AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 17 February 1888, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Quite a number of steam floor mills have re* cently been builb at Bombay, which not only supply tho local demand for flour there, but also export to Aden, Arabia, Persia, Mauritius, The Straits, Ceylon, Zanzibar, and Natal. There has not yet been much exported to Europe aside from experimental shipments to Italy, Turkey, and Alexandria. The trade in export flour is, however, rapidly growing, and it is not improbable it will be extended to Europe. The exports have been as follows : — lb. 1882-SJ ... ... ... 6.81(3,000 18S3-84 ... ... ... 7,891,000 1884-85 ... ... ... 11.057,000 I*S5-S6 ... ... ... 18,879,000 188ti-87 ... ... ... 35,7 M,OOO In the current wheat exports from India flour has not before been reckoned, but it is already assuming some prominence. I The urgent necessity for the adoption of effectual measures in Australia to control the movements of, and proscribe transactions in, cattle affected with pleuro-pneumonia and other contagious .[diseases, will probably at an early date be pressed on the atteutiou of the several Legislatures. The frequent outbreaks of pleuropneumonia reported lately have attracted public notice, and evidently the farming classes are impressed with the necessity for prompt action. At the conference ia Melbourne to consider the railway freights question, the prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle was discussed , and it was determined that it should be " one of the questions to be fought oufc in Parliament." One of the delegates said : "lam in the habit of attending many of the sales, and I know that great loss is entailed by diseased cattle coming across the border. I have had a great deal of experience, and I never saw a mob of cattle from Queensland sold in Wodonga (Victoiia) that were not more or less affected with pleuropneurnouia. . . . Last Friday I saw at Wodonga 11 bead sold at 12s per bead, and all of them were suffering from pleuro. Another mob was suffering from cancer and other diseases. . . . When men have disease among their cattle they conceal the fact from their neighbours." Comment on such a state of matters is unnecessary. Incfedible as the statement may appear, according to the " American Farmer," the annual returns from poultry in tho United States are greater than those from wheat, cotton or dairy products. Tho amounts given are 600,000,000i 10l for poultry, 450,000,000d0l for wheat, 400,000,000d0l for cotton, and 260,G00,000d0l for dairy products. Maize is king, however, with an annual roturu varying from 600,000,000d0l to over 780,000,000i101. Given the subject consideration, the allegation will not appear ill-founded. Poultry-keeping in the United States is said to be almost universal, whereas wheat-growing to any considerable extent is restricted to the Western States. Throughout the Union there are multitudes of poultry, and assuming that three, or even four, head would be equivalent in value to a bushel of wheat, it may reasonably be inferred that the annual returns from poultry exceed those from wheat. An Euglish contemporary observes : " Woolgrowers in Europe and Australasia will scarcely be able to rejoice on learning that their competitors in the Argentine Republio have just; been benefited by the abolition of the ridiculous export duties on wool, sheejiskius, and two or three other pastoral products, amounting altogether to over 2,000,000d01. Producers are also to be benefited by the abolition of import duties on raw materials. These advantages are much wore substantial than the paltry bounty of 550,000d0l announced some time ago as about to ho offered to meat exporters, a promise since conh'vnitjii. The price or meat will have to rise considerably in this country (Great Britain) before it will pay tbo Kiver Plate exporters to send us mutton— and tbey have no beef of any consequence to spurn. — good enough for our markets. The bounty is too small to be an appreciable set-off to the ho&vy losses incurred by frozen meat shippers during the last 12 mouths." The Government have received a report from Mr Hudson on tho Hessian fly, in which he states tbat the pest has ravaged the wheat,crops of five or six farms at Kangitikei, He thinks ib advisable to isolate the district as much as possible in order to prevent the spread of the pest to other paits of thu oolony. Somo of the insects, together with their larvae and several ot tho injured wheat stalks, were sent to the Agent-General by the Tonga riro, with instructions tbat he should obtain the opinion of Miss Omorori and Mr 11, S. Mcade, two well-known entomologists, us to whether the settlers at Marton are right in supposing that the Hessian fly has made its appearance in tbat district. If Sir Dillon Bell finds that it is ibe Hessian