AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6535, 6 February 1882, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Intebcoionial. With the exception of heavy north-west gales on Friday and Saturday last the weather has lately been very favourable to harvesting operations. Numerous instances of ripe grain being blown out of the standing crops are reported, and in some the damage is said to have been very serious. Farmers are, however, apt to magnify the evil in this respect, and should the weather be favourable during the next month we expect the general yield will be a fair average in quantity, and of superior quality. Many farmers are now taking advantage of the moonlight nights to work long hours in the harvest field, where the reapers and binders are kept going very often twenty hours per day. Bust in wheat (says an exchange), is reported to be very bad this season in Goat valley, near Wanganui. The same seed which produced fifty bushels an acre last year is not worth cutting this year on the same land. The small-bird nuisance (says the Tuapeha Times) is very troublesome at the present time to the farmers of the Tokomairiro and Taieri Plains. Wherever a field of ripening oorn is noticeable, there the birds are seen in countless numbers. The havoc they are committing is indeed great, and on many farms it is questionable if the oat crop will be worth harvesting on account of the depredations of the sparrows. The crops seem to promise an average yield in New South Wales, but the drought has become a very serious matter with pastoralists. The Sydney Mail says:—The strippers have been very busy along the Southern line from Qoulburn to the Murray, and some first-class crops have been garnered or despatched by rail to Sydney. The averages in all districts arc fully equal to those of last year, and it is probable the gross yield will be about 4,000,000 bushels. But this is not enough for home requirements; and in the face of the low averages obtained in Victoria and South Australia, the question, When will New South Wales grow her own breadstuffs P is seriously asked. The pastoral reports are all in the one key-pastures are drying fast, and water stores showing signs of failure. The vineyards look well and promise heavy crops. Maize is the only farm product which is scarce. Many parts of Victoria need rain. At Shelborne all kinds of live stock have to travel many miles for a drink, and this is a type of affairs in several other localities. Babbits are again becoming a serious nuisance in districts from which they bad been either nearly expelled or in which thay were destroyed almost wholly. Up to the present (says the Queenslander of a recent date) the rainfall of the season has been very scant throughout the greater portion of the Colony, exceptional spots only

enjoying anything like an adequate supply of moisture. As a natural consequence cattle in thickly-populated districts have been reduced to extremities, and being weak have succumbed by bogging in partially dried waterboles. Scattered here and there localities may bo found where the country is as luxuriant and the cattle as thrifty as could be desired, but unfortunately such is not the rale. Not only has grass been in very short supply for want of rain but cultivators have been quite disheartened from partial or total failure of crops. Maize may bo seen straggling at a very great disadvantage against the adverse character of the_ season, in. some instances cobbing fairly, but in many unable to show anything like a fair cob, let alone a fair or profitable crop. Sugarcane in most places south of Mackay is not pushing so vigorously as the advanced stage _of the season would justify, and copious rains are now the “consummation most devoutly to be wished,” Fodder of all kinds is a scarce and dear article; maize also, and cereals generally, are fetching high prices ; but this is no more satisfactory to the producer than to the consumer. Speaking of the forthcoming wheat harvest in Victoria the Leader remark* i—“ We may set down An appropriate yield from the Go ul burn district, say in round figures, 2.724.000 bushels j from the Lotyer Murray district, 859,000 bushels ; from tho Wimmera district, 2 000 000 bushels ; from the Middle district, 1,230,000 bushels ; and from the old districts, 1,850,000, or a total in alt ,*pf 8.654.000 bushels. Takh.;: from this our food and seed requirements for the coming year, which may be estimated at, ee-y 5.925.000 bushels, we find according to our approximate calculation that our production this year is not likely to exceed our home requirements by more than the comparatively narrow surpluu of 2,729,000 bushels.” But the agricultural reporter to the Australasian gives a little more hopeful view of the harvest. He estimates the area of wheat at 929.000 acres, which were estimated to yield 8.280.000 bushels, or an average of 8i bushels. The highest average was in Moira, of 14 bushels, and the lowest Gunbower, with 2 bushels. It is estimated that the increase in these districts amounts to 73,000 bushels. Other districts are expected to yield 2,000,000 bushels, making the total yield of the colony 10,280,000 bushels. Deducting 4.785.000 bushels for home consumption, and 1,600,000 for seed, there is an estimated quantity available for export of 3.995.000 bushels, or about 108,000 tons.

