AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6887, 17 April 1929, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Canada's wheat yield in 1928, according to the Bureau of Statistics, passed the 500,000,000 bushel mark for the first time, the total being 533,571,000. Final figures relative (o the South African 1927-28 maize crop have recently been published, and show a. total production of 19,16P,G13 bags. The yield in 1926-27 was 18,256,89 S bags. India is importing wheat from Canada as well as Australia at the present time. An advice from the Dominion states that two shipments, totalling 520,725 bushels, were made from Vancouver to Calcutta in December. A registered Southdown lamb, the grand champion at the 192 S Los Angeles Christmas Fat Stock Show, U.S.A., was sold by auction to a Salt Lake City hotel for the record price of 11 d015.(455. lOd.) per lb. live weight. As the lamb weighed 1101 b. the total realisation was £252 Is. Sd. According to data collected by the Government Statist, the average quantity o seed per acre sown in South Australia last, year was as follows.— Wheat, 0-1 lb.; barley, 621 b.; oats, 501 b. Fertilisers were utilised at the rate of S2lb. per acre for wheat, 961 b. for barley, and 801 b. for oats. The South African Government has agreed to the Veterinary Research ■Ration at Ouderstepoort, Transvaal, constituting a link in the proposed chain oi Imperial research stations. I’hc Empire Marketing Board has promised a substantial grant to approved stations in connection with the scheme. Dr. Friedrich Bergius, a German scientist, claims to have evolved a hemica! process whereby wood pulp is sonverted into a valuable stock food, t; is stated that the carbohydrates outained in wood can be dissolved and on verted into glucose by a treatment iitli hydrochloric acid, thereby renderng the material lit for stock.

lii Lothian, Scotland, tho results from some recent grass manuring experiments show that tho application of basic slag acts more readily and gives better results than ground mineral phosphate. The best dressing for pasture lands was found to be lOcwt. of 2S per cont. grade basic slag and 6cwt. of 56 per cent, mineral phosphate per acre. The total number of European-owned cattle in southern Rhodesia at tho end of 1927 is stated to have been 95-1.835 repicsenting « decrease of 56,38.1. compared with the previous year's figures. Native owned cattle numbered 1,370,567 in 1927. The total of sheep in the colony was 351,674, as against 331,649 in 1926, of which Merinos, Europeanowned, comprised 10,625 in 1927, and 7597 in 1926. The recently published South African Agricultural Statistics for tho year ended August 31, 1927, discloses a rather wide divergence I between the average wool yields per sheep nr the different States of tho Union. The general average of the 24,045,433 adult sheep shorn was 6.91 b., that of tho Orange Free State 7.21 b., tlic Cape Province 6.9!b., Transvaal 6.31 b.. and Natal onlv s.Sib. The general average weight per” Recce of the 3,627,265 lambs shorn in the Union was 3.01 b.