HINTS TO FARMERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9254, 2 December 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

HINTS TO FARMERS.

SOME THINGS IN FAKMING WORTH REMEMBERING. 1. The law of any country in, regard to fences, should be not to keep out the cattle of others but to keep in your own. 2. The roots of plants go in search of food — food is rarely taken to the roots — hence the value of thorough tillage as they go in the direction of the least resistance. 3. The best condition of the average soil is when it is made up of one-fourth of air channels. 4- As it is a poor farm thac has no mud, so it it? a poor soil that won't grow many weeds when let alone. 5. Fertilisation, or recuperation of lands, is due as much to physical change as to any added plant food. 6. Land that has given a good crop of anything will give anoiher good one of the same kind the following season, allowance being made for season. 7. A sandy soil with only one third of the richnees that is in a loamy one, will give an equally good harvest. 8. A comparatively poorer, but better tilled Boil, will often give a better crop than really rich land badly managed. 9. There is more loss from deep than from shallow seedinsr, on an average of climate, soil and seed. 10. All kinds of manure act more rapidly and effectively on light than on heavy Boils. 11. A drain in a clay soil will draw more water than it will in a Bandy one. 12 Water will. flow faster to a tile drain four feet deep than it will to one three feet deep — under precisely similar circumstances. 13. Fallowing land, or frequent cultivation of the eurfacp, holds water from going to a draiu and also from being evaporated. 14. One of the best systems of irrigation is from below — that is when the soil is moisture-full it should be kept there by tillage. 15. Irrigationists must remember that plantd require reß« in order to flower and bear fruit — the cell formation has to be sent from making leaves and roots to make the others. 16. Science ia rsry valuable, bat can it tell ,us why the mast of the timber trees of Australia are ueavier in bpecific gravity than those of most other countries ? 17. By the way, a properly managed plantation' bf forest trees during 25 years will return more direct profit per acre per annum than most farm props. 18. Stack silage cohered with two feet of earth will keep equally well, and have lees waste than any other plan yet tried. 19. Pit silage r< quires no weighting or other kinds of expensive pressure, .when management and temperature we properly attended to. 20. The very beat of pasture will give 500 gajlone of milk pet acre per! annum, the cow beiner all right. 21. The.giffurence between a good cow and a poor- lone "is the price of the former every sejagpi. 22.* Th'at^annat poßßibly be agood cow that is nbt a greedy one ; big digestion ib iadißpenßablßif torn a fall milk pail. > 23. A good' cow will^at -her ■bead off once every year in cost of maintenance, a poor one three times. 24. The; good cow. give six times her owo; wejgftt of milk per season, on the beet of keepj and other conditions. . 25. It takes three days' good feeding to make up for one bad one. V--2&-- A proper mixture of grasses and clovers for permanent pastqr© gives just eight times more milk per acre than the present average of Australian paddocks. " 27. It costs about the same to produce a. pound of butter as a pound of beef, on an average under equal conditions. 28. A good two-y< ar-old< bullock on the very bett of pasture will increase in weight at t^e rate of 2ib per day. 29.' The same bullock on the best main tenance of corn will not give more than l^lb* per day. 30. But when some of the corn is taken •off and preen fodders are added, he will increase 2^l b. per day in live weight 31. This same bullock will do 30 per cent, better on raw food than on cookei food of the same kinds. 32 A pis fed on raw peas and water wi'l increase 15 per cent, tnore in weight than were the peas boiled with the water. 33. Proper shelter and water mean a difference ot 40 p*-r cent, in the growth of a two-year- old bullock. 34 Btraw, chaffed and slightly fer mented co as to catch the sweet stage, is one-fourth more valuable for cattle feeding. 35. Green fodders are safer when chaffed and mixed with hay or straw, and allowed to slightly ferment, than when fed alone. 36. Most foods are better in combination than alone. t 37. Never give animals sudden changes . ' food, but chunge often. 38. There v a difference of 3!b in the weight of v fit-ecu between good and poor breeding ; the effect of the food is greater than that of climate in this reßpect.

39. Good pasture is equal to the itost nutritious concentrated foods in producing wool. 40. When long woolled sheep sre clipped twice a year, the produce is 80 per cent, greater in the same time, and the animal increases faster in growth when the clip- j ping times are properly balanced. 41. It is a Bife guide to give working horses lib. of corn and lib. of chaff per day, for every 1001 b. of their weight. 42. Quality in butter is more a matter of structural arrangement secured by pioper churning and working, than by anything else. 43. We are apt to forget that a cool diary is not n- cessarily a pure one, and that in winter, milk needs aeration more than in sun.mer. 44 The greater the force a&d the drier the air, the greater the evaporation and the power of cooling, hence we should take advantage of these in Rumajer for many farm purposes. Such as the dwelling housa, the dairy, and the horse stable.