TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9024, 9 February 1895, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

That charming writer An and keen observer who Extraordinary chooses to hide his Babbit. identity under the name of "A Son. 'of the Slarshos," tells an English contemporary an extraordinary tale about a rabbit which possesses the enviable but unusual power of growing a new suit of fur whenever the one ho is wearing becomes shabby. This habit is one which has hitherto been supposed to be practised only by snakes, whose cast-off skins are sometimes to be found, torn and ragged, but still retaining something of the shape of their late owners. The rabbib mentioned by "A Son of tho Marshes" has shed at least two old coats, the event happening each year in the autumn. This year he was carefully watched for some N weeks, because on the last occasion he tore his old discarded akin by rubbing it against gooseberry bushes, in hie endeavour to got rid of what had become an encumbrance instead of a necessity. " You could put your hand op between the two coats from rump to neck freely for some time," says the writer, " until at last when a hole had been made by the rabbii'a paw, at the back of the neck, in trying to get ou 1 ; of this beautifully felled coat, I thought it best to .free him from it by disentangling and alightly cutting the far where the old and the, new were intermatted just above the four pawe. Thgn I bore the whole triumphantly away, to convince each of my friends as. had smiled unbelievingly at the notion of' a rabbit casting a whole coat instead of shedding its fur, by a sight of it." The skin was exhibited at a gathering of the Boya Zoological Society, whore it excited much interest. The savants regarded it as a case without precedent in rabbib life,' but were unanimous in declaring that it wae perfectly healthy fur and a beautiful coat. If rabbits were not euch pests put here it might be •worth while to try and acclimatise the double-ekiunsd rabbit just for his commercial value, but as it ia we shall try and. do without him, all our dealings with his race being confined to the extermination of the ordinary variety.

The London correspondent The English of the Argus, in the course Poultry of some remarks oh tho Industry. . 'trade in Victorian produce in London, (jives some information which may be of use to the small farmer in. New Zealand. The correspondent, writing on December 21st, mentions that the Tongariro had brought from New Zealand that week " a consignment of ducks of -excellent quality, and fowls of inferior' xharacter, but as they have como trussed they are virtually unmarketable." Fowls and ducks, as well as turkeys, must, he say*, arrive with their heads and feet on, but with their bodies plucked. These goods must be prepared for Jtha wholesale market, and consequently no attempt at trnssiog must be. made. They must be dressed only. This is not the first time that such advice has been tendered to our poultry farmersi but it appears that it will bear repeating. After mentioning that April and May are the months when colonial poultry would meet with the best demand in London, he goes on to refer to the system followed in ! England for rearing and fattening chickens, , taking as - his text a report on the poultry industry of Heathfield, a district of Sussex, received by the Royal Commission on Agriculture. The district Is aandy, well wooded, and with deep valleys, and the value of the poultry seat to London irom this locality alone is estimated at £140,000 per annum. "The rearing and fattening are quite distinct branches of the* industry, one set of persons rearing and another fattening the chickens. Everyone in the district, farmer, or cottager, or labourer, rears, and 'fatten' or * higglers' call about fortnightly to purchase those chickens eofficieritly forward for fattening." Host of tho birds are crossbred, with a strain' of Dorking, but some Brahma-Dorkings are reared.

Tub report qnashe/officially Somo and effectively the idea -that Methods poultry-rearing by, itself can Adopted, be made to pay. " Attempt c have'been'made to establish farms exclusively devoted to poultry, but all have failed. Practical fanners insiet that it is only fa connection witb, and a* n> brarcS ol farmiog that fowl* p»y. ?, Oae of.tho a oM raeoeufol naren ia tIM dletriet bit a

