AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The small birdpest received some attention at the hands of the Wallace County Council at Us .last meeting. In answer to a question put by Mr Crouch, Mr Hamilton said he was sorry the poisoning was not satisfactory ; if the birds were not plumper, they.had not in any fray.deC *W* $* fafeonipg didn't make the least bit "cufference. It was a very serious question, pW the eponer it was taken up with spirit the

batter. It would soon be really useless trying to grow a crop if something were not done to abate the nuisance; he was convinced that in the county from £4000 to £5000 had been lost this Year owing to the depredations of the small birds, ,aj|d eVery year they were increasing enor-mously.^-Mr Basstian said Mr Hamilton was within the mark in regard to the loss sustained. Apart from the grain, it was useless to attempt to keep ''fin orchard if the pest was not put down.—Mr Hamilton thought that they should adopt ' the "Taieri system, where they paid for heads and eggs ; that system was said to have a wonderful effect in ' keeping the pest in cbieck. Pois9n f used'tp kill the birds two or three years ago, but' it did not now seem to have any effeot on thfW— Mr Playfair <$uld endorse the last speaker's remarks aboi|t poisoning being ineffectual."^— He^was .strongly of opinion that the act would' have.tojbe pu£ in force, and an official appointed to see the provisions carried out. The farmers never acted qonjointlyto suppress the evil.— The Chairman said the council was powerless to act unless a petition was presented to them, and had urged the Agricultural and Pastoral Society to take action in the matter. There was one thing he would suggest,' and that was that the Southland County Council be asked toco-operate with them. — Mr Hamilton, in moving that the Southland County Council be .communicated with and asked to assist in devising means for the suppression 'of the pest, said that one could hardly realise the amount of damage being done. •, In two or three years, if some steps, were not taken, the rabbit nuisance at its worst would not be a patch to the small bird nuisance. It required united action to keep them down', and he was of opinion that the legislature would have to take the question up. Mr Crouch seconded Mr Hamilton's motion, which was carried.

A horse and five cows died recently in Bungaree, Victoria, through eating Californian thistle upon which experiments had t been made with scrub exterminator, and a number of other cows were sick through depasturing on thistles on which experiments had been made with the scrub exterminator "with the view to eradication. ' - ■ • i

A cargo of frozen mutton, consisting of 20,000 carcasses, has. arrived in Glasgow from the River Plate, the first importation into Scotland of frozen meat from the Argentine Republic. , The South Australian Government have offered a bonus of £100 for specifications for a stone and stump gatherer, which 'shall be capable of gathering from the surface all loose stones or stumps from lib to 561b in weight. The conditions are that the machine will have to be constructed so as to be capable of clearing at one operation a width of not less than 4ft Gin, and be drawn by horses, the draught not to exceed the capacity of three ordinary animals. The appliance must be either attachable to an ordinary tip dray, or have a tip receptacle capable of holding not less than 20cwt attached, and must be strongly made, and the cost of its construction not exceed £35. Lightness of draught, combined with strength, durability, and cost will be taken into account.

Dairying in Tasmania is over for the season on nearly all the farms which do not ke<3p a succession of cows for the winter. Owners (says the Colonist) are taking a lesson from last year's losses, and are drying off their cows before they become too low in condition. This is a wi9e course, as but little profit could be made from the small quantity of milk now obtainable, and as there is a very poor prospect of winter feed, it is" well to give the cows every chance. The season just closed has, been a favourable one for dairy, farmers. $.i no time during the season have the cows reached their usual flow of milk, and the season has been fully a month shorter/partly through the poverty of the cpw c s. making them backward in, the i'spiring, while tne v recent drought has closed' the season earlier than usual. • ' '•>■;'. It is stated that Baron you Oppenheim, pr,o*f .prietoriof the well-known stud at.ScMender- ' ban, Germany', intends during the ooming season ■ to send; aqyeral of; his beat mates; to Scotland, in order to have them mated to some of the most

