THE FARM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 952, 7 May 1879, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE FARM.

SELF BINDERS TYING WITH WIRE. ( Marlborough Times.) We recommend the following communication from Messrs. Redwood Bros, of the Spring Creek mills, to the careful attention of the agricultural interest "We desire through the medium of your paper to call tlie attention of farmers using self-binders which tie with wire to the fact, that by allowing the wire to pass through the threshing machine it is broken into small pieces which remain in the grain. With wheat this is most injurious, as we find that particles of wire passing through the stones in grinding are flattened and rendered so sharp that they cut the silk dressing machinery, and not only cause us much loss from stoppage and" repairs, but prevent us turning out a fine sample of flour. This to us is a most serious matter, and we wish to point out that by not carefully taking out the wire bands when threshing, farmers are depreciating the value of their wheat, as no miller will give the same price for grain. On our own farm we have had no difficulty in taking out the wire by using the nippers made by the manufacturers for the purpose. These implements cut the wire with ease and hold it firmly afterwards, so that the band can easily be pulled out and put aside. We noticed in some American papers that the millei's there weie veiy much against machines using wire, anil were ill fact combining to prevent. tliLii use amongst farmers, but we iveie inclin'■■<! to think they were doing so from other motives, but when we accidentally found some of the pieces of wire in the meal aiKi then examined the silk dresser we found the complaints of our Yankee friends were well-grounded. We have several of the pieces of wire at our mill and shall be glad to show them to any one interested, when we arc certain it will be seen that we are not without good reasons for what we say." IMPORTS OF WHEAT AT HOME.

The import of American wheat into this country (says an English paper) is assuming such large dimensions that it is not surprising that farmers begin to be somewhat anxious as to the future of the cattle trade. Some information on the subject, which will be interesting not only to them but to meat consumers generally, was fiven at a dinner held a few days ago at Glasgow, by the butchers engaged in the American meat trade. The Chairman, in the course of his observations, observed that " fanners might be assured that the coming summer and autumn would be the worst they had had to face with America, large freight contracts having been entered into for the transport of cattle into Britain. So large were those contracts that he was afraid many of them would never be completed, as, if all were fulfilled, cattle would be as cheap with us as in America. With regard to the increase of the American trade it was stated that the entire quantity of meat imported into Great Britain in 1876 was 16,165,6321b., the money value of which was £389,395. In 187S it had risen to 53,661,2101b., with a money value of £1,264,764 ; while from Europe the total money value of dead meat was only £00,505. Tiie value of^ the iniooris of all classes of live stock into Great Britain last year from America and the Continent was £7,454.482, and with dead meat addod £8.785,781. Of that sum nearly £4.000,000 was from America. Every year, it was pointed out, Europe can spare fewer cattle, and it is to America we must look to make up the deficiency in the home supply. Sooner or later all these importations of meat must tell upon our butcher's bills ; but at present they remain, strange to say. as high as ever. - DEPRESSION OF AGRICULTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

In an article in the Fortnightly Uevicw it is stated that by general consent the agricultural interest in Great Britain is admitted to beat the present time in a condition of depression. Landlords feel it through the difficulty which they experience in getting their rents ; bankers know it by the incontestable evidence of overdrawn accounts ; and tradesmen suffer from it in the diminution of sales and in the postponement of settlements. Nor is the crisis at all of the nature of a surprise. On the contrary, the article points out it has been slowly approaching for the greater part of the last ten years, and rapidly for the last four. At least this has been the case in the corn-growing districts of England. In pastoral districts the depression is of recent date, and even now is much less serious than where the land is chiefly arable. Thus Scotland, which depends less on corn-growing than England, has suffered less, while Wales and Ireland have, until quite recently, scarcely suffered at all. Seasons which are unsuitable to cereal crops arc generally propitious for the growth of grass and roots; and although the frequent failures of the potato crop have caused ruin to many Scotch farmers, and the prevalence of cattle disease, up to a comparatively recent date, has been a serious matter to stock farmers, the heaviest losses have fallen upon those who look to their corn crops as their chief source of profit. THE "WONDERS OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

