Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 429, 1 May 1880, Page 25

Farm and Garden.

WINTER PROSPECTS IH THE COUNTRY DISTRICTS. A good many years have probably passed since the country in the southern portion of the north island has borne such cheering signs at this season, when the grazier’s greatest anxiety is how to make the most of the little grass which his paddocks contain in order that his live stock might be provided for during the winter. The past three or four years have been particularly unfavorable, the autumn weather having been either too dry or too wet, and always too cold to permit of a good growth of grass taking place. Nor was the summer so favorable as to leave anything that was worth speaking about. This season all this is very different, for the reports from all directions are all of the same satisfactory nature. We might take it for granted that matters look unusually bright, otherwise we should hear the ordinary amount of grumbling. On visiting the country districts in the immediate neighborhood of Wellington, we find that a considerable quantity of the spring growth, which is now perfectly dry, is still standing in meat of the paddocks. There has been a steady and uninterrupted growth throughout the fall, and stock has naturally devoted itself to the fresher blades, of which an abundance was to be got. When the cold rains put a temporary stop to the productiveness of the soil, this older and harder stuff will come in very handy, for not only will it be fed off, but it will also act as a corrective, and prevent scouring and other evils which young grass is apt to bring about. It need scai'cely be said that sheep, cattle, and horses look remarkably well. The former are in most instances rolling fat, and we suppo-e that the Wellington butchers will be able to draw a large supply from here during the mouths of July, August, and September, when they usually experience the greatest difficulty in meeting the demands of their customers. The fleeces certainly never looked better, and unless extraordinary and continued rains cause the wool to mat, the next shearing season should prove one of the best that has been known. As a strong and healthy summer and autumn growth tends to prevent matting as well as the break in the staple, which is also often found after a bad winter there should be little ground for apprehension on this account, especially as a. great scarcity of feed can hardly occur. Accounts from the Wairarapa arc still more cheering, for all parts of that large grazing

