AGRICULTURAL NOTES

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7864, 15 May 1891, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL NOTES

The United States send to England about forty-three per cent, of the receipts of foreign cheese, and whereas seventy years ago more butter than cheese was exported, since 1842 these positions have been reversed. The decline of butter exports is mainly attributed to the competition of imitation butters and oleomargarine. It is calculated that scarcely 1 lb. in fifty of the American butter is exported, and about Ilb in every four of cheese. The American authorities consider that in both cheese and butter the exports to this and other countries can be largely increased, and they are so fully impressed with the importance of developing the dairy industry that they contemplate establishing a fully equipped dairy division in the Department of Agriculture at Washington. In a letter addressed to the Adelaide Observer, Mr Oskar Ziegler gives the formula of yet another red rust specific, which he considers effectually prevents the attack of this dreaded scourge. The following is an extract from his Tetter :—- Dissolve lib of gum in 1 pint of boiling water, stir until free of lumps, then add three gallons of hot water (hot enough to put your hands in without scalding), then pour it over your seed wheat, stir it until ft is thoroughly damp, then mix it with as much flour of sulphur as will possibly stick to it; sow the following day. Any lumps in the sulphur must be crushed before using it, Cold water may be used if it is too much trouble to heat it. My experience of the above treatment was. that the seed germinated after two days, grew much stronger, and was from j 6 to 12 inches taller than the rest at maturity. Now, my friends, I advise you to sow 5,10 or 20 acres with wheat created as above described, and you will see an improvement, whether you should have a visit from the rust or not. There is no need of pickling the wheat with " bluestone," consequently tbe cost of preparing the wheat will be trifling. If you cannot procure gum a thin paste of flour may possibly do as well. Horse stable floors should be made tight and level. Absorbent beddings and thorough cleaning will remove any objection to odour from urine which cannot be got rid of in slated floors. Sand, sawdust, and ground plaster are excellent cleansers of the stable. A horse with tender feet or ankles suffers from standing on -loping floors. A horse, snfferlng from a sprained stifle or hock, or bruised knee, is kept in perpetual torment by sloping floors. Knuckled horses owe much of their ailment to sloping floors. At the annual general meeting of the British Goat Society, of which the Earl of Londesborough is president, an interesting discussion took place with reference to the value of keeping goats with horses and cows, especially the latter, on account of the sanitary influence that the presence of goats has upon in-calf cows, acting as a preventive to abortion, Instances were quoted by members present, proving the great good that had been effected in this way. Mr Willard stated that in the herd of the Baroness Burdett Coutts at Holly Lodge, where 10 cows had been kept annually on an average for the last twenty years, only one case of calf slipping had occurred. It was also observed by the honorary secretary that, contrary to tbe general idea, not only male but female goats possessed this peculiar quality, and several dairy farmers kept them solely on this ground. He thought if farmers generally only knew the value of goats for this purpose these animals would be more commonly seen on farms than they are at present. It is an odd circumstance, remarks the Australasian in the face of the severe agricultural depression that has existed In the old country for so many years past, to hear of a Scottish farmer leaving at his death an estate valued at £90,000, The success ot the late Mr James Elliott was almost entirely owing to one variety of sheep, the Cheviot, which he took from the district of their origin and settled in the isles of Skye and Mull. He accumulated his wealth by breeding his own stock in the islands named, and fattening them for the market on the farms he occupied on the border. He did not deal nor even buy stores for fattening, and his stock never passed through the hands of the middleman. All that was to be got out of them he secured, and he seems to have secured a good deal.