Agricultural items. THE DAY'S WORK.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 48, 10 June 1875, Page 3

Agricultural items. THE DAY'S WORK.

In order to appreciate the eminent advantages of employing* labor-saving-implements worked by teams, for doing, the manual labor of the farms, let us compare still further the amount of labor performed by one man, without the aid of horses, with the work done by men with machines. An ordinary . i laborer will thrash and clean about six ;or seven bushels of wheat in a day, '■-. taking- the country through. In some, grain districts, one man will thrash ten or twelve bushels of wheat and clean it, while in others he cannot thrash more than five bushels, if he thrashes out all the grain as clean as the work is done by a machine. It must be borne in mind that it will require more hard pounding with a flail to thrash out the last : quart of grain in a flooring, than was necessary to thrash the first half bushel. ' We have seen a great deal of grain thrashed out with flails, and I have talked with those who have thrashed many times, and known all the ins and outs of the matter, and we have come to the conclusion that the following figures represent a fair average, as to the quantity of grain that an ordinaryilaborer will be able to thrash arid clean in a day, viz : — 7 bushels of wheat, 18 bushels of oats, 15 bushels of barley, 8 bushels of rye, and 20 bushels of buck wheat. In order to make this more intelligible, it will be necessary to double the number of bushels .that one,man is able to thrash, as two men will ;be required to clean the grain, with. a. ianning mill. In order to labor economically and with a thrashing, machine, two horses at least, and three men are necessary. In most instances ! four or five men will be required which r swill make a force equal to. fifteen, men. •with flails. Such a gang of hands, and : I two good horses, are able to thrash and ito clean 350 bushels of wheat, 435 of ; oats, 320 of barley,. 2-10 of rye, and 32Q: ; !of buck wheat. Some manufacturers ;of thrashing machines, fix the average days work higher than these figures/ :. fin some instances I will ..acknowledge jthat a span of horses and five men can jdo much more than the amount represented by the foregoing .figures •pyet If lam satisfied in the majority of instances^ ;they will not thraslTarid clean : a greater' jnumber. of .bust-els -jthan I hatye Undi-^ i ;cated. There is one consideration; that jshould not be overlooked in : *this- r esti-" mate, < which -the much greater amount of labor performed.^ "with, less ;fatigue.\ < ] When one "labbrep ;can.ipe^ work of two, or more working witfe^

"less talaguejffa]^ re ,'" q uir ed,Agr^^^ aov_~ ricultural dynamics.: - , 7"A AS ASA 7 ° The agricultural statistics for Ireland for the year 1874 have just been issued. The total, amount , of -land under all crops was 5,267,839 -acres:/ being a decrease on 1873 of 2907 acres. There has been increase on the.acreage of wheat, bere, and rye of 21,796 acres, of mangel and beetroot, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, and other green crops of 8119 acres, and of meadow and clover of 67,835 acres. The chief decrease is in oats, barley, beans, and peas. It amounts to 51,026 ..acres. Potatoes hcve decreased by flu, B4l, turnips by 14,861, flax by 22,411, and vetches and rape by 2018; total decrease, 100,657 acres. There is also a decrease in the live stock, tha numbers being-^-of horses 667? less, of cattle 28,989° and of sheep 46,907. Pigs, however, have increased by 52,040. The estimated value of the live stock, is L 37,225,887, or a decrease of L 228,392 as compared with 187.3. The emigration from Ireland was less than in the previous yeau * by 14,359 persons, the numbers in 1874 being 45,781. The Registrar- General ment has taken place -in 'the i breeds and points out that -rtrhile improver value of every descnption of farm stock^ a corresponding improvement has not taken place in the "cultivation of the land. Immens- inj ury is done by the unchecked growth of weeds, which are permitted to grow everywhere. The loss to the country from this cause alone is estimated at two millions 1 sterling. Beans, peas, maize, millet, or sorghum, lucerne, vetches,-. mangels, turnips, icabbage, potatoes.,, and numerous other ; vegetables of easy plough culture, suitable for stock, can all be brought into 'use, and ought to be> for the purpose of making the most of our indigenous or bush pastures";^' and "we think that if . the material for rearing efficient live fences Were cheaply obtainable, all our jfarmers, <■ both great and small," would jsoon drift into the .desirable combination of tillage with stock-feeding. And j when we say : stock-feeding,, we . do ' not •mean to confine' our meaning to cattle/i (either for. breeding,.' fattening, or for i dairying, but would include sheep, | Angora goats, pigs, and poultry. We ishall never see prosperous farming generally existing amongst us. until this combination is extensively adopted, and we believe .that,. to a very large extent, its adoption depends upon the, possibility of providing cheap and' suitable means of. making fields secure for the safe . keeping of all kinds ;of stock, whether-, large or small. lit is therefore very 7 desirable/ that jan ihtelligetn, searching, '' and siisStained inquiry should beentered upon, | with a view to the. discovery .of the I j most suitable material for forming live, jfences (we think that any other would jbe unlikely to answer all requirements iso well, except perhaps in cases ; where \ stone walls could be built of material • already on the land). There are two useful contrivances' , called bag-holders. The. one consists of [a box with flaring sides, which is made Ito operate as a spout to receive the [grain or whatever is to be poured linto the bag. At the bottom of the box a few small hooks are by which the bag- is held. ;The box is supported by four light iron . ior wooden rods upon a bottom beard. This board may be mounted upon 'wheels if desirable. ' The other style | may be folded in a small space when, 'apt in use. It consists of a bottom | board with an: upright Tat' .one' side ; a ; pair of arms are pivoted to the top of | the v prigh t. • These ' arms are fastened ! together by a cross-piece, to which a i brace is hung by a hinge. This brace, ' |is made to support the arms in a horizontal position, by means of the notches ;upon the upright post, into which, the end is made to .fit. A button is also . ifitted upon the upper side of the crossipiece by which the bag is held. To place the bag in the holder the edge is passed over the buttons and turned jdown ; it is then. turned. over the projecting points of the arms, by 'which it •is held securely while being filled/ It has long been a problem' with .dairymen how" they might best^ utilize jthe valuable nutritious matter usually [wasted in the milk r Yrom" :> which the abutter has been extracted. If we rejmove 3£ pounds^of' 'butter from 100 pounds of milk, there wilL still [be left in it the material for 1 pound of-4uttter and 3£ to 4 pounds caseine, 1 which, jwith the water and a little sugar and pineral matter/that would go with |the^-would be sufficient; to make from !6'to/7 pounds of good, wholesome, ana life sustaining food,- if 'it could only be 'reduced, tb,a,condition. that would. make it palatable and digestible. C>ne of tliese wasOmade /Iromunllklw-bich' had* been pkimrMlv^tJt^e, cate.pf3|. pounds of jbutter fronv 100 ' pounds of 1 milk. I n jthe; place -/of the (3£ / pounds ;df butter {taken away one pound^foleo-margarine jwas added to 1 00 v pdui|(i3 of milk and jworke'd into cheese.* very - jfair cheese. It, was^piequaLtorwhole pilk cheese, out it *was/a7 great /improvement . oyer,, As&% ordinary /ski^ ; *£.' f-tef se >, %et^^^>f^lrng|^ .wßblesbmet and: dig^f>KwMc^^ Wdlysbe^affi^ skhnsf^ : AA The discovery^s^SoM^^i%^M^^^ made m tins A^fyPlim^^^o^eYoln^f^ [The other cheese was made from milk" Mir^^ilpl^la^r^Snnlolfr* jtesides; together^ with- sour 'buttermilk : ■ "'* ry±; AASh ASA" '.-■/' '■■■■'■ SS^MrS^^m