FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

Buttjeb Without Churning.— The New York Herald in a late number says :— "The arfc of making butter is about to be revolutionised —that is, if a discovery just made by a lady in West Nyack can be successfully put^in operation. The old method of churning will be abolished. Neither horse, , dog, nor hand power has a part in the new method. Its discovery was accidental. The discoverer, who has experimented with her new method many times, believes in it thoroughly. She put the cream of several days' railkings from her pet Jersey cow in a thick cloth one day last summer, and as it was too warm to churn, placed the bag in the ground in a cool place, throwing a shovelful of earth over' it so that puss could not get at it, and left it there until she came home the next day. When she took the bag from the ground she found the cream had turned to a great yellow lump of butter, and the only thing left for her to do was to salt and mark it. The buttermilk had entirely disappeared, but there was about a third more than the usual amount of butter obtained by churning. She has trted the experiment a dozen times since, and always obtained better butter than by churning. The only exception was one time when the rain soaked into the ground and mildewed the cream . She is perfectly willing to let the world have the benefit of her discovery, hoping it may in some degree lessen the hard work of farmers' wives. Whether it is the chemical action of a particular condition of the soil on the cream, or what the cause ia she does not attempt to explain, but the'facfc remains that when she has buried the cream in the earth for 24 hours it is turned fco butter, and good, sweet butter too."— [The above is riot new, as claimed by the Herald, The writer, heard of such an experiment more than 40 years ago— the experimenter having claimed to have thus produced butter many times.] TUBERCULOSI& Transmitted to Pigs in Milk. — The " British Medical Journal " says :— "Although in the light of recent researches into the bacillary nature and communicability of tubercle by direct experiment the consumption of milk from tuberculous cows cannot but be looked on as fraught with danger, instances in which such a mode of communication can be absolutely demonstrated are, from the circumstances of the case, not frequently met with. The faob that even in advanced stages of the disease, the bacilli are often not to be detected^ in the milk, the generally long incubation period, and the probability that the .milk supply has been changed or the animals slaughtered before palpable mischief has been done, as well as the frequency of tuberculosis in man arising from other causes, surround with almost insuperable difficulties all observations on the human subject. But an instance has lately come under our notice which admits of no doubt, and consequently deserves record. The owner of a valuable herd of cows, finding that a large proportion of them were tuberculous— so large a propoition, indeed, as to strongly suggest infection by association in the sheds—withdrew his milk from the market, and used it, unfortunately without boiling, for fattening his pigs, of which he has a large number, and on which he prides himself not less than on his cows. The result has bedn that the. pigs have, almost without exception, been affected with the disease to an' extent that has necessitated the slaughter of the .'whole stock. Another point of practical interest is that he has not been able to discover nodules or other indications of localised tubercle ia the cows' udders — a condition still -held by some to be "necessary to render the milk capable of transmitting the disease."

Variations in Genuine Butteb.—Heferring to the Wigan prosecution, , which turned on the genuineness of some Danish butter, Mr James M'Kenzie writes, to the Mark Lane Express :—"lt is a matter of very little consequence to the public whether their butter is adulterated by the admixture, in a mechanical operation, of foreign fats or by way of the food to the milk, and thence to the butter. I have known of a sample of butter that had all the appearance of adul» teration, and, on being submitted to a high analytical authority, was reported to contain foreign fat; while another able chemist gave it as his opinion that, though peculiar, it was genuine butter. ,On going.to the farm it was found that the ration of the cows consisted largely of decorticated cotton cake. Here was an undoubted case of adulteration through the cow's stomach; the oake in those days containing a large amount of oil. It is not unlikely that the Wigancase was of a similarrnature."

A Bab to Good Butter-making.— The man who smokes need never hope to be a good butter-maker. The odour of tobacco clings as tightly to a smoker's clothes as hair to a cow, and the butter absorbs the smell.

