NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The following hints on the use of reaping machines are from Donald Reid and Co.'s Farmers' Circular: <— Good judgment is requisite in setting out a field before commencement. It is not always wise to take the field or crop as it stands, and proceed with the cutting in a continuous way till all is down. It is better to seleot those portions of the prop that are most alike in quantity of straw, providing there is a considerable breadth of equal bulk, and. lying convenient for cutting. The lighter part of the crop thus selected should be cut first, and in cutting it, most probably the whole breadth of the machine or knife-bar may be in full work, effecting the cutting of a large breadth in a short time. The elevation or regulation of a ' knife-bar ' and ' sheaf -butt,' may be then kept at one pitch, so that the whole may go on soothly and satisfactorily; but if light work and heavy work are taken together, much inconvenience and hindrance arise. The knife-bar would require lowering, or to be set more dipping, to attack successfully every laid or heavy placo ; neither could the stoutest machine cut at full breadth through the hoavy spots or portions of the crop. 1 It is better to divido the crop into separate parts, for more expeditious working. It may look somewhat unbusiness-like to be cutting and carving about throughout tho field, but that is of littlo importance, when the best and most expeditious method of doing the work is required. The heavier portion of tho crop will require more care, more labour, and much more power. It will be found more safe and more sure, consistent with expedition, not to overload the machine in heavy work. The judgment of the workman will soon be convinced as to the breadth of cut he must adopt in heavy work, and the depth and inclination of the knife-bar necessary to get under the laid places. It is better to take only half the breadth of the knife-bar than to take more and clog in the work. After all, the machine is but in reality a substitution of the scythe ; consequently, as the mower with the scythe has to turn about and about again to catch or take his work at the best advantage, so must the machine in some measure oe worked, Sometimes it may be necessary to

attack a laid place on the side of the layer ; or, it may be, to meet the laid place in front, so as to tear it up for the cut. It will not s foften occur that the reaper will clear up a closely laid place from behind, or taking it in tho line of draught as it lies ; but all these differences and difficulties in the mode of working will be readily overcome by usage and good judgment in the workmen. There are machines to be found that will accomplish the cutting of any orop, however heavy, closely laid, and badly ' thorough grown.' Before commencing to cut any field, workmen, with the common scythe, Bhould be sent in to open the ways for the horses. Most reaping machines are capable of making their own way, and setting out their own work, but it is at the expense or lossof the farmer. There is invariably a waste in the trampling of the horses, and the passage of the machine, which manual labour with the scythe will save. Every machine should be provided with an extra knife and other requisites, likely to be wanted in case of accident, so that no hindrance or delays take place. There are also, in some fields, various spots or places in the crop, such as fallows, old ponds, filled up 'ditches, and the like, which had much better be done with the scythe than spending time about them with the machine ; if, indeed, the machine can get at such places at all. All these minor matters the farmer's judgment will direct, bearing in mind that no single implement or machine was ever invented or designed to effect every portion of the work for which it was intended. Many little aids of various kinds will, from time to time, suggest themselves in facilitating the work, which do not at first appear. Experience is as necessary here as elsewhere.

In reference to the agitation for the establishment of an agricultural college for Otago the Tuapeka Times makes the following remarks:—From the nature of the country in Otago generally, the foundation of such an institution in the .Province would be attended with incalculable benefits. Every year fresh country is being opened up for agricultuaal purposes, and is it not right that this should be utilised to the best advantage 1 From the force of circumstances, it is a well-known fact that many of tho farmers in the Colony are men who have adopted the avocation late in life, and consequently not always acquainted with the most economical or approved methods of working their land. The object of this institution (if brought into operation), we opine, would be the formation of a college (with an area of agricultural land adjoining for practical experiments on the culture of crops, &c.) where pupils might be instructed, under a competent professor, in the latest and most economical methods of farming.

The Palmerston Times states that Mr A. Donald, blacksmith, Palmerston, has invented an ingeniously contrived apparatus intended to prevent the evaporation of a large per centage of the phosphorous used in poisoning wheat for the destruction of rabbits. The article is so constructed that instead of the- steam escaping it is condensed during the process of cooking, by which means the strength of the phosphorous is retained in the food, which is rendered more effective for the purposes for which it is prepared. The apparatus in question has been made to the order of Mr John Douglas, Mount Royal.

In speaking of agricultural matters in the Papakaio District, the Oamaru Mail says:— 'Very few turnips have been sown .this year. What few there are tell a tale of winter feed that would gladden the hearts of sheep farmers if there were a larger acreage in the district. If the success of the Dunedm shipment is assured, the owners of the croppecf-out land in the Oamaru district could give more of their attention to this branch of agriculture with advantage to themselves and the land, for, as an old writer says, " corn won't pay without cattle, and cattle won't pay without corn." The two branches of farming must go together in the future, for fat cattle are always succeeded by fat orops, weather and farming being favourable.