FARM NOTES.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12603, 20 September 1906, Page 5

FARM NOTES.

("Weekly Press and Referee.") An old Geelong Grammar School boy, who is now a planter in Fiji and is on a visit to Melbourne, has recently etanrted growing coooaarut- for the purpose of extracting the milk from them, -which is then, by some process, chuimed into butter. The butter so produced is said to he very palatable and also nutritious, and the Fijiaais, it is stated, prefer it to -be product of the cow. There was no butter exported from Atotralia to Fiji last year, a_id only 610cwt from New Zealand, so it would appear that the consumption of the local substitute must be considerable. Oil extracted from the coooamut is largely employed in Great Britain and the Continent in blending or faking with Australian butter. The blended product is palatable to the BagVieh taste, and the adulterant is quite innocuous.

Blight has again descended with devastating violence upon the hop gardens, says "The Field." For a time growers wore hopeful that by prompt I and Tapid washing they had effectually suppressed the aphis attack, but no sooner had they begun to take comfort in such a belief than a fresh visitation —certainly no less severe than the first —suddenly revealed itself, and there was no alternative to sacrificing the crop altogether but to renew the washing operation with redoubled energy. Never was the laborious and precarious nature of bop growing more strikingly' iUusferated than it has been during the present season. Where there has been any laxity in the washing process the chamces of even a moderate yield have been almost destroyed, and those who have washed frequently and diligently are hoping for nothing Jjetter than a fair average return. A disagreeable factor in the edtu-ttion is that there are but faint hopes of the deficit in the yield being made good by a corresponding advance in the realising prices. It is expected that'the liberal reserves held over from last year will preclude a movement in the markets equal to the defidencios in the new supply, and thus hop growers are anticipating a third successive disappointment. With a crop so costly and so troublesome to produce as the hop this is an extremely disheartening and unfortunate circumstance. In the Journal of the Board of Agriculture an interesting account of calffattening in Belgium is given from a practical authority, M. Smeyers. The oW plan was to feed on r__nd-_kimrnea milk which contained about 1.36 per

cent, of fat. But it is now usual to j food on separated milk and some fatty ior farinaceous foods. Some fari_ r s ! use potato starch, and others wheal n I broad, mixed meals, or linseed meal. IM. Smeycrs has obtained tho beet re- | suits by" using potato starch with the I addition of one-third of malt flour. How much he uses is not stated. At the Bctecom Dairy School, however, in an experiment in fattening calvps on separated milk and potato starch, lib of starch was used in 12 to 15 gallons of milk. In this experiment, with three calves, after allowing for tho starch, the calves paid slightly oyer 2,d per gallon for th? separated milk. In numerous trials in Belgium, it is added, tho return has been over 2Jd per gallon, and occasionally over 3d. In reviewing a table in the completo Agricultural Returns of 190.5, in which the numbers of the several classes of livo stock in tho United Kingdom aro given for thirty years, Major Craigio remarks that there have been increases in that period of 13 per cent, of horses and nearly 17 per cent, of cattle. Against theso increases there are set the decreases of 9i per cent, of sheep and 3. per cent, of pigs. It is particularly satisfactory to notice- that both horses, numbering 2,110,800, and cattle 4,211,916, reached tho maximum hi 1905. Sheep started the period with 32,262,579 in 1876, and fell to the lowest number. 27,448,220 in 1882, rising ten voars later to the maximum of 33,64_,808, and afterwards fluctuating up to the finish at 29,076,777 in 1905. started at 3,734,429, and finished at 3,601,659, the maximum in the interval being 4,362,040 in 1890, and tho mmimuin 2,863,488 in 1880. Another table shows the mimber of cattle and sheep per 1000 acres of land in Great Britain and each of its counties in 1905 and 1906 respectively. For the whole of Great Britain thero were 123 cattle and 445 sheep per 1000 acres in 1905, against 114 and 470 in 1896. As Major Qraigio remarks, these figureindicate a net gain in meat. Tho details for the several counties are interesting. In Englajid Cheshire stands first in both years ■far cattle, the number per 1000 acres in 1905 being 278, while Leicester is a good second with 271. Kent, with 909 sheep, is a_ long way ahead of any other county, Northumberland comrmg next with 817 per 1000 acres. Anglesey is first in Wales for oattle, having 3li to tho area named, while Ik-coon is at the top for sheep with 1095. The highest ratio of cattle in any Scottish county is 169, in Renfrew, while Roxburgh can claim the top place for 1241 sheep. In the whole of Great Britain Anglesey has tho greatest mimber of cattle and Roxburgh the highest number of sheep per 1000 acres. In tho discussions now proceeding in Victoria in tho potato trade much favour is shown to the Tasmanian system of having the bags branded with the name of the farmer as a means of encouraging a good style of classing and packing the potatoes. As regards Government grading for export, come members of tlho trade would prefer a compulsory system, while others "prefer thw£ it should be at the option of traders, a proper system of grading being established by the Government. Some go so far as to advocate official grading of all potatoes on arrival from the country, both for local consumption and for export, Slit such a scheme would probably he on too big a scale, at any rate for a start. Opinions differ as to the details of the grading that should be recommended, some advocating three .grades—prime, good, and medium—while others would bo content with one standard. One of the matterto be dealt with, is the presence of an unduly large proportion of dirt and dlay with the potatoes. Another matter engaging the attention of the trade is the use of sacks for potatoes after having been need for bone-dust, superphospnates, and other manures, and steps are being taken to lay this matter before the Board of Health.

Interesting tables, compiled by Messrs Helmuth, Schwartze and Co., show the yearly grand total estimated supplies of wool from 1894 to 1905, the estimated yield of clean wool therefrom, and the total left for consumption per head of population. From this it would appear that although there was an increase last year of the amount left for consumption per head of population, as compared with 1904 and 1900, yet taking the six years since 1899, there has T>een a material decrease, and as there is nothing to show _bat the actual consumption per head during that period has decreased, it naturally follows that stocks, both of the raw material and goods in dealers and distributers' hands, must have been red'ueed into a very small compass, and to this is ascribed the buoyant position of the market in tho early months of this year.