Animal Tastes. — According to the Swedish natnralist Linnraus; the pig, notwithstanding its reputation a3 a coarse eater, -is the most fastidious of all browsing animals in respect of the number of plants which it will consume as food. There are only 72 which it will eat. The horse comes next, as it can assimilate 262 kinds of vegetable growth; whereas the accommodating stomashVof the goat is able to extract nutriment out of no fewer than 4=49. It must be remembered, however, that while the horse, goat, ox, and sheep are strictly graminivorous, the swine is omnivorous; he can vary his diet after a fashion that is forbidden to other browsing animals. ' •

Flax Cultivation in Scotland.—Under the auspices of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, some interesting experiments have been conducted in the cultivation of "flax, which has induced the society to dissuade farmers from growing 4t. The Aberdeen Daily Free Press states that 1 cm st^ff •clay soils the results have- so far been very good,' but somehow, when the fanner came ' tio calculate his'profits, these almost i touched the vanishing point, if indee^ any profit was left at all. The great drawback has" fcefln the heavy expense incurred in preparing the

soil, and harvesting and dressing of the crop for the manufacturer, under which process any chance the farmer had of making the - crop a paying one disappeared. The only instance in which anything like a fair profit was got, was where the farmer Bold his material in an undressed state to the manufacturer after it was pulled, and thus saved the heavy expense of rippling, retting, and drying. He was paid at the rate of £10 an acre, the flax being delivered free at the nearest railway station, .and he calculated that he had a profit on the two acres of about £7 7s. An Extraordinary Phosphatic Oalgultjs. — On opening the carcass of a horse recently at Mr Kidley's manure works, Tyne Green, Hexham, a hard substances resembling a canon ball in proportion was found in its intestines. It was found to be ne less than 31b lOoz in weight, and nearly 16£ in in circumference. Itis very darkbrownin colour, there are two dark lines on it, and it has a polished appearance. Mr Anderson, V.S., has pronounced it to be a phosphatio calculus. It is, he says, the first case of a disease of this class that has occurred in the Hexham district foi a long period. The horse was about 25 years of age and was \ accustomed to take long journeys. \ EXPEBIMENTAL FARMS Off CANADA.— ' The Experimental Farms of Canada are (says \ the Canadian Gazette) amply justifying the t labour and expense incurred in their estab- '„, lishment. From tests made at these places, Vi farmers in the North-west are now learning ( 'the comparative values of such early-ripen-,.ing wheat as may be counted upon to escape any damage from frost. In addition, Processor Saunders is undertaking the direct guidance of North-west farmers in use of frozen grain as seed. Last season's r, actual tests showed that the frozen wheat / ( bf the North-west varied in the degree of ...vitality from 95 to 51 per cent., those gradp ing lowest in vitality being weak in growth, ; and therefore undesirable for seeding pur- (( poses. This year's grain is to be similarly Rested, though on a much larger scale. Any farmer may have samples of his frozen grain '* reported upon promptly and free of charge ,'by posting two or three ounces to the Central !, jjfarm at Ottawa. „,," Breeding Huntebs.