FARMING ITEMS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1122, 25 February 1885, Page 3

FARMING ITEMS.

Lime decomposes poultry manure, and makes it as fine as powder. Do not place beehives too near together. Queens sometimes get mixed up if you do so.

Cattle or horses may be saved from running against and injuring themselves on barbed wire fences by means of a deep furrow ploughed against the fence on both sides, raising a ridge which gives notice to stock running towards the fence to bait. If stones are at hand, a low wall or a single row of stones laid under the fence will have the same effect.

The following are the correct figures of the quantities used in reducing bones with ashes: — Break 1001 bof bones into small fragments, and pack them in a tight cask or box with 1001 b of good wood ashes, which have been previously mixed with 251 bof waterslaked lime and 121 bof powdered sal soda. Twenty of water will saturate the mass, and more may be added as required. In two or three weeks the bones will be. soft enough to turn out on tbe barn floor and mix with 2 bushels of good soil.

As color in butter has an influence upon its price in the market, dairymen might take a hint from the following by a correspondent of tbe " American Agriculturist:"—- ' I have never seen a yellow skinned cow that gave pale butter, or a very rich colored skin in a cow that did not give yellow or yellowish butter all through the winter. "When the yolk which gives this color in the ears, tail and skin, begins to show in a calf, it will probably never show less, and what butter the cow gives will be of good color."

There is an evil in connection with tbe rabbit slaying against which the utmost precaution should be used. It is well known that rabbits, as soon as they have eaten poison, rush off to the noarest water, where they generally die frequently falling into the water, and if not immediately removed their bodies putrify, and along with the poison they contain, contaminate the water to such an extent as to render it deadly to any animal that partakes of it, so that it will be necessary to frequently examine and clear of the dead bodies all creeks, waterholes and the like to which they may have access. Care in the selection of seed is new generally recognised to be of great importance in its influence on the succeeding crop. In the case of corn or potatoes it is usually practised, but the sowed grains are not often selected as carefully as they should be, except, ppphaps wheat. By running through a sieve of suitable mesh all the small, imperfect kernels, with the greater part of cockle and other impurities, will be taken out and none but the laf ge and best developed grain will be left. Should any cockle remain it cau be very quickly separated by spreading a small quantity at a time in a box and picking out by hand— a good odd or rainy-day job. T.he " Scientific American " publishes a letter from an inventor who proposes to revolutionise tbe present system of cultivating tbe earth. He describes a machine that is rigged with large windmill sails, has a tiller for steering, will travel upbill or down, and with the wind in any direction. A full-sized one of 60 horse-power may be depended upon to draw ten ploughs four miles an hour, ploughing four acres an hour with but one man in attendance. It will also harrow, and furnish the power to sow, reap, and mow, thresh, grind, carry loads to market, or irrigate lands. "Will travel ten miles an hour in any direction, and carry twenty passengers, provided there is a good breeze. The machines are not expensive to build. Surely there must be a good time coming for farmers.

A baulky horse should npver be beaten, as it will only make him more nervous, and increase the difficulty. Doing something to distract his attention is psrhaps tbe best way to start him. Some baulky horses start readily when a handful of sand is put in their mouth or ears. Others will be mollified by an ear of corn eaten and another held at a tempting distance a little in advance. In cases of continued obstinancy a cure is sometimes affected by fastening tbe borse securely and leaving him without food or drink until he is willing to start. A story is told of one farmer whose horse baulked with a light load in the woods. The animal was tied to a tree and tried at intervals through tbe day. At night be was left standing. The next morning, twenty-four hours after tbe baulky fit began, the horse started freely, and never offered to baulk again while his owner was driving him.