One of the most singular discoveries in the history of agricultural chemistry is due wholly to the French. Sheep draw from the land on which they graze a large quantity of potash, which is eventually excreted from the skin along with the sweat. It was shown by Chevreul that this peculiar potash compound (" suint") forms at least one-third of the weight of i raw merino wool; while it constitutes about 15 per cent of the weight of the fresh fleece. As it is easy to extract the " suint" by mere immersion in water, the wool manufacturers can readily produce more or less concentrated solutions, from which the potash may be recovered by appropriate treatment. The development ot this new industry is principally due to MM. Manning and liogelet, whose process, in operation at most of the great seats of wool manufacture is very simple. They evaporate the solutions to dryness, and place the residuum in retorts, and distil it very much the same as coal is distilled at gas works. The result is that while much gas is evolved which can be used for lighting the factory, and much ammonia is = expelled which can be collected and used in many ways, there remains a product consisting of carbonate, sulphate, and chloride of potassium. These salts are separated by the usual method and pass into commerce. While on the subject of animal refuse, we may refer to the manner in which certain dead animals are utilised in France. Every portion of a dead dog, for instance, is converted to some use ; it is boiled down for the fat, the skin is sold to glovers, and the bones go to make "superphosphate." In Paris the carcass of a horse is worth more than elsewhere, inasmuch as the working-classes eat the best portions of tho flesh. The hair is a well-known refuse used by the upholsterer; the hide goes to the tanner to make thick leather for bank ledgers, etc. ; the intestines make coarse gut-string 3 for wheelbands and lathes ; the fat, which from a well-conditioned horse amounts to 601b5., finds a ready market; the hoofs are used either by turners or makers of Prussian blue, and the oones go to manufacturers of ivory black and to turners. Even the putrid flesh is allowed to breed maggots, which are sold as food to fatten fowls.The final residue is used by rat-catchers to trap their prey, and the skin of the

captured rat finds a ready sale among furriers on account of its delicate fur. A statement that has,,frequently gone the rounds of the papers to the effect that most of the "kid" gloves of commerce are made from the skin of this rodent is probably untrue, since its small size would preclude its use for anything but gloves for children. USES OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. !

Lord Derby, at an agricultural meeting, spoke as follows :—" As long as there are two ways of doing anything, a right way and a wrong way ; as long as weeds and rushes grow in English fields—and as I looktd out of the window of the railway carriage I saw a good few of them, even in Lancashire ; as long as the earth, which we want to have properly dug into and ploughed, and the wholesome light and air let into it, is in some places just scratched on the surface, as if the people who had to do with it were afraid of hurting it; as long as all the dirt and refuse of the town, which even the Chinese know how to put back on the soil, is turned into our rivers to poison them, and then allowed to drift out to sea in order to show the very fish what fools we are ; as long as we have waste land growing nothing but gorse and thistles, waste labor, and what might be and ought to be labor, waste hands that ought to be laborers' hands running into idleness, and through idleness into mischief ; as long as all thesc things last, and they will last, our time —because bad ways take a deal of mending—so long, I say, rh- r-:: will be a need for, and a use in, show* ami gatherings, and meetings and exhibitions of this kind. I don't speak of the pleasure tin y give in a social way, because that we can all realise ; but we can very well understand that if a man does not go from his home more than once in six weeks or a couple of months, except to church or to market, he is apt to think—all people do it who have not the opportunity of comparing themselves with their neighbors—that there are no cows like his cows, and no crops like his crops, and no pigs like his pigs, and that his farm is a model farm generally, and that all his geese are swans. It is no use to tell a man when he is in that way that other people do a great deal better than he does ; in the first place, he don't like it; in the second place, he don't believe you. But seeing is believing ; and a man of the kind I have been mentioning goes home from a show of this sort with some of the conceit knocked out of liim ; and instead of that, some of those uncomfortable but useful things, new ideas, inserted into his brain. "What an exhibition of this kind is meant for, what it has got to say to all or any of us who have anything to do with farming—is just this—'My good friend, you think you are doing very well with that bit of a holding of yours, and perhaps you are; but just look here, and here, and here ; just look at that pig, and that cow, and that labor saving machine, and that bunch of turnips, and that lot of potatoes, and you will see that clever as you think yourself, you might manage a great deal better.' Well, that is the plain English of it." TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR FARMERS.

