AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

WASTE LAND UNDER CROPS. The efforts of the London Vacant Land Cultivation Society, which since its establishment last year has had extraordinary success in turning both waste land and labour to account, is claimed to have materially reduced the number of unemployed men and women. It is said, further, that the society could find profitable work for 250 more people if another thirty acres of waste land could be procured. At present 2400 persons of the casual labourer type are deriving benefit from sixty acres under cultivation, and the annual value of the produce is £5000. The society reckons that for every £1 it has spent the plotholders have had £5 worth of vegetables — vegetables, too, which compared favourably with the best produce of Lin- j colnshire. The secretary of the society stated that there must be 10,000 acres of waste land in London — land from which even a man of the street-corner loafer type had been known to extract £80 an acre. Mr. Alexander Peacock, a millionaire, who is devoted to the raising of choice* cows and poultry, has completed plans for a model dairy farm to cost £10,000. Nothing but the best blood stock will be bought, and no equipment endorsed by the latest scientific methods which money can buy will be missing. This model farm of 155 acres, with ISO pedigree stock imported from Canada, will be situated at Plum, a township near Pittsburg. The barn — one might almost say, without desecration, the cows' boar.dinghouse— will be as fine as many a country dwelling, and will be equipped with* every modern convenience. A room with a bath for a cow sounds preposterous; but this will be literally true of the Peacock dairy. The bathrooms will enable the cows to bathe winter and summer, and, in addition, the teeth of the cows will be scrubbed daily. But this precaution is no novelty in some parts of the States. Motor-cars with the latest refrigerating appliances will distribute the milk in Pittsburg, and, as Mr. Peacock does not wish to pose as a philanthropist, he will charge 7^d a quart, a sum which is- estimated to be sufficient to pay expenses. The Eltham branch of the Farmers' Union has decided to inaugurate experiments in swede-growing. The growing of the swedes -will be tested both on the ridge and on the flat. At a recent conference of dairymen, dairy factory directors, and managers, held at Burilie, Tasmania, a resolution was passed "That all butter be graded with brands cloaked or concealed." This resolution was submitted by the Director of Agriculture to the Minister for transmission to the Minister for Agriculture for Victoria, as all exported Tasmauian butter is graded in Melbourne. A reply has been received from the Minister for Agriculture in Victoria, in which he states that he is thoroughly •n accord with the resolution that all bvtter should be graded with brands cloaked or concealed. He intended to insist upon that being done at their cool stores, as he was of opinion that it was the right thing to do. The owners of horses seem to be taking very kindly to the certification of stallions in Queensland. The system so far is purely voluntary, and already about 400 horses have been submitted for examination, of which about 25 per cent, were rejected. O wnei ' s are getting rid of these, ' but it is not quite plain ; 7here they are going. The main thing is that men who give attention to breeding find that it is impossible to keep animals which will not pass the test. It has been predicted that in a few years it will be impossible to find an uncertificated animal in service in Queensland. Draught mares continue to be very valuable property in Australia. At the Warracfinabeal parade sales one fetched £112, and at Jeparit a New Zealand-bred mare changed hands at £145. The Waitara correspondent of a Taranakj paper says : — "A study of ShawSaviii's summary of meat exported from New Zealand shows that the Waitara works are an easy first in beef output. Wellington shipments top the list with 10,517,8881b, but this is the product of threo works, whilst the amount sent away from Waitara was 8,437,0041b. These amounts represent only six months' shipments. In 1882 the whole export of meat from the Dominion was 1,707,3281b, ,while for the six months ended 30th June of this year no less than 213,701,0681b left the Dominion for Home. Last year's shipments were the heaviest on record, being 269,773,6981b, but with another six months to go no doubt the 1910 season will prove a record one. "It almost borders on the marvellous where so much stock comes from." One of the districts being opened up by a new railway in Queensland appears to be well suited to maize-grow-ing. According to the Sydney Mail, a farmer with scrub land cleared it and burnt off, arid following the usual practice in Queensland ha planted maize in the ashes. He netted £1359 from 110 acres. It is claimed that some of the areas have given 144 bushels per acre. A writer in the Kawhia Settler gives valuable information as to the treatment of fern land. He says : — "Here we have found that the fern can be dealt with by being crushed by stock. Manuka cannot thus be destroyed, consequently it grows heavier and stronger as the fern is killed. If nlanuka and fern lands are burned together as they stand, we get a thick crop of small manuka, and although at first the grass comes away well, eventually the manuka takefe possession. To obviate this difficulty, and effectually eradicate the manuka, and get the benefit of the whole of the potash in tho manuka, it should be cut and dried for a year, and when the seeds have all grown and the plants are showing, burn it off. You thus manure with potasn and kill out all manuka growth. Then sow with danthonia semianularis, cocksfoot, and clovers; or, if the land is ploughable, plough, and allow to fallow for one year ; plough again, sow with turnips, manuring with lewt superphospnate of lime and 2cwt fine bone-meal. When next ploughing, sow with grass and turnips (Boz turnips per acre), manuring again witn 2cwt basic slag, luwt sulphate of potash, when a good pasture will be formed. Eat off the turnip crop, feeding with sheep, and übo the same stocK for giass and turnip crop.

A Roman journal, the ' Messaggero, raises an alarm with regard to the famous leaning Tower of Pisa. The tower was built in the latter hall of the 12th century. Published figures give tha tower as 177 feet in height, and it inclines at an angle 15ft llin out of the perpendicular, to this must be added the projection of the oornice (2£ft). It is computed that the tower has moved 10£ ft during the last 80 years, and is rapidly approaching the limit of safety. "Felo-de-se," which, we've been told, Is meant for suicide, Applies to Joneß, who caught a cold, Neglected it and died. Carelessness won't make old bones, Nor health to Us secure, When you've & cold, don't follow Jones — Take Woodi' Great Peppermint Cure.