FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 103, 6 March 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN NOTES.

oThe Weather and the Farm.—Since the thunderstorm of Tuesday last the weather has been more settled than for some time past, and the few line days of this week have been taken advantage of by croppers to get in their grain, which has been wofully decreased in quantity through the depredations of the sparrows. The quality of the oat straw has suffered much through the rain, aim chaff made therefrom will not, wc fear, be such as to meet the requirements of buyers. Chaff from autumn-sown crops is now being placed on the market and through the splendid harvesting weather prevailing at the time of cutting and stacking same, the samples arc all that can be desired, being of a bright, clean colour and containing a good percentage of grain. Owing to the large amount of damaged crop that which has been well saved should meet with a good sale. The weather in the South has not been favourable for harvesting and crops left in the paddock to be threshed from the stook have been considerably damaged, wheat and barley having suffered greatly in colour. + + + ' Taranaki Cattle at OiiAuro.—Road communication between Taranaki and Auckland is slowly coming. Cattle (says the Taranaki Budget) aro being sent overland from Mimi to Ohaupo. + + + The Big Earnings of a Crack Shearer. —Louis Pulley, a crack shearer, well known in Queensland, claims that he shore 33,826 sheep last season, making the record for Australia, he earned £338 15s. Be went through seven sheds Oondooroo, Cambridge Downs, Marathon, Barenga, Telemon, and Beacor.sfield,—averagiug 4540 sheep per shed. + + + A Remunerative Industry : Grass Seed Growing.—One of the besl payiug crops in Lower Hawko's Bay is that of grass seod From 25 acres of paddock i s much as £175 griss receipts have been taken. The expenses, all in, amounted to £SO, leaving a balance to credit of £125. In addition to this, 50 tons ot bay were saved for winter keep, and the paddock being only closed for two months, 10 mouths' grazing was secured also. + -i- + The Best Pasture Grasses.—Professor M 'Alpine botanist to the Highland and Agricultural Society, speaking at a nicetiug'of the Closeburn Farmers' Club, said that the only good grasses were Italian ryegrass, crested dog's tail, meadow fescue, cocksfoot, timothy, and meadow foxtail. If they wanted only to skim the snrface they should sow perennial ryegrass, but if thoy wanted to work the land to its depths they should use the deep-rooted grasses—the meadow fe3cue, cocksfoot, timothy, and meadow fox-tail, x x x The Beet Sugar Industry in Victoria. —The beetroot sugar industry is being pluckily entered upon by some of the Victorian agriculturists. The newly formed Maffra Company has lodged over £SOOO with the Treasurer, and has applied under tho Amended Act for a loan from tho Government to enable the company to purchase a German plant, to cost £30,000. If the Treasurer is satisfied as to the prospect of the company, the money will be eranted, and by raisimr anothor £SOOO tho body will be entitled to a further advance of £IO,OOO. + + + The Remedy Worse Than the Disease.—Last week Mr A. Noble, says .'.he " Wyndhum Parmer," had three valuable draught horses poisoned, two dying and one recovering. Sheep dip had been rubbed uudcr their jaws to ward_ off hot flies, the result biung blood-poisoning. Mr R Kidd's services were called in, and ho bled the animals. People cannot be too careful in the use of poisonous fluids, and we have heard of other cases of animals being poisoned by the outward application ot au undiluted poisonous steep dip. xxx Destroying Tuiiekculous Cattle : A Costly Proceeding.—The horoie treat ment of tuberculosis in tho United States, by destroying all infected herds, has come to an cud by the resignation of the chief ahvocate of this method, Chairman Osgood, of tho Massachusetts Cattle Commission. This resignation, says tho " American Agriculturist," closes what at one time seemed destined to become a perfect craze, und substituted therefore comuionsonse methods of dealing with a disease that can be greatly curtailed but from its very nature can never be wholly exterminated, unless indeed the public is willing to bear thp entire expense which would involve miliums upon millions. + i + In Case of Fip.e : A Good Idea.—A well-known settler, who has in his time lost a great deal of fencing and some outbuildings by (fires, has (says the Wairarapa Daily Times) adopted a very clever yet simnle method for preventing this destruction. He says if water and clay ase mixed into a thin paste and plastered on eve ry post or building by means of a large brush, a fierce fire can sweep right across without having tho slightest effect on the plastered material. This ruethed he has proved to be a thorough success on son:c of his own fences and strongly advises all other settlers who are in danger of bush or grass fires to follow bis example. xxx Irrigation in Canterbury.