FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2531, 29 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Seedless Arrtiss.— Soma of the American orchardists nre endeavouring to obtain a seedless applo of good quality, thus "breeding out" the troublesome core. They have succeeded to somo extont, two foedless varieties being already recorded ; one is quite worthies!", but the other ia of better finality and fit for use. In addition to tho saving of labour and tl.e avoidance of waste, they consider the subject the more worthy of attention for the reason that the trees are much more exhausted by the production of seeds than by that of their envelope, and usually tho more seeds the kss of the eatable pulp and the harsher its quality. Tub Thoroughbred in Hungary.— The Hungarian Government lias forwarded the sum of £10,000 to the Jockey Club at Budapesth for the purpose of buying one of the best thoroughbred stallions of England ; also a sum of £8000 was sent as a reserve fund, should it be needed in obtaining the most perfect horse to be procured, which is to take the place of Bucaneer, the sire who improved in so distinguished a manner the Hungarian breed of thoroughbreds. Count Ivan Szapary has now arrived in England for the purpose of completing this object, accompanied by Mr Vou LuczenbacUcr, who is entrusted with instructions for the same Government to select five thoroughbred brood mares at an approximate price of £0000 for the Kisber stud. Parsnii'S as Foddkh.—The kinds of roots generally grown on farms arc carrots and mangolds, though parsnips have the reputation of being more nutritions than either, certainly far exceeding mangolds in nutritive qualities. Experience has, indeed, proved the parsnip to be the most nutritious of all roots, and it can be as easily grown as carrots ; those who have tried it find that milk cows never increase in tho production of milk and butter much faster upon auy extra Uiiid of food than wheu a pock of parsnips arc added ilr.ily to a ration of hay or other dry food. It may b') remarked that mangolds, when used alone, cannot be considered a milk-producing food, and probably their chief value lies in supplying the water necessary for the digestion of dry food, which renders them valuable for the feeding of stock of other kinds where hay or straw is plentiful. De-hornino Cattle : Unprofitable Cruelty.—A change appears to bo taking place in the minds of United States farmers respecting tlie de-horning of cattle. One writer calls it a " heathenish device." The Jersey Bulletin remarks :— '• Thus each week brings added protest against the bloody crusade of the sellers of saws and of high-priced books telling how to use them. Nor is the evidence all of a ' sentimental' character. To the array of proofs previously published that there results positive and very pronounced financial injury, we append the following noteable statement from the latest issue of Field and Farm, of Colorado :—' Twelve of my 30 cows that were de-horned last winter aborted their calves in the spring, and five out of the 30 died. Those that have lived are not worth more than two-thirds their former value. With as good and even better feed than they had last year they do not give more than half their usual flow of miik." Make the Butter ok the Farm.-— Dairy factories are of great benefit to the farmer under certain circumstances, us where he is inconveniently situated for marketing tho produce, or has to depend on hired labour for the manufacture of butter and cheese ; but when a man has sons or dauphtero old enough to do the work, it would certainly be more profitable for him to provide a herd of good butter cows and have the produce worked up by the members of his own family. The dairyman would then reap tho full benefit of his enterprise, iustead of a considerable portion of the profit going to the middleman and another to the payment of working expenses, all of which a farmer so situated would retain instead of soiling his milk for the poor price of 4d per gallon, in addition to the improvement in hie land ho might be able to effect through piif-kcepinir and an iucreaso in thenumber of hia cattle.—Melbourne Leader.

Tjik ' Fruit Industry.—The fruit growing industry lias of luto been greatly stimulated thrm"inlimit the world. The West Indian Islands and Central America compete for the custom of the United States in tropical fruits. In Canada there is much activity among the growers, and they are all well encouraged by the local find general governments. Iu the Ontario Experimental Farm 297 varieties of apples arc cultivated. There are 72 varieties of plums, 71 of cherries, 127 of I grapes, 140 uf strawberries, and a choice assortment of other fruits. The farm, although but recently planted, can boast of 20,500 trses, bushes and plants, so that growers will have good opportunities of procuring the best sorts adapted to the climate, The Australian growers have the immense advantage of being able to place their fruit on the European market when no other fruit is to be had. I have just heard of the sale of a shipment of Australian peaches at 7s 6(1 per dozen wholesale. This was in the middle of June, when Tasmanian apples were also much looked after and appreciated. Ensilage.—The ensilage system of preserving cattle fodder is steadily, if not rapidly, increasing , throughout the world; experience has already shown i(s value in Australia, and there is no doubt it will coma gradually into general use since it has been demonstrated how easily the practice may bo adopted, neither expensive Kilos nor costly moans of pressure being necessary. Tho United State.", however, as in most other useful inventions, are going ahead the most rapidly ; and it is expected that during the present season, there will be an increue; of 2000 or upwards built for use next winter. The kind of silo most commonly adopted is a cheap modern box, made of two thicknesses of inch lumber, with no floor but good soil pounded down, ami a roof to keep out the raiu and snow. There is no massive cover or ponderous weights, aud a farmer, rich or poor, can have a silo cheap. As five times more fodder can be put into a silo than in the same space dried, the silo in its present standing i 3 the cheapest storage that has ever been devised, not to mention the fact of its being in every way superior to the same food dried and stored in the old way. By such means the very weeds of the farm can be utilised and converted into valuable provender. Fruit Dkying.—No one need entertain a doubt that the chief means for our fruitgrowers to adopt will be in drying