fly, he is to, make an effort to, obtain some pupte of insects which are b<ed in America to prey upon the fly. It is believed tbat the insects, which are causing much concern in Kangifcikei district just now, were brought from the United States in some packing case ttraw. In a paper read in Manchester to the British Association by Mr E. AtkiDaon, director of the Institute of Technology, Boston, attention is oalled to the faot tbat since the period 1870-1873, when the cost of American wheat in Englaud wa3 about 50s per quarter, tbß cost of convoying wheai iv America from the Western States to the pnrt of shipment has been reduced no less than lis per quarter by the extension of railways, the reduction of rates, and the use nil over the country of improved machinery. In the same period the freight by sea to England has been yedueed another 2b, while the. cost of growing tho wheat has been simultaneously lessened by improved methods of agriculture and a great reduction in the rate of interest or* borrowed money. The result of all thesn changes is taafc 34s per quartet in England pays the American farmer as woll as 50s paid him 14 years ogo; and Mr Atkiason assures ns that 34s in Mark Lane will maintain the American supply in iucreasmg volume with certainty m the futures, The. Mount Ida Chronicle is informed that; there mo at tbo present moment large numbers of ferrets on Eweburn run, under tho Mount Ida range, having apparently found their way aoross the mountains from some run o» bie» Waitaki. Our contemporary's informant • peats the &b3urd statements about ferr&ttj ana rabbits herding together, and reaches the climax by asserting t'^t "he has seen erodes between the twa breeds, which would wpia to indicate that hi the course of time wo may have a new animal arising which may be the embodiment of all the vices of both rabbit txA ferret, with none of their virtues." Fan&y » pest that noti. only ate up all the poor jjm»bucks r grass, but? also indulged in the miid pastime of puaettrring babies' and lambs* neck?,, hunting rabbits when. 1 driven to i,t by hunger, and makiag itself© nqisaa(?e alt round; No doubt the wisdom of taming out krge numbers of ferrets is open to* question, bat the. opponents of- the natuw^

enemies theory gain nothing by making them» selves ridiculous in this fashion. Our contemporary's correspondent does, however, make one sensible suggestion. "If we must introduce vermin of 6ome kind," he says, "let it be cats, which are not so harmful as ferrets and do a long way more destructive work among the rabbits." We certainly think that colonies of cats might be utilised to a greater extent than they have been in this colony. They have been found of considerable service elsewhere in reducing the young rabbits which rabbiters do not touch, and they might be usefully employed for this purpose here also. Under the heading of " The Australian Sheepshearer," the Sydney Mail illustrates and describes the shearing machine invented by Mr J. L. Suckling, Barsham, near Murrurundi. This invention differs from the Wolseley insomuch that it is driven by compressed air and not by a flexible shaft direct from the engine. At Barsham the Mail reporter saw three of the cutters at work averaging over 80 sheep per day each. Altogether over 7000 sheep have been successfully shorn by it. The weight of the shears is 330z, but this is said not to be actually a drawback, as the air-tube connected with it is passed over a pulley and has a counterbalance which takes all the weight off the shears. The oscillation is very slight, and there is but little jar on the wrist. The apparatus is thus described by the Mail:— "Bach machine is an engine and cutting apparatus combined, its total length being about lOin; its greatest breadth is 2§in, this being at the cylinder or enpine which is behind the handle of the machine. The handle is about l£in in diameter, and is slightly oval so that the shearer can hold the instrument conveniently, the upper part of the handle being hinged to the cylinder so as to be able to get at the stud on which the fork works as a centre; the cutter, which has three points, is attached to one end oi ilia fork, and is reciprocated over a comb with 10 teeth. At the opposite end is the engine, which has only two working parts— namely, the piston and the valve. Diametrically through the centre of the piston is a pin and thimble, to which is attached the fork, which passes throagh an opening at the side of the cylinder nearest the handle; and, as the piston is forced from end to end by the air entering from behind through an indiarubber tube, it carries the fork with it, thus giving motion to the cutter. The stud iv the casing of fche handle is screwed ko as to giire pressure to fche cutter. The movable parts are the casing, the piston, the valve, and the fork, the rollor uuderueath