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---------I Y GOLOFN GYMRfclG…

HEN HANES.

AGRICULTURE.

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AGRICULTURE. FOLDING THE PASTURE. A great improvement may he made in the faee of a pasture by close folding, and par- ticularly in a wet time, when the turf is tender. On many of even the best lairs in a wet winter it is necessary to acinove sheep, both ewes and feeding sheep, for a few days from the turnip field on both pastures, and cart the roots to them. On such occa- sions the sheep should be penned, not only pastured on, the roughest grass, such as stock will not graze off. The sheep should be folded on long enough to thoroughly staple the land, troughs moved so that all the land, is trampled. On land required for barley sowing it is frequently the custom to draw off a certain quantity of swedes when th'ey are lasting too late in the season. These roots may be carted and placed two or three loads in a heap on the poores' uts of a grots field instead of, asusn is done, on to a fallow field, thus allowl; fmther folding being done. The hoggets also have mangels stacked and served in the same manner. Any extra expense and trouble incurred will be well repaid in the im- proved pastures. By these mentioned, and in many other ways, poor pastures may be very much improved both in appearance and quality. oil] THE SITTING HEN. Although artificial incubation is now ai- most universally adopted by all poultry farm- ers and fanciers, there are many who still trust to the" old nen." Success in natural incu- bation depends largely upon the nest. ]1 must be properly made, and placed in a suitable spot. Tliere need be no elaboration about the box. Size is the main thing, and it must be large enough to allow the hen to turn round comfortably. Jus: inside, at the front of the box, nail a strip 01 wood about three inches high, to prevent the nest iroin falling out or being drawn out of shape. Fill the box to a depth of about thiee inches with soil, and work it with the hand iuto a saucer-shaped hollow, pressing He earth well down. The hollow must not be too concave nor too riat. If the former, some of the outside eggs will roli down tne others, and will be eventually broken; if the latter, the eggs will spread out to such an extent that the hen cannot them pro- perly, says the "Agricultural Gazette." Hav- ing formed the nest with the soil, the next thing to do is to line it with soft hay. It is not necessary to damp the nest; in fact, the latter is far better left perfectly dry. [IE CAREFUL HANDLING. Alyays handle the broodies carefully. They are usaally extremely excitable, anu anyone who easily loses his temper would no well to entrust the management of this department to someone else. Place the hen for the first day or two on dummy eggs, and do not en- trust her with more valuable ones until she has settled down and become accustomed to the new nest. If she is very wild it may be necessary to hang a sack or shutter over the door 01 the nest box so as to exclude the light. The sitting liens should always be gi\en a room or building to themselves away from the other stock. Any kind of shed wMl do, so long as it is not too draughty, and is kept clean and free from vermin of ail kinds. A dust-bath, grit, and wateruiust be supplied. One meal a day is sufficient, for the sitters, and it may either consist of barley or cracked maize. Aiways feed at the same time each day and, if the hens will not leave the nests themselves, they must be gently lifted off. uun DURING INCUBATION. During the first week of incubation about ten minutes' cooling wili be long enough for the eggs, but after that the hens may be allowed off for fifteen to twenty minutes in genial weather. On the twentieth day hens' eggs should commence to hatch, and from that time until the whole of the live eggs are hatched, the hen may be left undis- turbed. It may sometimes be necessary, as in the case of a prolonged hatch, to place a little corn within her reach. Duck eggs may be treated in precisely the same manner as hens'. mo HORSES IN SOUTH AFRICA. ilr. C. S. Goldmann, in his work "With French in South Africa," observes that much of the difficulty with horses was due to un- suitable food. Horses on active service, he points out, require food which they cau easily I digest, and on which they are able to live, The system of giving horses a ration of whole oats is not economical. Apart from the tact that horses cannot live on oats alone, the half-starved animals frequently bolted the ration, and consequently derived little benefit from it. If any proof of this were required beyond the emaciated condition of the