AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9539, 4 December 1889, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

TIPTREE HALL. Txi'tree Hall and the late Alderman Mechi are associated. It was on this estate where u model and pleasure facia was established, and where for many years important experiments of various kinds were tried. As far back as IS4I, the hall and outbuildings were put up, and until his death, now some years since, Mechi was the leading genius in farm operations, raising crops, spending money, and writing books. He spared no expense in bringing the land into high cultivation, the whole concern, including purchose of land, erection of buildings, &c., costing something like £20,000. Tiptree Hull is in Essex, a short distance from Colchester, and comprises a residence, pleasure grounds, compact range, model farm homesteads and buildings, model cottages, and about 252 acres of highly-productive land. This valuable property was recently pub up to auction, and, as showing how farm property has depreciated in value, the highest bid was under £5000, which, the auctioneer remarked, was only a little more than the sum paid by the alderman for half the number of acres of which Tiptree Hall now consists. The property would not, therefore, be sold at such a ruinous]} , low figure. In the interest of the vendors it was withdrawn.

BOUNDLESS AREA OF WHEAT LANDS. So far from the area of land that will produce wheat petting short, the probability is that of this cereal there might bo produced sufficient for ten timc3 the present population of the world. Going into particulars about the wheat-growing area, the Cincinnati Price Current quotes the stateniont of the United States Consul-General at St. Petersburg, to'the effect that the grain-producing lande of Russia cover pome 450,000 square miles of area—about 300,000,000 acres. This is represented in divisions of about 260,000 square miles of the arable steppes and 190,000 of the black lands. The area under wheat culture in Russia, it is added, is about 30,000,000 acres. Including rye and other cereals, the total area probably is close to 100,000,000 acres, or approximately one-third of the grain-producing territory. Then, it is said that the largest part of the wheat belt of the American continent lies north of the boundary line of the United States, in the Canadian North-west, where it is estimated that an area equivalent to 500,000,000 acres or more is suitable to wheat production, and the soil especially rich ; also that tliese figures suggest the possibility of extension of wheat culture in Russia and America, the latter being exclusive of the margin for extension within the limits of the United States. In the latter country grain culture now covers about 150,000,000 acres, of which about 51 per cent, is in maize, 20 per cent, wheat, IS per cent, oats, 5 per cent, barley, rye, &c. The writer might have referred to Africa, where there are vast tracts of fertile land at present unused. All this goes to prove that, so far as land is con-cerned,-tliere is no occasion for any of the present population to starve.

PRUSSIAN STUDS. In ]888-89 there were in the royal Prussian studs 2294 stallions.■ Of these JG9S had been bought from private studs, the remainder having been bred in the royal studs. Amongst the heavy stallions used there were seventy-two Belgians, twenty-one Clydesdales and Shires, hiteen Percherons, nine Arderinais, four Danes, and 118 home-bred. Of thoroughbreds there were seventy-two English, two AngloArabian, .and one Arabian stallion. The remainder are three-quarter and half-bred. The number of the mares they covered was 119,127, i.e., per stallion 52 mares. The greatest success was experienced in East Prussian studs with forty-three foals per stallion; 84 per cent, of the mares covered gave birth to a foal.

AGRICULTURE IN DENMARK. A report on the agriculture and dairying of Denmark has been issued as a consular paper. The first portion 1 deals with the harvest of 1888, : the total value of which is given at £14,100,000, ■ against £13,527,000 for 1887, and £14,560,000 as the average of the previous five years. It lis noted that cereals \ are; now more largely imported, owing: to the growing demand for feeding stuffs'for the dairies. Since ISBO the imports of bran and oilcake have grown enormously and last year over £900,000 was spent in > these two articles alone, to say' nothing of other foods, of which 30,000,0001b were also imported. Since 1579 the im- : ports of artificial manures have almost' doubled, but in many cases this is due to the increase of the prices of raw materials by manufacturers. ' : '