FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2778, 3 May 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

« Foreign Appreciation . ov Clydes-

dales. —In regard to exportation, the council of the Clydesdale Agricultural Society report that tho foreign demand for pedigreed Clydesdales watt during the past year again very brisk, and altogether tho number exported would be about 1040 head. Of these 535 were exported *to tho United States, 271 to Canada, 147 to South America, 83 to Germany, and 4 to Australia. Tho amount realised for registration certificates for exported horses was £121 Is.

Creameries in Sweden.—The dairy farmers and proprietors of creameries in Sweden have taken the preliminary steps towards the formation of a central association for the sale of Swedish dairy produce, similar to the Danish Association established in Copenhagen in the spring of last year. The Swedes are far from satisfied with the present state of tho butter trade. They allege that the butter passes through the hands of too many middlemen, and that the finer Swedish makes are continually sold to Knglish doalers as Danish butter, thus loweting the reputation of the Scandinavian dairies. It will therefore be the chief aim of the new association to obtain direct communication with the Euglish market.

Cleveland Bays.—A meeting, presided over by Mr Pease, M.P. was held at Gainsbrough to form a company to promote the better breeding of Cleveland bays. It was resolved to form a company, to be called the Cleveland Bay Stallion Company, having for its object the purchase of one or more first class Cleveland bay stallions to travel the Cleveland district. The shares were fixed at £5 each, and several hundred pounds were subscribed. The Cleveland Bay Horse Society are alarmed at the wholesale manner in which young stallions are being bought up for export, and the object of the newly formed company is to buy and retain in the district a few first class sires, so that the breed may not deteriorate.

Domestic v. Wild Cattle.—An interesting lecture was recently delivered by Mr John Milne, Mains of Laithers at the Aberdeen University, the subject being the Domestic Ox. In concluding, he pointed out that while of system of cattle feeding is costly, yet it produces by far the best quality of beef. " Cattle reared on prairie grass without the cost of hand feeding or artificial shelter can be sold with profit at half tlie price; but," he said, "if, as I have tried to show, the chief value of beef lies not in mere muscular fibre, but in the peculiar compounds found in the juices of the best meat at double the price is far the most healthy and cheap." He went on to say that " the lean fibrous meat of half wild catth is suited ouly for persons who take the most vigorous exercise, but in the less active produces, when taken in qnautity, acidity to the blood with its usual sequence, a strong tendency to gout, rheumatism or gravel."

Poultry Farming.—Poultry farming pays if it is taken in hand as a business and requisite care be given as to the caring of the fowls and the choice of races. To this the Germans add the necessity of selling both the poultry and eggs by weight. The former is practised in France, where geese arb cut into halves and quarters, and sold at the rate of 22 sous per lb. Eargs are, however, vended by the dozen, higher if large and vice versa. In Paris, before the eggs are offered for sale, they must all be examined in the dark cellars of the central market by the light of a feeble candle. If good, the eggs are next passed through rings, and so sized. The Germans dispose of eggs by weight, and maintain that one farmer may require 12 or 13 eggs to make up a pound weight, whilst his neighbour may secure the same with 6or 7 eggs from superior birds. Now that " wood wool," that is wood shaved into filaments, is so cheap, it is being generally employed for bedding foulhouses in winter; a layer two inches thick maintains the floor warmer than straw, does not rot so quickly, and its aromatic odor keeps off vermin.

Is the Fertility of the Earth Giving Out.—The very few timid individuals who have been frightened by the alarm raised by Mr Kains-Jackson, as to the world being near an end on account of the steady decline of its primal fertility (save the mark !), should by this time be fully reassured on this point. The veteran experimentalist of Rothamstead, who commands the confidence of all classes of the community, has hastened to put on record his opinion that there is no reason to think that the supplies of phosphates throughout the world are becoming exhausted. On the contrary, Sir John Lawes says that phosphate is now so plentiful that the price has fallen to a very low rate. Sir John also points out that basic slag is a very large and new source of phosphates, and that many other sources of phosphates could be drawn upon if the prices were such as to cover the cost of production. Sir John holds that the supply of phosphates in the soil must be accumulating, because the farmer who mauures his root crop with phosphate every fourth year exports in his saleable products much less phosphoric acid than he imports. The utter groundlessness, therefore, of the alarm raised by Mr Kains-Jackson must be patent to every intelligent mind.

Weighing Live Stock : Its Benefits to Vendors. —An incident happened last week in a town within 100 miles of Glasgow, illustrating the advantages of the weighbridge in auction marts. In the town referred to there are two auction marts, one supplied with a weighbridge, and the other gets on without the assistance of the scales. A Forfarshire dealer exposed two 'very fine Shorthorn bullocks in the non-weighing auction mart, and as he could only get £40 2s 6d for his cattle he withdrew them from the sale, and sent them up to the yards of the auctioneer who sells by live weight. Next day the same two bullocks were weighed in the auction ring, their weight (22c wt 3qr 71b) marked on the blackboard and exposed for sale. The bidding was brisk, and they finally sold for £41 10s, so the dealer got 27s 6d more for his cattle through weighing them. It was evident that the weighing of the bullocks had satisfied the bidders that they would kill better than they looked, as they weighed like lead—and all well finished cattle do weigh well, both alive and dead. i

Farm Savings.—Waldo F. Brown, in the Cultivator and Country Gentleman, strives to impress on every farm hand the importance of saving l and carefully investing a part of his wages. If he saves 100 dollars in the first year of work it may be worth more to him than 1000 dollars afew years later. Mr Brown would much rather a son of his should earn by his own labour 100 dollars the first year he was his own master than to have him make 1000 dollars by speculation, and if he found he 'had saved three-fourths of his wages ho would feel that his financial future was safe. He has had four hands in the last five years, aud but one of them saved a dollar of his year's wages. It looks like a alow way to get a start in the world to lay up a hundred dollars a year, but lie who does it in a few years has ! enough to buy a toam and tools to as a rentor, or to make a payment on a pieoo of laud which will bo a home for him. Mr Brown has met at institutes and other farm gatherings during the last ton years thousands of the leading farmers of several Stated, and he has often been surprised to find that the best and wealthiest among them began life as farmlabourers, and fought the battle of life single-handed. It took Mr Brown three years of hard work to save 300 dollars, but those 800 dallars were worth to .him more than he could possibly have foreseen at the time. There aru plenty of openings on the farm for young men of pluok and principle, and the chances of success are as good now as wVn he started.