AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7804, 6 March 1891, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

FrSilt-growlng is not being recommended to the small holders of land in vain, says an English paper. One of the striking features of the agricultural returns for I$K) is the increased acreage devoted 7 to orchards, market gardens, and the culture of small fruit. Itseema that in the growth of small fruit alone, that is strawberries, gooseberries, currants, &c, there are 4,300 mare acres employed this year than, last, and there were never so many acres of orchards in the country since records began to be kept. In 1873 there were not 150,001} acres of orchard in Great Britain. Now there are 202,305. Writing on the value of a patch of lucerne to the dairyman, the Leader says:—Whenever lucerne is mentioned In connection with dairying the old matter about the milk being injuriously affected is brought up. It is significant that the evils of feeding cows with lucerne are looked upon as being very great by those who have no lucerne; while those who have been using lucerne for many years make very light of the matter. The fact is that those who understand lucerne never have any trouble. In grazing upon lucerne there is some danger both of injuring the cattle and having the milk tainted if the stock are put on alter the crop has come into -bloom, and the stalks are strong and full of gas. But no one who had any respect for his lucerne would torn cowa into it, to tread it down and injure themselves, at this stage. Those who turn lucerne to the best account for dairying purposes cut the crop for the cow.and thus get the best returns, while benefiting the plant. The lucerne is cv t and immediately made into heaps. A heating or wilting process at once takes place, which removes all danger. Lucerne cut in the forenoon is given, to the cows in the evening, and that cut in the afternoon is given In the morning. The cows like the wilted fodder better than the fresh,and those who adopt this system never have any complaints made about their milk.

Her Majesty the Queen feas decided to exhibit at Smithfleld in fa tare only those animals that are bred on her Home Farm. A somewhat ehoilar precedent to this happened in the case of the late Sir Charles KnJghtley. He strongly opposed the principle of the great prises going to the eeder&nd not to the breeder, and, inconsequence, withdrew from the show, and sent the following year twenty bullocks to Smfcthfield market, which were sold at an average of £60 each, beef being very btfch at the time. These bullocks were o2 each great weight ami qoality that Sir Charles was be#s?ed not to cut hla bull calves'in

future. And it led to a capital bull JJ* S&SVSP 0P UntU bi -«^i^ 4) e o^d\^^ R C a ft fair margin of profit. Of theffit,* I ** on for sale, 2400 wero Scotchfand M? ,8 almost all catne from AberiW £?*? Banff.htr.and Rossshlr™ was Mie general account given of thSS business. The prices were irregular $ <rathe whole as good as could hate V? ,1 expected in Weir of the recent elmS condition of the trade. The bW«t¥i jJ t was obtained by au Aberdeenshfre who disposed of four of his bullock. 1 £40 each. The thirties wore Tot reached, and many good Scots weißhi n ~ 7s stone or thereabouts went at £28a head A novel form of competition has art. between the stock breeders in EnoSSi end America in connection with «? Christinas fat htock shows .tJ*? taneously at Sraithfleld end Ohicaeo. contest has originated through theeyeu? of recordine tt»e ««« and daily e«in r weight made by the animate ot irrespective breeds exhibited at these show. 4 and while the honours have been nreit equally distributed over all the bw*!r during a series of years, tho seems to be which of tliu two countth! can produce the champion, the testT? merit beiug the greatost weight of beef v a given time. Tue result of theie trlaU«i» now flashed across the Atlantic bvelecw telegraph, and, a» may be imagined. «25 rejoicing prevails on tho winning W« The competition this season was MjSS 9 confined to the Shorthorn, Hereford and crossbred, with the foUowW\? eult»:—The American Shorthorn lib lojoz per day, weighed jLnghsu aalned the same per d*v weighed 2i76lbs, but wu« older. The American Devon ttalneHifl? Boz per day, weighed ISiWib, eld; the English Davou gained per day, weigh«-l loiialb, and wn 3 im£SZ old. But the American Hereford , Mlc*S! everything at Siuiihflolii; it wa»S3BdMi old, weighed USJIu, find tho average oS? Epr day was no less than 21b llioa. , '!): [ereford exhibited at Smithfluld wIS nuarly ko young, the youngest X ing Gil days, whoso welghtwas lSiat or tho average weight per d*» was 21b Sib fess 6,1 atg American, ltie American crossbred Wβ. 982 days old, weighed 17051b. or lib ISS 17501b, or lib HJoz per day. Tho praetloS benefit of these records is to determinetb« age at which tUe profitable fattening of a bullock ceases, and the conclusion hi* been arrived at that the limit U BodS three years oid. The management of the Chicago Show have, therefore, decided to abolish the three-year-old claae, end tha same question is now under discussion h* the Siuithfleld Club. a ° 7

