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RURAL LIFE.I

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RURAL LIFE. I BY A SON OP THE SOIL. I —— A MAGKIFICBST HOBIS. Thire it a beautiful show of a characteristic- aify British horse at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, each spring, and last week there the choicest young horses, novice har- ness horses, and single harness horses not over eeven years old, were competing for prizes amounting in value to £ 1,490. Repre- sentatiteo of nearly every foreign Gov- ernment were keen rivals for the ac- quisition of the best hackney stallions. jLgents also attended from countries a* far distant as Japan and South Africa for this purpose. In the latter country the English hackney has been found most ser- viceable in grading up stock. Yet the council of the society find it necessary to protest, in their annual report, that it is short-sighted policy on the part of the Board of Agricul- ture to ignore entirely and exclude from GOT- ernment recognition a pure English breed of horses, of proved soundness aid of immenH A HACKNEY. gerriee to the general community, and the military authorities in particular, more espe- cially aa foreign Governments recognise its merits by frequent purchases." It is possible that the Board of Agriculture miy hold opinions of its own, in view of the enormous developments of motor traction. Whatever the future may hold for the hack- ney horse, the London Hackney Society strives energetically to maintain the ob- jects for which it was founded thirty years ago, namely, to promote and encourage the breeding of harness, military, and general utility horses, hackneys, cobs, and ponies; to compile and publish stud books; to offer facilities for the sale of pedigree hackneys and ponies, and to issue recognised transfer and export certificates to hold shows and ob- tain for tenant farmers and breeders the use of eound stud horses of the best stamp and to offer prizes for the above-mentioned breeds at other shows. The society comprises some 2,000 members, among them every breeder of note in the United Kingdom, and many abroad. One important result of the society's labours is that their sealed certificates of origin are alone recognised by foreign Governments for all hackneys exported, and in most cases en- rare the horses to land free of duty. BENT GRASSES. Juet as some members of the great grass family are among the most valuable of all plants from man's standpoint, so others are among the most worthless. Couch, Yorkshire fog, and the bent grasses are the worst of these, and their bad character cannot be too well known. Of the- bent grasses the com- monest are fine bent or black couch (Agrostis vulgaris), and marsh bent grass (A. alba). They are very much alike, and both occur abundantly in poor meadows,_as well as to some extent in arable land. They themselves are of no value as fodder, and they crowd out useful grasses. There is, however, a variety of the latter species commonly known as florin or creeping bent grass (A. alba-var. Btolonifera), which has some value under cer- tain conditions, and it is of this I will now Bay a little in response to a reader's inquiry ^n**»s"^iaxe into tne autumn and aflords very early feed in spring, thriving especially in spongy soil, both sandy and peaty, which is too soft or not sufficiently drained for ether grasees. Among the situations where it is to be found in abundance are marshes, irrigated meadows, damp woods, pastures, on ■ana and clay banks, by the sea and tidal fivers, in wet ditches, and often floating in VIORIX, OR CREEPING BENT GRASS (AGROSTIS ALBA-VAR. STOLONIFERA). shallow water. Stock eat it when they cannot findatlything better, but that is about all which can be said in its favour. On soils where better grasses can flourish it is a weed, and is inclined to grow so luxuriantly as to crowd out all else. Another disadvantage is its special liability to become ergotcd, and where ergoted grass is in abundance the dan- eer of stock becoming poisoned is necessarily much increased. Seedsmen find there is a gtrong demand for florin seed nfter a series of wet summers, for it is then that it is to be Been at its best. But it is important to re- member that the plant is not grown pure for seed to any extent, and therefore the seed is liableto be" much contaminated, especially with that of other bent grasses which, as we have seen, are worthless. Fiorrn may generally be recognised by the thort leafv branches which burst through the obeath at each node. It has trailing stems which take root at the nodes, and this manner ef spreading is most usual in pastures much trodden by cattle but in suitable situations it is deep-rooting, also sending down roots to the Rub-soil, which make it the better able to be independent of the condition of the sur- face soil. It flowers in July and August, and its panicle consists of innumerable spikelets, •na is characterised by the well-defined inter- wals between the points from which the clus. Ierf of branches arise. MIXING MILK. The average composition of the milk of a lierd may be so good that it would always be ve the standard laid down by the Board Agriculture, but from time to time there is tme possibility ttiat a small quantity or trie milk sold may be of inferior quality t'rrr ;h various reasons. The milk may have been allowed to stand for some time before the railway churns are filled, so that the cream has had time to rise, leaving the milk con- tained in the lower part of the vessel the poorer; or one or several cows may be ad- i vanced in their lactation or ba habitual pro- ducers of thin milk. If mixing is properly performed the richer milkers will balane* with the poorer ones, and it would be an ex- ceptionally inferior herd that would give less than 3 per cent. of milk fat. Milk that has stood cannot be made uniform again merely by stirring round and round. It must be agitated with a plunger consisting of a cir- cular metal plate about 7in. in diameter, per- forated with a number of lin. holes, and attached to a handle sufficiently long to reach the bottom of the milk to be mixed. In mix- ing the plunger should be pushed to the bot- tom of the vessel and brought to the top as rapidly as possible ten or more times. It would be a laborious process to pour a little of the milk of each cow into the differeat churns; yet this is the only way of ensuring a proper average mixture. An invention by a dairy farmer has been introduced recently, which makes it possible to fill three or five churns at once, and this device it shown i8 I A MILK EQUALISER. I the sketch. As will be seen, the milk is flow- ing from a cooler, and »is then being distri- buted through the five outlets of the equaliser into the churns, so that a fifth part of the milk of each cow goes into each churn, the quality being the sa-mo in each. When it hap- pens that a smaller number of churns are to be filled, one or more of the outlets can be stopped and the spout or spouts taken away. Yet another cause of poor quality milk re- 5 mains to be mentioned, and that is milking at irregular intervals. This is in many cases quite unavoidable on account of the train eerviee, and one of the best ways of ensuring that the quality is maintained at a proper level is by including two or three Jersey cows in the herd. These should be milked as nearly as possible at the twelve hour intervals, and their milk thoroughly mixed with that of the rest of the herd. FOWL MANURE. The value of fowl manure depends greatly upon its purity, or otherwise through admix- ture with substances used on floors; its value depends also on the keeping of the manure from wet and fermentation. Fresh fowl ) manure contains from 181b. to 251b. of nitro- gen, 121b. to 241b. of phosphates, and 61b. to 121b. of potash per ton. A ton of average well- rotted or short stable or farmyard manure contains 101b. to 121b. of nitrogen, 41b. to 61b. of phosphates, and 101b. to 121b. of potash. As nitrogen is the most valuable substance, j fewl manure may be estimated as being worth, in its fresh state, about twice as much al well-rotted stable or farmyard manure, this being 5s. to 7s. per ton. Hence, if the fresh fowl manure is collected frequently, spread thickly so as not to heat or ferment, and thus allowed to dry in the air, its value way be quite double that of the fresh drop- pÏn88, which would make it worth about four times as much as stable or farmyard manure, or £ 1 to £ 1 10s. per ton.

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LANDLORDS AND WINDMILLS.

. PLUCKING OSTRICHES.

♦ CHINESE BANKNOTES.

. ANCIENT FORYi OF DICB.

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