—On irrigation in Canterbury the Ohristcburch Press sajs : has some wonderful results this season from irrigation. For some four or five years Mr M'Gregor has been irrigating on a small scale, with most satisfactory results. This year be has :;S acres with a wonderful crop of red clover or cowgrass, wh.ch he has saved for seed. Tho clover is 2Gin long, well headed and full of seed, and very thick on the ground. In another and adjoining irrigated paddock is a fine crop of wheat, which looks like a ISO-bushel crop. This laud is better known as Burnham Plains—dry, shallow ground, whitth during a season like tho present would have been burnt up, and any crop leaving clover out of the question, would have bee'n completely ruined. Mr M'Gregor's system is to plough and cultivate the land intended for irrigation into narrow lands, say about two chains wide, with a wide aud shallow water furrow between the lands. The water is obtained Ir jm water-racos." -I- x -IThe American Pork Trade.—The Cincinnati Prices Current estimates that Western packers slaughtered the unprecedented nmnberof 08,500,000 hogsdurinu: the summer season, boginuinjr with March and ending with October 1890. This is 20 per cent, more than 1805. and 810,000 hogs more than in 1801), heretofore the greatest season on record. * It would not be surprising under the circumstances to sco a heavy accumulation of hog products, but happily this is not the case at present. The domestic and export trade has been enormous." According to the authority quoted, it has absorbed tho products of all the hogs slaughtered in the \\ est during the summer i<easou, and that of 1,500,000 more. The winter packing season opens, therefore, with stocks of provisions that are much lighter thauatthe close of last winter season. " Tiie distribution of bog products may partially account I

for the duluessin other kinds of live stock. With such quantities of cheap pork goinir to consumers, high prices for beef are not to bo expected." The National Stockman of a late date says :'■ Tho average qualtity of tho hog* continues poor. There is a ecarcity of choice hogs of heavy and medium weights, while light hogs and pigs keep coming to market in great numbers." xxx Value ok Grbrn Manuring.—ln a pamphlet on manures and their applications to hand from .Mr W. Dyke, Thurnford, Herts, tho writor touches upon the subject of green ciop manuring in a manlier favourablo to the custom. Tht, value of this method of manuring, he says, is that it collects the soluble plant food from the soil, which is lisblo to be washed out by rains. The soil is also enriched by organic matters which the plants have obtained from tho atmosphere as well as by the mineral matter brought upfiom the subsoil. The crops most suitable for this purposo are white mustard, vetches, buckwheat, rye, rape, clover, «fce. The essential conditions necessary to prove effective, he observes, arc plants that will grow quickly, cover the ground well, and penetrate deeply into the sv.bsoil. Weight for weight, he believes green manures are about epual to farmyard dung, and the sys'em is applicable to both light and heav» soils. The best time to plough in is just before flowering. Allotment holders arc advised to sow some of these quick-growing crops in the autumn, instead of leaving the land bare, and by (•o doing they would increase the storo of plant food, and make the land more suitable for futuro crops. Vetches, the writer considers would be tho best to grow for this purposo, because they would collect nitrogen from the atinosphore by means of tha micro-organisms attiohed to their roots, which would substantially enrich the soil.- Field. HOW SHALL SMALL FARMERS MAKE ENDS MEEP? ' The following, which was read before a Farmers' Institute on tho other side of the Pacific Ocean, might as well have been written for this colony, and shows how much alilcD the problems affecting small farmers on both sides of the world are. Wo endorse svery word of it, at d repeat what we have so often urged : Make your farm supply youi own needs as far as possiole ; fill up the waste corners of your land when possible ; do without what you cannot pay for there and then ; do not be a one-crop man, or neglect the small farm industries—poultry, baes, pigs, fruit and vegetable garden. Here is the article : " In these days of financial unrest and uncertainty, coupled with hard times and the prevailing low prices of nearly all kinds of farm and