PICKLE FOR CURING HAMS OR BACON.

THE following pickle has been tried in many ways in large factories and small, as well as in the household, and can be relied upon to give perfect results. It is, of course, assumed that the hams or bacon are sweet when put into the pickle: 50 lb. salt, 5 lb. cane sugar, 5 lb. pure saltpetre, and 5 lb. food antiseptic. Make this up to 20 gallons, and boil and skim till clear. The flavour may be made more piquant by adding some juniper berries, about 1 lb., and 1 lb. coriander seeds. These may be put in a canvas bag and allowed to float about in the pickle.

THE AMERICAN WHEAT CROP.

THERE is every reason to suppose that the wheat crop of the United States this season will be one of the smallest grown for some years. American authorities

admit that even the low condition of winter wheat returned by the Department of Agriculture for 1st April (779 per cent. of a full crop condition) was based on a state of affairs which was not as bad as it became after the reports were collected. Moreover, the report does not take account of the area ploughed up, which is very large. In Kansas, for example, the State Board of Agriculture puts the area ploughed up at 26 per cent. of a crop of 5,500,000 acres, and estimates the remainder at only 68 per cent. of a full crop. Again, a number of reports from Illinois are to the effect that only one-fourth to onehalf of an average crop is expected, and one writer says that the area ploughed up will be fully 75 per cent. of the total sown. Even the Cincinnati Price Current, which usually takes a sanguine view of crop prospects, says that its correspondence "reflects a condition of affairs with regard to the wheat fields which is unmistakable in seriousness of injury and wide extent of damage. As for spring wheat, it is enough to state that sowing started a month later than usual-a very serious disadvantage, considering the shortness of the season of growth. Hardly any sowing was done before the middle of April."

ANOTHER METHOD OF TANNING SKINS.

WE have on former occasions given directions for tanning kangaroo, bear, opossum, and other skins, but, for the benefit of those who have not had an opportunity of seeing those recipes, we give what is said to be a good one, communicated by a subscriber to the Australian Farm and Home. The season for furred skins is now coming on, and doubtless many will be glad to know of a cheap and effective method of preserving them.

Remove the flesh and fat, then wash the skin in solution of sal soda and water. Take 4 oz. pulverised alum, 8 oz. salt, 1 quart new milk to 4 gallons salt water, 1 pint of prepared starch; stir well, and then put in your fur skins, and air them often by hanging them over a stick laid across your tan tub, so they will drain the liquor back into the tub; handle occasionally until they have been in the solution a day or two. Then remove the skins, and add to your liquor a half-teaspoonful of sulphuric acid. Stir this into your liquor well. Put the skins back, and steam them well for about one hour; then take the skins out, and wring and rinse off in soft luke-warm water, and hang them up in a cool place; and when they begin to get white, work and stretch them till they are dry. Hides of large animals should remain in the solution longer.

FELLING TIMBER DURING THE WANING MOON.

THIS has been generally regarded as an old-world superstition without a basis of fact. In a late paper on "Modern Gold-mining in the Darien," Republic of Columbia, S.A., presented to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Mr. Ernest R. Woakes, of Panama, has some notes on this head. He says that the country is completely covered with forests; but not 50 per cent. of the trees are fit for lumber, and about 25 per cent. are not even good for firewood. "Unless all timber is felled in the waning moon," says Mr. Woakes, "it will commence to rot

almost as soon as cut, due, probably, to the rapid fermentation and decomposition of the sap, which is supposed to be present in the wood in greatest quantity during the waxing moon.' Mr. Woakes says that he expects engineers to laugh. at the idea; but he warns the scoffers that experience is abundant in support of the theory; and Jumbermen from the Western States, who came there to get out timber for the stamp-mills, and refused to obey the native warning, found. that nearly all their sawn timber rotted before the carpenters could use it.-Engineering News.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR FARMERS.

AN EASY MODE OF HARDENING PLOUGHSHARE POINTS.

A VICTORIAN farmer, who regularly gets the Queensland Agricultural Journal, sends us the following:-"Frequently the patience of a farmer is seriously tried by working with a share which is so very much worn on the under side that it is difficult to keep it in the ground. To remedy this, when a blacksmith is not conveniently available, the farmer should get a portable forge and anvil, and dress the share himself. When dressed, put it back into the fire, and at the same time put a piece of hard cast iron in with it. When both have come to a white heat, take them out and rub the cast iron well on the under side of the share-point, after which plunge the share into cold water. This process will leave a coating of very hard chilled iron on the share-point, which will last a long time."

Our correspondent says the above mode of dressing ploughshares, under the circumstances stated, is not generally known in the part of Victoria in which he resides, but he has used the process himself, and can vouch for it being a good

one.

AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SHOWS.

THE Editor will be glad if the secretaries of Agricultural and other Societies will, as early as possible after the fixture of their respective shows, notify him of the date, and also of any change in date which may have been decided on.

Orchard Notes for July.

BY ALBERT H. BENSON.

THE pruning of all kinds of deciduous fruit trees should be completed during this month. All prunings should be gathered and burnt, and the trees should then receive a good winter spraying with the sulphur, lime, and salt wash. After pruning and spraying, the orchard should be ploughed, so as to bury all trash and weeds that have accumulated, as well as to sweeten the soil and break up any pan that may have been formed by summer cultivations.

