AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11224, 23 March 1897, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

[“ Canterbury Times.”]

Nothing has been heard for some time of the proposal to establish a colonial agricultural museum, though when mooted the idea met with general approval. New Zealand farmers are at a great disadvantage compared with those of many other countries in having little or no experimental work done for their benefit, and in the results of any experiments that may bo carried out being very difficult of access, if not altogether inaccessible. The New South Wales Government is setting an example in the dual work of (first) experimenting (second), making the result as widely known as possible. The chief object of that colony’s experiments is to ascertain the kind of produce that can be most profitably grown in the different districts under varying climatic influences. Grain, fodder plants, fruits, timber trees and plants for industrial purposes, are tested at the various stations, and the results are not only published, but samples are shown at the Technological Museum in Sydney,where an Agricultural and Forestry Museum has been established. A difficulty in New Zealand is that such an exhibition, to be of any considerable advantage to those engaged in the work of production, must be movable. A collection permanently retained in Wellington might as well never be made, and a museum for each province is out of_ the question at present, though by -the _ aid of the Agricultural and Pastoral Associations such may be possible in the not very distant future. A movable display, which could be exhibited at the winter shows, would be of great utility in the meantime. The experiments themselves are, however, the first difficulty to be overcome. There is not at 'the present time in New Zealand what can be called a State experiment farm or station. The Momahaki Farm and Naseby Nursery should be able to furnish some information of value to settlers and others who are working towards tho development of the country. The Canterbury Agricultural College carries out each year as many experiments as its limited opportunities and resources permit; and it might well he a matter for the consideration of the Government whether it would not he well to take advantage of the organisation which this institution possesses, and subsidise it to make approved experiments in the culture of new plants or varieties, as well as methods of cultivation, tho results to be published as widely and expeditiously as possible. The difficulties

in the way of obtaining a site for a State experimental farm appear to be extremely great. In order that the fruit industry may benefit. Central Otago bas been fixed upon as the location of the first farm, and nearly two years have passed without the necessary land being obtainable. The whole of that district is so appropriated to mining that only by a costly purchase of “ rights ” of land and water can a suitable site bo procured. (By the way, why should public money bo spent upon that district, either in railway construction or in instruction in farming and fruit-growing, when progress is so effectually barred?) It is to be hoped that some visible action will be taken without much longer delay. The difficulty might be overcome by the acquisition of a desirable property under the Land for Settlement Act, and devoting a portion thereof to an experimental farm. Such, we trust, will be done in Canterbury on an easily accessible part of the Glcnmark Estate, should the negotiations for its purchase he successful; there could scarcely be a more suitable location for a station giving instruction and conducting experiments in all branches of farming. It is not to the advantage of the country that its resources should bo wasted for want of the knowledge on the part of the,settlers, small,, how to develop them. O

While every effort should be made to develop our natural product. New Zealand flax, fibre plants which might he acclimatised and prove valuable articles of cultivation and manufacture should not he neglected. Eecent discoveries of economical methods of preparation for manufacture have caused considerable attention to he given to the rhea plant, from which one of the most valuable of fibres is obtained. In a recent lecture on “ Commercial Fibres,” Dr Morris, of New, referring to the suggested cultivation of the plant in England, said that remunerative crops could only be grown in well-drained soils of exceptional quality and fertility. It was thought by some that in the warmer parts of England it would pay to grow. Although the frost often cuts the plant down in spring, its growth is not much interfered with, for it comes up again as strong as ever. Under favourable conditions, it had been shown that two or three crops of stems, weighing iin the aggregate 15 to 20 tons per acre, could he yielded in one year, and as the plants were perennial, successive crops could be produced from ratoons. From the quantity of green stems ahovementioned there would, at least, he yielded ribbons, or raw fibre, of the value (at present prices) of =£B, and filasse (the finished product) worth about .£l4. Returns from reliable sources show that the cost of cultivation in favourable localities, on au average of years, to be at the rate of £4 per acre. The margin of profit here shown —and Dr Morris cannot he termed au enthusiast—should bo sufficient to cause experiments to be made in the cultivation of rhea in suitable parts of New Zealand, The plant has already been proved to do. well in the temperate parts of Australia. The questions o? meat-marking and meat inspection may be said to go hand in hand, and it is evident that if our freezing companies and their customers do not voluntarily adopt some efficient system of both marking and inspecting the meat they exIport, the matter will be forced upon them by the purchasers of their goods. France • is looked to as a probable purchaser of a j large quantity of frozen meat, and the Govj eminent of that country is taking steps to secure its people against fraud, its existing f laws (which we have already mentioned) being sufficient to guard against disease. The President has recently introduced into the Chambsr of Deputies a measure of which the following are the main provisions :—(1) No refrigerated meat shall he sold otherwise than under that. name. (2) No meat preserved by freezing, whatever its origin, shall he exposed for sale or delivered to the public without indicating its nature. For this purpose no piece of meat having been subjected to freezing shall he exposed for sale in the retail butcher shops without being labelled “Refrigerated Meat.” (3) Any infractions of the present law are punished with a fine of 500 to 1000 francs, and an imprisonment of six days to two months. (4) In case of a second offence within a year the penalty may be increased to double the maximum fixed in the preceding article. (5) Article 463 of the Penal | Code is applicable in all the cases foreseen 1 and punished by the present law. Nevertheless, in the event of a second offence the posting of the sentence is always ordained. In the statement of the object of the Bill the framer says it is evident that deception is practised by dealers buying the frozen meat at; low prices and retailing it at enormous profits, under the style of fresh killed. Whether this be so or not it is clear that frozen moat need not be 'sent to France, even with a veterinary certificate, unless it is clearly marked. Our freezing companies should lose no time in conforming with the requirement.