AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6849, 2 March 1929, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

A London message states that an Italian firm has evolved a method of making textile materials from aluminium. The metal is rolled to tho required thinness and then stripped or shredded for the production of yarn. The latter can be woven into a silkhke material suitable for evening wear, or for gossamer underclothing. It is also said that a cloth resembling cheviot. or serge is being made for men’s •wear, at a cost ranging from Is to 3s a yard.

Investigations carried out by members of the U.S.A. Biological Survey and other interested organisations show that even a wide distribution of baits poisoned with strychnine, for the destruction of animal pests, is not likely to injure an important class of bird life. It has been definitely proved that gallinaceous birds as a group possesses a large degree of immunity from strychnine poison. The group includes grouse, quail, partridges,. pheasants, wild turkeys, and domestic poultry.

Commenting on a grass known os Sporobolus indicus (Parramatta grass, tussock gras3, or rat’s tail grass), Mr W. J. SpafEord (Deputy Director of Agriculture) states that is it plentiful in parts of New South Wales, where, in places, it grows up to 2i feet in height, but is not looked upon with favour. Although it is eaten readily by livestock, when only young grass is present, it soon becomes tough and hard and is then neither palatable nor nutritious. It is so tough when matured that it is noted for loosening the teeth of grazing animals, because of the difficulty they experience in tearing off the growth. In locations which suit this grass it tends to crowd out better herbage, but it is now found that topdressing tends to encourage more useful plants, and the Parramatta grass is kept in check.

Just recently I have been painfully reminded of' a theory which I have long held theoretically but sometimes lack tho courage to put into practice. This theory is that it pays, every time, to kill or cull any cattle that fail to reach a reasonable standard of merit. The cattle that should come under this category are any cows which have a tendency to tubecular trouble, old cows, irregular breeders, kickers, tough milkers, and poor producers, comments a writer in the Farmer and Stockbreeder. lam convinced that we are all prone, to hang on. to such animals too long when we cannot get what we think they, ought to be worth, whereas it would always pay to cut any loss and scrap the scrubs. We could often get rid of two second-rate animals and replace' them with one good one to considerable advantage, and I mean in future to practise what I am preaching more closely than I have done in the past.

Entries in tie wheat section at the forthcoming Royal Show, at Sydney, total 235, as against 199 last year. Last year’s figures in this section were the largest ever received, and a pleasing feature of the increase in entries in these classes is that the whole of the competitors, who como from every State of the Commonwealth, except Tasmania and South Australia, are growing wheat on a large scale and the wheat exhibits which are submitted for judging, are truly representative of Australian wheat, and are not especially grown for show purposes. The introduction of the Commonwealth championship wheat classes last year was a great success ,and the two prize winners in the medium strong and strong wheat classes assented to the society sending their samples of wheat to the International Grain Show in Chicago, and they were successful in obtaining 6th. and 9th. prizes in their respective classes. It is hoped this year to arrange for the exhibition of further prize-winning wheats in America.