Citrus trees, from which the fruit has been gathered, should also be gone over carefully; all dead branches, or branches with borers in them, should be cut out and burnt. The inside of the tree should be thoroughly well thinned out, care being taken not to open up the head too much. As a general rule the pruning of citrus trees is greatly neglected in this colony, the trees being allowed to grow into a dense mass, which forms the best possible harbour for all kinds of scale insects and a breeding ground for various fungus diseases. Such trees cannot be kept clean by spraying, as it is impossible to get the spraying material used on to all parts of the tree. On the other hand, when the inside of the tree is well thinned out, there is little harbour for pests, and those that are present can be reached by spraying. In the Orchard Notes for June, I recommended a dressing of sulphur, lime, and clay or fine flour, to be applied as a paint to the trunks and main branches of citrus and other fruit trees after they have been pruned; and I can only repeat' what I then said, viz. :-That where San José, Greedy, Mussel, or Parlatoria scales of deciduous trees, and Red, White, Circular, Black, Mussel, or other scale insects, and fungus growth of all kinds of citrus trees are present, this method of treatment is even more efficacious than the sulphur, lime, and salt spray for deciduous trees, or the resin, soda, and fish-oil wash for citrus trees. Painting the trunks and main branches does not, however, do away with the necessity for spraying, as the smaller branches, twigs, and leaves can only be reached by means of the spray-pump. The best results are obtained by painting the large wood and spraying the rest of the tree. Planting can be continued throughout the month. Don't plant too deep; the depth at which the tree stood in the nursery row is the right depth to plant. Cut back hard when planting; don't be afraid that you will spoil your tree, as if you don't cut back hard you will never get a symmetrical well-grown tree, and your failure to cut back will always tend to injure the future growth and vigour of the tree.

Don't plant rubbish, and only plant those trees that your soil and climate are adapted for. Remember that the climatic conditions of this colony, with the exception of the Stanthorpe district, are altogether different to that of the colder parts of the southern colonies, and that therefore we cannot grow the same fruits here, in our tropical and semi-tropical districts, that are grown successfully in the south. I wish to call attention of all fruitgrowers to this very important matter. I especially wish to warn fruitgrowers and intending fruitgrowers not to plant varieties that are unsuited to the climate, and advise all such to consult the Department of Agriculture as to the suitability or otherwise of the fruits they wish to plant, as I am certain that they will find it to their advantage to do so.

It costs just as much to prepare the land for and to plant, prune, and look after an inferior variety or a variety of fruit that is unsuitable to the climate, and from which no return of any value will ever be obtained, as it does to grow a variety that is suitable to the climate and that will produce superior fruit that will meet with a ready sale; therefore, no fruitgrower can afford to spend time and money growing unsuitable varieties, and the sooner that this is realised the better for the fruitgrowing industry of this colony.

Farm and Garden Notes for July.

Farm.-Land should now be prepared for potatoes, maize, oats, barley, vetches, tobacco, sugar-cane, field carrots, mangel wurtzel, swedes, &c. There is no better time for sowing lucerne. The most suitable soil is a deep, calcareous loam, where the roots can penetrate deep down into the subsoil in search of moisture. Should the subsoil be at all tough, it should be loosened to a depth of at least 18 inches, by the help of the subsoil plough, but the subsoil must on no account be brought to the surface. The land must then be brought to as fine a tilth as possible to give the seed every chance of germinating. After sowing, a light harrow run once over the land is sufficient to cover the seed. Some prefer sowing in drills, but this can scarcely be recommended, as the weeds will grow between them and choke the tender lucerne plants before they have time to cover the ground. As to the quantity of seed to sow, there are great differences of opinion, but the general experience is that from 10 lb. to 12 lb. of seed is the correct quantity to sow per acre. Early potatoes, sugar-cane, and maize may be planted in the earlier districts, but where late frosts occur it is well to wait until all risk of the young plants being nipped is over. During suitable weather rice may be planted in the North, where also the coffee crop should be harvested. Cinnamon and kola-nut cuttings may be planted under glass. Yams and turmeric may be unearthed, and New Guinea tobacco gathered.

Kitchen Garden.-Put in successional sowings of carrot, parsnip, broad beans, lettuce, and other salads, peas, turnips, beet, leeks, onions, &c. Asparagus and rhubarb may be planted, also cabbage and cauliflower. Plenty of watering and hoeing will probably be required while the drying westerly winds are blowing. Pinch the tops of broad beans which are in flower, and stake up peas which require support. Ground should now be prepared for planting potatoes, and in localities where there are no frosts a commencement of planting may be made towards the end of the month. In the same warm districts it will be quite safe to sow cucumbers, marrows, and squashes during the last week of the month. Ground should now be got ready for sowing French beans and other spring crops. Any land which is vacant should be ploughed up or dug and left rough until it is required. Harrowing and pulverising ground too long before it is sown or planted only encourages the growth of weeds, and also deprives the soil to a great extent of the sweetening influences of the sun and rain and air.