JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1265, 28 May 1896, Page 4

JOTTINGS.

We are glad to notice that the Grey town peoplo have decided to start a co-operative dairy company. Tho Wairarapa St indat’d reports tlmt. a in >min » of farmers interested in the dairying industry was held in the Forester-,’ Hall on Monday evening. There were a largo number of milk-suppliers present, and Mr 1,. St. George, was voted to the chair. Various propositi jus were discussed and it was unanimously res-lived to form a Cooperative Dairy Company, with a capital of .£IOOO. The new Company is to be formed somewhat on the same lines as the Featherston one. Nearly 500 shares wore signed for in the room, and the matter of furthering the project by canvassing other milk-suppliers was left to the Hub-committoo. Tho chairman intimated that Mr Hock had kindly offered his assistance in helping to form the Company, and his offer was gladly accepted. A six-tooth wether killed in the Umutaroa weighed 1521 b when dressed, and a fniir-tootii maiden ewe turned tho scale at 12G!b. G jod evidence this of the excellent pastures to be found in tho blocA. According to tho Greytown Standard a resident of Featherston was caught redhanded at sheep-stealing, and tho owner of the sheep has given him a month in which to leave the district. He ought to have been prosecuted as an example. Is tho owner of the sheep aware that by treating tho thief in this absurdly lenient way he is practically compounding a felyny ?

The fashion of ringing pigs seems to be rapidly dying out, and now one rarely sees a hog thus ornamented. Where the modern system of allowing pigs to run at large is followed the ring is an absolute disadvantage, as it prevents the pigs rooting and thus deprives them of nn important source of their food supply. The unadorned pig can do immense service to the farmer by rooting out objectionable weeds, and generally putting the ground into an excellent state for cultivation. A small mob of pigs will soon make a paddock look as if it had been dug over. Where tho pigs are allowed the run of the garden, of course, ringing is advisable and necessary, but a pig in a garden, with or without a ring in his nose, is as much out of place as tho proverbial bull in a china shop. A ringed pig is a spoilt pig.

The manager of the Rongotoa (Campbolltown) Dairy Company has received advices from tho Company’s London agent to tho effect that recent shipments have brought most satisfactory prices. The Rongotoa Dairy Factory returns for the month of April were as follows : Quantity of milk put through 40,4511 gallons; average test, 4'2 ; from which

was made 17,6241 b of butter, sold at 8d per lb, equal to A's7B Os 4d, which gave a payment to tho suppliers of 3 5-odi d per gallon of 111 b.

Depend upon it there is money in sugar beet. A test made at Tenterfield (New South Wales) of a square chain of beet roots showed tho yield to be 28cwt, equal to 14 tons per acre. The farmer who grew the beet, says that tho ploughing took two men two days, and thinning cost 255, which was all the expense incurred. Our correspondent, in reviewing this, says :—“ Supposing tho roots contained only a minimum percentage of sugar, the return from an acre at the company's price would be ten guineas, which would allow of a profit of at least .£'6 per acre. The roots are now being tested to ascertain the percentage of sugar."

The Waipawa Mail says:—Mr J. J. Buchanan has succeeded in raising healthy sugar cane from seed at Hampden. The cane is also growing well on Messrs Buchanan’s land at Blackburn, which demonstrates the fact that both tho soil and climate are suitable for this crop.

We are glad to hear that tho profits made by the Now Zealand Dairy Farmers’ Union for tho current financial year will amount to about ifiiOO. Returns on the last two shipments show a profit of .£570. Wo congratulate Mr Young, the manager, tho shareholders and all concerned. Months ago we advised (ho suppliers to stick to the Union and have confidence in the ne.v in umgeinenl. The result lias shown that our counsel was wise.

Sheep values have undoubtedly hardened up tho coast of late, and in the S intli Island, al.e), the advance is very noticeable. A Taieri farmer puts it as 8s since May of last year. If only London prices for freezers would harden up, farmers would be still more cheerful. But the London outlook, judging by recent reports, is still very gloomy.

