Miscellaneous Items

Southland Times, Issue 5016, 28 August 1884, Page 4

Miscellaneou s Items

- ,--- r -k-\ t .---->:"'v..-.^ : "*!■.•- : -. -. ■ ■ ; - ■ • ' A Bearible Advice,— At a conference, held in Dublin on the question of ensilage, -Mr >Ganett Taylor, Trowse House, Norfolk, said that Ensilage, while very valuable as a cobdimeatin feeding cattle would never do for the cole food. Until ensilage became a saleable 1 article tkat could be sent about, he advised every ■farmer to make hay while he could, and when ne could not then to make enSilfga. ; '-■'.'; "^ '' :■ '.-. v "< ■■.; A Model « Cockatoo.'— Te Kooti may now be considered a Waikato settler, as; the GoTernment have purchased for him from Mr An<Lra#. Kay, of Orakan, the farm at that place no wn as the Ngamakn No 2 blbck, consisting of 260 acres, The price givenjwas close oh to, £3 per acre. TeKooti's intention ii'to settle down to its peaceful occupation, :.:/,'■: I [ Grain Sowing in June.— ln reply to an en- • quiiy re. oats for very late sowing, a correspondent of the N.B. Agriculturist advised to • procure an oat known in Fife by the name of " Select Holbeck." In an ordinary climate itissownfrom the first to the middle of May, and ii even then about a fortnight sooner to maturity than any other early variety he knows Worth growing ; besides, it bulks well in strawjand the weight 421bs to 461bs per bushel.' Balt Ballast.— One of the Southern Pacific Railroads in the United States has been ballasted entirely with rock salt. 'This,' it is remarked, •is the first instance known of a railroad roadbed being laid and ballasted in salt. The sea which once rolled over this place dried np, and left a vast bed of salt about. 6o miles in length. The quality is superb and the* supply inexhaustible. Grass* hoppers of enormous size and giant centipedes have been here pickled in the cjilorideof sodium, and are to-day, after the lapse of centuries, in full size and perfection of chape.' An Enlightened Government,— The beautiful red bull Bob Roy, rising four years, and bred by Mr J. A. Gordon of Arabella, Rossshire, which stood second in the aged class at the Inverness Highland Show last year, and was since purchased from the breeder by Mr Dnthie, Collynie, Aberdeenshire, at 130 guineas, has now been secured by Professor Brown of the Government Agricultural College, Canada, at the high price of oOOgs. This is the highest price that has vet been paid for a shorthorn bred in the northern ' counties of Scotland. The animal, however, ii one of the best-locking that that part of the country has produced for many years, and is sore to be heard of on the other side of the water during the coming season. Preservation of Posts. —Mr Whitehead, speakiog with regard to the quality of creosote, said he wished that the committee could have seen it way to have published some • standard of its composition necessary for the proper preservation of wood. This was a very important question in Kent, as the hoppoles were dipped in creosote before being put np ; and during the past few years it had been found that they did not last nearly so long as those in use twenty years ago on account of the inferior quality of the creosote used. He understood that Dr Voelcker was prepared to say that creosote should contain at least 11 per cent of caibolic acid. This was a question affecting not only hop-growerß, but all landowners who used creosote for the preservation of wood. In Kent its use was universal, not only for hop-poles, but for bean and other sticks dipped in it. He believed the War office had a specification which was thoroughly satisfactory, but on the other hand the Post Office had no standard, and in consequent c the telegraph poles did not last so long as they otherwise would. He hoped that by the next Council meeting the Chemical Committee would be able to let <t go forth what the required standard is.— Journal R. A, S. The Cultivation of Jute. — From Professor S. Waterhouse's report to the American De- _ partment of Agriculture, concerning the cultivation of jute, we learn a great deal of information concerning that useful material The value of the fibre was first recognised at Dundee more than fifty years ago, aud since that time the cultivation of the plant has increased not only in India, but in the United States. Jute can be combined with cotton, linen, or silk, to imitate more expensive fabrics, and can be died a variety of tints. It is also largely me I by papermakers, and is extensively employed to make the rough canvas which covers bales of cotton and oih -r goods. The yield in India is from two to thred thousand pound? per a^re, but the American grower, by replacing the rude tillage of India by perfect machinery, is able to do better than this, and at the same time to produce plants giving better fibre. Jute will flourish wherever there is a moiet kotclim-ue, and the beso soil is sandy clay, or alluvial mould. I Notable Moral Character. — The ' busy bee ' that ' improves each shining hour, 1 is one of the moat notable characters in our moral literature. It has pointed so many morals that it has become a nuisance, and many people have, perhaps, taken less interest in its natural hi-story than they otherwise would have done, on this account. Bat, in view of the great practic \l importance of their visits to flowers, the following calculation will not be uninteresting. Taking th? clover flowers We find that each jhead consists of about 60 distinct flowerets, each of which contains a quantity of sugar in it 3 nectary not exceed, ing the five hundredth part of a grain. In other words, before a hive-bee can obtain one grain of sugar, it must visit 500 clover flowerets, There are 7000 grains in one ponnd ; and, as honey contains three-fouiths of its weight of dry sugar, each poua 1 of honey stored in a hive represents no 'ess a number than 2,500,000 clover flowers which have been sucked by bees. Noi unfrequently a single hive will produce 33 or 40 pounds Weight of honey daring a single summer, so that to know how many flowers had been visited we mutt multiply the abjve number by the numbi.^ of pounds of honey stored in the hive Tim is in addition to the pollen collectc d by bees. A Shearing-9hed " Rincer." — The ringer in the shed tbat I was in charge o? this season Was a temperate, industrious, well-conducled young man, yet he had the same failure of all the ringers I have seen. He rushes into the pen in a fearful hurry-scurry to cal:ch bis sheep, with a dazed s>rt of peculiar glare in his eye, an ' he goes to wv> k on the sheep as though his very existence in this woiM depended upon his shearing that identical sheep in a given time. A visitor to the sheds on beholding this said ringer at work, exclaimed My God, What a s'ght for an artist. Look at his frenzied eve The whole ( f his body from the crown of his head to the end of bis toes seems to be at work.' I told this ringer, as I have told several before, ' You are working yourself into premature old age.' I eaid, •If thej were your o* n sheep you would not hurry over them as you do ' His answer was, 'No fear.' And he owned, a-i several had done before, that I was lisjht ia s.iyiDg that I Was right in sayiog that I never snw the man yet that could shear above 80 sheep a day, to do justice to the owner, to the sheep, and to do justice to the shearer himself.— Argus