Notes and Gleanings.

Draught Horse Breeding in England.—A correspondent of the Live Stock Journal writes:—Any one must be convinced, who took the trouble to compare the Clydesdales and Shires at Newcastle, that tho former must ere long return for some more Shire blood to get the weight they so much require. We (the Shiremen) and the Clydesdalemen seem to be altogether on different lines, and the question naturally arises, which is right ? If the Object in view be to produce the .best draught animal, surely the Shiremen must be nearer the attainment of this object. I feel sure you would confer a great benefit on us all if you could " set the ball rolling " through yOur Columns, with the view of establishing or setting up a type for us all to aim at. At present it is mere guess Work.

Carriage Horse Breedind in America.— Among the more noteworthy features of this season's importing trade, says the Chicago Breeders' Gazette, are the large consignments Of coachintr stallions now being landed at the seaboard. The trade in Clevelands in particular seems to have received a decided impetus from the estab lishment of the English and American Stud books, and their near relatives, the so-called Yorkshire Bays, are, we believe, receiving notice at the hands of some enterprising buyers. The dashing French " coacher "is coming in for a strong share of admiration and holds the attention of those making a specialty of the best horse stock of la belle France. The production of a fine class of carriage horses is bound to prove remuner ative wherever carried on with discretion and judgment, and we bespeak for the well gaited, stylish cOachers a more favourable reception this fall than ever before.

Rabbit Extermination and the £25,000 Bonus.*- -Having had inquiries as to the conditions attached to the offer of the New South Wales Govenment to give a bonus of £25,000 for the invention of an effectual method of exterminating rabbits, we publish the Conditions as follows :—The Government of New South Wales offers a bonus of £25,000 to any person or persons who will makekhown and demonstrate at his or their OWn expense any method or process not previously known in the colony for the effecb'ial extermina tion of rabbits, subject to the following Conditions, viz. :-*l. That such method or process shall, after experiment for a period of twelve months, receive the approval of a Board appointed for that purpose by the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council. 2. That such method or process shall, in the opinion of the said Board, not be injurious, and shall not involve the use of any matter, animal or thing, which may be noxious to horses, cattle, sheep, camels, goate, swine, or dogs. 3. The Board shall be bound not to-disclose the particulars of any method or process, unless such Board shall decide to give such method or process a trial. Applications are to be made to the Department of Mines.

Lung Weakness of English thoioughbreds. —To one evil, remarks a writer, the English thoroughbred horse is peculiarly liable. As was lately remarked in a volume on "Racing," by writers who speak with knowledge ana authority, " the malady of our climate is defective wind." The pro mising careers which have been ruined owing to this cause are innumerable. Prince Charlie, in recent years, was a pro minent instance; for, though he did great things after he had turned roarer, these things were done over short courses, and

serve chiefly to show what in all proba-' bility he would have been had he remained • sound; while, seeing that pulmonary diseases are generally believed to be here-1 ditary, there can bo little doubt that his value at the stud was destroyed by reason of the disease he had contracted.' Prince Charlie, a son of Blair Athol and Eastern Princess, was by far the best two year-old of his day. He won the Middle! Park Plate, and followed up his victory by winning the Criterion, in which he beat' Cremorne; a performance which he repeated; next spring in the Two Thousand Guineas";: but his infirmity was increasing, and in- : vincible over short courses, he could never; last throngh one of those races which stamp, the winner as a great''horse. Cremorne; beat him in the Derby, and Weniock in the St Leger, both being colts over which he' had previously proved his superiority with' little effort. Since Prince Charlie's time there have been many notable instances of horses, apparently worth five or six, thousand pounds, which, as the result of; an attack of cold, have in k short time so ■ decreased in value that they would have l been bad bargains to the purchaser at as! many hundreds. The Arab is free from; this complaint. Why it should be 6p; Common to his otherwise vastly improved.) descendant no one seems able precisely to explain. .. •

