EDITORIAL FARM NOTES.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10267, 9 February 1899, Page 2

EDITORIAL FARM NOTES.

——♦ " Weekly Press sad lUftree." A TWO BUSHEL WHEAT SACK. It is well known that the Americans have invented and established a system of their mvn for handling grain in balk, and it xnswers all the requirements of transferring it from the farm to the market at remarkably small cost. It is not so well known, h:>wcver, that there are in the United States two such systems. The elevator system, under which the loose grain is sent away in trains and ships without being put into sacks is widely known, and its merits have been frequently commented upon. Less attention, however, has been attracted by the Californian system under which sacks are employed in meeting the same ends, and at nearly as small cast. In the early days of wheat exportation from Canlornia- the system of using sacks w;i« adopted. The voyage round Capo Horn is a long and often a stormy one, and carrying loose wheat in the ships then available was ton dangerous to be practicable. The only diffnreiico between the Calilorniati system and that adopted in the colonies is the size ot th- , .vick, the Califernians usim; one that will contain only two bushel*. Mr T. K. D./vv, the special commissioner in Ameriei tit the MelbLurne Leader, is in favour of the adoption of tins siz-j of wheat suk in t!:e col; nits, on the ground <>t e.-.nmiiy and facility of handling. T.'io L\ilifiTiu:iu si.li is handy and «l«M lint iT'iniii' t > be inuif <;f .-uch strong material un the four buslul s::ck, and Mr Dow argues a> follows in Uvcuu «.n iv ndop'.iun: ••{Jim nun cannot lift uu Australian sack of wheat, and there is a great loss in employing two men at ti.o week. Thus. i:i carting from the field or in ihiHing uhcui fnmi one paitil to another three men arc needed to load a waggon, but only one t> drive it. Now, how are the two extra men to ba profitably employed while the driver is driving his team to the unloading point? The driver will want help ag;iin in unloading, so that tko four bushel sack i 3 an elective device for employing men at shitting it. Then, in regard to material, the iour bushel bug must be m.ide of thick strong material, so that it is more expensive than the two bushel suck of thinner and cheaper material. The Culifornian would not be able t> understand ilia use of employing a ir.oie expensive b.ig for the purpr.se of making a heavier parcel, costing doublo in mti'."h to handle as the smaller and cheaper one. The average cost of the two bushel sack to the fanner, taking one year with another, is Sic. per 1001b of grain, that is, a fraction over Id per bushel. ' The cost of material scarcely enters into the argument now, however, for we have seen that this season four bushel sacks are costing only a fraction over Id per bushel. There is probably, however, a great deal to be said in favour of the smaller sack on the score of more economic handling for the 2401b sack of wheat requires the expenditure of ranch heavy labour from the time it leaves the threshing machine until it is shot into the mill. It may bo interesting to mention that tile large shipment of barley that arrived in New Zealand from San Francisco a year or 10 ago was contained in two bushel sacks. EARLY MATCRITT. Mr Walter Long, M.P., President of the Board o! Agriculture in Great Britain, ■peaking recently before a gathering of farmers, said that one of the greatest difficulties the British agriculturist had been confronted with had been the competition in the provision of fat meat with other countries, which had been able to put upon the market beef and mutton at prices which the Home producer was unable to compete with. ' Now, the first conviction thbs had been ' forced on the stock-raiser was ihat, if he was going to meet the foreigner, he must do it by early maturity ,and it was a subject for congratulation that, among the winners at the great show at Smithfield, there were several animals which had taken prizes which were under three years old. Mr Long ha*, however, 'been taken to task for his modesty in regard to the hitter statement seeing that with the exception of two special classes all the caittlo exhibited at Smithfield Hud consequently all the prize-winners, exclusive of those in the two classes mentioned, were under three years of age. The Smithfield Club, as we mentioned last week, abolished the over-aged steer class, and also . the classes lor cows and ewes. These changes were quite in keeping with one of the moving principles of the club, which ham been to promoto early maturity, so as not only to ensure a more rapid and profitable turnover of the farmer's capital, but also to furnish the neat, tender joints that are now so much in demand. It is in these directions, coupled with economy of production—an important element as to which the dub has not been able to throw very much light—that British farmers must look in order to meet the ever-increasing importation and the improving quality, of foreign and colonial meat. The omission of the cow classes was regretted by some because it h no doubt desirable that the matrons who have done their duty in the herd should be of such a character that at the finish they may be converted into saleable carcases of beef. In this colony farmers ore becoming fully, a'ive to the early maturity principle in regard to sheen; but they are woefully behind the mother country in their method of putting fat cattle on the market, and it 11 not too much to say that at least a whole year's feeding is wasted in-the case of each animal.