RELATIVE VALUE OF DIFFERENT FOODS FOR STOCK.

ONE hundred pounds of good hay for stock are equal to :

TOBACCO is a good thing on any farm. As dry dust or stems or a "tea" made by steeping, it will kill insects. If a farmer does his duty towards his insect foes, his bill for insecticides will be very large. Why not save part of it by growing your own tobacco? Set out a dozen or two plants, and cultivate them as you would tomato plants. Dry and cure them ready for use. This is not mere theory. It is just what many farmers and gardeners are doing.

TOBACCO.

ONE of the most important truths established by the application of science to tobacco is the annihilation of the old idea that this crop exhausts the soil to an extraordinary degree. The truth is, no crop is exhaustive if it is properly fertilised; all that is required is to supply an abundance of every element that the plant needs. Tobacco takes no more from the soil than corn or potatoes. It takes a little more of some ingredients, and less of others. Below is a short table showing the relative amounts of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid taken by the three crops on analysis from 1 acre:

The actual amount removed by a crop of tobacco leaf from the soil is very little, if the stalks are returned to it, and if a nitrogenous crop be grown and ploughed in, such as the cow pea, during the fall, it will supply an abundance of plant food, which, with the assistance of fertilising, will enable you to regulate your quality of tobacco.

ENGLISH WHEAT CROP.

THE agricultural expert, Sir John Bennet Lawson, estimates that the English wheat crop will be 23,164,243 bushels short for the home supply. The wheat crop of Great Britain is estimated at 7,954,755 bushels.

KEEPING LARD.

To keep lard sweet it should be put in good well-glazed jars. Barrels are almost certain to leak, and tin will soon turn the lard next to the can yellow and rancid. To a common-sized boiler, holding from 10 to 12 gallons of fat, half a pint of common dripped lye is to be added if the lard is to be kept any length of time. This will cause all the impurities to rise to the top, where they can be skimmed off easily, and the lard itself will be as white as snow.

TO CLEAR AWAY THE FLIES.

A CUPFUL of carbolic acid in a hot saucer or fryingpan in the middle of a closed room for an hour will clear it of flies.

LIQUID MANURE,

A SIMPLE and cleanly way of applying liquid manure to pot plants, is first of all to make a strong liquid manure, and into this put dry charcoal. When the charcoal is thoroughly soaked, take it out and dry it. When re-potting plants put a little of it into the bottom of the pot. When the roots of the plant reach it, the effect is soon visible. By this means there is no smell as in using the manure in a liquid state.

PICKLE FOR CURING MUTTON HAMS.

MR. J. T. BRIGGS sends the following recipe, which he has found to be quite reliable for saving mutton hams :

The hams should remain in pickle three weeks, being slightly agitated daily, after which they can be smoked.

RECORD SHIPMENT OF EGGS.

THE" Himalaya," which left Melbourne for London last month, took away a record shipment of eggs, consisting of 1,720 cases, representing 412,800 eggs, and aggregating 86 tons.

WOODEN MATCHES.

ABOUT 40,000,000 feet of timber are annually made into matches in America.

AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SHOWS.

THE Editor will be glad if the secretaries of Agricultural and other Societies will, as early as possible after the fixture of their respective shows, notify him. of the date, and also of any change in date which may have been decided on.

R 1

Orchard Notes for December.

BY ALBERT H. BENSON

IN the Orchard Notes for November, I called special attention to the importance of marketing fruit properly, emphasising the necessity for careful handling, even grading, and attractive packing if satisfactory prices are to be obtained. Those remarks apply equally to the present month, or, in fact, to any month of the year, as there is always more or less fruit of one variety or another to be marketed; and it is simply wasting time and money cultivating, pruning, manuring, or spraying an orchard-in fact, doing everything possible to produce good fruit-if when the fruit is grown it is not put on the market in such a manner that it will realise the highest price. Careful handling, grading, packing, and marketing will secure a ready sale for good fruit in any market, even when the same fruit badly handled and unattractively got up would be unsaleable. Growers would do well to take a lesson in packing from the Californians who have been shipping apples, or from the Italians who are shipping lemons, to this colony, as those fruits, even after a long and trying voyage and one or more transhipments, reach here in better condition and in a much more attractive state than our local fruit, which is often only carted a few miles.

Keep down pests wherever met with; gather and destroy all fly-infested fruit. Destroy orange bugs before they become mature by hand-picking or by driving them to the trunks of the trees, by tapping the outer branches with light poles, the insects being brushed off from the trunks and main branches on to a sheet placed under the tree to catch them, from which they can be easily gathered and burnt.

