AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9306, 15 September 1893, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

It has been estimated that; the farmers in the county of Somerset have lost £1,000,000 by the failure of the hay crop. A field of wheat on the English South Downs was cut on July 3, this being, it is believed, the earliest on record in the district. ' It is understood that the Danish Government have suggested a conference as a step towards arranging about the international trade in adulterated butter. A private company has been formed, under the title of F. Savage & Co. (Limited), with a capital of £700,000, to carry on the business of agricultural engineers, machinists, and boilermakers, hitherto conducted at King's Lynn, Norfolk, by Mr. F. Savage. Four cows belonging to Mr. Wylie, Pleasance of Cargen, near Dumfries, died from the effects of lead poisoning, while two others were seriously affected. On inquiry it was discovered that a quantity of ashes used as top-dressing on the pasture contained a number of lumps of white lead. Mr. Charles Clarke, of Ashbyde-la-Laundo, has sold his clip of wool of this year's growth, 104!? fleeces, viz., 540 hogs and 502 ewes, all being his 1 own breeding. The clip weighed 488 tons 201b, or an average of 134.1b per fleece. This result speaks highly of this flock, which is one of the most noted in the county of Lincoln. - Butter, which is almost indispensable to the meal nowadays, was formerly used solely as an ointment. Herodotus, a Greek historian, is the first writer who mentions butter, 500 years before Christ. The Spartans treated it very much the same as we do cold cream or vaseline, and Plutarch tells how a hostess was sickened at the sight of one of her visitors, a Spartan, who was saturated in butter. The Scythians introduced the article to the Greeks, and the Germans showed the Romans ho.w to make it. But the latter did not use it for food; they, like the* Spartans, anointed their bodies with it. B. J. Hall, of New York, says that great reform is needed in the care and keeping of farm teams. We should care and feed better. Galls on horses get worse on the farm than on the road. If their breasts and shoulders are well-washed with cold water, to which is added a little alum, they will rarely become galled, but once formed are hard to cure." I have used alcohol and amphor with success. The Jersey cow could easily be made a larger animal by breeding for that purpose, but she probably would lose, or at least not gain, in butter-production, while she would require more food. One might as well try to combine the size of the draft horse and the speed of the racehorse as to try to make the cow that is distinctively a milk or butter producer ab the same time a beef animal. During the five months ended May 31st the number of horses exported from Great Britain was 4235, against 4526 last year there being 171 stallions, against 197 ; 1124 mares, against 11G3; and 2940 geldings, against 3166. The value was £162,870. against £191,894. Tho number of horses imported was 5704, against 9787. Of the former number, 155 were stallions, against 446 ; 872 mares, against 1215 ; and 4677 geldings, against 8126. The- value of the horses imported was £189,577, against 1 £201,146.