AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

In London recently Sir Horatio Davies fined an Italian £50 for selling a glass of milk containing four per cent of added water. An experienced farmer says that a crop of clover growing on the land for two years and the crop cut and removed ha? done the land as much good as if fifteen loads of manure had been put on to the acre. Mopt farmers over estimate the real value of large cows and large milkers, and, as a rule, under estimate the value of a small cow giving a light flow of milk rich in butter-fat. Properly fed sb^ep require little water, but it should always be available. It is, perhaps more necessary wrfch ewes than with lambs, as the general character of ewe feeding is of a dry rather than of a soft character. It should bo of the purest kind. The use of artificial fertilisers in Cuba has greatly increased since the Spanish Government gave up the island. Last year about 8000 tons were brought into t-he island from America. At 3, meeting at Blenheim Jately Mr. Wiften, merchant, advised pea-growers xn the district to determinedly resist an alleged attempt on the part of big buyer? in the south to combine, go as to keep down prices. The Hawkes Bay Fruitgrower's Company handled the following output of fruit from 30th December, 1905 to 31st January, 1906:— 9280 cases, 403 crates, 154 carriers. Peaches formed the bulk of the output. A well-known South Canterbury farmer giyes it as his opinion that sheep will fall in price before next season. For pome time past, he said, they have been selling at inflated values, and many small farmers had lost considerably thereby. One-half of the maize that goes into Auskland is grown by the natives living between Cape Runaway and Tauranga. This is the estimate of Mr. A. T. Ngata' M.H.R., who further states that he knows of no more industrious people in the colony than the natives in that maize area. The estimates for the next Australan frozen lamb season vary considerably. Some exporters put it is high as 1,750,000 carcases, others down to 1,200,000. Over a large part of New South Wales there has been little useful rain this year,_ and many stock owners are now shifting their sheep again for grass. A gpod way to dye wool on sheepskin mats is by means of the prepared aniline dyes, which, can be obtained from* any chemist. Prepare the wool by washing the mats in a scouring mixture, composed of 10 gallons of wa|pr, lib of t soft soap, and lib of common soda. Afterwards rinse in clean water and treat according to the instructions which accompany each bottle of dye. Use a shallow vessel when dyeing, to keep the dye off the tanned side of the mat. When, at the end qf their season of work, farm machines are stoWed away until again required for use, their driving belts and bands should be taken off and saturated with castor oil. This will keep the leather soft and pliable and ready for use. The belts and bands should be taken from the machine and stored in a close box, ant} this will preserve them from dust, and ajso mice and rats, that are very destructive to leather, especially if it has been oiled. Factories throughout the colony (says the Dairyman) are now wprking day ou and day off, and the season is rapidly drawing to n clp.se. When the figures are available it is expected that tins year's output will show a satisfactory increase over last year's. Taken all round the season has beep favorable Some set-backs were given by flic weather, but any diminution in .the supply will have been balanced by the very high prices which obtained at the beginning of the season. Weather such as we had in the early part of the month will do much to dry off the cows. The various cool stores throughout the colt ony are reported to hold more than sufficient feutter for Joqal requirements, At a largely attended meeting of frHitgrpwers in Hastings the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association was revived. Resolutions were passed advocating the maintenance of the present duties on fruit; the prohibition of the importation of pear trees or buds from America, till the pear blight is exterminated th,ere; the prohibition of the free carriage of returned cases on the railway, unless such cases bear the registered mark or brand of the -fruitgrower who sent the case out of the district, i The Brittany cow, whose butter is so highly esteemed, is peculiar in that she thrives on sandy waste lands, where other breeds could hardly pick up a living. She is small, witn a beautiful head, fine limbs and feet, an enormous belly in proportion to her size, narrow chest, and light hindquarters. She has the reputation of living on very little food, but, in proportion to her size she eats a great deal, cropping all day the short, nutritious herbage growing between the stems of ferns and rushes. If removed, to rich land she fattens steadily, but the yield of milk never increases ; on the contrary, as she grows fat it dries up. She is oalled ( 'the poor man's cow," as she can be fed on the roadsides. It has been shown by many careful experiments in various countries that an increase in the richness of a cow's feed does not moke the milk richer. If it was possible to change the test of milk by feeding the cows farmers might be > able to make the cows giving thin milk produce cream, or change a Holstein into a Jersey in so far as the richness of the milk is concerned. Increasing the feed of a dairy cow^has a tendency to increase the quantity of milk she will give, but the mijk is of the richness characteristic to that. cow. The natural richness of a cow's milk is inherited, or is an individual peculiarity the same as the colour of her hair, and the feeding does not change it. This, of course, applies to cows under normal conditions of health and reasonable treatment. A fair test of the milk given by a herd of cows may vary from 3.5 to 4.0 per cent fat, This will yary according to the period of lactation of the cows, as the milk of new milch cows- is not usually so rich as that of strippers. It will pay any farmer to feed his cows so that they are in good healthy condition and produce the maximum amount of milk which their natural capacity will permit them, to give. _ A leaflet, embodying some suggestions relative to alfalfa-growing in Ohio, states that the alfalfa area in that state, though not large, is rapidly increasing. Drainage, natural or artificial, is the first essential in its successful culture. While alfalfa will stand tin overflow of several days' duration at certain seasons of the year, it will not thrive where the water-level is close to the surface, or where the water does not drain off readily. Next in importance to drainnge upon other than limestone soils, is lime. At the experiment station afWoplster, on a sapdstone soil, no application of fertilisers or manure, no treatment of the soil as regards inoculating, has given results at all comparable with an application of a ton of lime per acre, though, at a test farm in another section, on a limestone soil, an application of Ume has given no beneficial results. All of which goes to show that alfalfa and alfalfa soil is a subject to bo studied and experimented with by each farmer. It should bo mentioned, however, thnt some soils resting on a limestono rook are badly in noed of lime for alfalfa culture. It does not do to take anything for grunted with alfalfa. It is a peculiar plant, , but an invaluable poo.