A later number of the Melbourne leader saji; —Ax the harvest proceeds the reports do not favour the taking of a more sanguine view of the probable outcome of the wheat crop than was given by ns last week as the result of our usual annual preliminary inspection of the crons. In no part of the Colony did the wheat look more promising than it did a week or two ago in the.Ballarat district, and now we have reports of blight having set in at Bongaree with such virulence as to necessitate the cutting of the crops for hay. A satisfactory feature of the season is, however, the good quality of the grain.

GIEAIfISGS,

Foot and mouth disease is still increasing in Norfolk.

Rinderpest is committing great havoc in China.

The shorthorn cow, 10th Duchess of Airdrie and her produce in England are estimated to be worth the extraordinary sum of £63,170. The returns of the cattle plague in Lancaster show that the disease was perceptibly •becked.

Scrub sheep are dear even for no price at all. On a good farm they are as bad as rusty nails on a new house.

Crops in fields along the road often appear much better than those in back fields. This is not always due to better cultivation. Limestone dust from roads is a fine fertilizer.

A cable message received during the week says :—Great alarm is felt in N orfolk at the increasing destruction amongst cattle caused by rinderpest. There is a general feeling among farmers that immediate steps should be taken to check the progress of the disease. Any offensive qdour from decaying vegetables will be absorbed by milk. A pair of old shoes or a pair of barnyard overalls in a cellar where there is milk is likely to contaminate it.

It is stated that 160 butter and cheese factories have been built in lowa during 1881, making a total of 450 new in that State. There will probably be a large addition made to this number next spring. An American cheese bore away the prize of a silver medal at the great cattle and dairy show at Birmingham, England. The prize cheese was one of the largest ever made, weighing three fourths of a ton. It came from lowa.

Wo have frequently seen cows bo filthy that a respectable man would dislike to milk them. This is unnecessary and a sure sign of a careless, sloven farmer. By the proper construction of manure gulleys in the stables cows can be kept perfectly clean even in winter. Good butter cannot be made from the milk taken from filthy cows in ill-smelling stables. Farmers who have not a large pasture for their hogs should build a few rods of portable fence and make a small enclosure for them and move it around as circumstances require. It will make pork raising more profitable than to keep hogs confined in pens all the time, and keep hogs mope healthy. The poison of a sting from a bee, wasp, or hornet may be almost instantly neutralised by the application of a little liquid ammonia, and it is said that the poison and sting may be forced out by pressing the barrel of a small key firmly for a minute over the wound. No pain or swelling will result. Milking qualities in swine are as surely transmissible to progeny as in cattle. Urns it is true of swine as of cattle that this trait may be greatly improved by retaining only good milkers for breeders, as well as by feeding them when young with a view to their development as milk-producers, rather than as fat producers. For this reason spring and early summer litieia are usually the best from which to select young brood sows. American cheese is in demand in England this season. An English paper remarks: “ American cheese is coming into the market in very great quantities, from 30,000 to 40,000 cheeses having been landed in Glasgow every week dminer the last two months. Every lot is picked up as soon as it arrives, the quality being considered fine.” A novelty in the way of farmers’ meetings occurred at Windsor, Kan., in form of a chinch-bug convention. The farmers congregated on behalf of the extirpation of the chinch-bug, decided in consequence of any other known preventive of this pest, to exclude wheat from growing crops. A resolution to this effect was unanimously adopted. The length of time in which the growth of wheat is to be abandoned was not decided. The understanding being that it would be resumed as early as practicable.

In. parts of Norway and Sweden, where daring the summer there is almost continuous daylight, crops of barley are grown with only from six to eight weeks intervening from seedtime to harvest. After acclimatisation many garden flowers increase in size and depth of colour, there is a prevailing tinge of red in the plants of the fields, the aroma of fruits is increased and their colour well developed, but they are deficient in sweetness. The development of essential oils in certain plant* is greater than in the same plants grown in other latitudes. It is an established fact that light bears the same relation to aroma as heat does to sweetness.

In the English Agricultural Beturns recently issued, there is a table which gives the number of horses in each county. The four counties of York, Norfolk, Lincoln, and Devon, head the list, as possessing over 60,000 each, while eleven counties possess over 26,000. In the latter group, we find the counties of Suffolk (which is famous for its draught-horses), Lancashire and Cambridge, where there are several studs of thoroughbreds as well as Shire horses. Strange to say, the famous hunting-shires, such as Leicester, Cheshire, Warwick, Derby, and Berks, are grouped in the twenty-two counties which only possess over 10,000. Possibly quality, and not quantity, is the motto in these districts. Still, we anticipated a larger return. The three counties of Middlesex, Butland, and Westmoreland have m.der 10,000 in their stables.