AUSTRALIAN JOTTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1022, 11 January 1911, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN JOTTINGS.

ITEMS FROM THJS WEEK'S MAIL. The .New South Wales Under-Secretary to. Agriculture, in his-., annual report, sbysi—"Thero can be no doubt that-the figures furnished by the- Bureau of. Statistics'disclose an encouraging picture of agricultural progress.' Thousands of parents' in the cities are sending their boys on the land, and men of superior education are making agriculture their life's work. "The use of the plough is steadily increasing; land is .being more intensely cultivated, better rotations of 1 crops are being demonstrated; a higher standard of farming is being maintained; the average yields of many of our crops are being increased; the quality of our flocks and herds, is being improved, and tho productiveness of our'dairy farms and the averago yields of our dairy herds are being raised. -■'■ ... During last .year the Victorian Lands Department has made available for selection 1600 blocks, aggregating about 500,000 acres. The bulk of this has been malice land', for which an. exceptional demand existed. The progress made in the Malleo has been the feature of tho year in settlement in the.southern State. Trial shipments of table grapes to the Lond6n. market will bo made by several Victorian growers during the coining season. ■ The pumpkin beetle has been a big trouble to the vegetable growers .on the Macquarie Ejver, New South Wales, this year. : Ashes seem to be found tho most effective means of conAating, this übiqilitous'pest, while'Hmc'has proved disappointing. ' An irrigation expert from America, Mr. E. M. Wilson, recently made a tour of the-Shepparton and Tatura districts of Victoria, and: says that the enthusiasm of the State Government and officials -as to the expansion of closer settlement, is fully, justified. - . '•■- •• v.v-. "In a nutshell," said 'a -South Australian'orchardist recently, "my advice in . lighting the cocltin moth is to make the appla house a moth trap. All tho old cases which necessarily accumulate about' a place as the result of trading are the repositories of moth eggs. . The building should be practically enclosed 1 with one window at one side only. On the glass the. moths sport in" the sunshine, and are there easily caught. Advices have been received in Australia that the ' prospects of the "apple ' trade in. London during tho coming season are very favourable. : —... Australia is now making a bid : for American-settlers. Says. Mr. Trefle, the New South Wales Minister for Agriculture: "It is well known that for somo years some of the most experienced and energetic • agriculturists in the world are leaving "theso western. States in tens of thousands to make homes, for themselves in Canada., Ifs but. a logical deduction from. such, a situation to argue that, with; reasonable, efforts upon our.part, some of these immigrants may be induced to come to _ Australia. They're largely men of British blood, and all . speak' the somo language as ourselves. They're accustomed to . similar" soils and climates, and are : in every way fitted to jn'ake good Australians." , .