AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2362, 1 June 1899, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Br Forbes Burn, F.H.A.S. I have lately reoeived from Messrs iKirkharn. of Biscathorpe^ Lincolnshire. Lincoln England, some samples of wool Wool. taken from sheep of all ages

and sexes and numbers of their flocks. The wool, 1 need hardly state, is of the finest quality, showing strength and lustre that are quite characteristic of the Biscathorpe flock. I have had an opportunity of comparing the&e samples with fleece.* shorn last season from a well-known flock in the North Island that boasts -of a lot of Biscathorpe blood. It is interesting to note variations that may be induced by change of climate, etc., but in this case all "was in favour of the home-grown article.

The early day fanciers of Clydesdales jn thi3 colony, especially in Otago. Clydesdales— would, lam afraid, be sadly Then and Now. disappointed in having their

ideas of what a horse should be shattered by the up-to-date standards. The old-time fanciers here went for " bone and hair " bald-headed, without, in many cases, taking the quality of either into account. Of course, there was pome excuse iD the eai'ly day 3 for importing coarse-legged horses, as the mares they were to be mated with in the majority of cases were not heavy enough for agricultural purposes. At that time dealers made a lot of money by importing Clydesdale sires, as the sort most appreciated here were not in favour in the old country. These horses have, 1 am faorry to say, left tlieir irark here, even where the animalp can boast of a lengthened pedigree. The show-ring Clydesdale of to-day is a different animal from what he was 30 years ago. Weight, I believe, liae been sacrificed for action ; that enormous quantity of strong, coarse hair to a nice fringe of silky texture ; that strong, heavy dash and clank of feot that delighted the men who expressed their approval by saying that the horse could " jingle of his feet on the causeway " has given way to the quick, light, elastic step, with hock action more like that of the hackney than the old-time Clydesdale.

In my tra-vels lately I came across an orchard that at first sight presented Straw for the appearance of a large Orchards. straw yard. The trees pre-

eented a most healthy appearance, and the owner, a- long-headed farmer, informed me that they were most fruitful this last season, and have always been so sinco he adopted this plan. The farmer told me he

pruned carefully and littered abundantly with straw. In fact, he said the orchard consumed nearly all the wheat and barley straw he grew, I made some inquiries as to the presence of codlin moth, 'and received for a reply that he had hardly been troubled with the pest since he had turned his pigs into the orchard, whose presence I had not noticed on account of the amount of litter. The owner said he believed thac the pigs in a great measure destroyed the moths by eating up all the fallen 'apples, and also by rooting about the foot of the trees. I was shown the return from the orchard, and I was certainly astonished at the amount realised.

In my last notes I had a short paragraph in regard to the action of lime in Application soils, and I may be excused of Tiinte for again touching on the to same topic as applied to clay Clay Soilsi soils. Pure clay is plastic and sticky and impervious to moisture, and it imparts that character to 6oils in which it is present in too great abundance. The two great mineral constituents of a soil are sand and clay, the former giving to it porosity and the latter coherence : but in order that clay may give coherence to sand ■without impairing its porosity, it must be in a flocculated or coagulated condition. The agent that is best fitted to produce that condition is lime.

Complaints are rife as to the condition oE many , grain stacks that were nob Building of threshed out before the rainy Stacks. season set in. And no won

der, as in travelling through the country I noticed that the majority of fctacks were very badly built. Talk about agricultural education ! "Who is expected to teach the agricultural labourer to_ perform his work in a proper manner? Echo answers who ! But I shall touch on this subject again. I maintain if a stack is properly built it is im-possible-for rain to do more harm than discolour the straw for a couple of inches at the butts of the sheaves ; but farmers, lam sorry to say, give no encouragement to men who really know their work. In then eyes one man's as good as another — until the stacks are threshed.

It is seldom, indeed, that farmers depart /rom the usual beaten line ' laid Growing down for years. I have, howof eyer, to chronicle the fact that Cabbage. cabbage-growing for sheep is being carried out by a farmpr in the North Island. 1 saw about twenty acres of as good drumheads as any one would wish to see growing adjacent to equal areas' of mangels and- Aberdeen yellow turnips. It is the owner's intention to keep strict account as to the returns made by each plot, and these he has promised to give me. 1 shall be pleased to place these before your readers when they come to hand.