FRAM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3484, 27 October 1894, Page 3

FRAM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

£.0,000 pboma Brindled Heifer. James Tyson, the American million aire, kept an account for twenty-five years of the profits he made out of the progeny of a brindled heifer which he acquired by swapping £70,000, Everybody who has a flute should at once swap it for a bundled heifer!

Silos and Dairying.—By the introduction of the silo the cost of feed* ing a cow for twelve months has been brought down by an Ohio farmer to 16dols (a little over £3) per annum, and the income is never less than 60 dols (£l2), The most successful dairy 'farmers in Australia use the silo, and hud the ensilage the only substitute tor fresh green fodder. New Zealand dairy tarmersai'e very slow in adopting the system, but they will have to ,come to it sooner or later 1 The Stock Trade of" Chicago,The immensity of the stock trade of Chicago is shown by the returns for July 30 last, which state the day's receipts as hogs 60,000, cattle 25,000 sheep, 12,000, a total of 97,000 head! It is true that this constitutes a record. Th 6 extraordinary movement is attributed tothe reported failure of the maize crop. Farmers who had •bought stock to be fed and fattened with com this winter, finding that they would have no corn to feed the animals, are hurrying them forward msuch condition as grass feeding has left them.

• Milk SuGAB.-Many f tuners are occupied with tbe moro profitable employment of skim milk and whey than giving it to hogs, or allowing it to sour till all its nutritive properties be exhausted. These products confcaia a good deal of sugar and albumen. Milk sugar is largely prepared, and remuneratively, by many creameries from the skim milk; the product is in constant demand by French apos thecaries; it is uot only the form in which sugar mixes with other compounded ingredients with greatest facility- but the apothecaries are not allowedto employ any other.-Conti-nental correspondent of the Melbourne Leader., ; Jerseys, and ' Tuberoulosis.llb States an attempt has fesen made ; to ( 'fa'Bten upon the Jerseys 'the blame 'for having introduced tuk»r* culosis, and the lstest illustration has been, the allegation that all the cattle slaughtered at the Wisconsin. experiment station on account of the diseasewere Jerseys or Jersey grades. EroSf be Pg appealed to for the facts in the case, has made the following statement;-'' In regard to the breeds attacked by tuberculosis in' our herd, there were Jerseys, Holsteins,;Shorthorns arid Ayrshires, with, some grades of the', several breeds. To charge any particular breed with being more liable to consumption than others is, in my judgment, .env tirely unwarranted."

SUGAK BEET. - The agricultural report on the province of Hainaut for the' year; 1893' marks the success of the farmers'in culture of sugar beet. The sugar beet' realises a net . profit of 450 f. to 6QO f. per acre, and the richness in sugar has' attained on an average 13 to 14 per cent. This represents 26 f. per ton for'the roots, and 16 to'lß tons per acre is the main yield of rook Sugar is becoming: a' food." After bread and meat it ranks as the third of alimentary: necessaries. 'Beet sW in Paris sells'at 12 sous per lb; ' That >same product can be had in' London much cheaper, because, the French 'G-overnmeiit has to accord a bounty to the growers to, enable them to Compete withthe outputs of Germany, Austria and Russia!, There is no'crop so profitable for opening up a new country as sugar beet',,or for infusing newlifeinto an old one; Sugar beet made the of Germany and France;.it is foday doing; the same for other nations. It was no small discovery which enabled sugar to be . grown in climates. In. three departments alone sugar beet is grown; 100,000 head [oi cattle 'and sheep are annually ; purchased, to be fattened upon the ipulp, from those departments that do' not grow beet thus producing 30,000 tons of meat and' 2,000,000 tons of manure to fertilise 250,000 acres of land; v There are Jo departments in; France that, culhvate sugar beet, situated chiefly m the north and east, and sloping' downwards from the mouth of the Seine to theSaone et-Loire, the most, southern limit for its culture. ~. Diarrhea ; IN CALVES.~Diarrhcea. in calyes is almost wholly the result of overfeeding., Too much milk will, surely, produce thisLdisorder, and in the warm weather the trouble may become sarious if neglected. To give alum or other astringents isthe very .worst thing that can be done. It only aggravates the trouble, The right treatment is to get rid of the undigested curd by, mild laxative medicine, of, which raw linseed or; olive oil is the safest. Food is to be .entirely, withheld until the boweU have regained their healthful condif