district appear to be equally well supplied. This is rather unusual, for, as a general rule, the coast, which gets its moisture from easterly rains, is very dry when the valley of the Ruamahangn, where north-west weather brings the most in, is well supplied in this respect. Sheep throughout this district are in excellent condi tion, and many of the loug-woolled flocks look as if they were within a month or two of the ordinary shearing season in place of the six months which still intervene. Owners would, no doubt, be glad if they could commence their annual harvest atones, for the hard times have dealt the sheep farmer some severe blows. The unusually favorable conditions are being turned to the best advantage by the majority, who are sending large numbers of fat sheep ito the boiling-down works, which are consequently kept very busy. Doubtless the high condition of the stock, combined with the good wool returns, caused by heavy yields, as we l ! as high prices, wili show very haudsome profits, which will save many from drawing advances upon the ensuing clip. As regards cattle, prospects are equally favorable, and there appears to be a heavy supply of fat beasts. This is perhaps best proved by the fact that several inquiries for store cattle, which were made from otherparts of the colony", have received very unfavorable answers. The West Coast is in an equally satisfactory state, and two or three sheep farmers inform us that they shall be disappointedif their next wool returns, by weight, do no exceed those of last year by twenty or twenty-five per cent. It cannot be said that all this is due to any increase in the area of grass laud, for we fear there are but few who found themselves in a position of late to make large addit ons to their cultivated pastures ; nor has the season been favorable for burning off ; indeed, a considerable portion of the land that has been cleared in this fashion has not been sown at all. The favorable weather appears to be the sole cause for the cheering outlook. Farmers and station holders should be well pleased with their prospects, for if they have sustained severe losses during the pastyear, they are likely to make them good during the present—not because the purse strings of the money market are relaxed, but because the season will assist them. AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AT THE SYDNEY EXHIBITION. Messrs. Marshall, Sons, and Co. have been very successful with their admirable exhibits of gas-engines, as the subjoined extract from the judges’ official report clearly shows : “ Marshall, Sons, and Co. : A 12-horse horizontal fixed engine with jet-condenser and airpump, worked by an extension of the pistonrod, fitted with automatic expansion valve controlled by Hartnell’s gov-rnor ; special, first merit. An eight-horse horizontal non-con-densing engine, with solid forged crank-shaft: and overhung fly-wheel, requiring no other bearings, fitted with automatic expansion gear g ~ first merit. A six-horse single cylinder portable engine, with wrought-iron main brackets riveted to boiler; first meiit. A 14-horse double-cylinder engine, having main sliding in dovetailed seats, which are connected to the cylinder by stays ; the stays carry all the motion-guides, bars, and link reversinggear, and allow for the expansion of the boilerwithout producing unequal strains ; firstmerit. A three-horse vertical engine and' boiler. The engine is complete in itself on a column of light-house pattern. The boiler is double-rivetted, and the base-plate fitted on-water-tank. As a whole, it may be considered one of the finest engines in the whole Exhibition for general design and finish. Special,, first merit. The judges are of opinion that Marshall, Sons, and Co.’s engines deserve thehigbest commendation for their general proportions, their elegance and symmetrical design, their arrangements for adjustment, and their workmanship and fiuisb, and they recommend them for the highest award. The automatic expansion gear on the horizontal engines,, and the general finish on the three-horse vertical engine, deserve special notice.—(Signed) R. A. Ritchie, John W. Chapman, F. G. Newton, Norman Selfe (chairman).” [lt is perhaps hardly, necessary to say that; Marshall’s engines have been much used in. this colony for many years past.] A CRASH IN WHEAT. The speculative crisis in wheat, which has existed for some time iu New York, culminated, we hear, on January 24, when thousands of small speculators throughout the country were cleaned out. The case is almost a parallel one with the great December break in theStock Market, except that there do not appear’ to have been any Jay Goulds among the big speculators in wheat to publish in advance a colos-al bear lie, and to follow up by hurling ahuge block of the active commodity upon the market. The disaster in the present instanceseems to have been entirely due to regularcauses. Last autumn, after obtaining relief by the sale of several millions of bushels to exporters on private terms, the big speculators in wheat, the New York Times says, turned their attention to organising a new bull movement, based on the incoming new crop exclusively.. They purchased immensely, and forced theprice steadily upward, both in this country and abroad, through their agents. Meantime, *. horde of small speculators, attracted by the constant rise, entered the market and began to parch ise blindly, under the seeming supposition that there could be no limit to the advance. The big speculator? • assisted them until at length a point was reached at which it became no longer profitable to export wheat, and it began to accumulate in store. Sensible persons would have stopped before that happened, and the most trustworthy advices are that .those’ who organised the movement did 'aVop,,bahdU: : f have since remained passive, excgpb’to'tfikeadvantage of occasional opportunities to Unload at high rates or to purchase at low rates, as themarket happened to fluctuate. The'public, however, continued to buy, constantly forcing prices upwards, until, finally, the storehouses throughout the country were filled to over- '

flowing, margins began to be exhausted as well as the means of replen’shing them, prices began to tumble, the bears assisting the decline materially by hammering the market, and the crash came. During one week there was a fall of from 7to cents a bushel on wheat, and on January 24 alone the decline amounted to from 3to 5 cents a bushel. The day’s dealings on the Produce Excharge were attended with great excitement, and during the afternoon there were rumours of trouble, a number of prominent houses being mentioned as being in difficulties. All these, however, managed to tide over the crisis, except Paul Worth, a grain broker. The tumble was of some slight benefit in bringing prices within the range of exporters, and an unusually large business was done on this account during the afternoon. Grain freights also became stronger on the prospect of employment for the hundreds of idle vessels which have been lying at New York for months unable to obtain cargoes. As a result of the speculative movement, the visible supply of wheat in store throughout the country has been continually increasing for some time past. The visible supply of grain on January 24 reached the enormous total of 31,033,000 bushels of wheat and 11,977,000 bushels of corn, against 19,255,000 bushels of wheat and 9,866,000 bushels of corn at the corresponding period last year, when the supply was nearly double what it was at the corresponding period in 1878. At the same time "the exports have fallen off immensely in comparison with what they were last Fall. Merchants say that hardly anybody has been receiving any consignments of grain recently. All the storehouses have been filled to overflowing both here and in the West.

THE PROHIBITION OF DIVING PLANTS INTO THE CAPE.

