FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8930, 14 July 1892, Page 6

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

BY OUR ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRES-

PONDENT.]

i London, May 14. " BABY BEEF."

The following list of prices realised at market in Sussex for cattle under two years of age has been published :—

The amount realised by a good many of these youug beasts was 20s to 30s a month from birth. The higher sum must be remunerative, apart from the manure, if the animals were fed moderately, as it is said they were ; but the lower sum would not pay without allowing for tho value of the manure. This latter statement may seem strange to colonial farmers who have plenty of cheap and good pasturage; but I hive yet to see any amount of fattening cattle at an average of 5s a week each, however young the animals were to begin with. The fact is that beef-making very seldom pays in this country except on rich pastures (which are scarce) apart from the manure, and it is often bought at double its real value. FARMYARD MANURE.

An excellent little book on this subject has just been written by Mr. C. M. Aikraan, M.A.B.Sc., Lecturer on Agricultural Chemistry at the Glasgow Technical College, and published by Blackwood and Sons, of Edinburgh. Mr. Aikman explains why it is that farmyard manure is usually beaten in experiments with a number of different fertilizers for increasing the yield of a crop. Valuable as this manure is, it enriches the soil more than it stimulates the growth of the first crop to which it is applied, because a large proportion of its nitrogen is in an inert condition, and not immediately available as food for plants. The consequence is that, even when a low valuation is put upon farmyard manure in making experiments, the extra produce over that of the unmanured plot rarely pays expenses, whereas a quickly-acting manure like nitrate of soda nearly always gives a profitable result. But then farmyard manure has valuable properties not possessed by other fertilizers. It improves the mechanical condition of a soil, adding to it a large proportion of organic matter, which increases its water-absorbing and moisture-retaining capacity, and promotes drainage at the same time. Well-rotted manure is best for light soils, and fresh manure for heavy ones. The little book is full of details, including tabular statements of values of manures made from the consumption of different feeding-stuffs, and the peculiarities of the excrements of different kinds of live stock. There are also useful instructions for the proper preservation of manure when it is nob wanted for immediate use.

THE DETECTION OF MARGARINE. A statement has been going the round of the papers to the effect that margarine in butter can easily and certainly be detected by means of the polariscope, or in other words by means of the microscope under polarized light. Now, it is quite true that pure and fresh butter, placed under the polariscope, shows nothing in particular, while any admixture of animal fat shows all the colours of the rainbow. The reason is that pure and fresh butter contains no crystals, which always exist in animal fat. Unfortunately, however, butter that has been melted, or stale butter which has turned rancid, does contain crystals, and presents under the polariscope an appearance similar to that of animal fat. Again vegetable fat in butter cannot be detected by the instrument, as it does not crystallise at a low temperature. This is a pity, because we are much in need of a simple test for margarine in butter, because small quantities cannot be detected with certainty by analysis, on account of the great variability in the constituents of pure butter. Our Margarine Act requires the prosecutor of a seller as butter of what is supposed to be margarine to prove the percentage of adulteration, and this cannot be done with accuracy when there is less than 15 per cent, of animal fat in the stuff. We might get the Act altered if we could show that there was a simple test for the discovery of margarine in butter, and it was hoped that the polariscope would afford the test required.

THIS SMALL HOLDINGS BILL IN

COMMITTEE. The Small Holdings Bill is passing through Committee in the House of Commons with reasonable celerity. There were a great many amendments on the notice paper for every clause ; but some of them have been dropped, and others quickly rejected. A few have been accepted by the Government, and are improvements to the Bill. For example, the size of holdings to be let is raised from the limit of ten acres to that of fifteen acres. But the Minister of Agriculture, who has charge of the Bill, is very firm in his determination to make the measure one for increasing proprietors rather than tenants of small The limit for the former is fifty acres, or if more than that, £50 annual value. But everyone knows that there are a hundred farm labourers who could hire a small holding to one who could buy one, even with three-fourths of the purchase-money lent to him by the State, to be repaid by easy instalments extending over a long term of years. Great efforts have been made to make the Bill compulsory in the sense of enforcing County Councils to compel landowners to sell land to them at a fair valuation; but the Government have been wisely firm against this proposal. It is felt that it would be intolerable to force a man to give up his property in order to divide it between a few other men assisted by national funds to buy it.

THE DAIRY CONFERENCE. It has been arrranged that the next Dairy Conference and Excursions of the British Dairy Farmers' Association shall be held in Cumberland and Westmoreland on June 7, 8, 9, and 10. These are dairying counties, and there will be a good deal of interest in the farms to be visited, while the visitors will have the gratification of seeing something of the beautiful lake district. Some papers of great interest to dairy-farmers will be read, and copies of them shall be duly sent when they are ready.

One of the best; proofs of the advancc of this country is the immense area now laid down in sown . grasses, an area that now totals 7,403,881 acres—namely, land put down in grasses after having been broken up, 3,327,755 acres; gra=s-sown lands not previously ploughed, 4,076,126 acrescompared with last year, an increase of grass lands to the extent of 437,663 acres. Pasturage is increasing more or less throughout every provincial district. Auckland has now an area of 1,104,286 acres in sown grasses. Taranaki possesses 320,588 acres in grass. The area laid down to grass in Hawke's Bay now aggregates 1,187/018 acres, 921,000 having been surfacesown; while in Wellington there are at the present time 1,599,447 acres in pas turage, a large proportion, namely, 1,398,000 acres, having been surface-sown. In the South Island Canterbury and Otago take the lead with respect to pasturage, the former with 1,380,669 acres, the latter with 1,337,748 acres, comparatively little having been surface-sown, only 241,590 acres in Canterbury, and 180,500 in Otago. As to the character of the pasturage throughout the colony, of course it muse vary considerably, and might be classed from first-rate to third or fourth rate, according to the nature of the soil and the time the grasses have been sown. Cadbuky's Cocoa.—" A Cocoa of the highest degree of Purity and Nutritive value. '— Health. The Medical Annual advises practifcioaers to remember that when recommending 0 acoa es a food and beverage for invalids, the name Cadbury on any packet of Cocoa is a guarani tee of purity.

Steers under two years of age on December 1st, 1891. £ a. d. 1 year 11 months .. _ _ 31 5 0 1 „ 9 „ , .. .. „ 31 0 0 1 „ 9 „ » .. ... 27 0 0 1 „ 11 „ 25 15 0 I „ 7 „ .. ... .. 20 10 3 1 „ 6 „ 22 0 0 1 „ 6 „ ... .. .. 23 5 0 1 „ 9 „ 30 10 (J 1 „ 9 „ .. .. .. 31 0 0 1 „ 5 „ .. .. .. 29 5 0 Steer* under eighteen months of age on December 1, 1891. £ s. d. 1 year 4 months 23 15 n 1 „ 5 „ .. .. .. 26 10 0 Heifers under two years of age on December 1, 1891. £ s. d. 1 year 11 months „ .. .. 25 10 0 l „ 8 „ 29 0 0 1 „ 10 „ .. .. 25 5 0 1 ,1 10 „ .. .. 21 0 0 1 „ 10 „ 28 0 0 Heifers under eighteen months of age on December 1, 1891. £ s. d. 1 year 5 months .. _ „ 25 5 0 1 „ 5 „ 27 15 0 1 „ 5 25 0 0 1 „ 4 „ 18 5 0 1 „ 5 18 10 0