Februjiry, 1911. 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



419 



to contract upon. The wall.s of it arc 

 |irctcrnatiirally distonilcd, and in pro- 

 cess of time must bo materially weak- 

 ened. The horse is likewise subject 

 to colic from the same cause, namely, 

 the air which passes from the stomach 

 into the bowels, and colic is a disease 

 which often proves fatal if not prompt- 

 ly attended to. Notwithstanding what 

 some veterinary surgeons may allege to 

 the contrary, no horse that is a crib- 

 biter will be passed as sound at that 

 great horse mart in London, Tatter- 

 sail's. If a horse be there offered for 

 sale as sound and the purchaser subse- 

 quently finds iut that the animal is a 

 crib-biter he can recover his money. 



—"Elder's Review." 

 ♦ 



;Muscle in Horses. 



About 40 per cent of the weight of 

 an ordinary horse is muscle. All 

 muscles concerned with locomotion 

 are atached to bones, and when they 

 contract they cause the bones to 

 which they are attached to move 

 The lower parts of a horse's leg are 

 nearly all bones, but the muscles in the 

 body and upper parts of the limbs are 

 attached to various parts of the bony 

 construction by tendons, and can thus 

 produce a motion of the parts located 



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some distance away. A long muscle 

 enables the horse to get over the 

 ground rapidly, and a short muscle is 

 for power. The later, however, is 

 not powerful because it is short, but 

 because in horses constructed on that 

 plan the muscles are thicker, contain 

 more fibres, all of which are pulling 

 together when contracted exert a 

 much greater pulling force than a 

 long, more slender muscle. It is be- 

 cause of this that in buying horses to 

 draw heavy lodes we look for large 

 and heavy muscles, whilst in roadsters 

 we must attach importance to the len- 

 gth of the muscles. — Livestock Jour- 

 nal. 



♦ 



Lime. 



Enough experimental work has been 

 done with lime on the land to demon- 

 strate conclusively that lime pays where 

 land is sour or in need of physical im- 

 provement. Lands that long have been 

 given to grass, or have beconpe hard 

 and stifif because their humus has been 

 used up and destroyed by continual 

 cultivation, frequently show marvellous 

 results from a moderate use of quick- 

 lime. 



Lime shows its power in affecting the 

 soil properties which constitute fertil- 

 ity; in changing soil texture to (h^ ex 

 tent that sandy soils are improved and 

 heavy clays are made open and crumb- 

 ly ; in releasing potassium and making 

 it available for use of plants. Nitrifi- 

 cation is helped, organic matter is de- 

 composed, and the soil is sweetened. 

 Surely a number of good deeds it does 

 and with lasting effect. 



Does your soil look sad and sickly? 

 If so, it may need lime. Does your soil 

 fail to produce vigorous growth and 

 good colour in the plants it grows? If 

 so, it probably needs lime. Does your 

 soil show acidity when tested? If so, 

 it truly needs lime. 



Get a pennyworth of blue litmus- 

 paper from your chemist. Take "from 

 the field a handful of wet earth that 

 looks suspicious, insert your knife- 

 blade, and in the opening put a strip of 

 blue litmus-paper, and press the soil 

 tightly about it. If sour, in a few 

 hours the paper will become reddish in 

 colour, and you may know that lime is 

 needed to correct the acidity, for most 

 of our plants do but poorly in acid 

 soils. 



A common method of application that 

 is practicable and inexpensive is to 



place 10 or 12 bushels on an acre, in 

 heaps of 2 or 3 bushels, covering with 

 soil or old sacks until the lime falls 

 apart and becomes thoroughly slacked. 

 This done, you should spread evenly 

 over the soil, and harrow in. 



Too constant use of lime is undesir- 

 able. An ap])lication once in four or 

 live years is sufficient. 



♦ 



Destroying Trees With 

 Saltpetre. 



"I have seen many hundreds of 

 acres of bush — large and scrub — com- 

 pletely destroyed with ordinary com- 

 mercial saltpetre, but the trees were 

 not cut down, as this entails much 

 labour. A hole is bored in the tree in 

 For large trees, a 1-iii. auger is used; 

 for smaller ones, in. size is large 

 a downward direction to the centre, 

 enough. For large trees, 1 oz. to 

 2 oz. is the quantity used, and for 

 smaller ones i oz. to 1 oz. A plug is 

 put in the hole to keep rain from 

 washing it out. The nitrate of potash 

 is carried by the sap to the tips of the 

 branches and to the rootlets. If the 

 tree is a large one, say 2 ft. or more 

 in diameter, very little difference will 

 be noticed in the foliage for two or 

 three months, then the leaves begin 

 to fall, and it assumes a bare, wintry 

 appearance. At the end of about six 

 or eight months you pile a little 

 brushwood round the tree and light it, 

 and there is no further trouble. It 

 will smoulder away to the remote ends 

 of the roots, sometimes 30 ft. from the 

 butt of the t;-ee, leaving masses of 

 valuable ash in all directions; while, 

 if your bungalow is near to the clear- 

 ing, you will hear a crash, which will 

 sometimes startle you at night time, 

 when the big- trees 'fall, and when 

 fallen they will continue to smoulder 

 until every particle is converted into 

 ash." — "Pastoralists' Review." 



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V 



