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FIELD AND FARM. ,1

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FIELD AND FARM. 1 FAVOURABLE FA1!M WEATHER. I Except for small downfalls of rain at the beg inning of the month, the weather of November up to the time of writing (says the current "Agri- cultural Gazette") has been generally dry, and the period of freedom from any considerable quantity of rain has been the longest experienced since September 26, at which date tnere had been thirteen days without a tenth of an inch of rain in most parts of the country. The recent spell of dry weather came just in time to allow of the carting of the mangel crop, which was in danger of being damaged by the frost, that may be severe enough to injure it on any night or I even any day. The land, too, has at last become dry enough for ploughing and sowing, and for raising the large portion of the main crop of potatoes that was still in the ground at the beginning, of the month.. Some fair tilths have been made for wheat and other winter crops, especially where the land was freshly ploughed. Old-ploughed land that has had a deluge of rain upon it proved tough and difficult to deal with. November is a very good month for wheat- sowing, and in some districts heavy-land farmers prefer that time to any earlier one, provided that they can make a good tilth. Indeed, some years ago there were farmers in a heavy-land district who commonly waited till November before beginning to sow wheat; but a wet autumn or two, when they were unable to complete the work, drove them out of the risky system of delay. It is other winter crops which are placed at a dis- advantage when they cannot be sown before November, and we imagine that the acreage of the winter varieties of beans, barley, and oats will be very small this season, while it is pro- bable that the full breadths of tares and rye will not be grown. As to the wreckage of the corn harvest in the late districts, a large portion of it has been salvaged, although in such condition as to be of comparatively little value. WINTER FEEDING. I May I be permitted (asks "Samson") to offer a few hints from the North of England view of the feeding of cattle for the Christmas fat stock exhibitions, and also as to the economical, healthy, and profitable winter feeding of dairy cattle? First, as to fat beasts for exhibition. By most feeders far too much oily substances are used. By the use of oilcake, you can produce a glossy coat and the semblance of much flesh, but the animal will never find favour with a competent judge, and more particularly with a butcher judge. Before being taken off grass, we add per diem 31b. of mixed crushed oats, beans, malt, and Indian corn, and 31b. of oilcake. After soming into the house, 4 stones of roots are added, with fair allowance of hay, and chop. In all cases, quantities have to be regulated by size of animal and appetite, and occasional variation of food. About a month before the animal is due for exhibition or slaughter, mix up of oatmeal and cold water into the consistency of dough two or three balls about the size of cricket balls, and place them on the top of the morning tub. Increase the number gradually until they may rea,ch six or eight daily, but keep a watch on the dung, and, if costive, withhold the balls for a day, and add to the oilcake, or give a dose of linseed oil. We finish pigs in the north on this system oatmeal balls, and, whether of pigs or cattle, tile 11 flesh is of the highest quality, firm, yet kindly to the touch, and the beef choicely firm a.] marbled, and sets quickly after death. Few judges can pass animals S11 finished, and they will command the very best prices as flesh meat. No foreign meat ever equals this. Dairy cattle are taken into the shippons on November 12, and as a rule they do not come out again until May 12 the following year, except to water. Even if the winter is mild, turning out for an hour or two in the middle of the day is held to unsettle them, and they do not milk so well, and in the best of years they do a lot of poaching of the grass lands, always soft at that season. Of course, if provender is scarce, and there is a. bite of grass, needs must when a certain unmentionable person drives. In a herd of large- framed Shorthorns the morning tub consists of pulped swedes, chopped hay, straw, and brewers' grains in equal proportions, with 31b. of mixed crushed malt and Indian corn—say, 141b. After milking, 2 stones of whole swedes and a feed of long hay; another feed of long hay, about 71b., at noon; a repetition of the morning tub at 3 p.m., and the same weight of whole swedes after milking, 71b. of oat straw or hay, the daily ration running out at about 1051b. In a herd of ordinary-sized cross-bred Shorthorns, the morn- ing tub consists of 81b. barley chaff, 41b. brewers' grains or pulped swedes, Jib. oilcake, i10. cottoncake, tlb. crushed oats-131b., prepared overnight; then 141b. swedes and 71b. long hay after milking; at noon, t 7ib. long hay; morning tubs repeated at 2 p.m., also 141b. swedes and 311b. long hay; after evening milking, 71b. long hay—total 78Mb. y- 2 In a similar herd of cattle, where ensilage was made, and grass butter was said to be made all the year round, the daily ration was:—During morning milking, 3-Jlb. of long hay or oat straw, followed by 71b. of ensilage and 21b. crushed oats; forenoon, 141b. ensilage; noon, 141b. ensilage; mid-afternoon, 71b'. swedes; evening milking. 