the fork, the comb, and the cutter. The comb and cutter require shifting in case of wear. The cutter will do 25 sheep without needing sharpening, which is done on a flat copper disc, with emery and oil. Of courso several cutters are kept ready sharpened. A cutter will last out 2000 sheep, a comb 6000 sheep. The latter costs Is Cd, the former about 3d. The machine altogether with 10ft of tubing can be sold at 50s. The cost of fitting up ready for use 12 machines would be as follows : — A steam boiler, 4-h.p., £55 ; a Knowles' air compressor, £72 ; 12 machines at 50a each, £30; pipe labour, &c, £10— total, £167." . . _ , The new meat preserving company at Kakanui are overhauling and renovating the works under the direction of the engineer, Mr Mansfield, and everything will be in working order in time for the coming season. The South Canterbury Co-operative Company's Journal thus comments on M. Pasbeur's panacea for the rabbit pest:— "So much has been said lately on the subject of stoats, weasels, ferrets, cats, and chicken cholera, that we hesitate to approach the subject. As regards the latter, however, if it be not raukheresy to say so, we have not an unlimited faith in the efficacy of M. Pasteur's method. As regards its safety to man and domestic animals, we should have no misgivings. The assurance of a man whose researches in the domain of science necessitate the strictest accuracy _at every step, may surely be accepted with implicit reliauce if human testimony is not altogether worthless ; but it is on other grounds that we confess sundry doubts. It is claimed for M. Pasteur's method that by disseminating the microbes of chicken cholera amongst rabbits they will be practically exterminated, but, if so, we affirm that such a result is contrary to all experience of other diseases.no matter of how virulent a type. Tne plague in the human subject, and the rinderpest among cattle, are examples of malevolent diseases of a highly infecbious or contagious character. The former, during the time of the Middle Ages, several times over-ran Central Europe, aud occasioned an appalling loss of life; yet we do not learn that nations, or even communities, were ever entirely swept away by its ravages. Domestic animals, from the artificial nature of the lives they lead, should be peculiarly liable to the attacks^ of various kinds of disease, yet in no ease within the memory of man has any kind of domestic animal become exterminated from this cause. Nature, in her operations, seems to be guided by a higher law. | As Tennyson says — !

So careful of the ty_pe the seems ; So careless of the siugle life, and ifc tfl difficult to suppose that she would suffer an entire race to become sxtinct simply through the tftyages of disease. The science of palaeontology amply shows that part of Nature's plau has been the gradual development of new forms of animal and vegetable life from those that have preceded them, in order to mccc changed terrestrial • conditions j and nothing is better established than the fact that • Nature makes no leaps,' and that all changes of magnitude are gradual and not sudden in their incidence. Again, it is well known that any disease, whether in the human race, or in other members of the animal kingdom, is more violent in its first attack than in its subsequent course. The severity of smallpox amongst the Pacific Islanders many years ago, and the recent unusually malignant attack of measles amongst cue Fijians, are examples of this. Another Snsfciince is that of American blight amongst &ppie trees, which, according to good authority, committed greater ravages on its first introduction into this colony than it has done since. Generalising from these facts, we may assume that any rabbits that withstand the first ongtivugufc of ohicken cholera will secure comparative immunity for the future— in point of fact thai fche disease will expend its violence in the first attack, and will exist afterwards only iv a modified form." Satisfactory progress is being made by toe Wolseley Sheep-shearing Machine Company. A workshop fov the making of these machines has been erected on the Australian Electric Company's premises, near Princes' bridge, Melbourne, in which about 50 hands have been for some months employed in making the sheep.shearing machines, every portion of which is aiow made in Melbourne. At present the output is 10 shearing machines a week; but as orders are now invited, the number of machines produced pe* week can be increased by putting •on more labour. " W. P.," in the Southland News, makes the -following remarks on two troublesome weeds :—: — " Of all introduced plants none are so aggressive .or likdy co cause the farmers so much trouble nifl I'xpi'use as the ' couch grass ' Where ie entDM ie takes full possession, and it is almost incredulous bow rapidly it is spreading over the.

