AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The various dairy factories are now in full swing, and notwithstanding the serious fall in the price paid for milk a fairly good supply appears to be the rule. The highest rate appears to prevail at the Edendale Factory, where 3§d per gallon is paid to the company's own tenants, and 3d per gallon to outsiders. The Stirling factory is paying 2|d by bills at six months, an arrangement which is to hold good up to the end of December, when the directors are empowered to fix the price in accordance with that ruling for cheese. The Gore factory's supply is steadily increasing, and the superior quality of the milk is still maintained. The new arrangement made between the directors and the suppliers appears to be to the material advantage of the former, although the latter were under the impression that they were receiving a concession. The Southern Standard, in writing on the alteration, says : — " The directors resolved that the payment of 2d per gallon should be jn cash, and not by bills ; but they increased the weight of the gallon of m,ilk by one-twentieth— it is now lO^lb instead of 101b. This 'concession' they expect will please the farmers immensely ! As a matter of fact, it will give them less for their milk than the previous proposal. 12601b of milk, under the old conditions (101b to the gallon) would count as 126ga1, and at 2d per gallon would bring the supplier 21k, to he paid in three months. If he discounted the bill, he would • get for it 20s 6d cash. Under the new arrangement, with whioh the farmers are expeoted to be delighted, 12801b of milk reokons as 120 gal (of lOJlh), for^hich, at 2d per gallon, the supplier receives just 203— thus losing 6d as compared with the old obnoxious terms upon every pound's worth of milk he supplies to the factory. But then, as some of those on the board know full well, it is an easy matter to hoodwink the farmer." The ilataura correspondent of the Southland Times writes :— "Most of the farmers about here have their grain crops sown, and what is through

the surface looks healthy. On some of the farms the wheat and oats have been harrowed and rolled again. After the wet weather not nTuch barley has been sown, although I am informed the land is quite suitable for growing it. Numbers of lambs are to be seen in the fields ; the August ones are doing well and gaining strength rapidly ; the September ones, owing to the severe weather, are rather backward." The Dipton correspondent of the same paper says : — " The unsettled state of the weather during the past fortnight has considerably retarded farm work. A large area of ploughed land still remains to be sown. The early sown crops look very promising." The manufacture of poudrette manure from the nightsoil conveyed from the city to Wingatui is now being carried on on a somewhat extensive scale. The process is a very simple one, and may be briefly described as follows: — A quantity of the manure is run off into pits, and then mixed with lime and sawdust, the proportions being about 30 tons of lime and 190 sacks of sawdust to 250 tons of manure. It is then exposed to the weather till it driea, and afterwards nn iron roller is passed over the material to crush it up. It is then stored in a shed and passed through a riddle till it is fine enough to be sown broadcast with a machine, It is claimed that the manure treated in this way contains all that is valuable in guano and 1 bonedust, while it also possesses the quality of being easily soluble, so that it acts quicker on the crop. The new process of manufacture gets rid of the disagreeableness that formerly existed, while most of the valuable properties are retained. Excellent results have already been obtained on the Taieri with this manure, and Mr Holtje has testimonials from Messrs John Nimmo (The Grange), Will Jeffery (Saddle Hill), W. A. Todd (Mosgiel), and others as to its excellent properties. The best proof of this, however, is that some who took a ton of the manure last year for a trial are this year ordering 10 tons of it. The quantity required for land in a fair state of cultivation is about 6cwt per acre. The price is £3 per ton at the works. The experiment of destroying rabbits by the introduction of scab amongst them is being tried by Dr Butcher near Wilcannia, and the Victorian Government veterinary has left for tho purpose of reporting on the effectiveness of the plan, and the influence of scab, if any, upon other animals with which the rabbits may come in contact. It is claimed that the scab sweeps away the rabbits very quickly. A consignment of 223 stoats and weasels arrived by the Kimutaka last week for the Amuri sheepf armers.