NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 39

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions lor reply in coming issue to bo r> oeived not later than SATURDAY night. Questions will NOT be replied to through the post. * Tickle the Ivories. —The music could be ! printed at your own expense in Dunedin. Your best plan is to communicate with a publisher in Australia, and send the manuscript to them for approval. You could then either retain the rights of the piece or sell outright to the publisher. If they considered the music suitable they would offer you a proposition to some such effect. The publishing house would place the music in the various music houses. In many cases the unsold copies are returned. If you kept the rights you might get perhaps Is per piece if the published pries was 2s. In the other case yen would get a definite sum and perhaps a royalty of Id or 2d per copy on all copies sold. We suggest you commuicate with the Allan Proprietary, Ltd., George street. Sydney, who would give you full details. Inquirer. —Your proposal to dispose of housa drainage by digging a cesspit is objected to by the health authorities owing to the danger of polluting adjacent surface wells. It is only permissible when drinking water is available to the whole community from a common reservoir. The from a septic tank can be purified by passing it through surface soil kept cultivated or by constructing proper filter beds exposed to sun and air. The size of your section is an important consideration when a permit to instal a septic tank is sought. If you have a large section and good .soil, yt is quite possible to instal a septic tank combined with soil treatment, anti the Christchurch District Health Office would no doubt advise you as to specifications. A good book on drainage and sanitation is Reid’s “Sanitation,” a Cambridge University publication. Ruapuna (New Zealand) asks: (1) How to cure and spice a beef bam. what spices to use, and quantities. (2) I intend sowing a paddock in wheat later on this month, and intend to give it ljewt manure, also about 4ewt carbonate of lime. What would be the better way to apply the lime? The only implement I have to sow it is a drill. Would you advise sowing it with the wheat or separately? (3) Where to get a sample of soil analysed and how to go about it and what charge is made. (4) I purpose growing a quantity of Pinus insignis trees in the garden for planting out later on, and would esteem your advice on the subject.—(l) Take Jib coarse salt, one dessertspoonful brown sugar, one teaspoonful each cf powdered saltpetre, whole pepper, allspice, and cloves, and mix well and rub thoroughly all over meat. Pack in large enamel dish or small tub, and place in flyproof safe or other cool place. Turn meat every day. After two or three days, remove meat and press under heavy weight for one night. Then hang in cool place. (2) The quantity of carbonate ot lime you propose to sow is so little as to be immaterial. Suggest that you increase the manure (you do not ,however, say what it is) per acre, and, say next year, open your purse wider and lime. Where do you live? (3) Inquire from Field Officer in your district, who will collect samples if requested in the correct manner free of charge. (4) Seed of pine trees may be sown in the spring in clean, friable soil outside in drills tin deep. Protect, if -necessary, from frost or winds. In the aulumn, when trees have grown a bit, the tap root should be cut by means of a sharp spade under row of seedlings from each side. The seedlings can be lifted and planted to their permanent pieces a month later. Kowhai (Wood-,,,1e) wishes to know how to store artichokes during the winter.—Artichokes should be left in the ground during winter. In about August, when they begin to grow, they should be lifted and seed selected for planting at once. In very cold countries they can be kepi in cellars covered with sand.

Ardlussa. (Balfour) asks: What is the cheapest way of sending a case of fruit to any place in the North Island, and what charge is m&de by the ferry boats? — Send by rail. The cost is about 3s for a 561 b case. The rail includes ferry charge. If you had named the particular locality we could have told you the* charge exactly, as it depends upon the distance. Ai*an W. C. (Ashburton) submites a series of questions as follows: (1) Can you tell me anything about the WTiitcom.be and the Mathias Passes in Canterbury, leading through the Alps, and how they are readied from Rakaia or Lake Coleridge? (2) Is it possible and safe to use these passes in winter, and can a man with a horse negotiate them? Is this country, although heavily bushed in. parts and subject to snow on the higher levels, auriferous? (4) What is the- name of thS best non-technical work on gold prospecting for a ‘‘new chum'’ ? —something really suitable for New Zealand, I mean. (6) Does the Government still pay 5s for each kea destroyed in this Island ? (6) Are geologists’ blowpipe outfits procurable at any New Zealand stores, and, if so, from what prices are they retailed?.—(l), (2), and (3) Inquire at Tourist Office, Christchurch.. (4) “Australian Prospector’s Pocket Book” (price Is 6d), obtainable at Stark and C)., Princes street, Dunedin, may suit you. (5) Yes. (6) Write Curator, Christchurch Muesum. Constant Reader (Wyndham) dtesires to know the best preservative for canvas, such as a horse cover.— Puts boiled linseed oil, with a little paste dryers added, will make a thoroughly waterproof sheet. If black dressing is required, add vegetable black to the oil and dryers. If time is no object, add a little fish-oil, and this will make the canvas soft ancß pliable and increase its durability. The dressing must be carefully applied with a stiff brush, the canvas to be stretched on floor while treated. Work dressing in well and leave no patches. Hang up to dry, then give another coating. When drying, allow sheet to hang in free currents of air—dry air—but not in the sun’s rays. Allow to hang till thoroughly seasoned. If for covering such a« tarpaulin, both sides of sheet can be treated! with advantage, but extre ne care to details must be observed.