celeDra^dTstallions. ' ■ ' « ' \ /■' TWeW Flat plantation in the " Ninety Mile , Desert" JMsays ,an Australian! Ijaper) showing: 'th^iE', tne fectilpjSoil'ahd geriM climate of Australia even deserts can be made to "blossom ias the rose." The vines planted less than two years ago have grov^n splendidly, and rail bear Nearly 800CK fruit treeß,'MficJud.irig apples, pears, apricots;' olives, almoridfe and wal» qute, are^grpwing wonderfully, andta)l-,kj[ndspf vegetables are'thriving. ' Wattles are coming on splendidly. Water is obtainable at various depths? from 15ft tosoffciiand the Government bore', ?72ft deep, gives a sapply>f '312,000 gal per day bf excellent water.- Hundreds of thousands ,of aores.of similar land to that already planted is available in J the district. Truly it seems that every, fresh attempt to develop the natural resources of the poultry TesilltKin* revealing Sources of, wealth hitherto unsuspected to exist./ >' " " ' , ( , [ . A fund of, nearly £4000 has been established j in France by Professor, Verneuil to find a cure I for, tuberculosis. Dr Hambleton has offered to ! prove' to'j the! committee, by the treatment of a 'number of cases, that this disease can be completely and permanently recovered from when treated on the principles laid before the British , Association at Manchester." ' '"{ Spe'culatidn 1 (eifys the Leader)is rife/among farmers and dairymen as to' what the still- unseen and untried *f hotter 1 extractor," said tor have ' just been invented by an' ingenious' Swede, will be like, j it.iai oUamed. : for this maohinefthftt it extracts the butter from the .milk in one act, dispensing with the__ope.rati6n . of churning altogether. But practical dairymen are in doiibfc". about so sudden a change from milk to butter being , possible of. , accompliahment; 'Separating t^e cream apd churning the butter are two distincjj. operations, each requiring. so mu'ehicare'thati ev^n r with thefbepjb cQnstructed apparatus it is more' than, doubtful if they can. be carried out at bn^ilme.' By, our 1 present ap-' rpliances we first take 'all *the 'fit ouf'of the milk, and tlaen, after maturing the 1 cream, or ripening ["itPas'it is called— m^h6u6'.|r ( KiQhl process, as above (staged, .the highest, yield of butter b,e obtained— we cdmmencei to. .churn. This ! operation of churning, ,'as' 'most: people v who have tried it'firid, fs'a mdst' deljcataa !|ahd dimcult work.. If the temperatuie' 1 be "too : hjgh then the) butter cornea' soit,\6^ I per'phapi, ■ wdn't come at all; if it be too 10w,.-it 'is 'impossible to extract all the butter from -the^ milk, if nothing worse happens. Yet, by this proposed method, the churning must needs take place in a few f mpmen^ substituting the.Dprmal ; , time of ripenuig and {'churning, ; the. very processes which' have always been counted so important an,d necessary in the manufacture of good butter. We should welcome the introduction of a new and improved churn, but the man who proposes ,to do away with this implement entirely is evidently in advance , of hfe day and generation. " , , ' The Orient S,S. Company's steamehip.lberia takes an experimental shipment of 7000 oases of fruit Home from Tasmania. • The Napier 'Telegraph of the 10th inst, has the following;—" An ugly looking plant, found growing riear.Hastings, waa brought to the AgiiV'qiUfcumapd\jPastoral Spliety's.robms^t ( w|ekj "by Mr W. JBeilbyj he thinking tliat it might be the Batburst burr, A portion of it was sub-

mitted to Mr Hamilton, of the Athensum, who pronounced it to be without* doubt xantkium spinosum, commonly called the "Bathurst burr.'.' Sheepfarmeris will do well l te check its growth

without delay." The sheep.that are henceforth to be known by the name of Upland Leicesters at the Highland Society's shows are the result of a cross between the Cheviot ewe and the Border Leicester' ram.' These sheet) have hitherto been known in Scotland by the general term " half breds." Writing from Paris, a correspondent says that lately a clever and' learned Farisienne, who had duly taken, out her diploma as a , •• doctress in medioine," furnished a fine apartment, put a brass plate on her door, and waited, like Bob Sawyer, for patients who never came. The lady, therefore, went through a courss of veterinary, surgery and medicine, and is now prosperously practising" as a "horae doctoress." This is evidently a new profession for young damsels, and the Paris lady "vet." is undoubtedly the first , of her sex in this country who has ever qualified' herself, by a course of hippo-pathology, for the useful task of. prescribing remedies fur the cure ' of-ihe diseases of animals.