All caterpillars, cut-worms, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, or other insects destroying the foliage should be destroyed by either spraying the same with Paris green, 1 oz. to 10 gallons of water, or by dusting them with a mixture of Paris green and air-slacked lime, 1 oz. of Paris green to 5 lb. of lime. Keep the orchard well cultivated, especially in the dry districts; and where there is water available for irrigation, in such districts all citrus trees should receive a watering during the month unless there is a good fall of rain, when it will be of course unnecessary.

Pineapples, bananas, and other tropical fruit can be planted during the month, showery weather and dull days being chosen. The rainy season is the best time to transplant most tropical plants. Where it is desirable to go in for green-crop manuring, or for raising a green crop for mulching, cow peas can be sown, as they will be found to make a very rapid growth now, which will be strong enough to keep most weeds in check.

See that all surface and cut-off drains are in good working order, and not choked up with grass, weeds, &c., us heavy rain may fall during the month, and there should be a get-away for all surplus water, which would tend to either wash the soil or sour it; stagnant water round the roots of the trees being exceedingly injurious at any time, and especially so during the heat of

summer.

Farm and Garden Notes for December.

Farm Notes.-Notwithstanding the fears expressed that the frosts of the first week of October would be productive of an almost total loss of wheat for grain, it is gratifying to think that there will be a fairly good harvest after all, especially of barley. Harvesting is now general, and will probably be concluded

by the new year. We would again impress upon farmers, particularly on new beginners, and on those who are entering on wheat cultivation for the first time, to take heed to the lessons given, not only in this Journal, but in most good agricultural papers, on the proper methods for saving the crop. We do not here enter into the question of the relative superiority of stripper v. reaper and binder. The question now is not one of the value of certain classes of machinery, but it is the important one of dealing with the crop when these have done their work. Barley should be allowed to become perfectly ripe before cutting (see article on barley in the Journal, Vol. II., p. 480, June, 1898), yet not over-ripe, or grain will be lost. It should be at once stooked-and carefully stacked-especially as there is a probability of showery weather shortly. Maize may still be sown in large areas. Sow sorghum, imphee, Kafir corn, and panicum. Arrowroot, ginger, and sweet potatoes may be planted. Attend to tobacco. Keep all crops clean, and thin out if too close planted.

Kitchen Garden.-French beans may still be sown in moist weather, or, where plenty of water is available, the drills may be well soaked before sowing the seed. Cucumbers, melons, marrows, &c., should be well watered when necessary with liquid manure. Cucumbers should always be well watched to see that none become ripe, unless wanted for seed. As soon as they begin to ripen, the vitality and bearing capacity of the plants are very much weakened. Seeds of all these vegetables may still be sown for succession. Tomatoes should now be in full bearing. The plants ought to be supported in some way, either by strings on stakes or by propping up with small branches like pea-sticks. By this means the fruit is easy to gather, and is kept clean. Onions should now be ready to take up and store. They ought to be spread out thinly in a dry open shed until the tops wither sufficiently to pull off easily; then graded into sizes, and sent to market or stored in a cool dry place. Maize: The sugar or sweet varieties of maize ought to be grown as summer vegetables. These are well adapted for table use, and ought to be more extensively used than is the It is unnecessary to say anything about their cultivation. Salads: It is almost too hot in most districts to grow lettuce or other salad plants now, unless an unlimited water supply or some little shade can be obtained.

case.

It may be worth while to mention, for the benefit of those who grow no vegetables, that the weed commonly known as "fat hen" makes an excellent table vegetable if cooked in the same way as spinach, which it then very much resembles in taste and appearance.

Flower Garden.-The chief work in the flower garden now consists of watering, stirring the soil, and removing decayed and spent flowers. Roses especially should have all spent flowers regularly cut off, as their blooming season will be thereby considerably lengthened. If aphis or Rose Scale make their appearance, spray with kerosene emulsion, taking care that the spraying is not done on very hot dry days, but in the early mornings or evenings. Chrysanthemums now require a good deal of attention, such as staking, pinching, &c.; and frequent waterings with weak liquid manure should be applied. It will be found of great benefit to the plants to syringe them overhead every afternoon just before sundown. No suckers should be allowed to grow until the plants have ceased flowering; and caterpillars, aphis, &c., must be watched for and destroyed. Dahlias will require plenty of water, and an occasional dose of liquid manure. They should also be kept staked up and well supported to prevent their stems from being broken in windy weather. Bulbs which have finished flowering should have the dead leaves removed, and when quite dried up should be taken up and stored. Keep weeds well under command, as the plants usually require all the moisture in the soil at this season, and cannot afford to be robbed of any portion of their nourishment by weeds.