ani- mals, one had only to visit the sites of bivouacs some weeks after they had been vacated, when they were found covered with a luxuriant crop of oats, nm QUANTITY OF FOOD. The quantity of food required by horses in hard work is from 151b. to 201b. daily at least. Troop horses in England, standing in stables, ahd working on an average one hour a day, are allowed 221b. a day and if taken on manoeuvres, this ration is always consider- ably increased. On active service in a foreign country, i he same horses are expected to live on from 81b. to 101b. of food, and i frequently be under the saddle from forty- eight to sixty hours at a time. When Broad- wood's brigade came up to its wagons (relief of Kimberley), the horses, says Mr. Gold- mann, went nearly mad when they heard the corn being served out. and it was neces- sary to put the bit into their mouths to enable the men to hold them." t stir] MOLE HILLS SHOULD BE SPREAD. In crossing pastures one cannot fail to notice —says a writer in the "Live Stock Journal"— the number of these small mounds of earth thrown up by the moles. Whether moles do good or harm on pastuies, at rate it is absolutely necessary thar t li2 soil thrown up by them be levelled, otherwise as soon as sheep are fresh on the pastures they will in some cases lair on them, and generally trampjc them hat, so that through the summer there will be bare patches over the land. These lit Ie mounds should be levelled and spread o\er the grass, when they will constitute a top-dressing by which the face of the pasture a; least will be improved. If moles are caught before the breeding season commences, so that they do not get too numerous, by thus supplying a top-dressing for the grass, and at the same time in a wet season, such as the present, leaving their snbteirar.a: tracks for water to course through, the wiiier is under the impression they are not the worst enemies the farmer has to fear in the animal world. If the droppings of cattle have been collected and heaped with the scourings from ditches and the cleanings out of ponds, as it is well they should have been during the winter, a nice compost heap will have been formed. This should be carted and spread all the poorest parts of the pastures, furthest away from the place most favoured by the sheep for lairing. This fanc-y spot will be sure to be well manured. mil POISONING OF CATTLE. Attention is called in the: Joumai of Board of Agriculture to cases of poisoning of cattle in Scotland, England, and Holland by meal made from the beans of Phaseolus lunatus, commonly called 'Java" beans. Seve ral cases occurred in Scotland late in iast year, and one in England. It is found that these beans when grown in a wild state con- tain prussic acid. They are dark purple or buff with purple spots. When cultivated they sometimes lose their poisonous- qualify; but it is noi certain that they do so in all cases, and it is, therefore. ir.t safe to use them in mailing meal for cattle or human be- ings. Some people have been poisoned in Holland by eating such meal. The white forgot this bean is the only safe one. Large quantities nf both purple aud wlùte beans have been imported into this country, and some firms of importers have been warned as to the danger of selling them without having them analysed. Farmers are reioirunended to be careful in buying beau meal made from Java or Mauritius ;A.-> they • tell the source from which beans are derived. it is safe only to use meal made from white beans. rum UNDECORTICATElb COTTON CAKES. In an experiment in the feeding of "aUje .and sheep in two kinds of unde< ortieat.ed I cotton cake, carried out at Cockle Park for "the Durham College of Seieme in the ummer of 1902, the best result v «'-e obtained from Bombay cake, as compared with Egyptian, I although the former cost only £3 10; per ton at the nearest station, while the latter cost £5 Is. 3d. The two cakes are now more neatly the same price, and reader: are warned that lots of Bombay cake are of extremely low quality. At the best it is a leas palatable, and contains more woody fibre than the Egyp- tian. In the first month of feeding, when the cattle received 31b. to 51b. of cake each daily, grazing also on pasture, and the sheepl ;.lb. to Alb., the former made the greater in-1 crease of live weight 011 the Bombay cake,! and the latter ou the Egyptian; but in the second month when the cake was increased to 7ib., and the sheep still had gib., cattle, 2 wedders, lambs, and ewes alike made the greater gain from the clieaper-cake.

. HAVERFORDWEST ENTIRt HORSE…

. J MAIN iKOADS AND BRIDGES.

KURAL LIFE.

» ECZEMA AFTER SPRING ERUPTION.

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