steers carried champion honours. Commenting on this fact, the Breeders' Gazette, which has given excellent portraits of the winnere, says; — "The Kansas City Fat Stock Show had for champion a pedigreed two-year-old Aberdeen-Angus bullock, which was the seoond time in the histoiy of American fat stook shows that a purebred beast of any age had ever attained grand sweepstakes Honours ; and right upon his heels oomes a pedigreed Hereford of the same age as champion at Chicago."

Kesults of a Sea Voyage. — Experiments made at the Califoxnian Agricultural College show that grain exposed to a moist atmosphere gains considerably in weight?.. Aa in the case of wool, sanguine people. h^ve

maintained thai; the increase caused By a sea voyage is< of ten sufficient to pay the cost.of freight. The experiments referred to,-how-ever, show that the greatest increase was during the first 24 hours, the absorption being nearly 33 per cent, of the total absorbed during the 15 days' exposure. The following table gives the iigures :—: — „, Flrsfc Total 24 hours. , in 15 days. (Ms ... 2.79 per cent. ... 7*70 per cent. Barley ... 145 „ „ ... 7'oo „ „ Wheat... 245 „ „ ... 6-56 „.'„ ' From the result obtained it was computed that perfectly dry grain at 65deg Fahr. would absorb as follows: — Oats, 29-08 per' cent. ; barley, 28-17 per cent. ; wheat, 25-02 per cent. To Preserve Fence Posts.— For the information of those who wish to preserve fence posts the improved French method is probably the cheapest and easiest; the posts (or boards, if such are used for any purpose) are piled in a tank, and the whole well covered with a layer of quicklime, which is gradually slacked with water. It is claimed that this process effectually checks rotting of the timber. ■ GLEANINGS. It is not an uucommon error to suppose that animals that eat but little are the most profitable. So long as an animal is capable of digesting aud assimulating it, the greater amount of food it consumes the more profitable arc the returns ; for the proportion of. the food that goes to supply the waste of tissue and run the animal machinery is less when a large than when a small amount is eaten. Much of the manner of feeding animals may be known to the butcher by examining their insides after killing. Those which have most fat on the intestines have been fattened after a protracted period of starvation at some earlier, period of their lives. Fat in this position is Nature's mode of providing sustenance against a time when food is scarce, which, as it has already occured once in the animal's experience, is presumably likely to occur again. The milch cow should be gentle, milk easily, and give a fair flow of milk and hold out well, A cow that does not possess each one of these virtues is not a suitable animal to be kept long on a farm. Kicking and restless cows that milk hard are nuisances and trying on the temper, and there is no call to. keep them that their species may be propagated. Water Proofing for Waggon Covers. — For a flexible water profing for waggon covers : Take boiled oil 15 pounds, beeswax 1 pound, ground litharge 13 pounds; mix and apply with a brush to the 'article previously stretched against a wall or a table, washing and drying each article well before applying the composition. Symptoms 'of diseases in hogs are such as to indicate tb,o particular difficulty to one who is. experienced in their management. A- ! cough denotes malignant lung tiouble, ; while inactivity and rnopishness means that something is wrong with the digestion. Very frequently severe oold may cause them to draw up and appear sick, especially when the shelter is not such as should be pro-

It is well to remember that butter held for any great length of time shrinks considerably in weight. A consignment oi 3323 pounds sent to New York by an Illinois creamery shrank 50 pounds in a. fortnight, while a lot of 6104 pounds sold in ten weeks showed a shrinkage of 161 pounds. Gilt-edge butter cannot be produced unless the udder and teats of the cow and the hands of the milker are washed before milking the co\y. . The milk must then be removed Irom the byre as quickly as possible, as it will absorb odors as soon as it becomes cool.

Professor Arnold relates an instance, so says tha Dairyman, of ' a cow that was tethered to the leeward of a lot of onions. In a short time her milk tasted so strong of onions that it was unfit for use. Cows should breathe pure air,

A new invention for curing meat is the uso of smoked salt. The process of smoking the salt is not described, and it must yet be tested generally. Any process, however, that dispenses with the old method of slowly smoking the meat Avill be welcomed.

Irregular feeding will do more to cause cows to dry off than any other method, -while the praotice is extravagant, inducing waste and loss of time.

The man who puts up a barbed-wire fence in Nebraska is responsible for any damages sustained by men or animals coming in contact with it. ,