LATE AGRICULTURAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1890, 10 February 1888, Page 17

LATE AGRICULTURAL.

Our Wakatipu correspondent writes under date February 7:— The continuous wet and stormy weather threatens v not to totally destroy the best orops the local farmers ever had, at least to greatly interfere with harvest operations and seriously damage the grain. Up to about a fortnight ago all the grain crops looked exceptionally well and promised an abundant harvest, when, just as the cutting was about to become general, hailstorms, high winds, and heavy downpours of rain laid low the farmers' hopes and crops together. As is the general rule in Otagq,, wet; _ and cold accompany each other, or if tfip weather changes, to warm it turns often to oxcesp, causing tho grain to

sprout upon the least provocation, so that with present afflictions and possible alternative troubles, the outlook for the farmers is a very gloomy one. The weather still bears an unsettled appearance, and harvesting under any circumstances will be much more expensive than it usually is. Should the weather not take up shortly the consequences to the crops will be uothiug short of disastrous.

The uncertain weather which is prevailing throughout Oiago is retarding the commencement of harvesting operations, and only in the earliest districts has harvesting been commenced in good earnest. The heavy rains of last week and the high winds of the present one must have caused considerable damage in some localities in which the grain was well advanced, but later districts have escaped with comparatively little injury. Our Canterbury correspondent telegraphs that fine weather is being experienced, and reaping is progressing rapidly. The yields have been further reduced by the high winds.

An adaptation of an Australian method of trapping rabbits, for which a patent is about to be applied by some Thames residents, would probably be of use were tho American proposal of dealing with the pest by canning them on an extensive scale to come into general use. The proposed 'method is to fence in a paddock with rabbit-proof fence, and sow in either lucerne, carrots, or parsley. This acts as a bait for bunny, who in attempting to reach the coveted food falls into a series of covered pits. These pits are about 2§ffc iv depth, and are connected by means of a tunnel with a number of enclosures covered with wire netting, and from which it is impossible for them to escape. We can scarcely see where the patent comes in, as a very similar method has been successfully tried in different parts of Australia, and, if we are not mistaken, in Ofcago also. Possibly the peculiar construction of the traps or tunnel may be considered original enough to be protected.

M. Pasteur, in an interview with the correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald in reference to the proposal to send out the microbes of fowls' cholera, explained that it was far more destructive to rabbits than to fowls, that it spread with extraordinary rapidity, and speedily ended in death. In his opinion, the best means of propagating the disease was to sprinkle herbage placed at the mouths of the burrows with the liquid. If a rabbit were to take the smallest quantity of it into its body, it would soon go back to its hole and die. There it would itself become a certain source of infection. Thus the epidemic would spread, and the animals would die in multitudes. Although this disease was so fatal to rabbits, it was absolutely innocuous with regard to cattle, sheep, and other farm animals. He had made in a special study in his laboratory. The mi-irobe perished when the temperature rose above 50deg or 51deg centrigrade, so that the experiment wculd have to be conducted in winter. He held that the practical application of his method was easy and inexpensive, but it needed care and scientific precision. The conversation turning upon the various means already taken in Australia and New Zealand to combat the rabbit pest, M. Pasteur said they were all inadequate. He looked amused when told that weasels and stoats had been imported to kill the rabbits. "Quite useless," he exclaimed, 11 a living poison is needed to destroy this prolific life. Modern science has taught us that it is the little beings that kill the large ones." M". Pasteur, in closing the interview, said : "If I were a younger man I would go out to Australia and superintend tha experiments upon the rabbits there."

The following instructive instance of the value of selection is reported by a correspondent of a Victorian contemporary, who states • — " Mr W. Bracken, of Wakiti orfiek, a short distance from Nathalia, has raised 50 bags of wheat this year from the produce of one ear of wheat that he selected frcm a sheaf on the farm of Mr Wigney, of Boorfe, some years ago. The wheat is a white-bearded variety, rustproof, and very prolific, with length of straw of 7ft. It is quite a district variety, and the awns drop off at harvest. It is a goad milling wheat, the grain showing a very white centre with a very thin husk of bran. The yields of this variety show over 80 bushels to the acre."

A great deal of summer breaking -up (says the Waiareka correspondent of the North Otago Times) has been going on of late, showing that farmers have no immediate intention of giving up cropping. There is said to be a great amount more wheat this year than there was the year before, and if prices keep up to a fairly profitable level this season it will be pretty s.af,e to, predict th#t nex.t season North Ofcago wi,ll be a veritably, \vheat garden. Ifc strike's rae that the reaper and binder has a great deal to do with this increase. Not only does it make labour cheaper, but the farmer must look to this — that a binder costs something more than a trifle, and after a farmer has got one he must have something for it to do in order to make the investment pay him.

A most alarming announcement, and one which we trust will not bear investigation, is to hand in a telegram from Marton, in Wellington province— viz , that the Hessian fly has made its appearance ia that district. The telegram says:— The Hessian fly and Californian thistle have invaded Rancitikei. It is thought that prompt measures should be taken to deaj with these pests.