71b. ensilage and 21b. crushed oats, s followed by 121b. ensilage-total, 68,llb. Cross- bred dairy Shorthorns, milk selling and butter- making: -Morning tub of cut oat sheaves, pulped swedes, cut wheat straw, lflb. each of oilcaka and eottoncake, 141b. after milking, 141b. whole swedes, and 71b. of lon^ hay; forenoon, half tub of morning feed and 71b. hay; noon, 3Hb. hay; afternoon, the morning's tub repeated; after milking, 141b. swedes, 71b. cabbage, and 71b. hay—total, 94Jlb. Dairy cross-bred Shorthorns, all milk made into butter:—Morning, 71b. straw and 71b. swedes; after,milking, 71b. mixed hay and straw; forenoon 71b. swedes; noon, 71b. long hay; afternoon, tub of cut oat sheaves and two quarts of crushed oats, followed by 71b. swedes evening, 71b. long hay-total, 611b. The above are all farmers' cattle. 1 POULTRY IN WINTER. I Poultry- keepers (says "Chanticleer" in the Agricultural Gazette"), always look forward anxiously to the prospect of a mild winter, and this year, if we are to believe the weather pro- phets, there is every probability of a mild winter after the variant summer we have been experienc- ing. Naturally, when the weather is bad, poultry I suffer more than during a mild season. The ex- tent to which they do suffer depends largely upon the accommodation provided for them—those which have sheltered runs and covered-in scratch- ing places, and which are housed in a suitable manner, are less liable, of course, to disease, and moreover will, as a natural consequence, lay better than those which are not kept under'these favourable circumstances. The commonest winter ailments of poultry, of course, are bron- chial troubles, and these may be divided for pre- sent purposes into two classes-one, simple bron- chial troubles, and two, roup the difference be- tween these being that the former aTe ordinary troubles affecting the bronchial passages, whilst the latter is a complication of bronchial trouble with impurity of the blood, for let it be under- stood that roup is due to an impure state of the blood, and is developed by the instrumentality of a cold. There are several forms of the simpler lung trouble, the principal being bron- chitis and asthma, the difference between which is, that asthma is a chronic form of bronchitis and is brought about by repeated attacks of the latter. An ordinary cold should never be neg- lected, because it may turn to bronchitis, or it may develop into roup, if the state of the system is not particularly healthy. The best way to prevent poultry from having colds or from de- veloping roup is to see that they are not over- crowded, to protect the runs from cold winds as far as possible, and to let them be housed in open-fronted roosting places. To crowd poultry together in limited runs, or to make a large num- ber roost together in an ill-ventilated poultry- house, is one of the surest ways of starting lung trouble. Prevention, therefore, is better than cure, and care should be taken to provide dry shelter, where there is plenty of litter for the birds to scratch about amongst, and also to see that their sleeping places are well ventilated, so that they are not obliged to be breathing over and over again the same vitiated air. loup, when it breaks out, is usually very mis- t" "vous, and, being of an exceedingly contagious r :ure, is likely to run through all the poultry; and an outbreak of roup on one farm is quiie likely to spread to all the other farms in the dis- trict, and therefore should be attended to it once. Isolation is the great necessity; let the birds be divided up into small colonies, and select a*, once and pub right away any which are attacked by the disease. For treatment they need to have their nostrils and mouths sponged with warm water containing some little antiseptic and they must all have good purging pills-liver pills for poultry are the best, as to clear the liver is always a considerable advantage where birds are suffering from roup, because they are bound to be more or less feverish, and that is the best way to reduce that condition. Where a very large number of poultry are kept, and, it is not possible to dose them all separately with pills, the simplest plan is to get some good roup and liver powder, and mix that in with the soft food, so that all can be dosed without any trouble.

--GARDEN GOSSIP.

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