Plants and Electric l/gfAf.-r-According to ft Berlin paper some disagreeable results, hay© followed the electric lighting of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg, the intense' brilliancy of the light .having been found, to cause dire destruction among the orna mental plants used for the decoration of the banqueting halls. It appears that the' complete illumination of the rooms for a' single night is enough to cause the leaves j to turn yellow and dry up, and ultimately to fall off The damage to the celebrated \ collection of palms ;at the Palace is' especially serious. It is supposed that the injury is principally due to the sudden change from the suhleSs days of the North ern winter, and from the subdued light of' the plant houses to the blinding light of the banqueting halls. It has been shown beyond a doubt that the rapidity of the in jurious action, and its amount, are directly prowflctional to the intensity of the illumina tion, and plants standing in niches or other places partially shielded from the light are, found to remain uninjured. There is no. doubt that the injurious effects of the light? are greatly intensified by the dry, artitici j ally heated atmosphere of the rooms, and ! that they would be minimised, if not i entirely obviated, if the plants could be surrounded by a steamy atmosphere such as that in which they are grown.

The Spurious Butter in. England and America there has been a fieroe ' controversy raging for some time past' between the makers of spurious or imitation , butter, and the dairymen, or their press champions. In America a law has been passed regulating the sale of butterine, margarine, or oleomargarine, by which the stuff cannot he sold without an honest der claration as to what it really is. The Eng lish parliament has also been discussing the question, and it is now stated that hence forth what has been known as butterine can only be sold as "margarine." In the difficult relations to be settled betweenj butter and butterine, one of the American scientists has, it is said, hit upon an im portant discovery, Which may do much to ' hnally settle it. He has proved that th« fats of different) animals differ in their ■ crystallisation. For example, if smalt quantities of butter, lard and b'ef fats be separately boiled and slowly cooled for 24 hours, the resulting crystals will Show very ' marked differences under the microscope. The normal crystal of genuine butter is large and globular. It polarises bril iantly, and then shows a well marked "figure of a St. Andrew., cross. The fat crystal of lard had a Stellar form, whilst that of beef fat has a foliated appearance. In course of time, as the butter loses its freshness, tho globular crystals degenerate, and gradually change" into peculiar rosette like forms. Tho United States Govern ment have taken the matter up, and are utilising theabove simple scientific discovery to break up the traffic in unwholesome and fraudulent butter compounds.

C I never can enjoy poetry when I'm cooking,' said an old lady who dropped in on us recently, ' but when I step out to feed the pigs, and hist myself on the fence, and throw my soul into a few lines of ' Wait .till the clouds roll by,' lit does seem as if this airth was rhflide to> live on. after all.' %V

Painting the Kitchen Wall.

Iwill paint the ig, instead of ied,' and Mr •self?' meekly Ise do you sup iggins? Have $rows on every -ye married a glad to have /as not aware is ! If there is üblimity, it is vaxes eloquent feats with the be ?'. inquired op the flow of my real desire the wall would hundred and i, my love. I asure entirely, ur taste.' md! I think, >ice, I will say Hanrter, too I me must be '.' a light stone be suited, my o me that the much on the it slate; surely epeatedly told ot to be con ; but, surely he slate is too eh grey is a ing!' 11 show every leed there be i are the most Jtere I try my t in vain. I The plaguey is.' , will certainly t pleases you.' ml If you member this is is I have re ever, we will i have finally l is the shade : the paint this fatly. Now will cover it,' o for a first think I intend «•' one coat? m you havel nore than one plaster,' slowly ow what you lV coat will be £ Mr S. dis i. arrives with ig-'hfeo comes! poon 6eeyour n. Two hours you can finish

