AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8479, 10 May 1893, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

A Winton settler has been fined £3 and costs tor shifting a truck from a siding on to the main line. He had to do It, to load his sheep, and sent a man down the line to stop the regular train, but the guard deposed that a special would almost certainly have come to grief. Tho Grove Bush correspondent of the Southland News reports a favourable yield per acre, but " although we aro a happy set of people yet we have our grievances. One is the amount of Crown lands held In bond by tbe N.Z. Pine Company, land that would command ready sale If placed within the reach of the people." They kuow how to help themselves down at Winton. The Southland Newt correspondent writes:—" The other day I drove out to Taringatura, and the road from the bush to the school, which six months ago was full of deep holos, ia now in Up-top order. Throe or four months ago all tbe settlers gave, I think, a week each and assisted the County Council to gravel the road from the bridge to within a mile of the school, and I am sure now that the road is mado they do not grudge the labour they spent on it." The Goro correspondent ot the same journal reports some land fetching 10s an acre, and other withdrawn at 12s (id. Good investments on mortgage are difflculb to find, tho banks being free with their advances on the Und with sate margin. He adds, " What ignorance still prevails as to the New Zealand labourer. In the lasc London Spectator to hand bore, the farmer* have beeu amazed to read a letter stating that over at Diptou the wages aro lOi a day, and the labourers live in the hotel." . , As showing tho extent to which winter feeding for stock is now being provided in Waikato, we were told by Mr Jared Allwill the other day, that up to this date, he has already cut with his steam cbalFcntting machinery, no less than 500 tons of chaff, and the greater proportion of this hat been done for the large companies, in the Thames Valley. In addition to this plant, Mr Coates has one working in aud around Hamilton, and Messrs .Tarrott and Co., Messrs Baldwin and Watt have similar machinery working In the Cambridge, and Te Awamutu districts. In Glasgow recently they had a weight guessing competition by groups. Eighteen members of the Fife Farmers Club estimated the weight, their estimate- added together totalled cwt 107. 0 .15 or a mean weight of cwt. These are doi-crlbed as good old-fashioned rule of thumb-men. Twelve more modern farmers who are accustomed to attend to tho live-weight of cattle, guessed a mean weight of cwt 0.0.7. The bullock, an Ayrshire, was slaughtered and weighed on the block cwt 0. 1. 27. A Waikato correspondent writes to a contemporary :•—The portion of tho speech of the President of the Canterbury Agricultural Association, read at tho Waikato Farmers' Club, Cambridge, and published in to-day's issue of the Waikato I'inies, is very encouraging to Waikato farmers in as much an If ever there is a country adapted to 'high-class, agriculture it is Waikato. and by high-class agriculture Waikato will 1 surpass all parts of Now Zealand in dairy produce. From £o0 to £50 per acre passes I over Waikato soil every yoar hi the shape of sugar' between September and May. The beetroot has revolutionised agriculture in France and Germany, enabling forty five bushels ot wheat tothoooreto be grown, where five bushels could not be produced before the beetroot was grown to success, and following which, dairy produce, beef and mutton became «n Article of export. Towns were built, holding thousands of people, and the continental nations were enabled to support their people under circumstances most unfavourable 'a* compared with the especially favoured British citizen. Judging from tho extraordinary success of the turnip and Its results to Waikato soils, as a pioneer, it foaetells marvellous results, for Its highly .cultured compatriot—the white SUe-dan. When tho students of tho Wulto_to Agricultural College (?) shall have tfoived the problem of the adaptability and xsifve of Waikato soils as a compost for the redaroductlon of the most valunblo commodities in use In the rich centres of the populations of the world, and when tho country can gain the confidence of the technical agriculturist who, without any abandonment ot practical effort or energy, will prove that beetroot can be grown on 1000-acre blocks or ou one-acre blocks, and ia far more valuable to the farmer than any other crop, then sugar-mills, dairy factories, bacon, butter, eg«s, grain and frozen meat will be the staple products of Waikato. Sir, I commend tbe sound advfoa of the President ot the