The Gardeners’ Chronicle regrets to find that the prohibition with regard to the introduction of living plants into the colony of the Cape of Good Hope has really been enacted. It is needless, our contemporary says, “for us to point out the absurdity of this prohibition, except in the case of vines. Any -effort to convince the authorities of its absurdity would, however, probably be as furtile a» the prohibition itself will be to exclude the phylloxera. The introduction of vines or even of living plants of any kind from infected districts might reasonably enough be forbidden, hut to exclude potatoes or Dutch bulfis, or eucalypti, or any other of the hundreds of useful ornamental plants other than vines is worse than stupid—it is to inflict a wholly uncalledfor injury on the commercial interests and general welfare of the celony. The vine-louse Is not known to be injurious to any plant except the vine. Other species there are which attack the oak, &c., but these are quite distinct from the vine-louse. No other plants hut the vines have suffered in the infected districts in France, Switzerland, and Italy. All attempts to make the insects live on the roots of other plants have failed. With reference to our own vineries, we have had during the last few years as good and probably much more numerous opportunities of observing the phylloxera than have fallen to the lot of most people in this •country ; and in no single instance have we *een or heard of the phylloxera attacking any plant other than the vine, and this in spite of the continual traffic going on between one house and another. A man treading on a vine ■ border where the plants are affected with phyl- j loxera might very probably convey on his hoots, en his hands, or on his tools the eggs or "the perfect insect from house to house, and thus infect other vineries. This for aught we ‘know, may have happened—it is, indeed, very likely to have occurred ; but if the phylloxera were, as it might of course be, introduced in the same manner into the stove or the orchid houses, no apprehension of any evil consequences need be entertained. The Cape 'Government, before enacting such a regulation, -should have made inquiries as to the effect of the corresponding prohibition in Italy, and hare ascertained whether the diligence of the Custom House officers on the frontiers has been successful in preventing the entrance of the insect. Perhaps terrified by the edicts in • question the insects have dropped their wings, ?and ceased to lay eggs ; if so, how is it that, in •-■spite of these enactments, the insect has made its appearance in the countries named ? In any ■ case, we do not think even a phylloxera could fly the whole length of the Atlantic, a circum- . stance which may afford some comfort to the Cape authorities. It should be noted that the enactment in question refers to the ‘ Colony of the Cape of Good Hope’ only. Whether the •Governments of Natal and the Transvaal have similar precautions or not we have at ..present no means of knowing.” CANNED MEATS. The review of the canned goods and prerterved provision trade during the past year, published by Messrs D. W. Dickson and Co., •«f Liverpool, contains much information which is of importance to Australians. During 18/9 there were received in England 138,121 cases .©£ Australian meats, a much smaller number than that of either of the imports of 1878 •and 1877. In the latter year no less than "200,420 cases were landed in England. The prices of 1879 were rather low as compared with those of previous years as the following figures will show : •Comparative prices of the more staple preserved meats, for the past four years, and the range of prices for 1879. Boiled or Roast Beef.—Size, 61b.—1879 : highest, 51d.; lowest, 4£d.; present, sd. per lb. 1878, 6d. per lb.; 1877, 6£d. per lb.; 1*76, 6£d. per lb.; 1875, 6fd. per lb. Mutton. —Sizes, 61b. —1879 : highest, lowest, -4£d. ; present, s£d. per lb. ; 1878, s£d. per lb.; 1877, s£d. per lb.; 1876, 6d. per lb. ; :i875, 6d. per lb. Compressed Beef. Sizes, 141 b. ■highest, 855.; lowest, 755. ; present, 80s. per • dozen; 187*, 80s. per dozen; 1877, 102 s. per . dozen ; 1*76, 965. per dozen. Compressed Mutton. Sizes, 71b. —1879 : .highest, 5Jd.; lowest, 4fd.; present, s£d. per lb.