certainly can and will. Your husband is no slouch, as you soon shall see.' Mrs S., having removed the kitchen furniture, Mr S. proceeded, with great flourish of tongue and brush, to spread on the paint. Soon, however, silence reigns in the kitchen, save from the !'swish, stvash' of the brush. After half ah hour Of silent work, Mrs S. bears mutterings, not loud, but deep, and expressions anything but heavenly, proceeding from the lips of her beloved, and thinks she will reconnoitre the premises. At the threshold she pauses. 'How are you progressing, my dear?'- ' Well, hardly as well as I expected to. Just step here.' Mrs Stiggins advances, and as she gazes upon the wall, streaked with paint, and marks of the brush running ' six ways for Sunday/ she is unable to repress "the smile which ripples from ear to ear and dies away in the recesses of her back hair. 1 Don't stand there grinning like an idiot; speak, can't you ? What do you think of it?' «Well, my dear, I think it looks very much like a cross-eyed cat caught in a rain storm,' replies his wife, too much amused to fear the consequence of her rash remark. • Hanner, will you leave the room ? You are the most outrageously exasper ating woman I ever met.' Mrs. S. does as bidden, and proceeds to prepare the two older children for bed, with baby fretting in her arms. Soon;, after various tussles with Nat, the boy (and such a boy!) the twain are laid away with heavenly smiles upon their faces, which totally belie the antics of the day. The baby is attended to, and Mrs. Stiggins begins her lullaby song, when faintly from the kitchen comes the sound of a voice: 1 Mrs. Stiggins !' No answer. 1 Hanner!' No answer. ' My dear I* Still no answer. ' My love!' •What is it, Mr. Stiggins? 1 Step here for a moment.' * I thought I wasn't I Mrs. S., will you be good enough to come here ?' ■''•__ Mrs. S. makes her appearance with out further comment. . ' You will have to go to the store for me. I find four pounds of paint will not cover this dratted wall.' 'I thought four pounds'— ' Who asked you what you thought ? I asked you if you would get me some more paint I' «Oh, Alexandra, baby is so sleepy; I can't go now.' 1 Put her in the cradle, and let ncr howl; it will do her good.' •No, I cannot. She will cry herself Sick. Can't I put her asleep first? I won't be long. 1 « Yes put her to sleep, do; it makes no difference to me! 1 am of no more consequence in this house than a knot m Mr. g Stiggins hushes the baby to sleep, procures the paint, and returns long before her liege lord is in need of t and waits impatiently the completion of the job Ten o'clock-then eleven strikes. She once more presents her- W^%* dear? It,s after 61 Mtfo' I am not almo.t through, dear 1 There's another hour's work.on the humbugging thing 1 ■ I wish .you and iritrhen were further l , 'WelU certainly wish I were in bed. I thought you were going to do this m tW ?Y h of"ar e always thinking, Mrs

Stiggins, but never to any purpose. Go to bed—anywhere out of my sight! You are an unmitigated idiot I' Mrs S. retires. Stiggins never finished the job, and vows he never will.

A Medical Conundrum.

A medical journal asks:' If menobo manthrayninone is obtained by oxidation of trybomanthracent, what would re sult from the union of bithanline with diluted dichlor, or dibromanthracine desulphuris acid?' Great Ca_ar! what wouldn't result! It couldn't help it! The safety valve would be thrown through tht roof, the piston rod bent double, and the loss of life wot Id be frightful. If this is not the right an swer, the correct solution must be more ! bloodcurdling.

A Moveable Feed Rack.

Where live stock are fed in the field it is important, in order to avoid waste, that the food should be placed in suitable feeding racks, and not merely scattered loose upon the ground. The rack hero illustrated is

made by using the wheels and axles of a waggon that is past work. From an Amerioari contemporary we take the fol lowing particulars as to the making of this feeding-rack :—

