ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 952, 7 May 1879, Page 4 (Supplement)

ITEMS.

Swarms of locusts are destroying the crops in Paraguay. Four gallons of weak soapsuds with two tablespoonfuls of refined coal-oil, used with the syringe, kills mealy-bug and all insects known to plant growers. I have used it for the past two years, and hope some of my London friends will make a note of this.-—R. 8., in Garden. Recent careful examinations by Mr. J. G. Lemmon, botanist, convinced him that the big trees of California are not more than 1500 years r old, instead of nearly 5000, as some have maintained. The largest and oldest apple tree in New Hampshire has just been cut down. Its age is stated at 200 years. It measured at the ground lift Sin. in circumference. Four feet from the ground it measured 17ft Sin. in circumference. Tt was 50ft. high. It had seven large branches, the largest being over 6ft. in circumference, and a smaller one over 3ft. About fourty years ago it bore fifty bushels of apples in one season, and until last year it bore fruit annually. Mr. M'Adam, a Scotch farmer, who emigrated to America years ago, has afforded fair trials to test the value of shorthorns and Ayrshires as milkers. He kept sixty-four of each breed on exactly the same conditions, both herds being first-class of their respective breeds, and with the following results for the month of June last : Ayrshires, 64 cows—6s,3Bolb. of milk; cheese, 64241b; ratio, 10'17 ; daily average of milk per cow, 331b ; cheese, 3-^lb. Shorthorns,. 64 cows—-52,6801b. milk; cheese, 47971b; ratio, 10-98; daily average of milk per cow, 171b ; cheese, 2-7-151b.

The total extent of land returned in j 1878 as under all land of crops and grass amounted in Great Britain to 31,855,000 acres, and for Ireland to 15,345,000 acres. For the entire United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands, the total was 47,327,000 exclusive of heath and mountain pasture land, wood, and plantations. These figures show an increase in Great Britain of 142,000 acres since the previous year, and more than a million and a half acres since 1869. An English gentleman who has " paid considerable attention to the cultivation of asparagus," dares to maintain that " no salt or brine is any way necessary to it," on the contrary he assures the London Garden that the best beds he knows of " never get any salt at all." Without venturing to favor this radical view, we may safely remark that there is a great deal of horticultural teaching handed down from the fathers, and which people generally accept as sound instead of making experimental tests for themselves.

The rot is said to have been making great havoc amongst the Somersetshire sheep. Mr. Crabb, a farmer residing near Ilminster, has been the principal sufferer; most of his ewes heavy in lamb have succumbed to the disorder, whereby he is a loser to the extent of L3OO.

At a meeting of the committee of the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society, held lately, the balance-sheet of the society showed that, when the amount—£942. lis 4d.—of the Government grant in aid was paid, the society would only be in debt ££,l4 10s lid. The amount received for subscriptions, <fco.—£l,o97 12s Bd.—last year, and the amount paid for prizes—<£1,493 13s 6d.—were the heaviest sums for similar items that have ever yet apfpeared on the society's records. VV heat bran, the elements of which are in such form as to readily decompose, dissolve and become assimilated by plants, is reported as having been applied with much success as a fertilizer for tobacco in the Connecticut Valley. It is also claimed for it that it answers the same purpose equally well in cotton, and corn fields. —California Farmer..

A fruit grower on the island of Guernsey, picked the past season f rom a Duchesse d'Angouleme tree th r |/ second crop pears weighing respectiw.l 6 8,11 }j. and I2A-oz. " An instance of spontaneous incuba tion is reported from a Western N ew York barnyard where the heat of litter aetidenviU'y throwii ovev a i:n s r 0 f „ ' iia't-ekeu out. ii healthy cuirke:is. Mr. T. 0. Eastman, of New York the largest shipper of American beef and American live stock to Grout Britain, speaking at a dinner at the Charing Cross .Liotel, said that ] as t year there were landed S.">,(;()() e:\ttle GO.OUU sheep, and 15.000 against -12-I cattle and one sheep in 187.'i." The entire- weight of meat sent frutn Amorie-v into I'ritain in 1 S7(> v ils 10,! !>.i.0;?.:!b., wiilt a money value of ; in I"7S it hud risen to riojv't L,:i i wirh a. moiiev va : ue of 'J i-; v!:i!e f'-T'l !v.r<>'n tlif> . I,'. ' I: M ! . Til'.- tueau va!ao.> -scoeic were lately given iu i'ayExpress. Tiie tigiuvs wwv '• 1 We \>s, tl:i 2s. ; males, .£'l3 I. sd. cows. .t's 10s O.UL; oxen a:>d oilier cattle, £3 lis sd. ; sheep, 10s 4.U1.• pigs, .£1 0s 9d. ' An English dairyman who lm c [ diluted milk with 7 per cent, of water lately handed 15s to a magistrate as a memento of the occasion.