Regarding the fall in prices, the review says : “ Domestic consumption of Australian prepared mutton and beef has fallen off immensely since the introduction of American compressed beef, and this h<B assisted in the lowering of prices. Stimulated by the necessity for meeting the public trade, the Australian preservers are now sending in compressed mutton and . beef of excellent quality—pronouuced superior in many cases to the American. Prices, we are. inclined to thiuk, are too low to be remunerative ; but once the public take to the Australian goods, and learn their comparative value to American, a share of the trade hitherto bestowed on the latter will fall to the former. It seems incredible that Australians should be so exceedingly slow to perceive the advantages of neat labels, neatly lacquered . cans, even weights, tidy cases, &c. Attention to such points by Americans have enabled them to take an important trade out. of former bands. The Sydney Meat-Preserving Company has not been so slow as have been other compames in this matter, and in point.of “get up the cans of this company are quite equal to those of the best American factories. It is pleasing to know that the good quality of the Australian meat is being recognised. The review saYS . “The Australian meats in. the compressed form are undoubtedly causing anxiety to the Americans; and the low prices at which they have been placed upon the market, .and the kindly reception accorded them, indicate that they will take an important position. American mutton is declared to be much below the quality of Australian. The question of an American patent on compressed beef has been remitted by the Circuit Judges to the Supreme Court. It is thought this is prefatory to a dismissal, and the remarks of the Judge who refused to decide show that a strong objection exists to sustain a patent of such a questionable kind, and involving, as it now does, such vast industries. Should the patent rights be sustained for the complaints it will be beneficial to Australians, as in . all probability the monopolists in the United States would advance prices. GENERAL ITEMS. It is often a question of considerable neighborhood interest as to which farmer in the valley, or along that stream, or that school district, will succeed in obtaining the heaviest yield of wheat, the tallest corn, the largest squashes, and the best average of farm produce. In most cases, if the real reasons of success could be obtained, it would be found that the original soil and nature had less to do with the yield than have good seed and thorough cultivation. Whenever any one has produced an extraordinary yield, it is worth study in all its surroundings. You may, if you choose, give each one of a hundred farmers the same kind of seed, with the same directions, and one or two out of them all will manage to find the most favoring circumstances, so that their crops will quite surpass the rest. It is often hard to find out what made the difference, and it may be quite beyond our control, but still. the greatest hope for progress m the art of agriculture is in the careful making of experiments, and the careful comparison of results. A correspondent in an American paper says “ I never allow my calves to suck the cows all, preferring to teach them to drink from a bucket, and break them at once .to the neck-rope by keeping them tied to the sides of their comfortable quarters a part of the time. For one month they are kept on new Bweet milk. After that they are given a rntion.of ban and oil cake, which, with the fodder they soon learn to eat, keeps them growing finely. I am now feeding with wheat hay grown upon the ranch, which I cut when in blossom, thus obtaining much nutritive matter in the stem.” Determine what breed of cattle will suit you best, and after you have commenced stick to your line of breeding. Do not be influenced by everything that you may hear or read, and keep changing. In selecting your animals to commence with, select none but good ones, and do not be like the Irishman buying a pair of boots, “ want to get the most leather for the least money.” Select cattle with good pedigrees and good forms, possessing desirable qualifications for your purpose. Don’t buy indifferent auimals because they have a fine pedigree, believing what some breeders will tell you,’viz., they they have fine blood in them, but have been badly handled, and that you can breed them up. Leave that for professional breeders to do. They know how and often do it. . Origin of Plants.— Cabbage grew wild m Siberia ; buckwheat originated in Siberia.; celery originated in Germany ; the potato is a native of Peru ; the onion originated in Egypt ; tobacco is a native of South America; millet was first discovered in India.; the nettle is a native of Europe ; the citron is a native of Asia ; oats originated in North Africa ; rye came originally from Siberia ; parsley was first discovered in Sardinia ; the parsnip is a native of Arabia ; the sun-flower was brought from Peru; spinach was first cultivated in Arabia ; the apple is from Europe ; the horsechestnut is a native of Thibet; the quince came from Island of Crete ; the radish is a native of China and Japan ; the pear is supposed to be of Egyptian origin ; the horseradish came from the south of Europe. Chicago Medical Journal. The Botanic Gardens, Mauritius. —From a recent speech of the Governor, the Gardeners Chronicle learns that the public gardens of Pamplemousses are the one glory of Mauritius, and the one more visited by strangers than any other place in the island. These gardens were visited last year by no less than 91,558 persons, equal to more than one-fourth of the entire population of this island—a far greater.proportion than in any other country. It is as. if 8,000,000 of people were to visit the botanical gardens at Kew or the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. To show the practical good done by the gardens, it is sufficient to quote from the annual report of the director, from which it will be seen that during last year no lesß than