The rack may be Of any convenient length — even thirty feet. When of this length, couple the axles twenty feet apart. The rack can project three to four feet beyond the front axle and six of seven feet beyond the rear. Two scantlings of the length of the rack, or else shorter pieces spliced, are needed. These may be put on top of the bolsters, and when the rack is brought into the teed lot, the wheels are driven into ruts in the ground k to bring the rack down to within reach of the animals. Or the scant lings may be below the axles, ah iron rod passing through the axles and scantling, and perhaps through a block between them, and soured by a nut. This plan is the better when tho land is smooth and even, as it is not necessary to lower the wheels for the animals to get the feed ; but when the land is uneven or stumpy, the rack is best made altogether above the wheels, that it may pasaover obstructions. The bottom pf it should bd of boards, closely fitted ; and the sides should be made of a board six inches wide, at the bottom, with slats above. It is best to mako it of a height that will per mit the animals to eat from the top—as they would from a manger—not from the

X rack; then there Ib much lesa waste. But it may be necessary to have small animals eat from the side, hence slats are used in the sides : and these make tho rack lighter than it would be with solid sides. The height of the rack should be suited to the animals that will eat most from it. Thus, if sheep only are to be fed from it, it will be made lower than when it is designed for cattle. It should be borne in mind by those having both sheep and cattle to feed, however, that the rack can be lowered by sinking the wheels in the ground, the food being brought within reach of short-necked animals by using a false bottom. While the rack is designed for stover, grain may bo fed in it, as it has a tight bottom and a tight side for six inches up. Or for sheep and horses the _rain trough may be fixed on the outside, near the bottom ; the board forming part of the side of the rack, also forming one side of the grain trough. The man who makes one of these racks will soon wonder how he ever got along without it. While it is convenient when stover of any kind is to be fed, it is most labour and time saving when the animals are to be given fodder, as the pas tures burn up or get short. The corn, or whatever the fodder may be, is cut and thrown into the rack, which is then driven to the paddock where the cattle are to be fed. The labour of lifting tho stover from a waggon to mangers or racks, which also causes waste, is avoided.

Some Good Hitching Posts.

The " hitching-post" is a peculiarly Ameri can institution, although it is also called into requisition a good deal in the colonies' The convenience of the hitching-post in front of road-hide pubß is often only too well appreciated by the farmer going or comingfrom market. There they stand, with an " I'll-hold-your-horse " air about them that is. irresistible to tho thirsty wayfarer ; and no doubt the hitching-post in such a position is frequently responsible for the breaking of good resolutions aud of firm promises given to poor Mary when leaving, home in the morning. We would do nothing to enable peopletoadd to the allurements of the public-house hitching-post, but the hitching-post as a feature of the homestead has great conveniences, and nob seldom, if there is a pleasant marriageable girl on the premises, its services are brought into play in the interests of innocent and tender passions, which we are not afraid of en couraging on the part of readers of The Farmer, We therefore hope that when some sturdy young colonist pays a visitto his neighbour's farm to press his suit with the girl of his heart, and finds ready for him a nice convenient hitching-post to which he may securely fasten his nag, while the time slips by in too rapid flight in the blissful sunshine of her smiles, he will think of us kindly, and 'pay up his sub scription promptly, for the hitching-post will probably be one of the kind described below. There is, by the bye, an appro priateness in the term "hitching-post" when considered in connection with the American slang phrase, " getten' hitched," meaning getting married. In the case Of many a prosperous and happy marriage who knows how much the bride may not owe to tho foresight of her father in having erected a nice, safe hitching-post in side the gate of the homestead ? A young Californian with the poetical name of Cyril Marr pends the sketches we have reproduced below to an agricultural journal. No doubt he had Often been bothered by the want of these social con veniences at the houseß of his neighbours blessed with bright-eyed daughters: or it may have been—vulgar thought!—when he rode over to make a deal for a cow or a horse he had taken a fancy to, or perhaps to borrow a hundred dollars of a friend no matter ; we Will pass on to the descrip tion of the hitching-post wihtout another hitch.

