NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 47

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Qnestlon* for reply In coming Issue to h® rooelTtd doI later thnn SATURDAY rugat.

A Parent.— A pupil mint have attained the age of 14 years before he or she can be taken awav from school, or else have obtained a certificate of competency or Standard VI. Fencer. —The Norway spruce. Monies spruce, and Douglas spruce are not suitable for fencing purposes, as they are all soft woods. The Moiv/ies spruce is the hardest of the three mentioned, but does not last long. The best tree to grow to be of use for fencing requirements would be bluegum. Slaters. —Slaters, or wood lice, are not insects, but crustaceans. They make their way into a house through small crevices, but usually only when the walls are damp. If the outside of the house is kept free from all rubbish after the slaters are destroyed they should not again invade the interior. Pouring boiling water is the most efficacious method of destroying them if you can collect them under a large stone or a dampish bug. If the stone or the bag is turned the water can bo applied. Another plan is to wrap very lightly a boiled potato in a flower pot laid on its side near to where the wood lice congregate. Next morning shake the pests from the hay, in which they will be found secreted about the bait, into a bucket of boiling water. Repeat for successive nights. Where the slaters gather among flower pots and rubbish in a garden water th» infected parts with a weak solution of Jeyes’ Fluid, or. if this is not desirable, a sprinkling of carbolic powder or chloride of lime will displace them. Prorate. —Apply at the office of the Supreme Court, where, on pavment of a fee, you may obtain a copy of the will. Hide Reins. —The hide being dry. you will have to soak it in water, so as tr> get it back into something like the. condition it was in when first removed from the cow. Fold it up then in the usual way and bury in sand for a'xmt three days. Then spread the hide out on a floor and pour a couple of bottles .of strong vinegar over the fleshy side and give if. a ruh over with a brush or broom occasionally until all the vinegar is absorbed. As a rule, the hair will bo found on (he floor. The hide is then hung up in the shade to be used when required. The fleshy part can be removed as the hide is cut for use, when, after a few minutes’ rubbing, file part cut will be found tough and pliable. Subscriber. — The following is a simple way to make cheese for house use;—Set n tub of new milk in a warm place. It lakes rather more than a gallon of milk to make lib of cheese, so that to make a 10 ib cheese vou would require about 11 gallons of milk. Curdle it bv dissolving a little rennet in hot water and adding it to the milk. It should curcile in six or eight hours. AVlien well curdled strain off the whey and break up the curds small with the hands, heap it un in little heaps so that it may drain well; add a handful of salt, mixing it well; let it fitand for two or three hours and break it small again. Then put a cheese-cloth into a cheese vat (a little perforated vat the size of the intended cheese),' and fill it up with (he curd. A board must then be placed upon the top and pressure applied, gradually commencing with 4 c wf or oewt and reaching to a ton the second day. Turn the cheese and press further , r a , a -'\ Take it out and grease well ■ after dipping m brine, and place it on . ft dry. coo] shelf to ripen, turning it every day for a month or two. , ° ' Bushman. —There is some difference of opinion ns ’ to (he cause of cluhroot on cabbage, some authorities contending that it. ia caused*"by the myxomveetous fungus Plasmodiophera brassiere. while others are of opinion that it is due to the iarvra of tho centorhynchus subicollia, a maggot without legs, yellowish-white in appearance, with deep-wrinkled body of a Soft and pulpy nature. This peat causes similar excrescences on the turnip to those found on cabbage plant \roots, and ona