Not long since a farmer's wif > complained to us (Loader) that she did not get the yield of batter from her cows that ope of her neighbours did, and -she wished to know if we couJd give her any ■ light on the subject. Upon inquiry we found that the cowson;botfi farms were natives, and handled ; alike, Bui? when we inquired fortherialp .phe manner of caring for the cream we saw at once . where the :difficp4ty lay., rlt was her practice to 1 skim her milk every morning and put the cream into an' earthen jar" which was Wept in a cellar. ' Churning was done twice a week. But the parjtioular point where she failed was in putting the {last skimming immediattily after it was taken i frem the milk ' into the churn. When we told !her that she received.but little benefit from the ,last iskimmibg thus handled, she could hardly be ' persuaded of the truth of our assertion. We are convinced, however, that this mistake is largely indulged in by the makers of farm butter. {From recent- experiments in the production of j batter' from sweet and sour dream, carried" out jat the 1 Agricultural Experiment Station 1 of the [University of Wisconsin, it was proved that ; 1001b of sour cream yielded from 21b to 41b | more' butter 'than the same quantity of styeet ; cream, which confirms the general; impression that it is morp, profitable to churn from sour ,than from sweet cream. The last'sktmming, Jshould bß'ttSjorbughly stirred with; the. older ! cream, and the whole keptjfrom six to twelve • hours, depending upon the age' and acidity , of the' 'older cream before churning. Those who make a {practice of skimming fresh milk' and putting the ; cream at once into the churn, will always comf plain of alight yield of butter. There is 'a'p'roject on foot in Ireland to stimulate the cultivation of beetroot. for the manufacture of sugar. : The experiment is to be tried, ,itnd it is believed that the low rate of wages, the 'reduced , rents, combined- with ' the -depressed value of other agricultural produce, would make the undertaking a remunerative one. ' The farmers . around Angaston, South Australia, are planting large orchards and vineyards; the; orchards taking the place of wheat. Not many years ago Apgaston had only a few scattered gardens tilled by industrious Germans, who carried their fruit and vegetables to Kapunda for a market. Of .later years the jcanning induß&y absorbed all theii? supply and craved for more, so hundreds of acres of vines jand fruit trees are now growing, and in a'few 'more years fields of "fruit will' be see instead of

