AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 173, 1 June 1871, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL

A good breadth of vetches sown with a small sprinkling of Cape broom barley among them will be found to add considerably to the produce of the dairy. Land for green fodder crops should be well manured, for on this depends the profit of the crop. It is by liberal manuring that rapid growth is promoted ; therefore give abundance of manure.

As a proof of what may be done through a judicious choice of seed, a paragraph is given in a Geelong paper, to the effect that 16Jlb of potatoes have been dug from one root in a garden cultivated by a Mr. P. McDonald, at Bell Post Hill". If Mr. McDonald is a wise man he will look upon every eye of every one of these tubers aa invaluable.

To raise good nangold seed, selected roots should invariably be transplanted. Choose these at time of lifting. Symmetry of shape, both of root and top, are almost if not of quite as much consequence as size alone. This last may be soley due to exceptional and local circumstancees. Let the root bo well balanced and developed, withont forks or fangs ; a single head, and that rising from crown to neck. Wrench or twist the tops off without injuring,the crown, Through attending to the cibove few points, as good seed may be raised here in our cooler districts as in Europe. After selection, the roots may be transplanted as soon as convenient ; or they can wait a month or two, for during the cold months the 3ap is perfectly inactive. Give each root a yard square, burying it to its crown, and stake and tie up the seed stems as soon as they rise to any height. When half a ton of seed is the average per acre, the raising is worth a little troubie. — Exchange.

Autumn Fodder : Which -willTJomethe earlier— -Cape" oats or Gape-bar-ley ? We have been asked this more than once, but we have always found so little difference in the growth of the two that we give the preference to either one or the other, under the same conditions. Both these and rye Care good fodder crops-^the latter preferable for very early cuttings only. Rye especially in ear, is not considered so good for dairy cattle if given alone ; but a peck of rye sown with two bushels of " golden tares " will yield a very good crop of fodder if the land be at all in good heart. It is considered preferable by some farmejrs to always to sow a mixture of seeds for a home crop use — such as tares, oats, and rye ; tares, barley, and oats ; beens, peas, and oats, &c. ; and they contend that, where mere weight of product is sought, this result is more surely obtained. We ourslves have seen large crops of all the above mixtures, and an acre or two can always be advantageusly sown for soiling purposes for either a dairy or where large numbers of horses are kept.

An ingenious method of forcing- the growth of mushrooms, so as to furnish a contant supply, has recently been devised by a Baron De Tincal. This gentleman places a number of little boxes in his stable, about three feet long and ten inches wide, arranged on shelves like those of a bookcase, before which a thick curtain slides in order to keep out the light. He sows the spawn of the mushroom in a bed of compost of horsedung, or dead leaves and vegetable earth well manured, and he has in this way a crop of mushrooms all the year round. The horses in the .stalls are said to be none the worse for this process, and no unhealthy emanations have ever been remarked in the stables.

Dairy farms steadily improve in the elements of fertility, and the land gets in better heart for grain crops than when growing is made the only business of the farm. It is true that upon many dairy farms the yield of grass is much less than it should be ; but this is frequently not so much on account of any lack of fertility in the soil as from allowing weeds to creep in, overstocking pastures, feeding down the aftermath of meadows, cutting grass when over-ripe, and other abuses which, in time, serve to lessen the product. When dairy farms have been properly managed, and have received the liquid and solid excrement of the stock, judiciously applied, they have been wonderfully improved, and are calculated, if put into tillage, to yield much larger crops than they would ever produce without the presence of animale.

Any and everthing in the shape of cattle food is valuable ; most growers are apt to be wasteful with any food at all abundant, and this applies particularly to chaff. In these times* of speedy thrashing, when from 800 to 1.200 bushels of grain are knocked out between sunrise and sunset, a large heap of chaff of necessity accumulates ; but this is no reason why it should be wasted. By a little management, many weeks' fodder might be preserved for consumption during our cold winter months. Chaff will keep any length of time while dry, although oatchaff, or " flight," as it is sometimes called, is not worth the trouble of preserving, wheat, and more especially barley-chaff, is a most valuable filling stuff. Oat-chaff is only fit for stuffing bids or for litter to be trodden down tor manure. Wheat-chaff is valuable, and is always used in English stables in lieu of cut chaff; but the barley haulms or chaff is the most valuable of all, and is well worth being cared for. Chaff ought always to be sifted in a fine sieve before being used, to rid it or" objectionable weed-seeds. As straw is so plentiful simultaneously with chaff, and as generally a dry spot is selected for the stacks, it will be easy to put the chaff into a heap, and build, the straw round and over it. We have seen the chaff hauled up in large baskets upon the straw-stacks, and spread out upon every layer of straw ; and this appears to be as sensible a plan as any. When chaff is used in a stable there is not so much need of cracking the corn, as the veriest bolter will crush it before swallowing if he has chaff mixed- with it.

The Wairuna and Crookston Hundreds have, since the 22nd inst., been thrown open for sale. Up to the present about 14,000 acres in the Wairuna Hundred have been applied for, out of which amount it is thought likely that 6000 acres will be sold by auction in the usual way within a month from now. The whole of the Crookston Hundred, which amounts to about 20,000 acres, has been applied for, and it is expected that 10,000 acres of it will be purchased by auction within a few days. — " Daily Times." The following advertisement appears in an English journal: — " Madame Percale begs leave to call the attention of ladies about to visit the seaside to her new and richly embroidered paper petticoats at one shilling each. Each petticoat contains an instalment of a new novel of great domestic interest, -by Anthony Trollope, entitled "Tucks and Frills.' The story will be completed in fifty weekly petticoats. The latest report regarding the fiancie of the Duke of Edinburgh is that she is the daughter of a wealthy London banker, and that she will have a downy of £5,000,000.