AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

The Victorian Government proposes to reduce the size of tho standard wheat bag from 2601b to 2001b. In almost every instance (writes a contemporaiy) -the so-called "clover-sick" soils are acid, and lime corrects that feature. Mr. Wing says that at the Ohio Experimental Station Bix tons of alfalfa per acre was grown on land after liming, where before it was a failure. Eight ewes, breed not stated, are reported to have dropped twenty-five lambs recently at a farm in Cornwall, England. The use of sulphate of iron (green vitrol) is spoken of very highly by M. 11. Dv Buysson, in the Moniteur dv Jardinier. as a cure for the slug nuisance. The crystals are scattered freely on tho soil. The result i^ that the slugs aro killed end the plants uninjured. Runholders in the Mackenzie Country (says the Timaru Herald) report that si) far they have enjoytd an exceptionally fine winter. "Not enough snow on the ranges for boundary keeping." Mr. 11. J. Richards informed the Manawatu Farmer lately that he jacked 6001b of Stunner ■pinpins from a tree at To Horo two year 3 ago. The apples were cold at 2d per lb, which .represents £5 as being the value of the fruit from a single trefe. The Pomahaka correspondent of s> contemporary referring tt> tho recent boom in that settlement whereby all the sections have been taken, up, says the scene is now changed ''from a dark valetudinarian in appearance > to , a land flowing with milk and lioueyi" A remarkable change, truly, remark* the Mataura Ensign. Some skins stretched on a barn at Redcliff, near Timaru, with long tails — "too small for sheep and too largo for hares" — reminds the Herald that the wallaby has become acclimatised among tho neighbouring hills. Settlers in the Ohura, district complain of the depredations of > the Maori dogs that have run wild. Ono ketxler, HYing near the Aukopas landing on the Wanganui river, wrote to the Land Board stating that he had shot over a dozen of these dogs during the eight months he has been settled on l:is section.

In a single week the Lagmohr Estate put through the Islington Freezing Works for shipment 3085 ewes, averaging 701b freezing weights. This, says the Islington manager," is a record draft for Isew Zealand. The eyes (reports tho Ashburton Guardian) were between eight and nine weeks on kale before being sent to the works.

Oats are oats this year (observes the Gore Standard), and merchants have considerable difficulty in filling orders. As much as 3s a bushel is being refused for s^ed lines of moderate quality, pnd sales of fcmall quantities of dressed seed have taken place at 3s 3d. With seed oats at 3s 3d and chaff at £5 a ton it is not a very suitable year for these who are starting farming.

Another announcement is made of a rapid and inexpensive method of separating the gum and colouring matter from the native phormium fibre. Tha discovery, which has been patented, was mado "after years of futile experiment," is described as mechanical without the aid of chemicals. Enquiries at the Taiori and Peuinsula Dairy Factory give an idea of {he man- • ncr in which the dairy farmers is suffering from the present dry season. For tLo month of May, 1906, the company i*ceived 518,13 ii gallons of milk from its 1 suppliers, and for the same month of this year only 363,480 gallons were received ; showing tho heavy shortage of 194,652 gallons for one month. Tbis practically paralyses the company's export trade, the whole of its butput*being required for tho local market. In the course of some observations on a mysterious epidemic among bees in tho Isle of Wight, which recently formed tho subject of investigation, the Board of Agriculture states that the disease seems to have first broken out in the summer of 1904, to spread" very rapidly in 1906, and at tho present time to be prevalent over almost the whole island. The death of the bees seems to be brought about finally by blood poisoiK ing. The demand for nitrogenous food seems to be one of the most marked characteristics of the disease, but why the demand should arise is a question which it is not at present possible to answer. A contributor to the Pacific Homestead says :—: — As I have had three years' experience in the growing of kale for cows, 1 can safely say that it beats anything for green feed that I have ever tried. I can grow more of it to {he acre than anything that I ever got hold of, and everything on the farm likes' to eat it. As I saw a short time ago one of our Homestead readers wanting to know all about kale, I will say this much about it : I do not think any one can say too much for the kale as a. cow food. Mr. Charles Whitehead, a few years ago called attention to the peculiar habit of the Kent or Romney Marsh sheep, which seeniß to nt them in a special degree for grazing marshes : — "Kent sheep always feed singly. On being put into a pasture, they immediately disperse all over it, and feed it down evenly and thorouglily, whereas Downs and sheep of other breeds feed' in groups, and make bare paths in all directions by their 'follow-the-leader v habits." This habit may be an outcome of the conditions of life. Sheep which pick Up a living on comparatively poor pasturage acquire the habit of scattering in search of food. Sheep reared on rich pasture are under no such necessity. The rise in the price of wheat ■ has increased the desire on the part of farmers to get their land in order for next season's crop (says the North Otago Times), but the abnormal dryness makes it almost impossible to plough lea land, and from those in ,this unfortunate position there is a wish for rain. Those, however, who are holding on to stock desiro nothing better than the present summer-liko weather, the continuation of which is helping tho stock to pull through a season of soarcity of feed. Stock are doing well, far better, indeed/ than was expected, and rain, unless followed by warm weather, would have a disastrous effect on stock, which have yte two of the worst months of the year before them. The farmers around Okaiawa Kapuni, Kaponga, and Kaupokonui (says the Opunako Times) are going in for cheese — and nothing but cheese. It is asserted that at Kaponga the farmers are about to erect the largest cheese plant in v tho colony, bhe building alone costing some two and a half thousand pounds and involving the employment of twenty-two hands. Mr. Joll iB erecting a c'hooso factory at every one of his creameries, and the Kupuni factory will need fourteen hands. At Hawera cheese will bo -made, and on the other side, at Manuttvhi, a builder has made an offer to tho settlers to orect a cheese factory, convertible within twonty-four hours into a butler factory, at A cost of £1000. The effect of cheesomaking in Taranaki this season will create a very great activity mi the labour market.