At a meeting of directors of the Nornimby Co-operative Company held last week, the returns so far were found to justify expectation that at the end of the season the payment to milk suppliers will have averaged 2:{d to 81 per gallon.

Sheep stealing is stated to bo extensively carried on in the Eketahuna dist act. At a recent meeting one settler stated he had lost GO sheep this yea! - , and mentioned the case of a neighbour who had lost over 100 fat wethers.

Mr S. M. Robbins, Government Inspector, leaves for his homo in tho United States by next mail steamer. He intends to visit the chief dairying districts in America and Europe and gather the latest information on dcairying practice that is to be obtained. Mr Robbins has done really good work in New Zealand, and he will receive a warm welcome on his return.

Winter dairying is bound to come into fashion in this Colony. Tho Riversdalo Factory, hitherto devoted solely to cheese, has just set up a butter-making plant, and butter-making will soon be in full swing.

Major Fisher, in his new book “ Outdoor Life in England," relates a simple but effective method of keeping rats off the premises, He says: —“ We had been considerably? annoyed by the rats, and I was at a loss to know what to do, for I feared again to make use of ferrets in so ancient a building. Eventually I thought of a plan which succeeded so admirably that I think it worth while to inform my readers. Being aware that for a long time after a house lias been ferreted rats will not enter it, it occurred to me that this fact must, of course, bo due in a great measure to the scent of the ferrets. I therefore procured some litter from a hutch in which ferrets were kept, and had it pushed as far as possible into every rathole we could find, afterwards closing up the holes with any suitable substance wo had at hand. This plan had tho desired effect, and for nearly two years not a single rat attempted to invade tho premises. The foregoing is a simple remedy. There was no smell whatever apparent from the litter, but had there been such it would have been far preferable to the annoyance and damage caused by rats. I had previously tried the effect of poison, but the result was too dreadful for mo to try to repeat tho performance, as tho rats, dying behind the wainscots and panellings of the rooms, necessitated our leaving tho house for a time. I only wonder that this remedy which suggested itself to me is not generally adopted. It is doubtless satisfactory to destroy all the rats which may infest one's premises, but since ‘ prevention is hotter than cure,’ it is surely far more so to keep them away altogether."

Mr Richard Gibson, writing from Canada to the American Slice pbreeder, says:—“ I was talking to my butcher the other day. He informed me he cut up ten wethers fifteen years ago to one now. The demand is all for lamb. 1 But,’ he continued, ‘ if they were all leg, I could sell twenty times what I do.’ It put me in mind of John Jorrocks, who, unknown to himself, was being examined by a commissionor-in-lunacy. Amongst other questions he was asked how he liked his quarters. ‘ Too much mutton.’ ‘ Ah, yes, can you tell me, Mr Jorrocks, how many legs has a sheep ?’ 1 Dead or alive ‘ What difference does that make ?' ‘ When he is dead he has but two, tho otliers are shoulders !’ ”

In the manipulation of the cow’s udder for the development of dairy properties tile great principles to be borne in mind aro the sensitiveness of the cow’s nature, the delicacy of the organ and the necessity of treatment widely differing from the natural action of tho sucking calf. The notion that wo must on every occasion imitate nature as closely as possible is, in this case, and in ni iiiy other cases (says the (dtantrij <!eiitlcman) a very much mistaken one. Allowing the calf to suck, or imitating in any degree with the hand its “ bobbing " or plunging with the head, is altogether wrong, if we want the deepest milkers. That system will retard development. 11l Nature there are no deep milkers, and the more we stick to natural or quasi-natural means, the slower w.ll be the process of improvement upon Nature. The udder must be bandied with the greatest delicacy, and when the cow is in milk must be clean emptied at regular intervals. To drain it to the last drop, no violence must be used, no disturbance or discomfort to the cow permitted. The skilful management of the udder is mostly mechanical, and learned by long and intelligent practice.

