FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1949, 2 July 1891, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

A Quartet at a Birth.— A shorthorn cow belonging to one of the tenants on the Titchfield estate in Kent has given birth to four oalves. All the calves were born alive, but three of them had to be killed as being too small and weak to be worth rearing. The dam Burvives and is doing well.

Rinowobm on Livje Stock.— Thiß is a low form of vegetable parasite, wbioh causes bald oiroular spots, {chiefly about the heads and necks of cattle and horses. It is communicable to men and pother animals. Generally it is "caught" either by direct contact with the spots on the animals, or touching some place where the spots have rubbed against — such as the mangers, feeding racks, fences, &o. The disease can be oured either with solutions of bluestone or carbolic acid. The bluestone should be powdered and stirred into water until no more will dissolve. If oarbolio acid is

used, it should be a 10 per cent, solution, made up by a chemist. This is very poisonous, and somewhat oorrosive. Wash the ringworms first, and let the places dry ; then use a pieoe of cloth on a stick to damp the ringwozms with either of the solutions. It will be necessary to dress the places several timeß, but the cure will be made ultimately. Wash all the placeß where the animal may have rubbed, using car* bolio solution as above. Be careful not to touoh the ringworms (or the things whioh have been rubbed on) with the bare flesh. Sheep Following Theib MASTEB.—The novel and interesting Bight of sheep following their master through the crowded streets of a town was (says the North British Agriculturist) witnessed in Inverness a few days ago. Mr Eraser, Mr Smithson's manager atLentran, had oooaaion to be in Inverness with a flock of 200 grey-faoed hoggs, and was returning with them to the railway station in the afternoon. The shepherd led the way, and notwithstanding that the streets were orowded the animals inetinctively followed him in a body. gTbe interesting Bight was all the more noteworthy that no dogs were employed, nor was anything done to induce the sheep to take what appeared to be quite a spontaneous aot on their part. A Fostbb Mothbb.-— The Mark Lane ExpreßS says:— "Young pigs being unusually plentiful last autumn, after disposing of a litter, the sow was turned in with one having younger pigs, The pigless bow soon adopted some of the others, greatly to the advantage of both mothers and their young." Manuring of Wheat.— lnteresting experiments in the manuring of the wheat crop have recently been carried out in France under the auspices of the National Agricultural Sooiety. The field on whioh the experiments took place was divided into three. One of the parts was not manured, the seoond was dressed with 881b of nitrate of soda and 3521b of mineral superphosphate per acre, and the third with double the quantity of the nitrate and the same quantity of superphosphate. The yield of the unmanured land was a fraction over 26 bushels per acre, while that of the second portion was 88 bushels, and that of the third portion 42$ bushels. There was also a considerable increase of straw on the manured land, and the profits on the use of the manures were respectively 14s and 25b an aore, valuing the straw at consuming price. A New Milk Tester,— At a meeting of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland recently, Mr John Laidlaw showed a centrifugal maobine applied to separating liquids of different densities. The machine, he said, afforded an effioaoiousandpromptremedy in testing the quality of milk, and was a most effioient separator. That afternoon he had Bent out to two neighbouring dairies for samples

of milk. In the course of a few minutes he w»s able to ascertain that one sample bad only 2 per cent, of fatty matter, whioh dearly * showed adulteration, and other two samples were not much more than half, and 'certainly not two-thirds, what good milk ought to be, — North British Agriculturist.

Effects or England's Cloudiness.—Reviewing English weather and wheat since 1775, Nature draws the inference that rainfall rules the harvests far more potently than mean temperature. The mean summer temperature of the years of superior crops has exceeded by only IB that of the years of inferior crops. The irean rainfall for the summers of bad crops ba3 been 2'9in more than that of good seasons, wbiob means that the wet summers -had half as much more rain—with a consequent deficiency of the Bunshine so vital to the growth and maturity of the plants — than the dry ones. The wheat yield follows the rainfall inversely, being greatest in the hot dry summers, and least in the wet sunless sum* mere,