— Mr T. H. Hutchinson, of the Manor House, Catterick, in the course of a letter to the Yorkshire Post, v Bays :~ " I don't think there is any hard-and-iii&h rule for breeding a hunter ; but my idea is to get hold of a really good strong mare ' r th'at has been a good hunter herself, and to 'send her to a nice, compact, thoroughbred that has action and has performed well 'bri the turf. I don't believe in the great ''cd&chy-looking thoroughbred sires that f ( people call weight-carrying horses — brutes -'that are as soft as cheeses, and never could "gallop either fast enough or long enough to yrlh. a race of any kind. It is quite as im"p.6r'tant in the present day for a hunter to ( !gallop as it is for a racehorse— that is, if a ■' win wants to ride to hounds. As to hunters l for men to ride who hardly ever jump a ''femce and go best down a hard road, I don't "'think it matters much how they are bred, as Itfn'g as they please their owners. I think a '"'g^f.eat mistake is made in going in so much "''fdr what is called a big horse, which often "'iheans a long-legged one. Hunters ought v-ndt''exceedv -ndt''exceed 16 hands in height. They should '-'pi6¥sess good shoulders, their forelegs should *'d"6 Well out in front, they should have big *~£sm6 and thighs, and be big through the fore "Mb's,- 1 have strong backs, loins, and hind • '^darters, three orosses of blood, and be up to 'lisTbr 16st. Such a horse as this can be r 'B6Kt'f or more than the price of half a dozen ■T'ftrrtly' remounts. It is true you sometimes ■^geb 1 -fin extraordinarily good big horse, but ''tneyonly number about 1 per cent. I am "Sorry to say I never had a really good big I 'horse; but I have had some of 15.3 to "Ifl hands that could gallop and jump at the "tail of any hounds all day long, as bold as "lioijisyand with constitutions like iron. All 'these' good ones have had three crosses of 'tflobSv I never rode a good common-bred *"hois 6in my life, and I hope I shall never own one. I think no entire horse ought to be allowed to travel in the country without ->a; -certificate from a Government inspector -showing that he is free from all hereditary .^disease. It is astonishing how few farmers -know much about horses, and how little in- ., terest many of them take in them. These -man-will use any sort of a stallion, if only the - fee is a small one." , : .' a«'De*tail."— Those who have read Mr ''HaaS's advocacy of " dehorning " (as he calls 'ifc^arid his recommendations to buy the set rof tools h6 has invented or improved for the "purpose, and the book of instructions he has ."written, will readily appreciate the humour /♦of'the following, which appears under the rafodveu heading in the Orange County "•Farmer 1 : "All who have milked cows will ifeadily' admit that tails are a nuisance and :'* i 6ught l/ t6 go.' The cow's tail is continually ?;'&n r #[8 < go, whether in stable or out, and if in it is decidedly unpleasant and not Hn'good taste to have a tail fresh from tjhe manure gutter strike the milker full in the face. Here is an opportunity for some enterYankee with a little gumption to mrr vent a set of • de-tailing ' tools, and write a -ibook.of.so or more pages, giving explicit directions how to saw off these tails after a humane fashion, the whole thing to be sold ".for 3dol,J?ook included. If orders don't come ." r< jn v .,fajs gnough he might get together an f pf farmers and give them a full i^ißtjWfc °jh *^ c subject, and some of them jW^ldi invest in a kit of tools before the meetJ&g .olqsed, and next day he would call in Iris .' neighbors to witness the operation and see :.fchas jtj.ijjas neither painful nor dangerous, „an«i > th.a.t ) a i handf ul of food being thrown be- . ifor# the.,CQOT she ate it greedily, just as if .^nptnyjg, hg,d happened. If horns are to be the plea of comfort to the cows, Uf'see.jn6.reason why tails should not follow comfort to the milker, and if the cow is to be docked of her horns, why, let her tail go too ; for a cow with her horns . pS and tail on looks a fright." . ■^STUBBij'|"MANUBiN(j.--This plan'certainly /safes'' £' t '£reat deal of labour, and serves to marked degree the pressure of ■^fl^' splsng^ work, It is obvious, however, £$bat the , advantage "or otherwise of stubble -%ianuruig' '^spends entirely pn the composiTSon an.3 cojadition of the soil. It would be -a^real'piistake to manure on the stubbie 'whiich was to any great extent inbecause in the early spring 'Tfstomsi Y&iaciQusly sqwqvl themanul9a.na * 4 *■" -

