AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Two and a half tons of salt on four acres of the Kaiapoi public cemetery has failed to kill the noxious vine weed and twitch grass, which have covered most of the ground. A sheep killed by Mr. G. B. Wilson, butcher, of Dromana, Victoria, was found to weigh 211 lb dressed. The sheep was a prime Cotswold wether, and was bred by Air. R. Anderson at Barragunda, Cape Schanck. The milking Shorthorns are reported as having met with a great deal of success at recent agricultural shows in England, some of them having given wonderful results in tliQ dairy tests. A large area is being cultivated at the Wollongbar Experimental Farm, New South Wales, with a view to giving a comprehensive trial to the Rhodes grass, which ia looked Upon with great favour in the district. The Waikouaiti Dairy Factory Company arranged to close down for the season on Monday last. During the season 166 tons of cheese has been manufactured — an increase of 16 tons on the output of the previous year. Mr. E. L. Wood has been reappointed manager for the ensuing season. ■Speaking at the meeting of the Aahbur ton branch of the Farmers' Union, Mr. W. Harding, the chairman, said that a member of the Executive of the branch had told him that he had spent £100 out of his own pocket in the interests of the Union, and that he had barely got a "thank you" for it. At the Rangiora Magistrate's Court a farmer giving evidence was asked by counsel whether minding pigs was bard work. The reply came promptly and emphatically : "Yes, minding pigs is the hardest job any one can be put to. I have boys, and I hope none of them will ever have to da such work." A farm near Kaponga (says the Taranaki Herald) has lifted £56 worth of potatoes to the acre from four acres. Having no bjight and an eight ton crop, he is to bo congratulated on his good fortune. Last year he managed to secure a fifteen ton crop, but, owing to the difference in j price, this year's crop shows a better return. Speaking upon the subject of ragwort at the Agricultural Conference, Mr. G. V. Tate (Taranaki) said that if a certain man near Inglewood, Taranaki, had not allowed a piecp of ragwort to grow because the flower was pretty, there would not today be thousands of acres in that district covered with it. At the same time, oven with care, they could not be quite immune from ragwort. The attention of the farmers in New South Wales is being directed to the mohair industry. Experiments of a farmer in the Wyalong district have been a pronounced success, and the breeding of Angora goats is to be taken up on a more ir less extensive scale by the settlers there. From ten guineas is being paid for goats, and importations are to be made. A number of pedigree .Angoras'" have been imported to the Tenterfield district, where farmers are also taking interest in this industry. The exhibition of New South Wales produce, designed to bring under the notice of the British people the resources of the State, will take place next month at tho Guildhall. The 11th August has been fixed as the first day, and the exhibition will be continued for a fortnight. Ar- j rongements have been made for the holding of a grocers' exhibition at Islington. ITeiv South Wales -trill nlso- be represented at this show, which will take place in September. The exhibits from that State will comprise wheat, flour, and dried fruits. Speaking to a representative of the Waimate Witness in regard to the reported outbreak of an unknown disease among young cattle at Kaimate, near Inglewood, a Government veterinary surgeon who has been instructed to report upon the outbreak stated that lie does not anticipate the disease to be an uncommon one. The deaths have been spread over a number of years, and he is of opinion that the extent of the trouble has been very considerably exaggerated. The disease, he believes, is lung-woim, common to young stock. Mr. E. White, F.R.H.S., writing os an entomologist to the Auckland Weekly News, says that bumble-bees in tho Waikato district are almost a pesfc. Specimens of two vaiueties are to be 'seen in almost every garden, and red clover (Trifolium pratense) ia usually well seeded. 'Die bumble-bees are credited with being the cause ol this, but other insects, as honey-sucking moths, which are now to be se«n in great profusion, and which are the parents of the caterpillars which causo so' much havoc among tomatoes and many othor plants, are in all probabilities as much entitled to the credit as the bees. I should have thought (bo adds) that our Southern neighbours would have known of this, and would not think of sending Home for what is to be lOimd at their very doois. The Rutherglen Viticultural College (says the Australasian) used to possess a fairly well-equipped laboratory, which included a microscope that cost the Stato ,about £60. There was also a well-stocked bokcase, containing a number of valuablo works of reference. These havo disappeared, and enquiry has disclosed the fact that Air. Travonror, when Minister of Agriculture, nwde a present of them to Jlr. Dubois, tho then viticultural expert, previous to the departure of the latter for South Africa. Tho local vignerons are strongly objecting to this free and easy method of disposing of laboratory" equipment in which they are specially interested. At the present time, they say, if a new disease broke out on the vines there is no instrumont at the College by which it could bo detected. Investigations made by Dr. Bull, lecturer on bacteriology at the University of Victoria, confirm tho opinion of tho Department of Agriculture oxperts that tho recent mysterious disease* amongst stock in several country districts was duo to tho use of fodder poisoned by mice and other vermin. The experiments ho conducted showed that the use of the fodder set up a form of ptomaine poisoning, nnd that the disease was not in any way contagious, but in each ense the illness and death was duo to oating the poisoned bny nnd chnff. It wn<? decided thnt there was present iv the fodder, consequent op the vermin, soluble toxins, which in small quantities wore very deadly to guinea-pigs, and might bo expected to he fatal to horses if any large amount whs taken. This investigation, it is stated, explains losses of stock which at the timo it was feared were due to an outbreak of some unknown contagious disease A committee- of the Ashburton A. and P. Association has leplied to the circular sent out by the Agricultural Department relating to the small bud trouble as fol lows : — The small birds aio inrrevsing rapidly in the Ashburton County, and the native birds, the pukeko, bittprn, and weka\ iiro decreasi'iio;, this being due to oloper settlement. The only harm done by nalive birds as by prirrakects occasionally in gardens. The county is stilted tt, bo spending £1000 a ycir in destroying small birds. It is stated that starlings have proved very userul in checking tho increase of insect' pests, but generally speaking introduced birds have done more harm than good. Tho Committee is not in favour of introducing Engbsh birdsi and states that birds which in England wero insect-eaters havo here become groinenters, and that the seagull and hawk havo been observed to cat wheat. A fow Califorman quail and pheasants aro said to exist in the county,