AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXX, Issue 8577, 3 September 1888, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

A farmer always wants the earth. Without it he can do nothing. The shearing difficulty at Brookong Station, N.S.W., has come to an end, the Shearers’ Union having given way. When a new-comer into a neighborhood persistently finds fault with the customs of society, he is shutting the door of future usefulness and friendship. Serious grass fires have occurred in the Macquarrie Plains district, N.S.W, Over 100,000 acres of grass have been burned, and a large number of sheep have been destroyed. The drought is causing sad havoc in the Western Districts of N.S.W. The season is the worst known for many years, and the outlook is very gloomy. Sheep are dying in hundreds. Special prayers for rain were offered up throughout the Colony on August 31. The Dakota Agricultural College has a farm of 400 acres, a chemical laboratory with necessary equipments of farming utensils, and of shops for wood and metal work. They have purchased fine specimens of the leading breeds of animals, and are experimenting with grains, grasses, fruits, &c. The college is attended by both young men and young women, and to the latter is given instruction in household duties. The young men are enabled to partially pay their expenses by working on the farm. The college has an investment of about 100,000dola. It will be interesting to growers cf currant trees to know that those planted many years ago in Pry’s Hotel garden, not far from the Hot Springs, Hanmer Plains, have withstood the pest that so seriously affects the trees in this neighbourhood. The presumption is that the sulphurous fumes from the baths, which in certain winds pass directly over the garden, keep them healthy and free from blight. It may be inferred from this that a liberal use of sulphur to these trees would have the effect of destroying the insect that is supposed to enter the branches at their tips and work its way throught the pith, thus removing the sap of the tree and rendering it useless for fruit-hearing.