FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8534, 7 April 1891, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

[BY OUR ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRESPONDENT.] London, February 6. A GREAT CONTRAST. The weather we have enjoyed during&he last fortnight has been in striking contrast with the very severe season wnich preceded it. It is mild enough for April, and the crops are already beginning to grow quite rapidly enough, considering the danger of more frosts occurring before spring has really come. Fortunately the apprehensions as to serious damage to the autumn-sown crops have been removed, aa the early wheats, winter beans, and tares are looking well all over the country, snow having protected them from the frost to some ■ extent. The late wheats may be thin in plant bub this is nob certain at present, as they are not fully out) of the ground. The worst mischief of the frost is the killing of white turnips and cabbages and the partial spoiling of swedes, in consequence of which feed is short, and many farmers have had to sell some of their sheep or cattle. As a result of these forced sales and the shortness of beef, prices have fallen considerably, while farmers who hold all their stock are being pat to an unusually heavy expense for purchased food. But if the present mild weather proves lasting, there will soon be a nice bite on the pastures, and forage crops on arable land will come to maturity early. Then the prices of stock will rise again, and flo'ckmasters will get good values for their lambs. The lambing season is turning out well as a rule. There is an abundanb fall of lambs, and the only drawback is poorness of condition in ewes and lambs alike, consequenb upon the scarcity and inferior quality of succulent food, the once frozen swedes (even those which are nob half rotten) having scarcely any nutriment in them. AUSTRALASIAN IMPORTS.

Although the Board of Trade returns do not distinguish imports of meat from New Zealand and Australia, the figures have been obtained by the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. Since the frozen meat trade began in 1880 Australian exports have fluctuated a good deal. Beginning with 400 cases of mutton is that year, the number increased annually till 1884, when ib was 114,745. Then then, was a drop, followed by a recovery, so thai* the total stood at 112,214 in 1888. Another decline was recorded for 1889, but in 1890 the number rose to 208,314, equal to 109,900cwt, by far the largest quantity ever received in a year from Australia. Pieces of beef were only 1373 in number in 1881, and in 1890 they numbered 14,984. Now Zealand exports of mutton to this country started in 1882 with 8839 carcases, and increased regularly, year after year until the maximum of 1,531,901, equal to 78,532cwb, in 1890 was reached; while pieces of beef rose from 728 in ISS3 to 55,659 in 1890. The number of carcases sent to us from the River Plate last year was 1,187,943, weighing 435,084cwt. These figures show that the average weight per carcase was only 41ib. This is very low, and ib is only to be accounted for by the serious effect of the drought la3b year upon the flocks of the Argentine Republic, as the average weight has nob been as low before. The carcases sent to London, evidently the pick of the whole, averaged 441b; but even this is a small weight. The average weight per carcase of New Zealand mutton and lamb comes out at 58£lb, that of Australian ab 601b, and that of the shipment received from the Falkland Islands (for the first time since 1887) at 601b. Over one-sixth of the carcases from New Zealand are lambs, and the average weight is thus brought down in comparison with that of Australian carcases, which include few (if any) lambs. With respecb to dairy produce there are no figures except the number of packages, that of butter being 57,264 from Australia and New Zealand, against 23,100 for 1889 ; and that of cheese 23,580, against 5700.

AGROSTIS VULGARIS. A friend who is farming in Auckland having informed me that it is a common practice in his neighbourhood and in other parts of New Zealand to sow for pasture Agrostis vulgaris, a grass which in this country, when found on arable land, is styled "black twitch," and regarded as- a mischievous weed, I wrote to a high authority on grasses to ask for the reason of the bad repute of this particular variety. The reply is to the effect that the seeds of the several varieties of Agrostis are so nearly identical in appearance that no botanist can distinguish them when Agrostis alba, var. stolonifera (the only member of the Agrostis family of highfeeding value) is adulterated . with the inferior varieties. This authority cannot believe that it is Agrostis vulgaris which has been sown where a good quantity of useful feed has been produced, bub thinks it may be Agrostis alba, though nob the variety stolonifera, the true Fiorin. The vulgaris he says is of low-feeding value, and he has recommended certain mixtures of grasses instead, which have proved very succcssful in New Zealand and South Africa on land where it was said that only grasses of the Agrostis type would stand. The result of our correspondence is that) three mixtures, in quantities sufficient for a.fair trial, have been shipped to my friend in Auckland, with the request that he will publish the results of sowing them. In ordinary seasons they would be cheap mixtures, and even this year, though seed is exceptionally high in price on account of the deficient yield of last harvest, one of the mixtures costs only 15s an acre in this country, while the others cost 21s and 30s. Probably in an ordinary season the expense would be about as an acre less. At any rate, I have seen splendid pastures produced from seeds costing only 15s to 20s an acre, and they must pay better in the long run than pastures formed from the sowing of one of the poorest of grasses. .

THE TITHE BILL. This measure,/ explained on previous occasion as one framed to compel landlords to pay tithe in all instances, instead of requiring the tenant 'to pay the charge, has passed through the House of Commons. Under the Tithe Commutation Act of 1536 it was clearly intended that landlords should pay the tithe rent charge then imposed in lieu of the old tithe ; but, as there was no prohibition of arrangements under contract for tenants to pay the charge, such arrangements were almost universally made. Of course, rents have been lower than they would have been if landlords had paid the tithe rent charge, which counts as so much rent. In future such contracts will be void, and, therefore, will not be made ; bub until the expiry of current contracts imposing the liability referred to upon tenants, the Bill now before Parliament will shortly be passed, and then sent on to the House of Lords after leaving the Commons, requires the tenants to recoup ' their landlords for the payment of tithes. There was a proviso to the effect that such repayment must be made " unless it is otherwise agreed upon between him (the tenant) and the owner of the landsbut the words quoted have been foolishly struck out on the solicitation of the Welsh members, who, apparently, dread the merging of tithe in rent, because it will stop the tithe disturbances which they like to keep up in Wales for the sake of helping the I movement in favour of the disestablishing )of the Church. But in the interests of tenants this omission of words suggesting more favourable arrangements .than complete repayment to landlords is a great mistake. One of the best features of the Bill is its abolition of the barbarous method of recovering arrears of tithe by distraint, as far as land occupied by tenants is concerned. On land occupied by owners dis--trainb will still be the ultimate measure to recover unpaid tithes, but only after proceedings in the County Court. Another good provision is the remittance of a portion of the tithe where land has gone down in value so seriously that the rent is less than the tithe, or only a little greater. Where the latter is over two-thirds of the former the excess is not to be recoverable by the tithe-owner. This will help to bring deserted farms into cultivation once ; more.