FARM NOTES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5475, 21 February 1910, Page 4

FARM NOTES.

From New York comes a good word for the sparrow. Dr Henshaw estimates tbat tbe combined weed seed consumption of the sparrow family results in an annual saving of 1 per cent of the value of the crops. As the value of the principal field crops of the United States for 1906 was £700,000,000, the sparrows alone saved the farmers £7,000,000 in one year. What is claimed to be the heaviest horse ever bred was the Shire stallion Great Britain (978). He was bred by the late Mr Bultifcaft, of Ely, and was purchased from him at the London Agricultural Show in February, 1888, by Mr J. H. Truman. In the follow ing month he was shipped to America, and as he turned the scale at 27751 b the Chicago Dime Museum people offered to pay £200 for the loan ol him for two weeks for show purposes. The offer was accepted, but the yen next day the horse was found dead ii his stall. A settler in the Tweed Eiver dis trict (New South Wales) shows a return of £400 a year from a 19-acrt holding. The Chrfstchurch Press reports that the Department of Agriculture is at present conducting experiments in the South Island with a new food plant for dairy C( ws. This is the marrow cabbage, wliieh is extensively used iL France as feed for stock. It grows to a height of i our or five feet, and carries a consideiable quantity of leaves, all of which tre good for food. The plant belongs to the kale family, and the whole of it can be used for food for animals. The results of the experiments, wLich are being carried out with this plant on the experimental plots throughout the South Tpland, have so fir been very successful, and up to 36 t( ns tc the acre Lave been grown. The reprcsenative of a Car'erton paper has been informed by a man " who knows all about pigs" that it it his opinion that if New Zealanc farmers do not get to wori at pig raising in business-like style they wiL be missing a {. olden opportunity, for ii appears that "as time goes on there must be much money attached to \ igbreeding and fattening for export ' There was last season a suppl / in Ne w Zealand in excels of the demand foj home consumption. The market, \\ is said, was overstocked to the extern of 28,000 sides, and this has led t. the beginning of an export trade whiil has every prospect of assuming vei\ large proportions. The paper adds- " One dealer that we know of ha shipped 500 sides, and will follow oi with regular consignments if the re suits appear to warrant the enter prise." • - The question of tar* branding sbeej has again come into prominence, thi*time through a report of the annual meeting of the Home Woolbuyers Association, held recently in Bradford. The statement was made that the presence of tar brands in wool means an annual loss to Bradford manufacturers of £100,000, although some are inclined to think this is an exaggeration. In any case, it is admitted that tar brands are a source of much trouble with the wool-users, because if the brands are left in when the wool is sorted it is an impossibility to detect the particles during the process ot manufacture, and the finished article is often ruined by their presence. : The census of Jive stock in German)' shows tbat toe number of cows (now standing at 10,967,000) has liseu by half a million during the past seven years, while the total number of cattle (20,631,000) shows an increase of nearly five milliohs since 1883. theep, on the other hand, have diminished from 19,190,000 in 1883 to 7,704,000 in 1907, the decrease in the past seven years being nearly two millions. In the case ot pigs, however, the figures show a great expansion, the number having risen from 9,20(5,000 in 18-3, t0.22,H7,000 in 1907. Poultry a'so show a substantial increase. It is said in Victoria that, in addition to the advantage of cheapness gained by the use of Queensland pice for making butter boxes, the boxes are stronger than those made from New Zealand pine. The Victorian Minister for Agriculture is negotiating for the supply of butter boxes from Queensland at considerably lower rates than charged in Melbourne for butter boxes made of New Zealand wood. The advantage of strength :s of great impjrtance, too. Recent reports as to the arrival of consignments of Victoriin butter in. London show that there a: c mirnen us complaints as to broken boxes and deterioration of their contents. In the Queensland butter trade such complaints are rare owing to the greater strength of the wocd.