•wheat. •: I It is a dolewstbry to^-have 'to tell ,of .veterinary science(«ays the^Queeds&hdeMHaVca^tle iart-beirig v fllatfffhtd?e^'in' Orllt^tai^l^tEe in'an attempt'tostatti'potiß'pletiro^pneujmonia, and that this iatoelng^one'wmUtMrconisentand, advica^of^he veterinary surgeon.-.at-tached to the. friyy Council, It is remarkable, !alsp,iaat in a country like England, where the •louses caused by pleuro-pneumonia have .been ecormons^and where, the best of veterinary :adjvioe and the, services of specialists are available, ■ this disease has ■■ n ot ;been closely inquired , into, and that it was. left to a professor of a Scotch •university, to rebuke the stookowners for the isinfuj waste incurred' by them .in the slaughter of suspected as well as diseased cattle, while no effort has been made to study the disease scientifically, or to' discover a means of prevention. jit is fr'tte innooulation has been adopted of late jyears.in some diafcricts-r-partioularly in Scotland and at&btig ilie .dairy cattle in London— but those veterinary'surgeons who have adopted the .practice have not the support of a large section of the profession; indeed, while one' of the journals published in connection with the profession — the Veterinary Journal — strongly supports the practice^ the other— the Veterinarian —as stoutly opposes it. It may be, as Dr Germont sajid of France, that .cattle are too valuable in England to,asmit of such series 'of experiments— involving" the destruction of a number of cattle— as would be necessary to determine the nature of the, disease, and scientifically test the value of innoculation. But, taking the experiments of Dr Germont and M. Loir as a groundwork for further inquiry,' it is hard to believe that the subject will not now be followed up by specialists both in Europe and in ! America;' ' ' ' Commenting on the Southland Frozen Meat 'Company's circular, the Mataura Ensign says : — M The feature" of the proposal is that the grower no longer, 1 .needs ship in the dark and pray that prices in the English market will be high when his mutton is sold. After his sheep are delivered into the vessel at' the Bluff charges are deducted and he gets his cheque. Growers oan oalonlate to a nicety what their mutton is worth, the .element of risk hitherto always in the calculation being now deleted. It will be understood rfchat the offer is' tq % guarantors. A form of agreement is at the back of the circular, Bad it us just an 'undertaking by the grower to deliver in the next three years so jnany .sheep and by. the company to pay so much ior thjgm. >AU charges, conditions., and risks are dearly set out, and. the form has> merely to be filled in and signed. We need scarcely ou| thje ndy«(nfcageß,tQ growers of being able>to calculate the value of their stocfe to a nicety, and we have no doubt that the freezing company will find plenty of guarantors. The price qf frozen meat at Home has recently risen, a4d : i;here may be growers of a speculative turn of ntfnd ',vh» will prefer, to mnsL r,isk A m' the hfpe of maihng a^largeg? 'profit. (Qf course there^fs imihing.;t6 preens these from VQylog freezing charges'and shipping at thek own risk. But we-,dool)f; if many. grower who have been shipping for yefa& , past . will neglect the opportunity of securing a sore payable price for a term of years as offered by the Southland company. A side issue of importanoe to growers in this district is the question of slaughtering' at or near Gore and trucking jkhe carcasses direct' to the freteaing works. The presentjate^ from, Gore to dhe Bluff is 83s fid, but as ihe company hat to pay 11s 6d from Wallaoetown to the works, the difference of 14s, roughly speaking, should only be charged against the growers. , Beckoning 85 caroasses to the ton,, th!fßait would be a shade Qver4|d each. The post of trucking fat sheep to Wallaoetown itom Gpreisjaboufefida head] bo, to say. nothing of the saving of braising and- knocking abojdli 1 , Mhe aiff4i^e"ticjo ; |n; qosfc would becorisiderahl©! Under Wjl^ti&ujw W il|Q oompany^ ofifeir, t^e $w%&n

'meat trade should , rapidly jtaetease until it j assumes' something like the proportions it has reached in Canterbury.'!

The Lumsden correspondent of the South- j land News supplies some interesting particulars of the method adopted in managing the Five Rivers estate,' Southland, from which we extract the following :— " The work is carried out in a most systematical manner. The manager, Mr P. A. Vyner,'with the owner, decides upon the ground for breaking up and cropping. This , work, is then done by contract, as is everything ( oQwards from the.sqwing to the gathering in ot the grain. , As. soon as the crop is safely. stacked stock or sheep are turned into the stubble, and for any patches of crop .which are considered too light to cut there is a large mob of pigs kept to eat it down. By this means there is not a particle of waste of any description. Besides the white crop, there is always a ' large area broken up and put in turnips every year for .stock to run on in the winter. The straw, when 'the grain is being threshed, is- oarefully built in stacks, and salted for the use of the cattle .during the winter months- Thfcre were ouly a lair small patches of crop, this year which were considered not profitable enough to cut ; these, as I said before, will be utilised for running the •pigs on. There is one portion of the estate ; which was under crop this year where the land of au exceptionally rich character; this is a 'piece near what is known as the Black ridge. The land was last year iv wheat, and this season ,ia oats. The growth of the latter was «xceedI ingly rank, the straw being from sft to 6ft long on., a great portion of it, and the whole crop, jbeing well headed, should thresh extra well. I I am tpld a considerable portion of the estate will be put iv white crop next season. < A start has already been made with the. plough in a paddock ,of 156 acres, for autumn wheat." ; The Torpedo Rabbit Exterminator is an in[str,uraent, or machine designed to asphyxiate rabbits in their burrows, and is sold tiy Messrs >;Leiuinger aud Co., 98 Russell street, Melbourne, j The materials employed being nothing more than powdered sulphur and dry hay, th« daily 'cost of using the machine is trivial— viz , only j about Is 6d for sulphur. , Two machipes will find wprk for four men— two in pumping and two in covering the burrow holes. These are estimated to be able to kill all the rabbits in ;burrows on from 500 to 1000 acres in a day, pro- ] vided the ground be clear. ! , The Duchess of Hamilton's dairy school at Great Glenham has proved such a success that • she is about to open a similar institution on the •Duke's Lanarkshire estate. By the Duchess' system butter is made without being touched by the hands of the dairymaids. ' . 1 The report by M. Pasteur's representatives to ■the Queensland Government on the subject of 'the protection of cattle against pleuro-pneu-monia, states that thus far they have been unable to isolate and cultivate the microbe of pleuro-pneumonia. However, they endeavoured to surmount the difficulty by another course — jnamely, the inoculation of virus obtained from diHeased lungs. This virus placed under the skin develops oedema at the point of inoculation. The lymph thus obtained is inoculated in the tails of the cattle, and will prevent pleuro. (Sufficient lymph can be obtained from a calf 'properly inoculated with virus to inoculate in ithe tail 1500 cattle, and the lymph can be preserved for at least three weeks in glass tubes.

