AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 142, 16 June 1906, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

At the recent monthly meeting of the Auckland Agricultural Association, it was decided to vote £20 to supplement the £82 raised by the Creamery Managers and Export Association to encourage the butter industry by arranging prizes for exhibits at agricultural shows. Residents of Kaikoura can enjoy new potatoes at almost any time of the year, such is the warmth and growing quality of their soil. The local Star mentions that some fine potatoes have been grown there from seed planted in February. Leguminous crops will no doubt assist in supplying the soil with nitrogen, but it is necessary to have the soil in condition to grow leguminous crops. Fer--tilisers must be employed to succeed with any system of restoring the soil. A low temperature will give a thicker cream than a higher one, all other conditions being the same. Orange-growers in the Salisbury district, South Australia, are anxiously concerned about a mysterious disease, apparently fungoid, first noted two years ago, which attacks the trees about this season. A tree apparently healthy, in twenty-four hours is "burnt" or blasted in irregular patches, leaves and fruit dropping off. Aspidistras, palms, and plants of a like nature should be very gently sponged before the leaves are watered. Use equal parts of milk and lukewarm water for the purpose, and support each leaf very carefully with the hand, so that it may not get bruised. The following shows the increase on the valuations of farm land hi the district around Blenheim : —Spring Creek district, total of new valuation on unimproved land, £241,005, an increase of £81,600 on the last valuation three years ago ; Omaha district, new valuation on unimproved land, £417,954, an increase of £153,809 in three years. During the recent spell of fair weather at Lawrence, Otago, the farmers took full advantage of every hour (Sunday included), and got the bulk of their crop in. Considering the season, the grain is reported to be threshing fairly well, and is of good quality. Speaking at Amberley, Canterbury, Mr. A. W. Rutherford said that the producer in his relation to taxation was very much in the position of the giant tree to which the rata- had attached itself. The giant ultimately died. The producer could stand a certain amount of taxation, but he doubted whether the land could bear the whole burden. A correspondent of the Scottish Fanner suggests a simple means of ridding pastures of the obnoxious buttercup. He states that the owner of a field which was literally smothered with this weed completely destroyed it by turning a large number of turkeys into- it. His explanation is that the turkeys are partial to the seed, and, having devoured it as fast as it formed, the plant was prevented from reseeding, with the result that scarcely a. buttercup wns to be seen the following season. Now that the settlers have practically threshed out on Waikakahi, it has been found (says the Oamaru Mail) that the returns are by no means up to expectations. The average yield on the settlement, about 30 bushels (wheat) to the acre, compares most unfavourably with that of last year, being almost 20 bushels to the acre less. There have, however, been a few satisfactory returns, the homestead block yielding in one paddock 60 bushels, and in the other 48 bushels. It has been proved by Mr. A. Gaden, of Mount Gambier, Victoria, who carried out experiments during the 'past- dry season, that with similar land and seed; potatoes that are planted east and west in rows give a much better yield than those planted north and south. His theory is that the sun about midway in a dry season strikes between the rows running north and south, and takes more moisture from the* soil than between the east and west rows, as the latter portion of the field is protected by the shade of the stalko. At Newcastle-on-Tyne, on 10th April, Alexander Lowe, a grocer, was charged with selling margarine as butter, and with selling margarine in a wrapper not marked as the Act required. In the evidence ib was stated that the margarine was taken from a slab marked "pure butter." Defendant alleged that the margarine sold was from «the cask of butter supplied by Messrs. Maling, but the representative of that firm said that was impossible. The Bench found the case proved, and it was then stated Ohat i defendant had eight previous convictions against him. A fine of £50 was imposed on each charge, £100 and costs in all. The rainfall which occurred during the month of April (says the Southland correspondent of the Otago Witness) was probably heavier than any previously experienced here in one month. It totalled at lny residence 5.57 in. and at Invercargill V.39in. The past.month woe, fortunately, not nearly so wet, but the rainfall was more than a moderate one, being 3.16 in. The excessive rainfall in April made farmers almost despair of getting their crops stacked, and it wad only by taking advantage of every hour during that month and the following that the work was accomplished. A lot was not in the best order when stacked, and there is a good deal of discoloured oats. But on the whole the 1 quality is much better than one would expect to find in Buch a season. The first factor (writes Professor Dean, of the Guelph Agricultural College, Canada) which to a large extent determines economy of milk production is the man handling the cow. " There are eomo men who hate cows so, that no matter what kind of a cow you give them, they would not be able to produce milk economically. A man must have a real love for his cows — he must be able to coax the milk out of them. I never saw a better illustration of 'that than in our own dairy at the present time, where we have a man who can literally coax the milk out of the cows. They are giving more milk than they ever did under any other man that I ever hid ; tho cows milk better than they have done for years, and I will tell you how he does it. He goes among. the cows and talks to them just as he would to a human being. He is a man who really loves cows. The New Zealand "walking-stick" is a curious insect quite familiar to bush settlers, but, like the native locust (the true locust — not the common cicada, often miscalled "locust"), has never proved itself a pest. It is 'far otherwise, however, in Australia. The Sydney Daily Telegraph writes :— There is a group of peculiar insects which have the body, legs, and wings •so like the twigs and leaves of trees that when at rest they can with difficulty be distinguished from the twigs to which they are attached. These are tho phnsmids, or "stick and leaf" insects. Mr. Froggatt, at the last meeting of the Linnean Society, exhibited specimens of these curious insecte, which were furthermore peculiar in being gorgeously coloured in all shades, ranging from brilliant yellow [ and green to bright red ( the blendings being made in every possible way. There were millions upon millions of theso stick insects crawling over the scrub | about 20 miles east of Glen Innes, in I the middle of March. Like certain kinds of locusts, these particular insects are gregarious, keeping together, and moving forward in nordes, leaving bohind them not a scrap of green vogctation. In the bush where they wero found not a particle of greed could bo , loen for tix mils» t