FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3391, 24 March 1894, Page 3

FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Pricks of Fat Stock!in The following extract _jmay %ive; some" information of the prices of\, stock in America: -" Two tons of silage and 400 lb of cottontseed meal," says the Texas Live Stock Jourual ( "will convert the average 9001b. 18dol.>j;Texas; steer into a 1150 to 12001b. beef that will bring 4odol. to 50 dot. on the market., This change can be wrought on the average from 90 to 100. davs, at a cost of about 8 dol. per steer."' ! " ;!| O i: -<- G Pia* as Barometers.—Very few if tny of our domesticated animals are more susceptible to changes in the weather than the pig, as indicated in their restlessness at the approach of a storm and their efforts to prepare a warm bed before Jn hot weathor,jthe pig avoid! whiie ou the approach of cold the warmest gpot he good deal more out of given material if he has dry, comfortable quarters with plenty of straw. HOW TO TELL WIIES WIIEAT IS RIFE. -A simple way.of telling, when wheatjs. ripe for cutting •—Take a i/ kernel l and ! squeeze between finger and thumb until you burst' ii ; ( if ; no' appears the grain is fit for cutting, no matter how green the straw] may ['appear.; The above method is the one used by a farmer, who has grown; wheat tor twenty ? years, and who has, the'record of never' having ;, ds' ' inuchias i6ne;!l)aglrejected.; He maintains that if left after the kernel has become', solid j f ;that' the' skin thickens, therefore producing more bran than flour. , .....,.,,' "j , Nitrate or Soda for Tomato^.—"We never sawimore>thrifty tomato vines jior« anymore heavily loaded fruit than gome to which'a'small amouuVof nitrate, of aoda was applied at planting time. Other parts of the patch were ! manured with stable inariuW; and boije \aj air ?crbpj Their vines'were apparently as large 'as those to which the nitrate was i applied;'' but there was not more than half as much fruit, the gardener also remarked that the vines'on'iWhich he had used thejnitrate, f urnishod the' first ripe tomatoes 'several' days earlier than the others. .He.wHUwse., it on all his tomato plants nexf season.-^ v Bristol Times. WJ *;** The y'AtuE of IThinning . -HA peach; grower gives it as his opinion that every; Is, invested in the labour., of thiunitig' fruit has repaid him fivefold. He thins when the fruit is about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, leaving only ( the, best specimens, and these not nearer than four or five inches to each other. This is heroic treatment, for it .means; throwing away at least,half of the fruit from wellset 'spur's. '' The fruit that-' remains,- how*'; ever, grows to a large size, is of fine colour and flavour ;,.k will fill as many baskets as though all had'been ieft, 1 ' and ; brings a better price in the A<ld to this the fact that the vitality of the tree is not drawn upon to nearly so great an extent, and one..may f see r where the profit coir esiu. j\; Js y >|_ ( Disease Amongst Horses.-A disease has broken -out .amonst.,horses in.the north-east Ipojtion off^eßt| Aiistralift. Thes symptoms' of theiiifease arb described r ' as follows :-"In the first|Btage4he hoise appears drowsy, and has arunninifof liot water from the eyes. After four" days a thin white watery substance is discharged from the; , one, nostril only. The animal becomes lingVand'weak on'the' legs, its eyes have a dull leaden colour, 'its, coat/is/dull and • rough from the first, fn'the second stage the eyes are continually weeping, and; there is a■? discharge Jrom , the ; nostrii glands of a|da'rk yellowf witb'an 8 objectionable smell, which stick* to the beard, and the animal dies, generally theillness the rhorso;;never cjDug&lorj pneezeic.lit.; refuses' airfqSi find drinks; with;,great;'difficiilty|,; The: flanksjare; tucked up and the mm comes" out ih ! " handfuls if pulled "slightly. The horse, becomes weak in the loins, and rigid, and limps shortly before death!" The com* munication, of the .West Austialian Prsimier' has beeir 'forwarded to : Mr VfV Stephen, the acting chief inspector;of stock