tion and digestion is restored. This maybe in two days, when feeding may begin with not more than a pint at first of milk fresh from the cow. This may be given hourly, and, if the diarrhoea is checked, the quantity maybe increased at longer intervals. If the calf is old enough to take a > little oatmeal or linseed meal, a hand* iful may be given with half a tea!spoonful of ginger finely ground and. •as much salt. A small quantity of salt is useful at any age to a calf that is fed by hand. The safest method of hand feeding a young calf is with warmed skimmed milk, made of the same temperature as the fresh milk,and given moderately, not more than four quarts at a meal for one three weeks old, and gradually increased to six quarts, when a little mixed corn and oatmeal may be fed once a day. This should be increased gradually, until a six-months-old calf has a pint twice a day. Improving the Saccharine Qualities op Sugar Beeti3y Selection.— Perhaps no root crop has been the object of more indefinite selections than beet. It is a biennial plant, ripening.its seed in the second year. Certain varieties have the root partly above and partly under ground; but it was soou found that the latter was the richer in sugar, while the over

ground or aerial part is.richer in nitrogen, and hence excellent;■■ for cattle feeding. This explains why the underground variety is preferred for raising. Also, experience shows that large roots are poor in sugar, hence why only roots of a mean weight of 27 oz. are alone welcomed at the mills. The raising of the. seed is very important; at lifting time those bulbs having the best appears ance, that of a perfect cone and without forked rebts, are carefully placed aside; a small bore extracts a tiny quantity of pulp as samples tp be analysed, when the roots found to be richest in sugar are permanently retained for seed bearing, and in spring are duly planted out'. German Silesian beet, white, tapering root and green crown, admits of all experiments in the end of amelioration. Indeed,

it is as much studied by seed raisers ' ■as if a human body. Science has demonstrated several important facts connected with profitable sugar beet culture, Damely, that rich yields cor* respond to years of 'great sunshine, and that beet in wet seasons was poor in;. sugar. Why? During the, day > time the leaves fabricate the saccharine matter with, water and carbonic acid, and that pending the' night the sugar is stored in. the root. The plant will repay all the care bestowed upon it, the root ought not to be considerably developed, and hence the necessity to employ nitrogenous manures with moderation. It is not bad to apply the farm yard manure before winter; some growers go even further by applying no manure during the year of sowing, : but raise the'crop after wheat that has been well manured,

Preserving Eggs.—Numbers of methods of preserving eggs fresh for a length of time have been tried with varying success, even the best of preservatives always leaving the eggs after the lapse of a few months in a more or less stale state. Any entirely ' successful preservative, therefore, 1 that could be placed beforeihe-farm wife, would be ; gratefully accepted.': An inventor >at Home , claims to have discovered a cheap preservative which will presorye eggs in a perfectly sound,, fresh state Icr/raonths. ; The invention was submitted to a severe test. A box of eggs, immersed in the preservative, was sealed up'. and left in the office of the Freeman for a period, of four months, to test the claims of the inventor. The eggs were .at, the expiry of the four months submitted to a number of tests 1 to prove their freshness or otherwise. Held up to the ■ light, .they >were found to be perfectly clear; placed in water, they sank at once j broken, the yolk regained intact, floating in the centre ■of the white, and there was not the 'slightest suggestion of tainted taste, or :smell;' One of the eggs was boiled, •and looked exactly as if it had been laid four hours instead of four months.

