THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 994, 28 November 1883, Page 5

THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

An lowa dairyman of twenty years' experience fiuds oats "one of the best feeds for cows," but they mnke white butter.

Mr R. N. Van Deusen, Enfield, Connecticut, is reported by the ' Springfield Republican " as having raised last year 3400 pounds of turnip seed on two acres. " The secret lies in setting out half grown turnips." A "prominent agriculturist of Wyndham County " is quoted iv the " Connecticut Farmer " as saying he knows men who will not feed ensilage to their favourite Jersey cowe, fearing it would destroy their teeth. Mr S. T. Gridley, of Ypsihnti. tells the "Michigan Farmer" that warts on horses, have, in his experience, invariably disappeared under persistent applications of grease from salt pork fried without freshening.

We know of one fresh Jersey cow, receutly bought at a sale of imported stock for more than 3000 dollars, that milks three quarts a day, and makes three pounds of butter a week. A herd of fashionable bred Jerseys known to us averages this product. — " The Dairy." Mr Henderson finds that the turf cau be successfully laid in dry and hot summer weather by simply covering it wben finished, before it gets too dry, with about a quarter of an inch of light soil, put through a half -inch sieve. The grass begins to grow through the soil in a very few days. — " Toronto Globe."

The frequent assertion that ensilage cannot be any better cattle food than the herbage it was made from, assumes too much. The changes undergone by the grass in the pit are of the nature of those produced by cooking or partial digestion, and we are all ready to admit that the cooked potato is something better than the raw one. It has been suggested that the heavy rains at the period of apple bloom last year was the cause of lack of fruit. Trees, and varieties that bloomed late after the rains, bore well. It seems not improbable that heavy rains at such time might wash off the pollen grains, or destroy their vitality. — Professor A. J. Cooke.

It is said that linseed oil will prevent tires coining off. The oil must be heated, placed in a shallow pan, the wheel set in it and turned slowly round. The oil fills the pores of the felloe, swells them, and prevents the loosening of the tires, and at the same time preserves the wood in its best condition.

Mr Samuel Miller, Bluffton, Mo., tells the " Germantown Telegraph" that if fresh fodder corn is stacked with straw — wheat or oats — in alternate layers of a foot of the latter to three inches of the former, there is no danger of spoiling, as the juices of the corn are absorbed by the straw, and the latter is rendered so palatable that cattle will eat it all greedily without waste.

The story goes that the discoverer of the variety of oats known as potato oats, found a magnificent plant in one of his potato fields, hence the name. The " chevalier " barley was discovered in exactly the same way by Dr Chevalier, Woodbridge, England. Hallett, the grain pedigreeist, obtains bis superior seed in a similar manaeT. There is not one farmer in a hundred who pays sufficient attention to his seed, and who could not greatly increase his yield of corn or roots if he but took a little extra trouble in that respect. The very best soil to use in your henhouse, under the roosts, is a clear, sharp-set sand, about such as masons would use to make their mortar. It absorbs all the valuable salts of both liquids and solids, and does not bake or cake up, and when it is to be used it will readily yield the fertility from the hen droppings to the plant roots, or to the surrounding soil, where the roots will find them. Sand contains no fertilising properties to any extent excepting potash, which is in the form of silicate of potash, but the action of the decomposition of those fertilisers, which are very rich in nitrogenous matters, liberates or makes soluble that potash or part of it, so that it becomes a very good fertiliser for all crops, though more valuable aa a top-dressing for grass or maize than for root crops.

Warts must be removed by an opera, tion. If the root be very small it may be snipped asunder with a pair of scissors close to the skin, and the root touched with the lunar caustic. If the pedicel or stem be semewbat larger, a ligature of waxed silk may be passed firmly round it, and tightened every day. The source of nutriment being thus cut off, the tumor will, in a few days, die and drop off. If they are large or in considerable cluster, it will be necessary to cast the horße, to cut them off close to the skin, and sear the root with a red hot iron. Unless these precautions are used the warts will speedily sprout again. In encysted warts an opening should be freely made ovex the centre, and the contents i squeezed not. A report has been recently issued by the Madras Government, entitled Suggestions regarding Forest Adminis- 1 tration in the Madras Presidency, by Dr Brandis, one of the best authorities of forestry, who is decidedly of opinion that it is impossible to materially alter the climate by the creation of new forests or the improvement of old ones ; for, as he says, the great features of climate depend upon cosmic causes, which are independent of local circumstances, although, as has been proved by experiment, a gauge placed above the crowns of -the trees in a forest Collects more ram haaa anohhep plddSa in its vicinity at the same height from the ground "but outside the forests. Large extents of forest or large areas of irrigated land may have some effect

in increasing the rainfall at certain seasons, and there io no doubt that in the vicinity of dense forests, and on irrigated lands, the air near the ground is generally moister during the dry season, and the dew heavier.