AGEICULTURAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18685, 15 April 1924, Page 16

AGEICULTURAL NOTES.

Potash is obtained from natural deposit and is supplied in the form of sulphate and chloride (muriate). Both forms axe readily soluble. A co-operative company is building meat works at Deseado, Patagonia, with a daily capacity of 5000 sheep and storage for 250,000 carcases. A spade with one edge sharpened and turned up at a right angle has been invented by a Wisconsin man for trimnung walks and gutters. The official crop estimate of December 1 for the United States gives the 1923 maize yield as 3,054,395,000 bushels from 104,158,000 acres, the average being 29.3 bushels per acre.

President Coo Edge, under date March 7, announced an • increase in the tariff On wheat entering U.S.A. from 30 to 42 cents a bushel. The rate on wheat, flour and other wheat products has been raised from 78 to 104 cents a hundred-weight.

Accounts of the Southland Frozen Meat and Produce Export Company, Limited, N.Z., for the past year show a net profit of £19,690, as compared with £14,625 for the previous twelve months. The dividend has been increased from 8 to 10 per cent.

Cream rises faster in warm milk, and also faster in cooling milk. The first is partly due to fat expanding more than water when it is warm, and the second to fat being a worse conductor of heat and cooling more slowly when the milk stands.

When it is found that « the curd is tainted, the taint may be eliminated to a groat extent by aerating the curd. When milled, the curd should De spread out over the cooler, and turned over several times to expose it to the air as much as possible.

It is found necessary to artificially colour cheese, the colouring matter should be added to the milk ten minutes before renneting. Unless the colouring matter is well distributed throughout the milk before renneting, the cheese will often became streaky in colour.

It is estimated that during the winter about seven tons of farmyard manure is made for each animal en a holding, though the quantity vanes according to the conditions. In open yards it is, perhaps, about a quarter more than in covered courts, indicating a waste of litter to this extent.

According to a return published in " Crops and Markets," the average wage paid farm labourers in the United States during 1923 was £6 18s 3d per month with keep, and £9 15s 5d without keep. Harvest hands averaged 10s 2Ad per day with keep or 12s 7£d without board.

A Canadian Government terminal elevator with 2,500,000 bushels capacity is to be erected at Edmonton, Alberta, in time for handling the 1924 grain crops of the western provinces. The elevator will serve the needs of the Canadian National Railways, and will also provide cleaning facilities. The cost will be between £200,000 and £250,000. '

A revised estimate of the 'Argentine wheat crop, issued in mid-January, gives a total yield of 260,000,000 bushels. If this is realised it will be the largest crop on record, the previous highest being 218,500,000 bushels in 1917-18. Under normal conditions home consumption and seed requirements may bo expected to absorb about 70,000,000 bushels, and some 24,000,000 bushels are usually sold to Brazil and other non-European countries.

Apparently cereals weigh somewhat lighter in the United States than they do in New Zealand. An estimate prepared by the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture gives the following weights of certain grains per measured bushel for 1923: Wheat, 57.41b., with 57.71b. for the ten years' average; oats, 32.11b., the tenyear averrge being 31.91b. ; barley, 45.31b. and 46. lib. for the last ten years. As far as New Zealand is concerned the f.a.q. wheat standard is 601b.

Experiments in retaining perishable fruits at freezing temperatures have been made by the division of pomology of tho University of California, states the Pacific Rural Press, of November 24. Berries, apricots, peaches and cherries have been kept for six months without loss of colour and flavour. The fruit was put into sealed containers after being covered with a sugar solution, and it was stored at 10 degrees Fahr. While the texture of the fruit was softened, th« process is considered important to manufacturers of pastry, ice cream, jam, etc.

■An estimate prepared by the International Institute of Agriculture shows that the -wheat-exporting countries of ~ the world should be in a position to ship an aggregate of 570,000;000 centals for the grain year ending July 31, 1924. Of this Canada would contribute 221,000,000 centals, Argentina 122,000,000 centals, United States 112,000,000 centals, and Australia 55,000,000 centals. An estimate of the requirements of importing countries is difficult to arrive at owing to the disturbed state of Europe, but the Institute does not think the imports will exceed last .sev*» **** * 430,000,000 cabals,