AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3448, 1 June 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

PASTEURISATION AND PRESERVATIVE. Referring to the prosecutions of tenders of Colonial butter in which boraoio acid was found the Sydney Mail points out that the best way to avoid future trouble is to adopt pasteurisation and eschew the use of boraoio acid and other preservatives. Our contemporary remarks : —“ The fixing of a standard quantity of boraoio acid would be of considerable advantage. It would ensure the harmlessness of the produce and guard against large quantities being used to cover up defects in the condition of the butter. At the same time, the whole business is bad for Australia. While it is known that a certain preserva. tive is being used, and that it is necessary to restrict the quantity by law, we can hardly expect Australian butter to command the highest places in the home markets. We know here that there is practically no harm done by using the greatest percentage of boraoio acid yet discovered. But the u appearance of evil" is given to the reputation of the article, and this is what Australians should strive to avoid. The clever Danes have succeeded in doing this by adopting pasteurisation and discarding preservatives. That the move has effectually disarmed the suspicions of the wary British consumer and his representative bodies is shown by the relative values for Danish and Australian nowadays as against those which ruled two years ago. An incident of the trade which comes to us on unimpeachable authority supports this view of the case. The manager of a Sydney company made up some pasteurised butter in imitation Danish kegs. The New South Vales butter was sold as Danish in Great Britain, and it realised 12s per cwt. above the money obtainable for the best Austra lian. The gain was certainly not all due to pasteurisation here; in fact, it is pretty certain that it was a case of reputation first, pasteurisation second, and the quality of our Australian butter very well up indeed. It shows pretty plainly that when you take your butter to London you must do as the Danes do. Pasteurisation is the only system by which the doubtful use of preservatives can be superseded, and it is towards that end that all who are interested in our dairying industry must work.

MILKING SHOBTHOENS. Me W. Ashburner, of Conishead Grange, Diversion, England, the well-known breeder, has been called upon to defend his strain by a correspondent to the Live Stock Journal. This writer declared that the heads of Ihe milking Shorthorns were not fit for exhibition. Mr Ashburner replies to the effect that out of 20 bulls sold from his herd in 15 months 17 had heads fit for any show, one very fair, two bad; and one of the two was bred by an eminent breeder, but not of dairy shorthorns. The writer had raised the interesting point as to the quantity of milk a cow can give without encroaching ou her constitution, and the result would be a poor class of stock. Mr Ashburner replied that the bull he was using in his head was neither weak in horn, head, nor general points, and yet his mother had yeilded 20 quarts daily, his gtand-dam a Bimiliar quantity, and his great grand dam more still. Referring to size in these cattle the breeder says “ It is not to be expected when milking so heavily that the animal will grow up large, neither do we require them, as I have a doubt whether very large cattle are the most profitable. Again, farming for shows under our present system, the animals will of course get more bone and carry more flesh, and look more elegant to the unpractical eye, but the one who has to study his pocket knows the reason why there are two different appearances ; one has its Sunday suit on every day, the

other only when getting a little wet before calving, and to some the only time she looks respectable, Prom my long experience nearly all Shorthorns if bred and reared for the purpose make grand dairy cattle, irrespective of taste or breeder."

NEW ZEALAND AYRSHIRE3 FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.

The importation of 30 head of Ayrshires from New Zealand (says the Sydney Mail) has created soma interest in the dairying districts of this colony. Nobody seems to be able to got the correct hang of this transaction. 'When the scheme for importing dairy stock was first announced the Minister was credited with saying that the intention was to improve the herds of the colony, presumably by the profusion of imported blood. He said that arrangements were being made to purchase some cattle in England, and that alrcay 30 Ayrshires had been bought, and would soon be on the way to New South Wales. This left room for the inference that the Ayrshires were coming from England; but that seems to have been incorrect, because 30 Ayrshires have arrived from New Zealand, and there is every reason to believe that these were referred to by the Minister. I wrote recently that a good authority had describe these cows as a scratch lot, and I since confirmed that statement. Also I am told that the total purchase money was a long way under £2OO. Surely the authorities do not expect breeders here to accept the statement that milking cattle at such figures are going to raise the standard of New South Wales herds and increase production all round. Cattle of this olass may be just as useful for eating the grass on State farms as any others, but cattlemen will fail to see why the Government should have gone all the way to New Zealand for them.

DO YOUR OWN REPAIRING. This is tha advice given to American farmers by a writer in the Orange Judd Farmer. He says : —Too many farmers are given to hiring repair work done which, with the aid of a few tools and a little ingenuity, they could do themselves at one-tenth the cost. An old iron and a bolt box should be found in every farm. Having these in place, never pass a piece of old iron or a bolt, however useless it may look, but pick it up and put it into its box and seven times out of ten you will find that the apparent worthless piece will answer a useful purpose, Bolts of all sizes and descriptions, especially J and $ and -J- inch are always coming handy. Every farmer should have a bench 30 inches wide by 10 to 15ft long, with a good vise 18 inches from the end on the left-hand end as you stand facing the side of the bench. A left-handed man will have the vise on the right end instead of the left. Hanging conveniently over this bench on the wall should be a good rip and crosscut saw, 12 teeth to the inch, a 12-inch flat bastard file, a 6-inoh three cornered saw file, a 10 or 12-inch brace with J, a, -1, 3, J, and 1-inoh bits and al4 and 2-inoh auger. Sight here let me say, never file the bottom side of the cutting edges of a bit or auger, always the top side and file at quite a sharp angle. A good heavy hammer, a claw hammer and axe and light riveting hammer should also be found, a box of assorted | to 3 copper rivets, a cold chisel, punch, a square, a mar King gauge, a screw driver, monkey wrench, 12-inch Stetson pipe wrench for twisting bolts, plyers f, 3, 1 and 11inch chisels, mallet, harness punch, i inch iron drill to use in brace, an assortment of small wire nails, one-halt inch to one inch, a smoother and jack plane, a pair of compasses and a key-hole saw. These tools will of course cost considerable but if you will use them as much as you ought they will pay for themselves in six months, as you can do almost anything in the way of repair work. An old anvil or block of iron should bo added and if you get a cheap drill press and some rainy day build a forge, your blacksmith’s bill would indeed bo light; with the above tools and a little ingenuity almost anything can be repaired, Any man who has brains enough to successfully engineer a farm should be able to use tools and do any repair work. To illustrate what- I mean by using a little ingenuity : East fall my wagon tiros got loose. I removed them one rainy day, nailed soma strips I had which were £- thick by J inch wide halt way round tha wheels, heeled tha tires, put them on. The result was as good a jod as the blacksmith would have done. The cost cost was about five cents (2Jd). Saved 83.45 (15s 6d). Time, two hours.