NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 26

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Middlemarch.—The Agricultural department informs us that the plant is the Californian stinkwort (Navarettia squarrosa), as stated laat week. West Kilbride.—E. M.. Clinton, kindly sends the following particulars of Goldenberry's pedigree : —He was got by Darnley, and was own brother to The Mackintosh (2273), winner of first prizes at Ayr and Edinburgh in 1882, and also to Jenny Geddes, the dam of a high-priced colt bought by Mr Riddell from Mr Greig. His dam was a big strong mare, got by the prize horse Paisley Jock (581), and his granddam was got by a son of the celebrated Samson (741), the sire of the dams of Prince of Wales, Darnley, Old Times, Steel's Prince Charlie, and other noted horses. J. F. —(l) Mechanical aid will do you no good. I lYou must remove the cause of the defect. Rest ia imperative. (2) Loisette's system of strengthening the memory is effective, but somewhat troublesome to carry out m its integrity. (3) It depends entirely on your particular tastes. Probably a study of Shakespeare's works would be as effective as anything. School Reformer.—Your letter is of much too personal a nature to appear over an anonymous signature, especially as there could be no time for the parties attacked to reply. W. G. G.—Mr G. M. Thomson informs us that the specimens sent belong to the species Eristalis cingulatus or a closely-allied species. The Diptera or flies of New Zealand have never been .fully worked up, so that this identification may not be specifically correct. The species of Eristalis, which are all flower visitors, are often mistaken for bees; their laryas are remarkable for a "rat-tailed" projection, which is very characteristic. J. S. asks what horse power there would be in a water wheel 20ft diameter, 4ft wide, 12in by 14in buckets, overshot, with eight Government heads of water. Mr Beverly replies :—About 12 h.p. L. T. asks :—What is the quantity of water passing a given point per hour or day in any of the gold-bearing rivers of New Zealand? I would like if you could mention two or three. Mr Beverly replies :—Very little attention has yet been given to the discharge of New Zealand rivers, so that any answer to this question must be very vague. The mean discharge of the Molyneux is probably over 30,000 cubic feet per second, and as most of the gold-bearing streams in Otago are tributaries to the Molyneux, they might be roughly estimated proportionally to their drainage areas. The Shotover would thus give about 2000 cubic feet per second, and the Manuherikia about the same. J. H.—(l) It is necessary to take out a patent in each colony separately as well as one for the Home country. Deposit the specification of the invention and the application for the patent at the nearest Supreme Court office. A fee of 10s is payable on the specification being deposited, and £2 on the letters patent being granted. On the deposit of the specification the inventor is protected for 12 months, and the application tor patent is to be proceeded with within that period. (2) That is the result of our not having a free public library, but that is a drawback which we shall in time overcome. W. R. C—The plant is one of the varieties of the lotus (bird's foot trefoil), or Lotus tenuis, or narrow-leaf lotus. This plant in all its varieties nsaists to enliven our pastures with Hb pretty flowers, at the same time enriching the pasturage by its foliage, and would be worth cultivating. Discovery of Gold in Australia. — "S." writes :—" Southland " is, I think, correct in stating that gold was first discovered in Victoria in 1851. Hargraves found it at Clunes in that year. It was alluvial, not the reefs, which were found some considerable time after—about the time Hargraves found the gold at Clunes. I have heard it stated that within a week, Hiscock, a storekeeper at Buninyong, with one T. Turner, a brickmaker, found gold (alluvial) in a gully about half a mile from Buninyong. It was on the riaht hand side of the .road going to Burnt Bank. They put down three shafts, and in the third got gold. The shaft was about 10 chains from the road, and was where they got the gold, some 14ft deep. It was a square hole, and not altogether plumb. Mr Turner was a man with one eye, which may have been the cause of its being rather too one-sided. Gold was first discovered, I have been told, at Ballarat about seven chains north of the present powder magazineIt was found by some men who were, or had been, working for "Jack Winter." The first Government officials erected their tents on the hill just above, but a little further to the north. It was afterwards known as Post Office Hill. A year afterwards all the Government offices were removed to their present site. The first three or four escorts from Bendigo and Castlemaine were taken to Melbourne on bullock drays. Old pensioners from Tasmania did guard duty. I remember seeing them all gloriously drunk at Keilor. There was, I believe, upwards of one ton of gold on one dray. It was John Thomas Smith, the mayor of Melbourne, who used to dispose of the drunks much in this way :—" John Jones, you are charged with being drunk. What have you got to say?" Mr Jones : "Well, your worship"— The Mayor: "Yes, that is all right. You are fined 40s; take him away." I have seen Dean Macartney at one of the out diggings with the tails of his coat pinned up christening all and every child he could lay hands on, certainly upwards of 40 in a forenoon. G. M. W.—(l) Recruits for the Permanent Artillery force require to have gone through one year'B efficient, service in the Volunteer force unleßsthey have served in the Military, Naval, or colonial forces. They must be under 28 years of age. (2) Applications are to be sent in to the Officer Commanding Permanent Militia at Dunedin, &c, giving address, age, certificates of character, health, Ac. The minimum height for artillery is sft 9in, for torpedo sft 6in. Central Otago.—(l) The fare to Bluff per Union Company's boat is—Saloon, single, £1; steerage, single, 15s; saloon, return, £1 10s; steerage, return, 20s. (2) By s.s. Invercurgill the fare is— Saloon, return, 27s 6d; steerage, 17s 6d. (3) By train —First class, Bingle, 295; return do, 38s ; Becond class, single, 19s 4d ; return do, 25s 9d. Farmer. —Animal manure from Buenos Ayres was first imported into Great Britain some time in the fifties. Formerly the wild cattle of South America were slaughtered entirely for the sake of their hides, but it was subsequently ascertained that their tallow could be turned to profitable account as well. The process adopted was to put the cut-up carcases into large double-bottomed vats from which the melted tallow could be drawn. Steam was used, and the current continued so long as the liquid flowed from the vat. The remaining mass of flesh and bonce was considered refuse and thrown aside. Eventually the bones were sorted out for exportation, and later on the dry mass of flesh—both for use as manures. In 100 parts of the flesh compound there are 5953 of organic matter, containing 8 per cent, ammonia. The phosphate of lime constituent is equal to 1801, and as the moisture is only 5"67, this animal manure is a powerful fertiliser. If the similar bye-product at the Australian boiling-down establishments is not customarily used for nig feed, it may possibly be procurable at a low price. (2) The article in the Witness to which you refer was published immediately on receipt of the volume of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal in which the particulars of the Kothamstead experiments in pigfeeding appeared Sir John Lawes ascertained that Indian corn, or barley meal with a limited supply of bran ia good food ; and that when pigs had unlimited access to three kinds of food — namely, the highly nitrogenous mixture of beans and lentils; the non-nitrogenous Indian corn, and the moderately nitiogenous bran—they gradually discontinued the proportion of their consumption of the first as they approached maturity, and throughout only consumed 5 per cent, of bran. The pigs were 10 months old, and the average consumption of these foods by each pig per week was 601b, or about 91b per day, which produced 101b to 121b of meat per week, or about IJlb per day There was a rapid decrease in the rate of con-