country. Its only cure will be the tedious and I expensive one of thoroughly erasing its roots from the ground, a course the settler will have ' to adopt tf he does not wish to be driven from his farm. The sorrel, so much dreaded by the settlers when first introduced, pales before this noxious importation. If it continues to increase its circle with the same rapidity as it has done for the past three years, in a couple of years more there will not be a fisldin Southland but where it will be found." Pleuro-pneumonia seems to be making its appearance in every direction in Australia. _ The Sydney papers made a lame attempt to attribute its appearance in New South Wales to cattle introduced from Queensland, where it is said to exist in a virulent form, ignoring the fact that cases have cropped up from time to time in different directions in their own colony. Some of the Australia colonies have rather precipately closed their ports against New Zealand sheep because scab happens to exist in a mild form in a remote and inaccessible corner, although the rest of the colony has been untainted for many years past. The New Zealand Government would have some show of reason in following suit so far as cattle from Australia is concerned, for there can be no doubt that considerable risk is run in introducing Australian cattle at the present time. It will, however, be seen from the following excerpt from the Melbourne Leader that in some cases vigorous and successful efforts are being made to deal with the pcst :— " It was reported that pleuro-pneumonia had broken out among cattle in the neighbourhood of Allansford in the Western district. It is now stated that the disease has been effectually stamped out by the prompt destroying of any infected animal before it had time to spread the disease, and in one or more instances where there was reason to dread infection, the whole herd were • inoculated' by a skilled operator." For many years past we have consistently advocated more general attention being paid to the cultivation of rape as a catch crop, without, we are afraid, any great amount of success. This has not been the result so much of the crop not being given a trial a^the difficulty of obtaining really good seed. In cases in which true and reliable seed has been obtained the result has come quite up to our expectations, but we must admit that these have been few and far between. The crop has been given a trial in Victoria during the past few seasons, and with apparently most satisfactory results. Writing on the Bubject the agricultural rpporter of the Australasian says: — It will bo remembered that Mr Thompson, acting upon his South Australian experience, sowed rape at the Dookio experimental farm last year, and that the result had been highly satisfactory. In South Australia he had tried rape instead of bare fallowing, and he not only was able to fatten a large number of sheep, bub in the following year he obtained a crop of wheat from the rape land yielding 30 bushels per acre. Feeling sure that the rape crop would grow well at, Dookie Mr Thompson adopted it last year, and he obtained a fine growth, which provided food for a large number of stock. He expects also that the land will be put into good condition for next year's wheat crop, owing to the beneficial effects of the rape crop upon the soil. Mr John Johns, a farmer not far from the Dookie College, has followed Mr Thompson's ex- \ ample, and he too has obtained encouraging rcsulta. So far as obtaining a good crop of rape is concerned these experiments have been completely successful, but another year will have to pass before the effect upon the succeeding grain crop can be ascertained. The longer experience of another farmer, however, Bhows that highly satisfactory results in this direction may be expected. Mr Hugh Gordon, of Middle creek, in the Ararat Shire, has been growing rape instead of bare fallowing for many years. This farm is not north of the Dividing Range, but the district is a dry one, as may be judged from the fact that the stripper is used in harvesting all the crops. The soil, moreover, is poor, and if the rainfall is a little heavier than in the northern districts, the land is not so fertile. The soil is a greyish sandy loam mixed with shotty ironstone gravel, and its tendency is to become close and hard. Especially is the subsoil hard and resistant. Such soil requires careful treatment to enable it to produce payable crops, and Mr Gordon has found the cultivation of rape to be of