396,362 plants were there propagated and sent out ; of these 273,559 were planted in various parts of the island far sanitary purposes, and 100,255 sold to the public Of the latter 76,684 were forest trees, 1,556 fruit trees, 15,797 coffee plants, and 6138 flowering shrubs. The great beauty and practical use of the gardens are secured at a comparatively trifling sum—less than £2OOO a year. Grooming, or cleanliness of the skin, is not a mere matter of glossy or staring coat ; it is essential to the health of domesticated animals. When it is borne in mind that the skin is one of the principal organs by which refuse materia] is thrown off from the . body, the necessity of keeping the pores or little drains clear will become apparent. When they become silted up, the lungs and kidneys are overtasked, and hence diseases of both these organs. A CORRESPONDENT writing to the Australasian avers that pigs are proof against strychnine. He writes :—“ I was one of a party when the argument ran high on both sides as to the effect of strychnine on pigs. One side argued it would have no effect, and the other that it would kill. It was jointly agreed to try the experiment on an old sow. An ordinary dose was administered with no visible effect, afterwards a larger dose was administered, when the old sow died as dead as a door nail. I have been told the strychnine sold at the present day is not so pure as it wa3 at the time the dose was administered —some 30 years ago. I have heard of a sow in Queensland who used to follow the man who laid bait for native dogs, and eat them ; she was afterwards fattened, killed, and eaten.” Another correspondent writes :—“I know an instance of a litter of pigs, five in number, and about six months old, devouring a mixture of sugar and strychnine, in the proportion of one pound of the former to one drachm of the latter, laid for the purpose of destroying oppossums ; in less than an hour four of the pigs lay dead, the other one recovered in 12 hours, and exhibited much the same symptoms as a dog would under similar circumstances. On the other hand, I have known an old sow pig to eat as many baits as would poison 30 dingoes, or about five times as much poison as that taken by the young pigs, and exhibit no ill effects. Whether it was the difference in the ages of the pigs, or the difference in the administration of the poison, that caused death, I am unable to say, but am of opinion that it was the former. With regard to the dose given to dogs, &c., I may state that in using strychnine I have always found that the larger the dose the quicker, the effect. With arsenic, however, the case is different, as too small a dose will take no effect at. all, while too large a dose will cause the animal to vomit, and will, consequently, prove equally ineffectual.”

Leather from Sheeps Stomachs. —According to a contemporary, an American inventor has succeeded in making a very good light, fine leather from sheep’s stomachs, or rather from the middle membranes of the stomach. The mode of preparation is to carefully remove both the inner and outer coatings, when a thin white skin-like material is produced, which is subjected to a mild process of tanning, by means of a mixture of alum, glycerine, and yolks of eggs, mixed with flour into a paste. This paste is spread over the material, and allowed to remain for about a day, when it is removed, and a small quantity of linseed oil rubbed into the resultant “ leather.” The “ leather” thus produced must be dyed prior to the application of this treatment, and it is said to form an excellent material for the manufacture of purees, bags and similar articles. The great meat-preserving establishments in South America might advantageously apply the process to the stomachs of the thousands of sheep which are annually slaughtered there, and there does not seem to be any. reason why the internal membranes of other animals should not be similarly treated, and so acquire a new value.

Phylloxera.—The Gardeners' Chronicle is irate at the action of the Government of the Cape Colony in attempting to exclude phylloxera from Southern Africa by prohibiting the importation of “grape vines or cuttings, or portions of vines, plants, tubers, roots, bulbs, or portions thereof,” for thus runs the notice issued from the London office of the Cape Government Emigration Agent. Our contemporary can see nothing in this but a wanton injury to the commercial interests of the country. It ventures to prophesy that the edict will not have the effect of keeping the insect out of the colony. Whether our contemporary intends to introduce the insect surreptitiously or not the article does not state, but unless some ill-disposed or careless person evades the law, <*s it is quite possible for anyone to do, the insect will not be likely to appear in the colony. The moat general knowledge of geography would seem to be wanting in the Chronicle office, or the argument would not have been used that because the officers of the Italian Customs failed to prevent the phylloxera from crossing the borders, the Cape edict must also necessarily fail in the same particulars. _