In figure 1 an inch and a. half bole is bored or mortised in the post about fire or

six inches from the top, the doubled end of rope or strap being passed through the hole, over the top of the post and drawn tightly. Jfigure 2 is merely a stout post, well planted in the gl-ound, and in the top of which are securely driven a staple and a hook. The ropo or strap is doubled, passed under the staple and over the hook and your horse is securely hitched. Both the hook and staples hould be only large enough to receive an ordinary rope or strap. With either post an ordinary hitching strap can be used in the Usual Way if desired. Figure 3 shows an old style arrangement for hitching horses, con sisting merely of a staple, with or with out a ring, snugly driven into a large tree. Figure 4 is the old hitching-rail, with chains attached, and prevents the horse from going all round the pi.st he is hitched to. Any or all ef these are handy, as well as readily made, and every farmer should have one or more in convenient places, near both house and barn.

Combat with a Boa.

One afternoon, a farmer in Strathern, having got his friend the smith to forge him an axe, set off to a neighbouring town to get it shafted. Being told that a menagerie of wild beasts was then exhibiting, and knowing he had time to pay it a visit, he went to see it, and had just satisfied his curiosity as the car penter had just finished his job. The evening being cold, the two friends must needs have a gill; and what be tween toddy and a long talk about snakes, the farmer appeared decidedly elevated at parting. With axe on shoulder, he left the town, ruminating, as best he could, on the wonders he Had seen. He had not proceeded far, however, when a sudden breeze came round, he perceived with horror by the faint glimmering of the new moon, a huge boa-constrictorrolling in enormous folds towards him. • To fly was mad ness—death was certain—but to die without a struggle was unmanly. So hastily drawing his breath, he made three desperate strides back, and by a well-aimed blow with his axe, fortunately cut the monster in two; but before he could do more, each half of the animal suddenly became instinct with life, and both head and tail began to move as vivaciously as before. Again and again the axe came down with dreadful execution : but ply it as he might, and cut it into as many frag ment showed vitality and a disposition to sting if they had had the fangs to do so. Feeling that he had ' scotched the snake,'but despairing of killing it effectu ally, our heroic friend at last shouldered his axe and got home as steadily as he could. 'Gude guide's, John, what's made you so late ?' cried his better-half as he entered the door. «I've killed a sarpint, and saved the country side,' replied the farmer, with a look of conscious heroism. 1 Ah, John, it's no the auld serpent, I doot, else ye wadna hae been tempted to drink So muckle whisky.' 'It was a show sarpint, broken out o' a caravan ; a boy Contractor as they ca' it, replied John, with warmth. • Gae to the milestane and yell see as dead as a herrin.' John's two sons learning the exact locality of the dreadful conflict, hastened off to witness the trophies of his rowess: when they found not a boa constrictor, cut a lady's boa, worth twentyfive shillings, cut into fifty pieces.

A Perfect Woman.

A wife-seeking and methodical youth, who has occasionlly escorted a young lady home on Sunday evenings, and gone in for supper, after performing both services last Sunday night, sudden ly said to her; * Do you talk in your sleep' ' Why—no,' she answered, in surprise. 'Do you walk in your sleep?' he next inquired, 'No, sir.' He moved his chair an inch closer, and with increased interest asked: ' Do you snore ?' ' No,' she hastily replied, looking un easily at him. At this reply his eyes fairly sparkled. His lips eagerly parted, and as he gave his chair another hitch, he briskly in quired : ' Do you throw the combings of your hair in the basin ?' ' What ?' she asked, with a blank face. He repeated the question, although with increased nervousness. ' No, I don't,' she answered, in some haste. Again his chair went forward, while his agitation grew so great that he could scarcely maintain his place upon it, as he further asked : 'Do you clean the comb when you have done ?' ' Of course I do,' she said, staring at him with all her might. In an instant he was on his knees be fore her with his hands outstretched. ' I love you !' he passionately cried. ' I give my whole heart to you. Love me and I will be your slave. Love me as I love you, and I will doevery thing on earth for you. Oh, will you take me to be your lover, your husband, your protector, your everything ?' It was a critical moment for a young Woman Of her years, but she was equal to the emergency—as a woman gener ally is—and accepted him.

THE AUCKLAND EVENING STAR, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28. 1887.

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