NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The haulage of heavy load? of grain, wool, tim!>er, etc.. by tractions, Ileary and the .-erious injury to Traffic. roads by this traffic, cppears, to have aroused a. gocd deal of adverse feeling in tho minds of tho members of local bodies in SouthCanterbury. It is reported that the "Waimato County Council nas adoptee) stringent I by-lavs in consction with this kind of 1 traffic, and that adjoining County Councils ! intend to proceed much in the same direction. There is no-doubt that the haulagr engines are useful at times to farmers and j others, especially at this time of the year, i when the earria.:?© of grain to market by j rail is vcxatiously delayed owing to shortj pge of railway trucjes; but it is stated that j grain and wool '8 hauled by road engines for lonp; distances beside a railway line, wh?n there is no good reason for tho work not being done by rail. These hauling engines are for the most part very heavy and powerful, and capable of drawing heavy loads, and without some restriction as to the weight of the load, veryserious injury must result from this traffic. Jn order to draw a heavy load the engine mu~t get a go.;d grip on the road, and eacli cross-har on the main wheels bites deep into the surface of even a sound road, and as the wheels turn the bars tear tie surface and destroy the bond of the road, and then the wheels of the heavily-laden waggons come after and crush tl\e> shingl* into powder, to be blown awa-v by wind 1 or turned into mud by rain. The owners of haulage phirits are seldom ratepayers in the counties in which they ply, and do not care how much damage they do so long as they can make their business pay, a.nd as these ratepayers who employ them for their own convenience cannot be made to contribute to the extra co-3t of road maintenance so caused, it is only right, that the local bodies should, on broad principles and in tho interests of the ratepayers in general, endeavour to regulate this heavy traffic, and restrict the load' in such a way as to minimiso the- injurious effects of the sarae. According to a recent peragraph in the Witness, the Waimato County Council has d."eidsd to limit each haulage engine' to two trucks each, to carry no more than five tons. 4 minority of the members objected to tlm on the ground that it would kill the traffic, because ib could not pay to haul such small leads, wliile tho majority maintained that it would bo a gocd thing 1 if such was the result, as only a few ratepayers henefired. at the expense of the county as a whole. Tho fact is, our colonial roads arc not fit for heavy traffic of this description. If we cculd afford to build macadamised highways such as they have in older countries it would not matter so much; but there ran be no question that excessive loading dees eerious injury to our best roads even in dry weather, and more injury in wet weather. In dry wenthcr an engine with a reasonable 'cad "will consolidate and impiove a new road, but personally, as a ratepayer, I would prefer to bo without the engine traffic nltoctethe-r. It is quite certain thr.fc if the Wnimate County bj'law is upheld it will not pay to draw twotruoks carrying five tons each with th<» heavy, powerful, and costly engines now largely in vogue, but it mar pay to do so with a light? 1111 11. 1 engine, and that is what is required — lighter engines anil lighter loads. In my opinion, the time is not far distant when the road engines will be replaced with light motors capable of drawing a fair and useful load.

It has been known for years that certain kinds of bactoria thrive on Sil the roots of leguminous Inoculation. «rops, «uch as beans, peae, clover, lucerne, etc. Twenty years ago, or more, it .tras proved that' not only are various kincte of bacteria, associated with different species of legumes, but also that these bacteria- co-operate, so ! to speak, with their host plants in assimilati ing free nitrogen from the atmosphere. Chemists say that these bacteria are not ■ able to assimilate free nitrogen from the air without the aid of the plants, mentioned, nor are rhese plants able to do -it without the br.cteria ; the plants and the bacteria exist together in what is termed symbiotic relationship. In 1898 a Ger-nan scientist discovered a way of cultivating the-.e bacteria in ceitain solutions, thus makine it possible to grow them commercially and distribute them to farmers at comparatively little expense The sub • stance thus obtained was called "nitragen,'* and was boomed for a time, but did i.ofc prove satisfactory in all cases, and prraduallj fell through in Europe and the United .States. Later on. however, an Americo.ni chemist bpgan to experiment with various kinds of bacteria in a different nutrient solution to that used by the German chemist, who used nirroien in the preparation of his solution. The American scientist succeeded in securing baoteiia moro adapted for general "farm use. and tho material containing bacteria for the various leguminous crops was sent out to farmeis in all parts of the United States. From 2500 reports sent in by farmers who had tried it 1800 were considered satisfactory, end it is taid that the 600 cases in which reports were not satisfactory were due towant of thorough preparation of the soil, to poor seed, or to other causes whjcltcould not bo laid against the inoculating material. Notwithstanding -these results, th-e inoculation of toil for the production of leguminous crops does not 6eem to catch on very much. The method adopted is to Cmix the proper quantity of inoculating^ C material with about 1001b of fine soil, and \ sow this on the land. -The bacteria thus - c '

Rawsrs of Poultry should use Nnnto ahii Blair's Game axd Poultry Meal, which is composed of the best ground bones and shells." specially prepared to meet the requirements of the last-increasing poultry industry. It is made up in )4lb bag», xt l» 9d etch. A.ak *ooi BtorekeeDex for it» ' '

introduced will attach themselves to the roots'- of the growing crop and multiply themselves, at the same time nourishing tha plants. The nitragen is not sufficient in itself, for, as far as I can learn, the land must - be- manured in the usual way as well; at any rate, I notice that American farmers aTe cautioned not to spend rocck in purchasing this nitragen. seeing that thorough cultivation and the use of proper fertilisers leaves little to fee iJusireu i& the production of leguminous crops. Since writing the foregoing note I havo received a copy of the Mark Lane Express containing some information about this nitro-eulture, or nitragen. It is said that a number of English and Irish farmers obtained some of the nitro-eulture from America, and tried it with clover, beans, etc., with most satisfactory results. One farmer says: "Never before have I had such crops of peas and beans." Another says that his inoculated crops are far superior to those which he did not inoculate. The results with clover are reported to be astonishingly gcod, and splendid clover has, been grown on land which was previously useless for growing clover, and the roots were covered with a mass of noduk-.» containing new supplies of bacteria. The profeesor (Geo. Moore) who a year 01 two ago perfected the culture km patented it, and it is now sold by British and American eeedsmen. " AGRICOLA.