Agricultural and Pastoral.

Otago Witness, Issue 920, 17 July 1869, Page 16

Agricultural and Pastoral.

Norway Oats.-E. P. Hoitt, of Atkinson, N.H., writes to the Club, that he has tried the Norway oats, about which bo much has been said, for two seasons, and in both they failed. Jones and.Olark, of New York, write that they have heads of the Norway twenty-seven inches long, and 107 stalks to a single root Solon Robinson says that "an oat yielding 50 pounds to the bushel in V ermont will not produce more than 15 pounds in MisaissipPK Norway oats »re simply oats grown in a high latitude, and if taken South they will grow chaffy. I have seen Vermont oats weighing 40 pounds to the bushel twenty years ago. Let the oats be as good as claimed, it is a fact, nevertheless, that aB good oats oan be had in Canada, and at reasonable rates. I denounce this Norway oat business as a humbug and a swindle. Northern oats are always heavier than those grown in warm countries." Mr W. S. Carpenter said :— " After many trials, I have come to the conclusion that any oats I buy will run down after the first year. In the latitude of New York we cannot raise heavy oats, and it is of no use to experiment. I have tried again and again. On cool, wet years, I will have heavy oats ; but in a hot dry season, my pats will not be worth harvesting. This is a great law of climate, and we cannot break it nor get around it." Mr Horace Greeley said :— "An oat grown in Canada or Northern Vermont is twice as heavy as one raised in the South. This seed taken to a warm climate will be heavier the first year than ordinary oats, but by the third year it beoomes as Jiad as any other. No one need expect to raise such oats m this country as are grown on the hills of Norway and Scotland. Hence we should import oats from the North. The plaided Highlanders could never have been bred on American oatmeal." Mr Jones said :— "Vermont does not raise common oats now, like those of twenty years ago. There, as everywhere else, they have degenerated, and that is why the Norways are liked there so well, and they are also introducing them into Canada and they me the difference between them and their common black oata, and Canada farmer* are hitfhlv recommending tho Norways, even at 10 dols per bushel Our claims are these : They will yield three times as much as the Poland, Surprise, or New Brunswick ; they have the hardiness to stand severe seasons, and will neither mat nor lodge. These points are fully proved by some of the best farmers in New England."— Proceeding of (he Am«nca<i Institnte Farmers' Club, in the N.Y. Tribune.

Harvesting Grain in California:— Mr Woodharas, Santa Clara, California, wr it CB _-«<We are now in the midat of harvesting which in done altogether by machinery. On the level land where the grain Btands w«ll up and even, when somewhat down it is cut with the header, »nd usually stacked from the headerwaggons ready for the thresher, though sometimes a thresher accompanies two headers and threshes from the waggons withoi t stacking. This saves wastage from •teoking, and is the best plan where sufficient fnwe of men and teams can be had. Where grain is much fallen and on the side hilte, it is cut with a reaper : on the leveithe self-rakeoperates well. Very little binding is now dona rompfcratively. IHe horse-grappling fork is usod for unloading and pitching on the stack to the thresher. From oar being subject to no ram in harvest time and with the aid of machinery one man can do more in gathering the harvest than he can in any of tho Eastern States. The threshinsr, too, is done up quicker, tho large jobs bein.' mostly done 5y steam-power. A drawback is that. one has to furnish sacks for all the grain which go to the purchaser.— Ibid, Rbfixbmewt is Soils and in Majt.— John W. Olawsonof Punxsatawney, Jeffer•on Co., Perm., discourse* wellofnmoas the great refiner of soils. A fertile or rank •oil runs to weeds, he says, and the grass it yields is coarae and sour compared with the growth of a refined soil. The rank toil needs to be tonod down and omitted fa order to yield the richest product. So in the state of man, when nerve, muscle, and stomaoh are oppressed with many want. and with labor; he calls that con. dition the lovo of riohes, and prescribe* the Bible and its teachings, as a correction to this tendency, just a. a top *nw»ff<jf lime correct* **c ranknass ot a gro«t soil or the ■ourneu of a wet soil.— lo. FKSDwaSTOOK.-Thoy who t*k°™»fc print with their stock f oad '^J^™! Jday, but not much at a time. X * I*™ l6 ' dW not got out to the barn until 9 «V»loo1c in the morning, twuwa <ty J™ «Mir«r. Perhaps maay feed mow to two tf.o4. than in thro* or four. It ij Important that hay should not be fw»™y mpoVand turned over a great deal-/*** Fawnrawa. -Fruit-growers wjntr* fartiliwrs that will act promptly. BUMM taquira one kin* of manure, w**;* o^!!' 9P» IBd <rfcWt Ma 4 «•<* «»• «■*

The needs* of market-gardeners and] M ; fruit-growers' are not' the same asof jtho general farmer. Bone is a permanent, manure and will impart something every year. Superphosphate is the same material but so prepared as to give immediate results. — Bid. ■ The new fabrio plant of the South, Ramie, has a fiber as long and as strong as flax, it is as white and as .fine as cotton, and as glossy as silk, while it needs less cultivation than either, and bears three crops a year. It is not injured by insects, and it Bells for double the price of cotton. Clover plowed in has three effects. It gives vegetable mold. The roots bring to the Boil plant-food out of the sub-soil ; and the acid produced when the decay is going on aids in dissolving the mineral parts of the soil. In granite lands this last is of as much importance as either of the others. . , There is some difference of opinion among the most advanced farmers whether it pays to steam good hay. That steaming makes stalks, straw, and coarse hay, about as good as timothy, is generally conceded. . It is complained that the grain buyers of California have made bo much money that they control the finances, commerce, and politics of the Btate, and the farmers are urged, to combine to ship and sell their own grain. . . In laying tile, the best way is said to be to commence at the lowest point, and to let the water flow back as the digging goes on, and to have a descent of four inches in 100 feet.