Canterbury Association where he urges upon all young men intending to farm not to lose one op-portu-ity of (through their primary 1 school scholarship*) thnt way of gaining admission- 1 to the Lincoln Agricultural College, for It will not'only mean a comfortable home, Jout the same energy and application W which they gained their primary school scholarshipwill givei them a thorough InsJgbt Into both scientific and practical farming. Sir Jncomme-acUnK the foregoing remarks Of the President of that Association, I would recommend the President of our Waikato Association to urgt that, our own district In view of the foresight and endeavours which the authorities are using over the College, to be devoted in establishing our Waikato Agricultural College. Why Is Waikato allowed to stagnate whilst other districts with less natural advantages are active? . . ..,_._, The Hon. J. M'Kenzle has put his foot down an regards one of the demands of the Special Settlement Associations. Ho will not remit the advance fees for survey. ,r *T»ie experience of the Government Is that although a largo nnmber of bona tide settlers are In these associations, they mo not without a certain number of speculators. The Govern ment havo to guard ag_ln-ta)anreareaof country being thrown on their hands after going to the trouble and expense of surveys, as the applicants are not bound to take up the sections, and the survey fee now to be charged h simply an earnest of their bona fides. Concerning Mr M'Kenzie's scheme of " Bush Settlement" the Post says :— M 16 k may perhaps be objected that the number \ot men proposed to be engaged on each block is too large In proportion to the urea to be cleared, and that when cleared the area will not be *.u__c_ent to provide room Ifor settlement of all the mem employed. As to the number of men in proportion to I the area to be cleared, It must, however, tbe remembered that a certain amount of t road-making as well as bash-felling has to bo done, and on the extent of this the number of men who can profltably be engaged must necessarily, in some degree, depend. Then, again, the road-making will last lonaer, no . doubt, than the clearing of tho first 500 acres in each block, and ho help to provide work when the felling of a second area i of bush is going on to provide room for the (settlement of those who do not obtain u-omesteads out of tho first clearing. It is pot a scheme to be worked out in * single y-ear. We shall watch the progress of tbe experiment with deep Interest, and hope It loij succeed so as to justify an extension of >\he principle. But to be a success the utnr«>st care will require to be exercised, and tbe most Important point is the inltiaU choice of men suited to the work to be do»ne and the opportunities it will afford. Tho scheme Is a good one, but we may sTSghtly paraphrase Captain Cuttle, and say that "its bearings lays In tho application on it." According to the London correspondent ot the Scottish Farmer Australian consignors of meat are not the only ones I victimised by the London rings. Even the astute North of Scotland farmers have

to submit to be ileec.d by the übiquitous ! middlemen. The profits of these middlemen commence at the beef raising or killing end. When dressed mett in I sent off from Scotland the farmer lift*' Earted with all interest in it, tho Interest aving become vested in the upeculaUng killer*. If there Is no collusion it is thy latter who have the right to complain of the so-called prices made by tbe fecottish agents at Farringdon street. Theso, it la confidently asserted, meet in tbe afternoon of each market day and fix the price which la to be returned to their northern .clients. This it appears is no uncommon j practice in all the London produce markets, Jand is especially notorious at Covent ! Garden. In no case can the reported E rices be found to tally with those sent ack to the unfortunate consignor. There have been Instances In which astute men, whose faces were unknown to the salesi men, have gone up to London and have Ibouftht and taken away their own pro*_uce, celling to some friends or relatione '.possibly, doing a good business in tho roItail trade. On reaching home they lm*?e Mound the return sheets*;, deducting i'uli ' commissions on just one-half tbe prices E* , 'icy got for their own. In ono case In tho eat market immediate exposure waa unless tbe full amount wm \sent with compensatory damages. So flopg aa all this is allowed the consigneu la .kiuiof the situation. "Heavy eupplle-i on hand" and "glut" are pleaded in tho returns. A recent exposure in connection with the New Zealand meat trade i:\ London fully corroborates the statem.n. of the correspondent of the Farmer.