•By every test the eggs were shown to he fresh, and the triumph of the inventor was apparently .-complete;' 'The invention, it appears, has been patented' for a number of years, but an incredulous publia has been slow io M catch on." The inventor claims ithat'.hisiamilyhas been indeoendent 'joi the fluctuations of the egg market, always had.new-laid eggs !on ! ilieir .breakfast table; and it is further, claimed that the invention is so ; cheap, that a tub full of it can be jroducfid for about sixpence; and the ingredients Shave been- submitted to a •competent authority, ■ who declares sheni tobe'P9ptect]y.harmlGss. If all that is claimed for this preservative proves true .on .extended; tests, it will <come as a hoon • ho, all who deal in eggs, Naturally, ■ are/amongst the -most perishable of KfoodsJ and those-who know the quality of a newlaidiegg will appreciate.tie' value of. a preservative' that keeps the 'eggs; in that same iresb.stat'e-for an indefinite period, If e0 ; be kopt with

their quality unimpaired for months at a time, the business of eggproducing would be far more profitable, as when eggs were low in price they could beheld against better prices. Conflicting Experience.—Agricola in the Otago Witness writes as follows. Since writing a note on the varying character of different local experience, I have received a batch of British farming papers —the best agricultural journals published in England, Ireland, and Scotland. I do not know whether Wales possesses any; at all events I have not seen one. In looking through the Irish farm paper, the Farmers' Gazette, I find an instance of diversity of opinion regarding the cultivation of crimson trefoil (Trifolium incarnatum), which is largely grown in England and Ireland as a catch crop. It is sown on stubble land as soon as the stocks are removed, and under favourable con l * ditions produces a large bulk of nutri* tious food for ewes and lambs in early spring. Ore farmer writes to the Gazette complaining that the crimson clover had been a failure with him, notwithstanding that he had given it every chance to succeed so far as lay in his power. He had heard of it being a capital thing for all stock, and easily and inexpensively grown, but was disgusted with the result. Another farmer writes to the same paper referring. to the letter of the farmer with whom the clover had failed, and saying that his experience of the clover as a'catch crop had been widely different. He says he harvested a heavy crop of black Tar> tarian oats from a certain field, and as soon as the crop was off he harrowed the stubble with a chain harrow, and on August 17 (February in New Zealand) sowed the clover with a.seed barrow. He then harrowed again and rolled, and since the beginning of May (October here) "I have been cutting one of'the finest forage crops that could be seen. I am feeding horses, cattle, and sheep on it, and the yield of milk from my cows is • largely increasing, and the horses seem to prefer it to oats." He adds, that all weeds were smothered by the dense mass of clover, and his neighbours are anxious to try the clover, having had ocular demonstration of its success. The firsfcnanied farmer had given the clover an equally good chance bo far as he knew, and yet his experience and verdict was quite at variance with that of another farmer in: a different locality. Something must ihave been wrong with seed, soil, or method and time of sowing; never* theless he would not speak well of it afterwards, while the other farmer would tell quite a different tiile, In this connection I have culled an interesting item from the Scottish •Farmer, which published an extract from a private letter received from a farmer in, jflew This farmer says that there is.one great flaw in all the agricultural papers -that he sees, and that is that they seldom contain any experiences from 1 the genuine working farmer—the man, he says,' who is struggling to pay his way. He says he would like to hear what those uienhavetp say; but, unfortunately, there are very few who'can express their ideas correctly, ■ and if tbey could, he says, they won't be bothered. He concludes thus: ''There are any amount of' lectures by professor this and professor that on this and that. What they say maybe true, but we do not' know till we try,, and it does not, pay a farmer to experiment." I should like to ;nieet tbis;New Zealand farmer who writes as above and have a crack with him, At any rate I hope he practices what he preaches, if he isitgenuine working farmer/and gives'his brother farmers the benefit of his own local experience in the' columns of his favourite weekly paper wherever he may be.