farm of 200 acres, and besides rearing 8000 chickens annually he has a number of cattle and milch cows, and about 8 acres of hops. Some fifty coops, each with a hen_ and brood, occupy 12 acres of grass, and he grows all the oats with which ho feeds the fowls. The chickens ate fed with oatmeal, mixed with ekim milk, and aro not allowed access to water. After they leave the hen they are pub into movable wooden houses, which permit them to rango freely over the 6elds during the day, aud in which they are shut up at night. The serious business of fattening commences after the "higglere" have bought the chickens. The unhappy birda are hung in wooden cages about 4fb above the ground round the fattening yard, the entrance to which might appropriately bear the legend, "All hope abandon ye who enter here." After entering these cages the chickens "are not allowed to touch ground, boiug taken out only to be killed. The chickens are ted twice a day on ground oats mixed with skim-milk, enriched with melted beef or mutton fat. It takes about three or four weeks to fatten them, during the latter half of which they are 'crammed' by a machine, which has been invented for the purpose. After being killed the carcases are placed in a row in a trough wi»h a heavy weight along their breasts to give them a square appearance." Kb will thu3 be aeon that if the New Zealand poultry farmer intends to enter tho lists against the English breeder he will have to rely less upon the: difference in the seasons and more upon proper, methods of preparing his fowle for market than he has hitherto done.

In an interesting little Stories book "New Lights oa of Old Edinburgh," roOld Edinburgh, cently published by David Douglas, appear a number of curious particulars of life in the Scottish capital a hundred years ago and more. In the middle of the last century London dominated the provincial Press as it does to-day, and the Edinburgh newspapers generally delayed publication until the London mail arrived. This circumstance, it is said, frequently gave rise to notices of this sort:—"The London post came not in till this day, being Friday, 'twist nine and ten forenoon, which stop'b our publishing on Thursday as usual." Residents of Christchurch in the sixties will remember the excitement causoil by the Maori war and the keen interest displayed in the latesc newa of tho campaign. This was before the North and South Islands were joined by the telegraph, and t° gratify the public desire for news both the Christchurch papers kept a boat and crew at Lyltelton ready aa soon as a steamer from the North was known to be coming in to race down the harbour aud get possession of the latest papers containing war news. Something of the aanie sort of thing used to be practised in Edinburgh in the old days, for we read that "Oa the eve of going to press the proprietor of one of the local journals used to rido to Leith, intercept the London mail, and return in haste to the city in order to forestall his contemporaries." The feeling of admiration which this enterprise extorts is rather diminished by the reflection that the distance between the two places is about two miles. • Some stories are told of a famous Judge, Lord B;asfield, who seems to have been calcbrated as a " hangipg" judge. It was he who onco remarked to an eloquent prisoner. " Man, you'ro a very clever duel, but I'm thinkin' ye wad be nano the waur o , a hangin , ." " The broad Scotch in which the old Judge always indulged in led to a well-deserved rebnke irom tho political prisoner Margaret. ' Hae ye ony cooneel, man Vhe inquired. ' No,' was the reply. , * Div ,-ye want to hao ony appinted? , *No,' replied Margaret, who was an Englishman, • I only want an interpreter to make mc understand what* your lordship Bays. , " The question of Sunday.trading was a vexed one even in those early days, but in a different sense to its present meaning. It is mentioned that among tho singular documents unearthed by the author while preparing bis book was a petition from the Edinburgh barbers to the Town Council concerning work on Sunday—

i " This petition, dated 1765, contains a complaint on behalf of the porukemakers, barbers,'and hairdressers of Edinburgh and subutbß, that * on Sabbath Day we are under Iho neoeasity ot practising publicly that part of onr business which consists of- ehav- !. iug and dressing, whereby tho means em« ployed by our parents in our youth for our 'instruction in religion' ana virtue are wholly dissipate, and instead of being useful members of society, we have become odious to ourselves as well as to our fei ow-tradea-men." , The Town Council were therefore asked "seriously to , consider our distressful situation. Debarred from hearing Divine worship, no wonder we become dissolute, not to cay worse." What dreadful things are *lhuted at in those lost few words. Tho piteous petition seems, however, to have been fruitless, the Council evidently declining to assist the barbers against themselves; for twenty years later it wa3 notod that Sun-, day was the busiest day in tho week for the hairdressers.