FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 72, 15 October 1872, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

AuKicri/muL papers of late dates speak highly of Hungarian grass as being goodsjn geHfl'ti!,?V.ut especially after u hard winter followed by a drv spring. The Ploughman &ays: —" Its growth is rapid; if helped with a little manure at the start, it will yield from one to two tons of good hay per acre, and if pasturoa are short, it oilers one of the best green forage plants, less exhaustive, it is thought, than fodder corn, and equally or probably luoru nutritive and milk-producing as food for cows. It stands drought oqua-1 to an Egyptian inuinniy. If everything else about it dries up,* tho growth of Hungarian grass may be arrested,, but it clings to life, and t he iirst rain revives it almost as if nothing had happened. A dry, warm soil of a fair quality, or what would be called by fanners good corn-land,"is just what it needs. Fourteen quarts of seed to the acre is the quantity commonly recommended, and, if fresh and good, that is enough. Those who wish to leave some margin for possible drawbacks may make it half a bushel." Tho Country Gentleman speaks of tho application of wind power in hundreds or thousands of caso-s and in particular in relation to tho problems of water supply and irrigation. On many farms a well, windmill cistern, or an elevated vat, such as is used lor supplying locomotives, might be m> located that by; the aid of pipes or open ditches, water could bo supplied to considerable portions o( the station, farm, or to adjoining farms even, during a season of drought, the wind being utilized more or less through the year in filling large cisterns, from, which pipes would conduct it so as to be used for irrigation, watering stock,, or for household uses. In some cases several adjoining neighbours could advantageously 00-operatc in tho work, and sometimes even a neighbourhood, tho well, mill, and other fixtures of course being adapted to the demand to be made upon them. For market gardening or small sized fruit farms, as well as in pastoral stations, tho system would be of immense service, and the cultivators employing it would possess advantages over their less energetic competitors which might more than pay the cost in a single season. Tho subject certainly is suggestive of many possibilities which are worth attentive study and investigation* Want of sufficient water supply so seriously lessens the production of tho country that some system of individual enterprise or of co-operation, which shall even measurably diminish its oil'ects will be a publicblessing. In regard to the oft-mooted question, " When to cut grain," Coleinuus Rural World calls attention to experiments which have been instituted from time to time to determine at what period grain should be harvested to secure the greatest advantages. Tho unanimous opinion appears to be, that if grain is cut soon after the straw lias turned yellow below the head, while tho lower part of tho stem irt still green, and the seed yet remains in a soft and doughy slate, tho grain will weigh more to tho bushel and yield a greater amount from a given space of ground ; that more and better flour is maJo from it; and whoro the straw is to be fed to stock, it is relished bettor and is more nutritious than if the grain was allowed to stand until it became fully ripe, tiome very careful tests of this character wore made in Yorkshire,. England, by John llannan, and he sums up tho loss by shelling and in the weight and quality of the grain through lotting it stand until fully ripo—as equal to 255. per acre. A correspondent states that during his entire experience in gardening, ho lias found that packing tho earth about the roots of recently planted trees and shrubs is one of the most important, but usually most neglected operations. It is very dillicult to make workmen do this; but it should bo insisted on by every one who is setting out choice plants. If fanners would use the roller more on their meadows and grain fields, they would find their crops increase far moro than the cost of application. Wherever tho soil is light, the roller is needed to make the surface more compact, keep out the drying, hot winds, compress the earth against the seeds and roots of small grains, and in compact clayey lands, the roller should be used to break up the lumps and pulverize thu surface soil, thereby allowing the young plants an opportunity to grow. The proper manipulation of the soil is one of the operations belonging to successful agriculture and horticulture, of which very lew pursons seem to know anything. To tell a man that he must make his soil deep, rich, and light, and then roll it down, seems to be contradictory advice: and so it is to those who have had no experience in such matters; but it no more unphilosophical than beating cream to make one portion more compact and tho other a thin liquid.