the greatest assistance. The rape crop tends to open the soil and subsoil, and renders the land the better able to | produce cereals. After lying for a number of years in pasture, the land is broken up and put under crop for two seasons, after which grasses are again sown. The first crop after lying in pasture is rape, and this not only benefits the succeeding grain crop, but renders the soil better able to support the artificial grasses which are subsequently sown. " I could not farm the land without rape," says Mr Gordon, and he speaks after more than 20 years' experience upon the same holding. " I sow it thin," he points out, "for my object is to get a large plant with strong roots that will get well down into the subsoil." . . . The effect of tho rape Upon the succeeding cereal crop is unmistakable, and Mr Gordon has also observed its beneficial results in the following growth of artificial grasses. When the rape hag not been grown the soil becomes dry and hard, and the grasses soon die out ; but the rape seems to act like subsoiling and cultivation in keeping the soil friable and moist. It is usual to sow about 2cwt of guano per acre with the rape, in order to get a good growth ; and this expenditure is well repaid in tho amount of feed produced, while the better the rape crop the more the land is benefited. The climate is too dry for peas, or otherwise this crop would be cultivated with advantage to the land. It would seem from Mr Gordon's experience that rape is destined to_ do for the northern farmers what the pea crop is doing for those of the southern or coast districts, It wonld be well for farmers in dry districts to remember that, after 25 years' experience, Mr Gordon finds that nothing is so good as rape for renewing the land. The North Otago Times states that the trial of the Wolseley sheep-shearing machine there gave the greatest satisfaction to all those interested in wool growing, and Mr Williams received orders from a number of sheep-owners, amongst them being Mr Reid, of Elderslie, Mr Borton, of Maerewheriua, and the Hon. R. Campbell for all his stations. There was a fair attendance at the Napier ram fair. The sheep generally were in good condition, and, with the exception of a few instances, the quality was better than last year's. The best sheep on the ground were Mr Ormond's, although Mr Tanner's animals were a splendid lot. One of the rams from Mr Tanner's flock was run up to 52gs, at which price it was withdrawn from sale. One nicely shaped but rather small animal from Mr Ormond's flock brought 22gs. The Canterbury rams offered sold at prices ranging from 2|gs to 6gs, and a number of Gaisford's were quoted at 2|gs. A ' lot of Mr Reid's Romney Marsh rams were commented upon as good animals, bat there was little competition for them, Hawke's Bay breeders rs a rule not going in for this class of sheep. Prices generally were higher than those of last year, and in many instances ranged from Bgs to 20gs. Sir James Hector has examined the Hessian fly sent to him from Marton (Wellington), and has no doubt whatever ag,to its destructive qualities, Sir

James has suggested that the only means of getting rid of the pest isfor the ground wherein the egff of fly is laid to be ploughed with an especially deep furrow plough, there being a suitable one at the agricultural college at Lincoln, which he has suggested to the Government to place at the disposal of settlers whose land is attacked with the fly. Many inquiries have been made lately as to the probable action of the Government in reference to the importation of stock; that is to say, whether or not they will aot upon the recommendation of the importation of stock committee last session in favonr of adopting in this colony the resolution arrived at by the stock conference held in Sydney iv 1886. The Minister in charge came to a decision not to adopt this recommendation until he should learn the final determination of the Government of Victoria and New South Wales, which stood out against removing the prohibition against importation, as that determination must necesjarily exercise some influenceupon the course taken by the New Zealand Government, who would most probably remove the prohibition if the other colonies agree to do the same. As Victoria and New South Wales, the last two dissentient colonies, have now consented to remove the prohibition, it is most likely that JNew Zealand will do likewise, but the matter is in abeyance pending the return of Mr Richardson to Wellington. ,