assim'ulate a large proportion of It, while \m~ mensely the foulness; of jbhe^land and the difficulty and expense cleaning it properly. It, is also a mistake to manure on the stubble any land which is wet and uridrained, because the manure in such a case will be in a wet, and sour state all .winter, and cannot be properly oxidised so as to permit of its valuable properties being made easily assimilable by - the . plant. , On light, porous soils, too, especially if; in the districts where the rainfall is heavy, stubble manuring should be avoided, because in such soils a large, proportion' of the most soluble and valuable parts of the manure gets, washed down into the drains and is consequently lost. On the other hand, stubble manuring possesses marked advantages on < soils of a stiff and retentive nature, as it not only save!? labour but , also to improve the mechanical condition of the soil. The rank, fresh dung from the courts not only makes the stiff soil more open, so as to be more exposed to the pulverising influence of frost and the oxidising influence of the atmosphere, but the carbonic acid evolved in, the decomposition of the manure also makes the clay more friable, and unlocks- its store of plant food, These are facts which it is well to remember in connection. with this subject. — North British Agriculturist. , . The Season WHY.—Leguminous plants enrich the soil, according to Professor Breal ; but the nitrogenous principles wMch enter ; so abundantly into the constitution of i plant-tissues are derived neither from the soil nor from the manure,; while by their dead leaves and roots they enrich the soil by their reserves of nitrogenous matter. The knots or nodes on the roots are full of bacteria, and the. latter are the intermediary agents by which the plant obtains . its supply of atmospheric nitrogen. For example i if a soil be totally deprived .of nitrogen, while containing the other elements of plant food, and some of these bacteria be sown therein, leguminous plants, lucern, peas, lupine, &c, will thrive, while plants not belonging to the same order will perish. However, in the case of cruciferaa — cabbage for example— the roots are often full of nodosities too. Professor Breal does not tell us if bacteria here play a parallel part. Perhaps the animalcule is not the same, just as in the case of hydrophobia, fever, cholera, &c, where each disease has its distinct disease-germ or microbe. When a few knots from the roots of lucern were crushed ancl then thrown in a medium devoted to peas|, the roots of the latter became speedily covered with knots, and it was found that the percentage of nitrogen in the seeds had been augmented. Similar results followed' with lupine, Now, when the latter was grown upon the same soil, but deprived of the artificially added bacteria, the lupine plants died off. Professors Soxhlet and Weiske draw attention to the fact that when milk " turns " in a dairy where cattle are fed on grains or acid fodders, the cause is not to be sought for in the food, as the organic aoidfe of the rations are burned and utilised in the animal's system, but in the microbes or germs produced by the fermentation of the food, and that they find their way into the milkpail. i

Kindness to Miloh Cows.— l have seen a great; many heifers and cows in a tremor of excitement while some ignorant or brutal fellow was milking them. I never knew them to be made quiet and willing to be milked by scolding, kicking, or pounding, but they might have been made docile by early and gentle handling. It is safe to say that rough usage of cows often occasions the loss of half their milk. Boys, dogs, and. heedless men worry them when driving from the field. Irregular feeding and milking, everything out of the regular order, disturb!, and therefore damages them. Change of residence frequently causes cows to shrink their milk for a whole year. A noted Holstein butter cow, taken to the fair to testher butter-making qualities, made only a pound of butter from 441b of milk, while in the quiet of her home she made a pound of butter from 211b 3oz of milk. Likely she was extra nervous, but all cows have nerves enough to require that their treatment be gentle and regular.— Hugh T. Bbooks, in New York Tribune.

Let "Milking-Tubes" Alone.— l procured a set when first introduced, and tried them very carefully and thoroughly, and have no hesitation in pronouncing them of no practical value in ordinary dairy practice, and dangerous in the hands of any but the most judicious and painstaltfng men. There are cases of malformation of the teat, disease of the udder, or even of ordinary sore teats, in which their use for a short time may be helpful, just as the surgeon uses similar appliances in his practice. Of course it is easier to sit leisurely by and watch the milk trickling away from the tubes than to take hold of the teats and, with a firm grasp that tries the strength of the wrists, force it away in two steady, strong streams; but in the case of any reasonably easy-milking cow the time required to safely fix the tiubes and get the milk is considerably more than any good milker necessarily expends in. hand-milking. The time required to properly fix the tubes is where the danger comes in. Few persons have the patience to insert; them with sufficient care and skill.— o. S. Bliss. .