AGRICULTURAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5497, 30 June 1879, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL GOSSIP.

Frobi agricultural patera received by last mail, I extract the various items of interest given below:— ■■•■:: ■■■ WEATHER. Towards the end of March the weather in England seems to have Been very severe. A correspondent of the Agricultural Qazetie, writes" as follows from Yorkshire: —We are now near the end of March, which came in "like alion," and, would that'the old sawheld good, and that it.went oat "like a> lamb." It is more, however, likely to go as a polar bear, if severe frosts and Btorms of snow may be assumed as a personification, during the week we have had as much as 9 degrees of frost, accompanied with an east wind and huavy fulls of snow. We are now in the midst of lambing, and a perilous business in such weather it is proiring. In spite of shelter and the utmost caro, far above the average fatality in likely to obtain. The crop of lambs is good, but in the case of gimmers, whose produce, as a rule, is not so strong as older sheep, much bereavement is resulting. We are using the carbolic mixture with much benefit. Have had two deaths from Mortification, in both instances too far advanced before any* thing wrong was discovered, no difficulty occurring in labour. In other cases, where straining was apparent, it was used successfully. The bulk of the spring corn is yet to sow. A few fields of beans and oats were sown about the middle of the month, but the greater proportion is yet in the sack. Much land is yet to plough for spring corn, and with work in arrear, a late seed-time with, on tho strong lands at least, a bad seed-bed, and low prices of all descriptions of farm produce, the agricultural lookout at the present moment is certainly not a pleasant one. Labourers' wages are likely to go down from 2s to 3s per week a? compared with last year FARM WAGES. The wages paid to agricultural labourers in this country will compare favourably with those of any country in the world. On this subject a late number of the Scientific American has the following :—lt is well occasionally to compare ourselves with others, in order that we may realise that even if we are not the best-off people in the world, at the worst there are many people—yea, whole classes —whose normal comfort, would be to us misery. In 1875 the Massachusetts Labour Bureau carefully investigated tho wage question ; and iu their table of results we find that, while the average agricultural labourer in Massachusetts was receiving weekly 5 dollars 33 cents in gold, and board, in England they wero receiving from 1 dol. 93c. (or 7s 6d) for the lowest in some counties, to 8 dob. 17c. (or 325), the high, est in some counties, without board. The further results we present in tabular form:— Weekly wages. "With board. Without board, dollars. dollars. Ireland ... 2.49 Scotland ... 4.49 France ... 1.69 Prussia ... 2.85 Denmark ... 1.03 to 1.43 Switzerland... 2.G0t03.47 Italy ... 2.34 to 3.80 In Moravia, close to the Hungarian frontier, labourers are paid both in money and kind. A man in summer earns about 40 cents, a-day. The labourers generally live in the staV>les, and we illustrate a labourer's bed and straw pillow in an Austrian cow-house, the drawing being made of one upon the Imperial estate of Goding. In 1869, while in Scotland, wo visited the farm of Mr. Laurence Drew, Merryton ; and after being shewn around the fine fields and superb buildings, we inquired as to the number of labourers employed, and on receiving the reply, being surprised at not seeing any accommodation for such a number, we further asked where they slept. "Oh ! anywhere." " Well, where ?" "In the straw," was tho reply. "What straw? Are they content with micb accommodation V "Why shouldn't the*;' be ?'* And the foreman, with whom we were talking, with this remark, had said all he thought necessary to be said. A sad picture of the condition of* a large class. WILLOW CDLTUKE. A paragraph in a late report of the Highland Agricultural Society deserves notice as a piece of interesting narrative. The secretary, speaking of a report on the *' Cnl. tivation of Willows," for which a gold medal had been awarded last January, said that the author, when a young man, had opened a shop in George-street, Edinburgh, as a working basketmaker, and whilst there the excellent taste of the Edinburgh ladiae urged him to attempt a more artistic style of manufacture, for which he had so much difficulty in procuring suitable willows that he decided upon trying to grow them ; but, not being able to get (and near Edinburgh, he .took a piece of ground iu the county of Nottingham. By careful selection of cuttings at starting, and attention to other details, his willow grounds speedily became the model willow farm in England. Taking more land he removed from Edinburgh to Basford, Notts, in 1852, and has since chiefly devoted himself to willow cultivation as a speciality, and thus to the taste of the ladies of Edinburgh is due the merit of the medal now awarded. Agricola.