and other wire preserving their fruit, and though the price that may be obtained for good fruit in tho market will always be more than that, of dried fruit, yet, the saving in carriage, to thoao who are far in the country, will nearly, if not quite equal tlio diffurenco ; besides, uuless a large proportion of what is certain to be produced in flitnro is prepared in pome Huch way or exported, in a lYrsh state, the markets will become so glutted that the prices may fall lower than the cost of producing it. Even fit tho low prices to bo obtained for drk'd apples and other fruits, their cultaio would be far more prolitable than wheat growing. An interesting article on the evaporated fruit industry of tho western portion of New York (State, of which Rochester is the trade centre, appears in Bradstreet's. Tho cultivation of fruit in tho district, it is said, lias superseded all other branclios of agricultural industry, and has proved remunerative. Thousands of tons of apples, of a quality previously wasted, aro dried and sold every season. Within a radius of 10 miles of Rochester there aro moro than iOOO evaporators, from the small farm house driver, with a capacity of 25 bushels a day, to tho largo steam power evaporator, drying SOO to 1000 bushnls in 21 hours. At least 30,000 hands are said to be employed at 5 dol. to 12 dol. a week each during the autumn and early winter at this industry.

Bad Accounts fkoji Nkw Sooth Walks: Drought and Fires.—Reports from nearly evory part of Now South Wales still contain complaints of drought and the evils caused by it. There have been violent winds, accompanied by rain, but ho trifling in quantity as to produce no appreciable benefit, and the situation has become very sorious. The grass ia dying rapidly, and getting beyond recovery, oven should rain fall immediately. It is reported that about Wilcannia squatters are deserting their holdings in coiiHcqueuco of a water famine, while stock are dying by thousands and on some stations the sheep are being shorn wherever they can be found in the paddocks. At Dcniliquin the rninfall since the beginning of the year has been only 4.47 inches. Bush fires are raging in all directions; they have been severe at Windsor, UeniiiquinandGraftcn, as well as other places. Along the Mauquaiie River they have destroyed 60,000 acres of grass on the Buttabono station, 40,000 acres and Fevenil hundred sheep on Mount Harris station, besides which otV.er properties have suffered heavily, and miles of fencing have been swept away. The only rain of any consequence reported is from Albury, where a good fall occurred recently.

Brood Marks.—There was no more pleasing sign, says the Live Stock Journal, aronnd the whole breeding horizon, and none that' mure assures us of progress, than the increasing interest taken in the discussions as to the merits of great brood mures. As a correspondent well says, " This is the brood mare epoch in breeding." Time was when a sire's qualifications alone woro enough to please a breeder ; anything would do for a brood mare. That grotceriue folly has been swept away before truer conceptions of the principles of breeding:; and now the power nnd influence of the mother in the equine world is acknowledged even as in the human family. Great men have great mothers, and great horses great dump. The importance of the dam, and of the breeding of tho dam, never was so recognised among breeders of trotters as it is now j and it is not now to fully acknowledged as it will be in years to come. It is now no uncommon thiug to hoar thinkers on tho subjbet exclaim, "I ■would rather take my chiinccsin breeding a good mare to a common horse than in breeding a common mare to agood horse." And, ranging over the great breeding establishments, it can truly be said that, with one or two notable exceptions, "they have won their success through the power of their mares rather than of their sires." This is a quotation from a leading nrticle in Wallace's Monthly for July, and is curious us a revival of an old cockpit saying of last century, "Better trust the chick of a real gumo hen and a dunghill cock, than thfl chick of tho best game cock which ever won a battle and a gumo hen with the slightest back-stain in her breeding." Silaor iy America.—While the chemist liuds no more nutritious matter in silage than in dried food, our cattle, horses and sheep i do. The silage tastes good, and this indicates its superior value as food. Its digestibility and suitability surpass that of dry food. Silage can be grown and preserved cheaper than the same quantity of maize can be harvested and eared for in any other way. Especially is this true now that we have learned that a silo may be built right in the barn and at small expense. We get from 8 to 25 tons of silage to the acre ; and from 2 to 3 tons of silage equals in value 1 ton of the best hay. Thus we can double our stock by tho use of the silo, and thus double the barnyard manure secured and so add materially co the fertility of the farm. Convinced of these points, I built a silo, and it has disappointed me in being too small. I raised no more acres, nor were my crops any better last year than previously. Yet, with 5 acres of my corn-crop in silage, I was able to winter more stock thau ever before, and my stock never did so well. For three successive years I hud to buy feed to come through the winter; last winter I had some to spare, though the season was so severe and long continued that several neighbors, some who never before had a like experience, paid out considerable sums for feed. My silo is 14 ft square, inside measure, and twenty feet high. It cost less than 30 d 01.,. and paid for itself in one season. This season I shall build another for less thau half the money, which I hope will be just as good. I shall build 25ft high, from bottom of my basement; shall uso uprights 2xß in., which will be firmly secured at the bottom and above every 10 ft., so that they cannot be displaced ; I shall seal this inside with boards and coat these inside with hot pitch. The weighin<r of the silagre ie not necessary ; wo need only to cover with tarred paper, then add two feet or so of cut hay or straw, and throw on a few boards.—Professor A. J. Cook.