Loss. of< Butteb.'—At the lo,wa. Asrrisu] ■, tnml Experiment rtatio'ri, Professor Henry C. Wallace Ims beon trying for six : ,or eijfht months to find out some method of avoiding the low/of ■buiter-fiit iirtutter* milk. Samples' of butter •. milk '' were collected from creameries and private dailies .over the >State, and it was found that in l 'some,. cases, 'piiVsthird to one-iialf? of the butter was lost in the skim-milk and bntter-milk. This loss is certainly; not special to the State of Town ;* it is only too wellikno'wn in ourjpwii' country;! He found that much of the loss in t.hV butter-milk was due to improper ripening of the oreum, and inability on the part ot the butter-maker to tell when the cream was in the-best; condition for churuin|r. From June until December experiments were madewith a test (said to be simple) for determining the of thel cream as regards ripeness." The test was based on the fact that the amountof acid developed,in process, proceeds is a reliibie ; indication' of its ripeness,, apd cbiHstVijinpjy jii dcterminiijif the acid by measuring it with another liquid, which, it is reported, can be easily obtained at a small cost. When

the creamiWas not ripp, enough, as shown, by the acid present, the lo.«s of fat in the butter-milk .was very heavy, as it was also when too ripe.' When I the indicated that the cream was in proper" conditionfor 'churning', therewas; in most' cases, not! the; slightest trace of fat loss in the butter-milk. The test can be used either in,the creamery;,or, j on, the, f arm j; and promises to be helptul, hot only in

avoiding loss in, churning',, but in produc- \ ing butter of the best quality, We should ■■'.'- ■■l'! , ::i:t\

to hear what this testing liqaid is;

Wheat and Frozen Mutton.-A jrears ago the.average price of about ftOs quarter./ averages 255. Such afall;in!he price of one of the great staple procJaotions of this colony is necessarily very discourage ing to the oroducers; but'Sinately in New Zealand linuoh of#Hisld«B has bees compensated for value of our muftpnr tne/lliinithe price of wheat means a' reduction in the price, of British consumer) farid \ a*' th|iUnited Kiugdom requires jto import like 20,000,000 quartora of wheat annually to feed her people, the fall;; iii[pric9 represents a redaction in the'-bost of bread made from imported wheat of gnme £25.000,000. As wages have not fallen this. £2s,ooo,ooo.feprel toi is available for .expenditure on, other ;neoeß--arie« > andj few >in England absorbed so large a proportion of their wageTthat the great mass of the workers had little, to spare,for meat,'and rtho" use: of meat waVmainiy confined to the upper ( and n mjddle, classesv .But, of late years the scale' of living•'•'amongst the wageearners has, in consequence of the fall 'in the prices of almost every artiste of consumption, materially risen, and with it 'a! -growing; 'demand for :meat.'! That' demand is more and more being supplied from abroad.; As we have recently pointed out. the Home production of beef and mutton does not iucrease as rapidly as the requirements of the population. ;and'Ney'Zejalaiidisiphe| ;of jthei principal countries to benefit by this increased demand for meat. In this demand the New Zealand farmer has secured at least .some compensation for the,.reduced return, ae his wheat..4 The greatly-' increased spending poweiUfthe Brfiuhworkman,'"consequent on the lessened cost 'of imported 1 bread.'stufffl,' amouriiting 1 we y have .said to '.some compared with what 'was- the*case* some'dozen [years ago,, i9jgivjug|:tp/,the frozen meat trade a,stability which promises well for the 1 future. 1 ; That ! stability will, 'there is <every reason .for believiug, f be increased, ifrotn year t'o'year. iTh'e? the. price ~this article of food' is' bVingingjit |*withih the reach of persons -whb\*^arcely'ever heard of it bqfore. amount of»,frozen . mutton jimported into;' Great' Britain * onlv 'amounts' to 1 ' 88,000 'Us, out of 511,000 tons of mutton .consumed ; and, therefore, much as we deplore the smaller return for, our whekt, 1 ifc is ( well to bear 1 in n mini : that it is compensated for by the improved market for our* surplus stock.—Weekly PresifJ; 'Hi •*••'