You 
January 1, 1909 
ee 
other agents, provided its use is combined 
with the recommendations before stated 
for prevention. When the cracked surface 
as raw or when the weeping is excessive 
some dry wound dressing should be applied 
and it isa good plan to alternate zinc 
oxide powder with an emollient ointment 
moist or 
scabby: Stocking of the legs by hard 
feeding and want of exereise 
according as the cracks are 
should be 
avoided. 
(To be Continued,) 
The World’s Biggest Farm. 
The world’s biggest farm is said to be 
owned by Don Luis Terrazas, in the state 
of Chihuahua, Mexico. It measures from 
north to south 150 miles, and from east to 
west 200, ora round 8,000,000 acres in 
all. 
On the great prairies and mountains of 
this Mexican farm there are 1,000,000 
head of cattle, 700,000 sheep, and 100,000 
horses. It is reported that the ‘farm- 
house’ is probably the most magnificent 
in the world, for it cost £320,000 to build 
and is more richly furnished than many a 
royal palace. 
Interesting Wheat-Growing 
Experiment. 
An experiment in wheat-growing, of 
great originality and much promise, is 
being made in Russia. The experiment 
(says ‘Australian Field’) consists solely in 
the manner of cultivation. The author 
of the new method is General Levitsky, 
who began last August in a little model 
farm adjoining his barracks. He sows 
Single grains of wheat at the bottom of 
conical pits | ft. to 14 ft. deep. As the 
grain thus sown in the apex of the pits 
begins to appear above the surface it is 
earthed over, and each time the leaf 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
appears more earth is filled in till zfter, 
say, five or six earthings, the pit is full 
and level with the surface. The result of 
this treatment is that the plant, which 
has a ‘branching knot’ at the base of the 
original stem, and of each ne v stem sends 
outanumber of new shoots at each 
It is asserted ina letter to ‘The 
Novoe Vremya’ that one grain treated in 
19,683 The 
straw seems to be unusually the 
yield enormous, and General Levitsky 
believes that the plant will be perennial. 
starting, 
this way sent up shoots, 
stout, 
Clipping Horses. 
All clipped horses, writer 
in the ‘Warmer and Stock- breeder,’ should 
be liberally fed on rich foods that hand- 
somely maintain the caloric—keep up the 
gays a 
heat of the system, To, chp an 
horse, already very chilly for want of corn 
is an absolute cruelty that should not 
only be severely tabooed in all horse 
society, but should subject the owner to 
legal proceedings. In our very slowly 
advancing civilisation the sympathies of 
mankind stretch out beyond the narrow 
confines of humanity, and the man who is 
cruel to animals is nowhere tolerated If 
he cannot feed liberally he caunot expect 
exertion, and he should then leave all the 
coat on the horse. 
When well fed horses are clipped it is 
a good plan to leave hair on the extremities 
where the circulation may be sluggish, 
and also on parts of the body which are 
much worn by harness. In good, well- 
managed stables. hunters keep the coat 
under the saddle and on the legs, and to 
this should be added a large part under- 
neath, where the girths may wear away 
first the short clipped hair and then the 
skin, and also between the fore legs and 
between the thighs. What object there 
can be in crawling under a horse to take 
away the very fine and fiuffy growth 
ill-fed 
‘nine different places 
23 
which is the only protection of the delicate 
inside of his thighs I never could under- 
stand. It does not improve his appear- 
ance, as that part 
ordinary view. 
is not exposed to 
It forms no part of the 
tout ensemble, and the thin hair does not. 
the perspiration, 
therefore there is no object in taking it 
off. 
materially increase 
Tr nenee of Fertilizers upon 
Wheat. 
A study of the inHuence of fertilisers 
upon the weight per bushel of wheat and 
the character of the kernels is reported. 
It was observed that nitrogen used alone 
retarded maturity, while minera's used 
alone hastened it, Where a large increase 
in yield was secured through the use of 
fertilizers, the kernels were generally 
larger, better filled, and better coloured 
t an those grown under less favorable 
fertiliser conditions. In eight trials the 
phosphate fertilizer increased the weight 
of the grain per bushel, and in two the 
weight was the same as when no fertilizer 
was used. In five trials potash increased 
the weight per bushel, and in no case was 
it decre sed by the use of this element. 
Nitrogen increased the weight in some 
cases and decreased it in others. Forty- 
one samples of flour from wheat grown 
upon fertilised and unfertilised plots at 
were examined. 
From three of nine places the wheat 
grown on plots fertilized with phosphates 
produced flour that made the best bread, 
from two places the wheat fertilized with 
nitrogen, from two the wheat fertilized 
with potash, and from two the wheat 
receiving a complete fertilizer. In thirty 
tests the fertilizers which gave the largest 
yields produced wheat of the highest 
bread-making value, while in ten the best 
quality of flour was secured from the 
fertilized wheats not showing the largest 
me Y TEA 
Fisht. 