worm is found in each excrescence when cut open. Whichever contention may be right, the treatment is the same. If possible, give up the ground to a crop having no affinity to the diseased one for two or three years, and also give a dressing of lime to purify it and kill any of the pests remaining in it. A change of ground is usually found efficacious, but if this is not possible give the ground a dressing of lime, and prior to putting in the plants dip them into a mixture of soot and clay, allowing as much to adhere to the roots as possible. This not only checks the pest, hut gives the young plants a good start, and if they are ke£t steadily growing the result will be satisfactory. Interested. —The advertisements in the local paper do not show any firm making a specialty of the material you mention. Fricdlander Bros., the N. M. and A. Co., and Farmers’ Co-operative Association supply the articles. -Marriage Customs. —With reference to a recent query by Woebler, who asked if there ever was a form of marriage by the biting off the tip of the bride’s ring finger, Mr V. G. Bryan King writes: —“Possibly your correspondent refers to an old custom (amongst the Greeks, I fancy) of the bridegroom breaking with his teeth the first joint of the small finger of the bride as she crossed the threshold of her new home. It was, I iiresnme, an act of complete submission to her lord and master. I am not sure whether this is not merely a legend, but the information might bo useful to the correspondent. Titiroa, Mat a urn Island. —Mr 11, M. Davey, consulting engineer, replies; “(1) Your box should discharge about 100 Government heads of water under the conditions you set forth. (2) You do not state the design of the box, or if it is open or closed at the top, but it is supposed to bo open, as these flumes usually are; so then the fact of the additional head would mostly result in spilling over the top and by the water coming in faster than it could maintain the speed lower down. But it may well be suggested that if you could get the fall of lift, why not set the boxes to that grade all along, when you should get a flow of about 148 heads—that is, if you want that quantity.” Plough, Seaward Downs,—Mr H. 111. Davey replies; “ I regret that from the meats you have given, there is no possibility of giving the area till you give one angle; thus is there any one of the angles a right or square one? If you make a pencil sketch of the plan, no matter how roughly, stating which is the 11. which the 4, which the 16, and which the 131 chains, and give the approximate angle of one corner, the whole can be given. For you to see what I mean, yon take four sticks, each of the number of inches long as you have chains, and touch them at the corners, and us you move them different ways yen will get different areas down to almost nothing.” Traveller. —lt would appear from the directories that there is no labour agency or registry office in Kelson. You could communicate with the agent of the Labour Department there. The fare by steamer from Dunedin is £3 3s saloon, and £1 3 7s steerage; from Lyttelton £2 2s saloon, and £1 7s steerage. W. B. S. —Stock Exchange Buildings, Dunedin. K., AVaimate, wants to know the highest market price of wheat and oats since 1880 for Canterbury and Otago. Mr AV. Brown, of the Otago Farmers' Co-operative Association, informs ns that in October, 1907, wheat was purchased for Dunedin at Cs per bushel at South Canterbury stations. Tin’s may be reckoned as the highest price since 1880. Perplexed writes: —“Up till recently we'vo had excellent butter, but on the last three occasions it has developed both taste and smell about 24 hours after being churned. The following is the process we adopt for dealing. After butter or cream breaks into small particles we strain through cloth, wash out churn, returning butter, and wash with brine. I omitted to say I found a drain for flood-water stopped up; would that do it? It did not smell well. Could you give the following information: First, which is the bettor to wash butter with, salt and water or brine ? Second, what is the proper process to ripen cieam? Wo churn twice a week—about five pounds at a lime. Third, what temperature should the cream bo heated to and how?” From what you say it seems your cows have been eating some strong feed, or else drinking bad water. The flavour of the butter is influenced by the flavour of the milk, which is largely determined by the feed and water the cows are given or have access to. If the cream is pasteurised (healed) to a temperature of 180 deg Fahr.. and then cooled down to sGdeg, a lot of these flavours pass off. It should then be ripened with a good starter. (1) Butter should be washed witli as cold a water as can b'o got. A small quantity of salt sprinkled over the butter before the water is added has a tendency of firming the granules quicker, and getting >id of the buttermilk. A brine has the same effect, providing it is made fresh at every cjnuning. (2) After the cream is cooled down, add a little clean, flavoured buttermilk, or, and for preference, some clean-flavoured starter (which can be procured from a dairy factory). This starter can be made by pasteurising some milk, and adding some culture to if. From 1 to 5 per cent, of starter is sufficient to add to cream ior ripening. (3) By placing the cream in a tin vessel and then setting it in a pot of water on the range, or in a washhouse copper, the cream can be heated nicely to 175 deg or 18f)deg. Care must bo taken to keep it stirred whilst being heated. After this it should be cooled down us soon as possible to 56dcg. See reply to query in last week’s Witness re salting butter. Ambitious wants to know at what age a girl is allowed to lie employed in t lie Postal Department of the New Zealand Government, and what salary And, also, if there are any special qualifications.— —Appointments to the professional or clerical division are offered to candidates in the order in which their names appear in the list of the results of the junior examination, providing that girls shall receive offers of appointment only when the vacancies are considered suitable for girls. The age must be not less than 15 years nor more than 25 years. In the general division, the qualification is a certificate of competency in Standard IV, and the ago between 16 and 40 years. The salary for the first year in the professional division is £7O, and in the clerical division £3O, a lodging allowance being made in each case when the person has to live away from home. Argument writes to ask if a weight thrown from a window of a railway carriage on a fast-travelling train would strike a person thrown at leaning out of a window in tho forepart of the carriage, and whether, if thrown at a person leaning out of the rear part of tho carriage, the blow would be heavier; further, at what epeed would a cricket ball require to leave tfca baud if thrown a distance of

SO yards?——Mr T. B. F. Hamilton, of the Otago University staff, lias supplied the following reply: (a) If we neglect the effect of the air, the weight would not strike B any harder when the train is in motion than when it is not; although B is coming to meet the weight, A is being moved away at the same rate when he throws it —i.e., whatever velocity A’s hand is swung rearwards with is reduced by 88ft per second, because his body is being borne onwards at that rate. It makes no difference that they are leaning out of the window; the weight might just as well bo thrown along the carriage inside, provided we neglect the air effect. Inside the carriage, if the doors are shut, the air would make no difference anyway, since it is in motion forwards along with the carriage. Consider a paddock and A and B in it. The ground, A and B, and the air aro all travelling eastwards with enormous velocity, owing to the rotation of the earth ; but for all that A cannot throw a weight harder to the west than to the east. Kbw consider tlie effect of the air in the case of the train. The air outside is being loft behind at the rate of SBft per second. Hence, if the weight he thrown forwards it has practically n wind against it blowing at 83ft per second. If thrown backwards this wind is with it. Presuming that the weight is of heavy metal, the wind effect would be very small. A would need to throw very hard to give the weight a velocity of. say, 80ft per second, hut even then the wind effect would not be as much as a foot per second, (b) Only the wind effect discussed above. Of course, in addition to tho direct effect on the ball, B would find some difficulty in leaning out and throwing against a GO-mile gale. (c) A cricket ball, is comparatively light for its size, and tho air retards it very much. But for this retardation the curve with which the hall comes to earth after reaching its highest point would be exactly similar to the curve which it described in rising. Probably the air reduces the distance to half, so that we ought not to be far wrong if we calculate the initial velocity required to throw the ball 160yds in a vacuum. Assuming that the ball is thrown at the most favourable angle (45 degrees), we get the answer thus in feet per second:, Vj 160 X 3 = - 32 which gives Y equal approximately 124 ft per second —nearly 85 miles per hour. Subscriber, M.l.—See reply to “Argument” given above.