orchard products, the above question is to many of us a vital one. " Tho lino between profit and loss with many has been growing narrower and narrower, and with the coining of tho year's end has veered to tbo wrong side of the account. From what I have observed, it seems that a great many people came to this Mand of sunshine ' with the idea that a fat livinir may be obtained on a small piece of land, and with but little thought and labour. Never was a man more deluded. While it is true that the reward is mro, and success to those who exercise a good degree of common sense, together with honest labour, is certain ; to him who lacks the fulfilment of tho proper conditions, disaster is sure to follow. " How many people there are to-day lamenting the fact of bard times, who are in a measure, responsible for tho condition they are in. " Could not many who own a cow produce what that cow cats, instead of paying out tho cash ? '• Could not he who owns a few chickens in a large measure produce what they subsist upon, instead of running to the feed store for it ? "Would not a pig eat much that, now goes to waste, and in turn be eatea by the owner, or turned into cash ? " Would not one or more colonies of bees furnish much to sweeten life, and at. the same time help to increase our orchard products by fertilising tho blossoms? " In short, let him A'ho has a few acres not think to plant it all to trees, and wait for them to grow, while he joins the street corner crowd ; but let him leave a corner—a largo one—for lucerne and fodder corn, pumpkins and beets. All of these can easily bo grown by the roadside, aud ou vacant lots, which are now producing in many cases only weeds. By so doing he would, to p. largo extent, solve tho problem of " How to mnko ends meet." He would bo happier himself, his grocer would smile to see him bringing in tho fresh eggs aud sweet butter to barter for tho few real necessary articles in his line ; and he himself, at the samo time, would have more self-respect, and the respect of his neighbours. " To farmers and fruit-growers who are looking for chances of doing something to make ends meet, I will say there are many. In this and oiher towns about thoro are to-duy hundreds of vacant lots, which, with deep ploughing after the first, and cultivation after each succeeding wiutet's rair to save the moisture will procluco without irrigation good crops of Egyptaincorn, pumpkins, beets, melon.*, fodder corn, carrots, potatoes, and other products. " What a surprise it would be to awako son e morning and find every vacant lot in town, instead of being a we;d patch and eyesore, converted into and utilised as a resource for a livelihood.

Lord Salisbury and Sir Wi'liam Harcourt each weigh 18st. Rumour never yet lacked an audience when she rose to speak. The regulation step of che British army is 120 to the minute. Visiting cards printed, equal to copperplate, at The Aruos office. A herring weighing b'oz. or 7oz. is provided with about 30,000 eggs. Not far short of 900,000 tons of dust is collected in London during the year. The world would be f>o per cent, better if the people who mean no harm wouldn't do any. Nickel bits repaired, also new rings fitted, by H. H. tlowden, jeweller, etc , Hamilton. Sheet music bound, cheaply and strongly, at The Waikato Aruus officeHamilton. In contemplating what we do for others, we frequently lose sight of what others do for us. Date vinegar has been made by the Arabs for ages. It is said to be far supetior to any other vinegar. Physiologists say that of all people in middle life at least one-third have one ear in some degree affected by deafness. The amount of gold actually in circulation in Great Britain is estimated to be £llO 000.000 sterling, or about 865 tons. The Waikato Ahcus is the best advertising medium in Waikato. It has the largest circulation amongst the settlers. Baldness is supposed to be an indication of intelligence, yet a man will comb a few long hairs over a bare spot on his head, and think he is deceiving people. All the local bodies in the Waipa, Waikato, and Piako Counties advertise in 'l'm: Waikato Argus. This, in itself, proves that the Argus is the best advertising medium. For every lon of genuine ivory imported info Great Britain there are imported three lons of vegetable ivory. It comes chiefly from tho South American Republic of Columbia, being the hard albumen of the seeds of the ivory nut palm. The Governor of Dartmoor prison boasts that though somo of the inmates during his tenure of office have escaped, they have all been recaptured except one. This convict is believed to have perished in the terrible Foxtormires bog, not far from Prinoetown, in the direction of which the poor fellow was lust teen ruuniug.