It was estimated at a late meeting of the Central Ohio Beekeepers tliat the average yield, per hive, during the past honey season was about 301b. The total wool clip of the world in 1877 was about 1,497,500,000 pounds; worth L 30,000,000. This when scoured, would yield about 552,000,000 pounds clean wool. The clip of 1878 was smaller by 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 pounds. The clip of Australia reaches, i annually about 254,000,000 pounds; that of Buenos Ayres and the River I Platte, 223,500,000 pounds. | In the report given by the Cultivator and Country Gentleman of the American Ayrshire Dairymen's Association it was stated, as an instance of the appreciation of Ayrshire animals, that one bull and six cows had been sent to the Sapporo Agricultural College in Japan, to be used as the foundation of a dairy herd. The will of Mr. Thomas Christopher Booth, the eminent shorthorn breeder, late of Warlaby, Ainderby, Steeple, Yorkshire, was proved on February 8, the personal estate being sworn under L 16,000. The number of persons who visited the Smitlifield, England, fat cattle show was over 100,000. Most of the members of the Royal family were present. The number of animals present was : Cattle, IS2 ; sheep, 156 ; pigs, 63; and the prizes distributed, L3OOO against ,LlO6 in the year 1800. The extent to which the importation of breadstuff's into Great Britain have increased is shown by the following figures : —ln 1858, with the population of 28,359,770, the value of the imports under these headings amounted to L 25,598,471, equal to 18s 3d per head. Ten years later, with 30,617,718 of a, population, the importation of food products had risen to L 55,405,503, or at the rate of LI 16s 2d per head. In 1577, with an increase of less than 3,000,000 in the population, purchase of foreign meat and biaggregated Xi 99,692,999, equai 10 16 0 19s 7d for each person in the kingujtn. , There are 2,250,000 cows in Great Britain, and upwards of a million in Ireland. A considerable number do little more than bring up their calves. It is estimated that about 3,000,000 gallons of milk are, on an average, yielded daily for human food. About two-thirds of this is converted into butter and cheese, and about one-third is used as milk.

The late Mr. Edward Boards, of Edmonton, an extensive farmer and market gardener lias bequeathed to the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, England, the munificent sum of L 12,000 payable after the demise of his widow.

The grasshopper is by no means a new enemy to cultivators, for, judging by records before us, the hopping little pest was a source of annoyance and great loss to the ancients. The ancient records of the monastery of Fulda and other German cloisters, which have recently been published among the Monumenta Germanite, give detailed accounts of a visitation of grasshoppers in the year 573, surpassing in point of destructiveness even those prevalent of late years in America. The grass* hoppers appear to have come from the East, and, after having devastated nearly the whole of franco, perished in the Atlantic. They are desoribed as having hidden the Sun, and as having eaten everything green on a hundred acres in the course of an hour. Spanish Monastic Archives also recount the appearance of grasshoppers in 873; This appears to be the earliest record of an invasion of these insects into Europe. If there should happen at any time to be odours of carbolic acid in your neighborhood, open the windows of the dairy-room and the milk will soon smell like tar; if an ill-kept pig pen fouls the air of a summer evening, give the milk a chance and it -will eat up the offensive smell to the extent of its capacity. The value of milk as a disinfectant is not half appreciated. The committee for the propagation of horse-flesh as an article of food have issued a return showing that the number of horses, asses, and snakes slaughtered in Paris for consumption, in 1878, was 11,319 or 700 more than the previous year. The continued inci'ease in the use of horse-flesh in the public alimentation is a proof that the prejudice against this meat is being gradually overcome. The committee are rendering a public service in utilising a cheap, wholesome, and palatable food) which would be otherwise wasted. A prize of 12,000fr. was awarded by & Ifeeroi,,, to the founder of the first shop fijjr the* sale of horse-flesh in London opented in May last. That venture) during the four months it was carried on, did not, however, meet with all the desired success, the chief reason f oP which was that the director was ignorant of the English language. ThfJ committee now offer a of honW' to any English butcher who shall ta * o up the trade and continue for tbrea months at least. _