The importance of colour in barley intended for brewing purposes (says the American Agriculturist) can scarcely be overestimated. It is as necessary this should be right, with freedom from dark stains, as it is that tho grain should be plump and heavy. These requirements can be best attained only by beginning right and so continuing until the crop is

secured, threshed, screened and placed in tho bin. Cultivation is most satisfactory in good, healthy soil, many successful growers preparing the ground in tho autumn, then turning over the surface in the spring before seeding, which ought to bo completed as early as practicable. As barley is inclined to lodge, barnyard manure, if used, should be well rotten, applied sparingly in tho fall and ploughed under. If the seed is sown rather thickly, the plant growth will not be too luxuriant with resultant unequal maturing of grains. In tho barley districts of Europe, whoro grown most successfully, the seed is drilled in rows three or four feet apart, that good light may be secured, this favouring the production of a grain rich in nitrogen. Some apply in the spring a small quantity of nitrate of soda—say a little more than 1001 b per acre. Rains at harvest time aro liable to stain the grain dark. If stacked, do not mix the heads with tho base of the sheaves, as this will prevent uniformity cf colour, a point so much demanded by maltsters.

Here is a little story from an American paper which has a moral for not a few New Zealanders :—Here was tho reply I got from a farmer noted for his shiftlessness: “ No, I don’t take no agricultural papers an' I don’t want none. I know too much about farmin’ now. 1 don’t want to blow no money in on noosepapors when I kin sca'sely scrape together stuff enough to pay my taxos. Come, boys, les’ all liavo another drink." Tho next man I met was Henry Fabry, a thrifty and successful man, who promptly renewed his subscription, adding : “ I have taken this paper for more than 20 years, during which time I liavo never failed to read it from cover to cover."

Tho winter show of tho Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association was opened last week. There aro upwards of 400 exhibits, and though tho entries of stock aro confined to a fow cattlo and a small number of pens of sheop, tho exhibition is most interesting.

Tho first clause of Mr Henry Chaplin’s Agricultural Rating Bill, dosigned to relieve farming laud in England by providing for its assessment at half its ratable value, has been passed in the House of Commons.

Tho Rinderpest is vory serious between Pietorsburg, in the Zoutpansberg district (in tho north of the Transvaal) and Fort Bulli, and the rivers aro polluted by tho carcases of dead animals.

Tho Victorian Dairying Conforonco is much dissatisfied at, and is protesting to tho Government against, the appointment of a Now Zealand dairy export on tho grounds that the climate of tho two colonies is so different that it will bo throe years before Die Now Zealander has understood climatic conditions sufficiently to give practical advice.

Though there aro not two millions ot human beings in Denmark, there aro upwards of a million cows.

A deputation of butter factory managers asked the Victorian Minister of Agriculture to reconsider iris decision to appoint a dairy expert from Now Zealand. Mr Tavornor rep fie I that he considered the Now Zealand system of inspecting and grading butter superior to the system in Victoria, and ho did not think the objections raised wore sufficient t,o cause the Government to alter its decision.

Nominations in connection with the points prize in Avr.-hire cattle to lie computed for at the Wellington Agricultural and Pastoral Association's annual show have been received from Dunedin, Uamaru, Waitati, Mew Plymouth and the Halt. It is expected that there will be a very largo show of cattlo in this class. Large entries aro also expected for the other points prizes offered by the Association.

A fine mob of young milch cows arrived in Wellington last week, consigned to Mr Mox« ham’s Upland Farm dairy. ’I he cattlo are from the Manawatu district, and aro in splendid condition.

Mr J. Young, manager of the Dairy Union, informs the Palmerston Times that the profits for this year will amount to about JJ3OOO. Tho shipments sent by tho Kaikoura and Tainui realised a surplus oyer all expenses of A’557 13s sd,