CURRENT TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1787, 20 February 1886, Page 13

CURRENT TOPICS.

Several of our most prominent breeders of Ayrshire cattle have for some time past been taking- or sending over to Sydney stock of their own or their neighbours' breeding. Among the most prominent of these may be mentioned Messrs. A. and J. M'Farlane, Mr K. B. Ferguson, of Blueskin, and Mr M'Kay, of SandymotmtMr Ferguson has made several very successful trips, while Mr M'Kay has recently returned from a visit to Sydney, and Queensland, where he has been making inquiries with a view to test the capabilities of the market for stock, and has determined upon making a still further trial. With this view, he took by the Wakatipu, leaving on Friday last, 20 head of Ayrshire and Alderney cattle, including three prize bulls and several cows which have taken first prizes at various agricultural shows. This is Mr M'Kay's third trip. On the two former occasions he succeeded in doing little more than paying expenses, but he hopes, with the selected shipment which he takes with him on this occasion, to realise something handsome. The efforts which he is making to open up a market are deserving of success, and, though we cannot but regret the departure of such fine animals, we wish him success.

Otagan farmers may glean a few useful hints from the following letter, which appeared in a recent number of the Irish Partners' Gazette : — • There is a well-known proverb, " It is not good to have all your eggs in one basket," and I would apply this by saying it is much safer to have a variety of green crops than to place too much dependence on one; and never was the advantage of a variety of green crop more apparent than this season, when turnips (the main* stay of stall-feeding) are not half a crop, and mangles are fairly good all over the' country. But, in addition, I have gradually got into the custem of planting a considerable breadth of cabbages, up to five or six acres, for commencing with sheep and stall-feeding as soon as mangel leaves run out. My difficulty for some time was to have cabbage plants sufficient, as they are often cut off oy frost, or eaten by wood pigeons, rabbits, &c, and too dear to buy. This I have now got over so far that I have got a large, variety of early cabbage, " Sutton's Early Drumhead," which, sown in April, will do well to transplant in July, and come in for use in October. As I have now a quantity of this seed of my own saving, I mean to try another plan viz., sow an acre of the seed like turnips out of a turnip-sowing machine iv drills, and transplant the thinnings, leaving a sufficiency of plants in the drills for a crop. I have found this variety of cabbage very useful for filling blanks in the mangel crop or turnips.— St. G. R. J.

Notwithstanding the bad harvest in South Australia, we learn that many of the farmers in that Colony are preparing to put in larger crops than last year. This is pluoky conduct, and speaks well for the energy and determination of the_ South Australian farmers, whose crop experiences during the last few years have been most disheartening, and enough to make them tired of trying to grow wheat.

It is generally held that for fencing purposes blue gum posts are superior to any New Zealand timber, but this is evidently erroneous, for we (North Otago Times) have been shown two black pine posts that had been in the ground 13 years, and were at this period sound enough to be put in the ground again, probably to do another 13 years. Beyond a slight decay on the outside of the wood, tho posts were quite solid and sound— a fact that shows New Zealand timber to las, for this purpose at least, as suitable as any that can be imported. Blue gum could not have stood the inroads of insects and damp better tlian the native wood has done.

The Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourne Argus writes as follows on January 23: The harvest returns which the " Register " has published amply confirm 1 the general opinion as to the lowness of the yield". Want of rain, in the first instance, and then red rust, induced, it is supposed, by spring rains, appear to be the prlnoipal causes of the failure, but hero and there vahbits have proved very destructive to the crops. In the lower north the average runs from three to six bushels per acre ; but in the upper north, where the big agricultural areas are situated, it ranges from half a bushel to three bushels. In some places the. yield was so insignificant that there was nothing worth reaping, and cattja were turned into the fields. The reports*, though detailing suoii disastrous results, indicate that there is still plenty of hope among the farmers, who are determined to try again. This is a sample of the spirit possessed bymany: "Awfully bad harvest this year; the hundred won't average half a bushel per acre. Sad, careworn faces everywhere ; yet most of the farmers will try another season. I intend to, although I only got 13 bags from 105 acres sown,' 1 The surplus available for export will bo about a fifth of what it h-^.s been the last two years — that is to say, ft will not touch 00,000 tons. The hay harvest too, is exceptionally light 'everywhere : , the average for the Colony will not reach half a ton to the acre. As illustrative of the fact that want of moisture was tho pvincipaJ cause of tho failure in the wheat, harvest a correspondent narrates the following singular circumstance :— Mr Fuller's farm of 300 acres at Willowie gave the phenomenal yield of 2Atons hay per acre, and from that portion which was reaped (the poorest) a return of 25 bushels of wheat per aevd, while all the farms in the neighbourhood did not yield more than three to four fcishels per awa. The difference is alleged to be entirely due to a thunderstorm which broke- over Mr Fuller's farm and flooded hir, land with a grand fall of ram, the downpour- being limited to his sections.

Although several sheep districts have not yet rf-een officially deokred dean, the Wellington Post has authority for stating that at the wesent moment tho whole of the Colony is free from scab, with the exception of a small area in the Kaikoura district, and 1 there is every reason to, bfiP.vo, that this will bo cleaned within 'the next three months, as most vigorous efforts, are nut made. The complete eradication of scab U \'e-w Zealand win be an event of g<j\«)b im po^Knoe, iuul will reflect great creiljb on the Colonial Sooretary and tho officers of his dp partment.

It has been resolved to proceed 1 at once wftb the erection of a dairy fas Wy at Stirling. At a meeting of t)^> "tiiutha Agricultural am! Pastoral Hoeie^ w 12th, harvest yaps we «J

fixed at Sd per hour and found ; lOd men finding tftemselves. Men's wages at threshing mills, Sd and fouud. In the event of the, mill being idle through bad weather, tho men to pay 6d per meal after the first idle day.

The new refrigerator for the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company's Works at Belfast, which has been imported at a cost of something like £4000, is now being landed from the R.M.S.S. Tongariro ; and as the additional buildings necessary for its reception are all ready, the work of erecting it will bo proceeded with at once. Tho machine (says the Lyttelton Times) is a Haslam and Bell-Coleman patent duplex surface-condensing refrigerator, capable of delivering 100,000 cubic feet of air per hour, of a temperature of from 50 to GO degrees bolow zero of Fahrenheit, and of circulating through the freezing chamber 140,000 cubic feet of air per hour. It is fitted with a high-pressure steam cylinder 19in in diameter and with a 30in stroke, and with a low-pressure steam cylinder of- 28in diameter and 30in stroke. There are two compressors, each of 23in diameter and 30in strqke, and the two expansion cylinders are 18in in diameter and of 30in stroke. The steam pipe to the high-pressure steam cylinder is 4iin in diameter. The machine can be used as a compound engine, working two refrigerators, or merely as a single refrigerator. It is provided with a surface condenser, and with a complete set of Bell-Coleman patent drying pipes for extracting aqueous vapour from the air.

Humble bees have found their way as far South as Oamaru, where, according to the Mail, one was captured and liberated after being identified.

A few days ago (says the Christchurch Press) Mr A. Yates. Ashley, sustained a severe loss in the somewhat sudden death oi Campsie 111, imported by Sir J. Cracrof t Wilson in 1876 from Scotland. He was a most valuable horse in his Say, and has left some very hardy and useful stock. Campsie 111 was for many years one of the draught horses shown on our parade, and his death will he a considerable loss to his last owner.