There are several points In estanela life in the Argentina Itepublio (writes a correspondent of the which may be of interest to your readers. OnsS the chief of these is the method of work ing on shares. Nearly all the eataoclu are so worked, as men on shares are foun3 to work better than on monthly wa®* The chares in nneep-farming are " hal*a»J» and A man on " halves finds half the sheep and all tha expenses, and the eatancia finds the other hall of the sheep, and the camp for the sheep to run ou, and receives hall! the profits. A man on "thirds" finds one. third of flock, all labour, and one-third of all expenses, such as dipping, curing, &c* and receivee one-third of profits. A men on fourths finds only labour and recol?«is one-fourths of profits ; the eetanoia Ends the flock. The work of the flocks is very heavy, as every flock is revised and cured every eight days. A flock runs from OS9 to two thousand sheep, and is yarded every night. The scab (n this country la very bad, and I do not see how it can be got rid of under the present system. The sheep here are shorn with their feet tied together, and the average turn-out of a shed is forty a man & day. The eae&rera start work about hall-past 5; at 7 they geS roast meat, which i$ brought round to the plaza or verandah on which they all eheav together, and each cuts off what! ha likes. At 12 comes breakfast, consisting of roast and boiled meat, farina, manioc, and mat 6. At 7, after knocking off work. comes supper, with the earns food. Aβ each sheep is shorn the shearer receives a "lata" or piece of tin, bearing the mark of the estaucla. This year the lata is worth. 5 centa on moat eatanciaa, which at) the present rate of gold (350 per coat.) amounts to lid. This promises to bo a baa year for estancierpa ; no rain, locusts, low price of wood, tremendous premium on gold, and political troubles looming Iα the future, while writing this the news had just reached here that General Boccs hm forcibly cleared the Boisa with tba military, but I am afraid tliaE will not better the situation much. The whole country is Iα about as bad s. state aa possible. All business is quite afc t. standstill, everybody economising aadwsteelag their hands; also there threatt&is to 1)1 a severe drought, and, as the past wiates and spring have been very hard on the cattle, the losses will be very heavy unless we have favourable weather. Afc the present time this is no placa fo? ft ycmni m*n seeking his fortune, and 1 shoula advise any one seeking a new country to fight very shy of this one. A trial consignment of eggs Has been made from Canada to She M'Kinley tarriff will cripple or crush the trade hitherto carried on in this produce with the United States, and investigation has shown that from September to March the English market can toko &11 the eggtf Canada can send. The demand is always increasing, and although supplies, from France, Italy, and Austria havo also ia« ereagea of late years, prices have not falton. The tendency is still upward. The reeulfe of the trial has been 10s per 120 eggs. The top price for the finest eggs on o£tc-r oa same day was lls and Us 3d. T&t Canadian consignment reached the marked in as good condition as many eonelga* ments from Normandy, Iα the aumrat? prices range down to 8s 9d, in the wlutss they attain a very substantia! figurft. Cool storage and good packing are tisf essential points.

The agricultural returns of GreM 1 Britain prepared by the Board of iff** culture, for 1890, have come to h&n& this week. Their leading feature is tho testi mony the; offer to the great developing of the trade in live stock and So tb© comparative decay of grain growing; Erf Usa farmers having plainly realised that foi the present their profits must depend oat the raising of beef, mutton and dr.irj produce. The nnmber of cows and ht ifors in milk or in calf now returned is 2,588,000, a figure approached Iα 1885. 1638 ®ad 1887, but never before reached. This means that the breeding ttock of the «mntjTH something like 100,000 more than In Urn Cattle under 2 years old exhibit alao a W remarkable increase during the lß*l year amounting to 279,0t)0 head, 8g« bringing up tho total to 2 9 m<p while compared with the average aamees? returned in tho decade ending 18S& tfw , present figures exhibit an increase of #?*! 400,000 head. Add to these results the tm that the total sheep stock of Great BtUm —27,272,000—1β bow greater than fa ml year since 1879, a recovery of neg»| 3 000,000 head being apparent eiaee Mβ (2,000,000 or two-thirda of whlsh, »« occurred during the last two years), saa the growth of this industry is also apP ? " ent. In cattle, it is mainly In cows and la young stock that the development a** occurred. The great growth of fcbs eafcui trade ia all the more surprising when Is W remembered that tha year 1888 Raw ms largest import of livestock ever bafora recorded In these tables—over 655,O0DaftWB(! been received. Nor ia it the less remsss* able as an indication of the increased sB«« consumption of the country that tp| large importation has been uxotnpWim by much larger supplies of fresh beef *aa mutton from abroad than in any previoss year. Taking for a niomeufc the area <» tho cultivated land in Great Britain", Wβfigures bear out the results eooT* exemplified. That area has slwsT» consisted of two main dlristdae—W» surface lying under permanent grass, asj that recognised cc arable land, m tm present year, the arable area is retarae 3 as occupying 5U 1 per cent, of tha w»m% the permanent pasture covering. »«* remainder. Practically one half of Wβ arable area remains under cora, bus i| should be observed that the WomvUfMW' corn crops to arable land has decfliiea mm 52 per cent, in 1870 to 50 per cent, in ***? and to 43 per cent, in 1890. Gtlisf m*§« the grazing of cattle is taking tha pieced the growing of corn. A memorandum on the Corn Sales Bill introduced by Mr Jasper More stetee,"**! its object Is, by prohibiting the s««*J* grain by measure, to take a step tewawss uniformity of weight. The use of sneasaM makes both the corn returns and agriow* tural statistics inaccurate. Theinaewpg tendency of farmers and dealers o*«J» to sell grain by weinhc, this Wtt will Influence the small minority of fence*! and dealers who Htill use ujeasnr® * grain to conform to the praetfea Targe BJftjorily, and may be follot mg* uniform weight. The whol® mtadd* « the bill i* euabodiod in th© m*t viz .—"From and after the first a»JJK September, 1891. all Rrain shall ba bpatf£ by weight only." The remaining «*»>«* dealt with the means of enforcing Ww definitions and title, *