Technical education is becoming more and more a necessity of the day, and the manner in which public attention has been attracted to it gives evidence of a want which is but too generally folt. Ic needs no abstruse arguments to show that a man who, in addition to a good practical knowledge of his business, possesses an intelligent mind, familiar with the general reasons which influence his operations, must of necessity, be thereby placed in a better position for making improvements or for overcoming difficulties which may arise in his work. Every occupation of life which requires the exercise of judgment must be advantageously influenced by cultivated skill, provided it be combined with other business qualifications. If this be true as a general rule of industrious pursuits, it is more especially the case with reference to agricultural operations. Probably no other occupation in life brings a man so constantly in contact with the operations of nature, or in such a variety, as is the case with the cultivation of the soil. The principles of animal and vegetable life are perpetually influencing his every operation, and according as he enlists their assistance or strives to overcome their influence, so must his proceedings be more or less successful. The necessity for technical education in relation to agricultural industry has long been felt, and generally acknowledged, and although it must be admitted that much progress has been made in this direction, still, at the same time, very much still remains to be done. Feeling assured that any judicious effort for the attainment of this result is worthy of encouragement, we are pleased to notice a movement which is being made through the medium of the Press, and which we hope will be successful in promoting the establishment of schools in which special attention will be given to the study of the sciences in an expressive manner. The time is, undoubtedly, not far distant when this will be more fully recognised as a part of the education of every one who is to be advanced beyond a knowledge of mere elementary school routine. The simple principles which regulate the proportion and use of food are valuable to each and all of us, but more especially to those whose business requires an extensive adoption thereof. The rules which govern the health of the body have a personal interest as well as influencing the suc-i ce3sful management of large stock farms. The especial object of general education should be the preparation of the mind for subsequently gathering fuller knowledge, and no system of instruction will be more successful in its attainment than that which encourages the study of the natural sciences. In some cases this must necessarily take an exceedingly simple form, whilst with others it will be of a more advanced character; but of all that is I learnt at school none will more fully confirm the well-known truth, "knowledgeis power." The farmer, from the exteut of his operations, is either a gainer or a loser, according as lie is able to protect himself from loss, or has to submit to the penalty arising from the want of fuller information. Much" has been done for this protection by securing the assistance of those who have a knowledge and skill in special departments, such as it is scarcely practicable for him to attain, and who have convenient appliances, which are too costly to become general. Thus, through the agency of agricultural associations of various kinds, the buyer has been protected in the quality of his purchases, and the opportunity of knowing what he buys, and what he is paying for it. The time has gone by for purchasing in a blindfolded condition, knowing only the cost per ton, bus with only a very vague idea of the quality. As the farmer becomes more fully acquainted with his actual requirements, so he will seek to get his supplies genuine, and at a market value without any mysterious surroundings, which have little use, except to cover up what the seller seeks to hide, but which it is to the interest of the buyer to be fully informed upon. The more fully such trade transactions are reduced to definite and clearly understood arrangements, the better it will be for the buyer and the honorable trade 3. This will be promoted by any movement having for its object the distribute >n of good and useful information amongst those who are engaged in the tillage of the soil, and it will be an outlay profitable : in itself, as well as calculated to further-the-general interests of agriculture.—lrish Farmers' Gazette. [