FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9721, 17 January 1895, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

FROM OUR, ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRES-

PONDENT.] London, November 16. LIGHT RAILWAYS.

jThere is quite a rage here just now in favour of the latest remedies of agricultural depression, the construction of a network of light railways throughout the country. A conference ia to be held shortly by the Board of Trade, with representatives of

agricultural bodies, County Councils, corporations, and railway companies in order to ascertain whether the regulations which restrict the construction of railways might be relaxed with advantage in order to allow of light railways being constructed at a comparatively small cost. Now there is no doubt that in some districts a light railway would be very advantageous, and this is especially the case where there are market-gardeners, fruitgrowers, and very small holders of land who do nob keep horses. Bub ifc seems to me highly doubtful whether these railways will be on the whole beneficial to ordinary farmers, or ab any rate to farmers of arable land. Unless they are enabled to diminish their staffs of horses and men, owing to the facilities for heavy carting afforded by the proposed railways, they will simply be incurring extra expense for the sake of convenience, for which they will get no return. As a rule, the farmer keeps only just as many horses and men as are sufficient to cultivate his land at the proper season, and most of his carting is done at times when there is nob much work to be done on the land. I doubt whether a man who keeps twelve horses will be able to save a pair even if he has a light railway passing his farmyard gates; and if lie cannot, and he uses the railway, he will obviously be a loser. It is also to be borne in mind that the demand for heavy horses would be greatly diminished if we had light railways throughout the country; and the breeding of these animals is now one of the most profitable branches of agriculture, in which most arable farmers take part more or less, nearly all of them trying to breed a few good foals. It appears that where light railways exist on the Continent of Europe they are not entirely self-supporting, but have to be subsidised by the State, or by the local authorities. Ib has been suggested here that there should be a rate on the land in order to help pay the expenses of the railways, and in order to insure that the charges on them shall be low. This, however, would be quite intolerable, as land is already overburdened with rates. The greatest benefit which would be secured by light railways would be the development of a retail trade in butter, eggs, poultry, fruit, and vegetables, which could be sent from the rural districts for delivery to consumers in the large towns, but the chances of such a trade being developed are nob sufficiently assured to justify a very costly undertaking. The question whether a light railway should be constructed or not in any district should be discussed on its merits, those chiefly interested deciding whether to have it or not. The danger is that the enthusiasm in favour of the scheme may lead to a wholesale construction of railways without sufficiently considering whether they are likely to pay.

EXPERIMENTS WITH POTATO SETS. The question whether it is most advantageous to plant potatoes whole or to cut them has been a subject of discussion for a long period. M. Aime Girard, the famous French chemist, has been conducting some experiments during three years with the object, of comparing the results of planting whole tubers of average size, about 3Joz each, with those of using cut tubers of large size, or small potatoes. Against the whole tubers of average size he tried large ones cut into two, somewhat smaller ones cut into two, large ones cut into three, and quite small ones whole planted in couples, and still smaller ones planted in threes. The whole of the results for three years, taking 100 to represent the yield of the whole tubers of averags size, are as follows :—

Pro- | Descriptions of Seed. portionate i Keturns. 1 Tubers of about .''J ounces, wlio!o .. .. 100 „ 3.J ~ cut ill two .. 09'36 „ 7 „ cut in two ..82 , „ 10.J „ cut in three ..74 ' „ if „ planted in couples 95*36 „ 1 ~ „ trius.. 8912 i Averaging the results for each year, M. 1 Girard considers the following conclusions to be established (1) That in all cases it is by planting whole tubers of average size that' the greatest returns are obtained; (2) that the cutting of tubers of average size into two sections diminishes the yield by about 30 per cent.; (3) that the planting of sections of about 100 grammes, whether cut from tubers of 200 or 300 grammes, reduces the yield by about 20 per cent.; and (4) that by planting in each hole two or three small whole tubers, instead of a single one or section, the yield of the average whole tuber is approached within 5 to 10 per cent. FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. A mysterious outbreak of foot and mouth disease has occurred in Essex. As the animals had been isolated for some time in a marsh, it must have occurred through infection brought by some person, or by foreign food from tho Continent of Europe ; but precisely how it was brought is nob known. The outbreak has been suppressed, and apparently there is no danger now of its spreading. GLANDERS AND FARCY. On Monday next the new order by tho Board of Agriculture for the suppression of glanders and farcy will come into force. Owners of horses, asses, or mules, who have, or have had, cases of the disease in either form among them will be required to inform the police of the fact, and the police will repeat the information to the inspector of the local authority, who will be expected to visit the place promptly, and to put into force certain regulations for the suppression of the disease. The local authorities have power to make regulations as to the movements and exposure of animals, the disinfection of places, and compensation in cases of loss. WATER IN BUTTER. Therp has been a great deal of controversy lately in this country as to whether a standard should bo fixed for the maximum quantity of water to bo allowed in butter. It was proposed to make 16 per cent, tho maximum, bub this was strongly objected to by certain Irish makers and sellers, who declared that there would frequently be a great deal more than 16 per cent, in salt butter honestly made. Now, at the Kiel Dairy Experiment Station a number of experiments have been recently made in connection with this point, with ordinary farm and factory butter. In butter direct) from the churn the range was from 1505 to 26 33, bub after the butter had been worked, although it had also been salted, the range was from only 6*73 to 17'72, and out of 36 lots there were only two cases in which the percentage was over 16. In the great majority of instances ib was under 13. WHEAT FOR LIVE STOCK. The Kansas State Board of Agriculture has published a very useful return showing the answers obtained from about 400 farmers in Kansas to questions sent to them in relation to the use of wheat) for live stock. Three-fourths of them state that wheat is superior to maize weight for weight for fattening pigs. The average of all the estimates of the number of pounds of live pork produced by a bushel of wheat is 111b. For young animals wheat is declared specially valuable, while for cows it is far superior as a milk producer to maize. For other cattle it has a high value also, though it should be crushed or roughly ground, and for pigs ib should be moistened also. _ For horses a mixture of crushed wheat with oats, maize, or bran is recommended. Unfortunately, the quantities found safe to give different kinds of animals are not stated. A greab many of the farmers state that they get a, much better return from feeding their wheat than by selling it at the present prices. HEAVY HORSES. Messrs. Vinton and Co., of New Bridgestreet, London, have just brought out a very useful book on " Heavy Horses: Breads, and Management." The authors are tho well-known authorities, Messrs. Herman Biddell, C. J. Douglas, Thomas Dykes, Archibald ' Macnuby, Gilbert Murray, W. R. - Trotter, and Dr. George Flemmmg. Short histories are given of the • Shire, Suffolk. «nd:Clx.de. breads,. there ? *re

numerous illustrations of some of the best) representatives of each breed. Some valuable chapters on the management and breeding of cart horses and their treatment for diseases and injuries follow. The book is published ab 3s 6d, and the postage to New Zealand would be 6d.