AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 18 November 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

From Abraham Lincolne's Victorian Quarterly Circular we extract the following Paddocks intended to be left for iwd would pay well if gone over carefully (not to tread any down, more than can be helped), and the weed plants dulled up bodily. There are, in most plots of growing leeds, hundreds of silvergrass, drake, ind other weed plants, and it is much uaier to separate them when standing than when threshed and intermixed. Growsra of grass seeds are apt to place too great dependence upon the powers of their dressing machines, and neglect, until too late, applying hand labor in any ihape to the growing crop. Hand labor is weeding appears more expensive and unprofitable than it really is ; for every shilling saved in not weeding, a pound will be lost at time of selling. There is nothing deteriorates the value of grass weds io much as foreign matter in the ibape of weed-seeds ; and a difference of 3e per bushel is often quoted in the season by all dealers. Twenty-five bushels per acre is only a fair yield for ordinary land, and not half what is sometimes produced. Now, it is not an unreasonable calculation, and I have frequently heard it made by practical growers themselves, that, as oar teed machines are so defective, it ■am oft times L 5 an acre by weeding at tone of growing. Growers ought to look more at the result than at first cost. Hand labor, I know, is expensive, but it night be far more frequently and profitably used.

Cockerell's Rotary Harrow is a recent improvement designed to assist the farmer m preparing a suitable aeed-bed for either grain or his grass seeds. It is triangular in shape, with aides 7ft. long and * base of 6§ft. The sides are formed of a of cast-iron reels, with a toothed ®*c at each en t; the reels are lOin. long, and revolve with a draught of the implement round an axle of strong *woght-iron rods, acting somewhat simi«riy to a circular-saw drawn on an angle. A collar on an eye between the reels form » movable joint, so as to allow the implenant to adapt itself with facility to surface inequalities. This joint also allows the ~ lver to shift and repair any portion in •he field, if necessary. The draught of we narrow is very light, and ita action is Nported to be very effective upon a "ogn surface. The patentee, through Mr. Abraham Lincolne, prac*gnculturist, Kirk's Bazaar, is redwing very satisfactory encouragement. testimonials already received, Watson, of Watson and Pateraon, j 1: ~I have much pleasure in testifyg to the value of your new harrow. I 7®*® treated several acres of grass and ploughed land, and in both cases wand the harrow did its work wonderconsider ono harrowing r "jis implement equal to two harrowthe old toothed one, so far as f "paring a seed-bed is concerned." A new product bids fair at no distant to be added to the list of local pro®jwona. According to a London corresFWoent, a project is on foot, and will soon made public there, which, so far as he enm**' novel. It is to form a in Scotland for the cultivation in • » itew Zealand of the tea plant and of p ? 01 ? 1 - ® ne Mr. William Cochrane, . stthjhir 0 , has it in hand. He has it ,V * "®lieve, a tea-grower in China, and v ' rom k" study of the subject, for e eir Zealand is well adapted ota of these industries, and that they liia BQ ®sesafully carried on together. I W £r n > that Mr. Cochrane Haef ° ' n comma nication with Dr. (,«, * q P. 0Q the subject, and that the will be before the public ere "PP'oximate estimate of the harvest been published by the . "grfcultoral authorities. The J® France will be a good average to--.- " 0 most favored country is, tkv&A? 40 th « Bt »tistics, Upper Italy—ejjj ® ®*ceeding the average by SO per Upper and Lower doe, f ne *t on the list, with a proTlia fj JP®r cent above the average. Per ln Podelia and Swabia is 20 nf t? 1 ? 10 an average. Lx the and Bavaria and in Wortemwtiautedafe 15 per cent aboro ,

the average ; while in Bessarabia the yield only exceeds it by 10 per cent., and in Hungary, Poland, and Belgium but by 6 per cent. In Prussia, the Palatinate, Baden, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Central Italy, Holland, the South of Russia, Servia, and Egypt, the crops are said to be average ones, without either surplus or deficit. On the other hand, in Austria and Mecklenburg there is a deficit of 5 per cent.; and in Great Britain, Ireland, and Saxony of 10 per cent, below the average. Churland i 3 worse off, for the deficit is estimated at 20 per cent. In Gothland, iuiJii'.er Russian province, the yield is 25 r tit. it ss than the average, and in Central Russia the crops are bo bad that the deficit reaches 40 per cent, below the average.