AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Efcthonia imported 20,986 tons of fertilisers and exported 60 tons during 1924. Horov.henua County is now considering an application for lights on the Waikanae beach road. Now that electricity is so widely distributed over the countryside, tho lighting of rural roads is cropping up.* At the London wool sales last week there was a good tone and brisk bidding for ail greasy sorts. The prices were fitm. The best euro for a soil that runs together and packs is organic matter, and organic matter is the measure of soil fertility. During the past, year over *"000 pigs have been despatched from the Otorohanga trucking yards to various bacon factories, their value being estimated at £11,500. Aberdeen County Council has decided to urge upon tho Board of Agriculture for Scotland the necessity for legislation to'be introduced to bring about the elimination of scrub bulls. Sometimes fertilisers have been applied without evidence of appreciable effect upon yields of crops, simply because they have been used upon soils deficient ii. organic matter. An effort is being made to acquire Headstone Manor Farm, which was onco occupied, by Thomas-a-Becket, together with 60 acres of land adjoining, as a reserve for the public. Montreal handled 165,139,396 bushels of grain during 1924, the largest amount ever handled by the port in any one year, according to the final figures issued by tho harbour commissioners. The laboratory which the Main Highways Board is setting up for the testing of stone, rocks and other road-making materials, lias been completed, and machinery is now being installed. The estimated production of beet sugar in Europe in the past six months totalled 4,504,5901b. The campaign to stimulate its production resulted in an increase of 2,117,0001b, compared with last season. Waihemo County, saicf to be the smallest in the Dominion, has declined an invitation to amalgamate with the adjoining Waiko*uaiti County, which has no money to maintain the main road into Dunedin. Fishermen visiting Moqueto Creek, near Bellfonte, United States, discovered that a colony of beavers, working quietly, had mended a breach in .in old dam that had been under repair for several years. Soils deficient in phosphates produce grass with a low content of phosphates. Such phosphate-starved grass will inevitably produce phosphate-starved animals, which will become unprofitable to their owners. An electric beehive, which has resulted in an increased output of honey, is lighted and heated by electricity during the winter, with tho result that the bees start to collect honey earlier in the spring than usual. A crossbred Welsh cow, eight years old, belonging to a crofter in the Lleyn Peninsula, South Carnarvonshire, has yielded up to 19jlb. of butter a week, keeping this up for three months after calving. Sho had her first calf when two years old. Lack of mineral matter is often manifested when the pigs, in their efforts to make up tho deficiency, start eating mortar off piggery walls, straw used in bedding them, or sides of feeding troughs, ii' made of wood. These are signs of wrong feeding. Mr. J. G. Weir, of Stirling, Otago, has forwarded to Dunedin, a potato of the Arran Chief variety, which he considers to be the champion potato of the season. Dug from a field of 11 acres, yielding 79 tons per acre, it weighs 41b. 120z., and measures lOin. between its extreme limits. The averages for the different breeds of cattle sold at the sales held by the Royal Dublin Society on March 3 and 4, are officially supplied by tho secretary of tho Aberdeen Angus Society as follows: Aberdeen Angus, £74 13s; Dairy Shorthorns, £57 10s; Hereford, £47 8s 7d; Shorthorns, £34 12s Id. The export of Aryshire cattle from Scotland to South Africa, interrupted by disease restrictions, has now been.resumed. Owing to the successes achieved by the breed at the Rand and other shows in South Africa during the last two years, and also its performances at the 1923 and 1924 London Dairy Shows, tho Aryshiro has become very popular in the country. The drain on dairy lands is particularly heavy. For instance, a dairy cow producing 70001b. of milk a year requires as much phophorous for milk alone as is contained in 2001b. of average fertiliser, to say nothing of the quantity required for bone growth and the production of a calf. She also requires for milk alone more nitrogen than there is.in 2501b. of nitrate of soda. Hard wick Ashberry, an eleven-year-old cow bred by the Duchess of Newcastle, is the second pedigree Red Poll to yield over 2000 gallons of milk in 365 days, her output with her eight calf being 2070 i gallons. She is a well preserved cow which has bred some excellent heifers, one of which, the three-year-old Hardwick Priceless, is emulating the performance of her 'darn as a heavy vielder. Data so far available at the International Institute, of Agriculture indicate that _ in the countries in the Northern Hemisphere (China excluded) which grow wheat there is an increase of 3.9 per cent, in tho acreage put under wheat this season, and of 2.9 per cent, on tho average for the previous five years. The condition of the crops at tho beginning of March was satisfactory for Europe as a* whole; and reports, from the United States are for tho most part favourable, although cold weather has arrested growth.