• Surprising as it may seem (writes " Freehold " in the Australasian), there are still extensive districts in Which the keeping of sheep by the jfagmers is not attempted. The fences are not suitable, sheep-worrying dogs are numerous, or .perhaps the farmers are not aware of ' the loss jWhich they are sustaining through carrying on without sheep. In other, localities sheep-keep-jing is general, and it would be a difficult matter |to persuade the farmers to do away with their ■flocks. The sheep, even if kept only to supply the farm with mutton, do a deal of good to the farm, by eating out weeds and preventing others ,from seeding., On, any pasture sheep pay well |for; what they eat, but on the farm they will 'thrive on the stubble, and find a living while benefiting the land. In that system of domestic economy whioh helps so much to make farming profitable, the buying of butcher's meat is never thought of, and consequently a means of keeping a few sheep is devised even on the smallest farms. When the flock confers so many advantages, those who do not keep sheep must blame themselves if they find grain-growing becoming yearly less profitable. If we can accept ,the following without the proverbial grain of salt, the solution of the rabbib question appears to lie in the substitution of poisoned malt for phosphorised oats. The description is from the Melbourne Leader :— " What is claimed to be au effeotual remedy for the rabbit plague has been discovered by Mr Martin M'Kenna, of Glen Erin, Baynton. The plan of destruction consists in distributing poisoned mall, of whioh food it is stated the rabbits are exceedingly fond. The story goes that Mr M'Kenna began to experiment with poisoned malt about six months ago, and in a short time he succeeded in clearing his estate so effectually —a property of between 4000 and 3000 acres — that but for the influx of rabbits from the property of his neighbours he would have annihilated the pest for all time. Mr Jarrett, who owns a property of 4000 acres in proximity to Mr M'Kenna's run, was induced to give his neighbour's remedy a trial, and the result in his case was also most astonishing. In less than a fortnight Mr Jarrett says he has destroyed at the lowest computation, 10,000 rabbit^ and adds that he could not have believed ig ih e destruction being so complete if he not tested the thing for himself. Ho CffWijdera that the discovery will prove a, gwat boon to all stockowners. Th.c, w>d<j of- preparing the bait is stated thup :—Put 4§oz of phosphorus into a gallon of boiling. water; the veusel need not be a very large one. Boil for 30 minutes, whilst the phosphorus is thoroughly stirred in. and dissolved in the water. Next pass through a. fine strainer, to keep back^ny lumps of phosphorus whwh may through accident not have been dissolved, The water ia then mixod in a boiler With 141b or 151b oJ mart, and placed on a slow fire for 1^ 'mhmtes, and about 81b of flour and 41b of sugar added andstiwed in to tbioken and sweeten the mess. Th.c mode of application fc equally simple, plough a furrow here and there in a rabbet-infested place* and 'sow, the poisoned malt to, the furrow. Will gome of our readers give this method a trial, and let us know what they, think o! ifc? 11 ; Abrislr export trade. in butter from Sweden Jo China (says an English contemporary) appears now to be carried on. The Danes and the ?reneh have for some time past sent certain quantities o[ butter to the same market, and as time goes on the consumption of this article in the over-populated Flowery Land is, said to be likely to increase enormously. The Chinese like their butter rather salt, and it must be sent in air-tight boxes containing from lib to 41b. In order to giye the boxes a pleasing appearance they are provided with showy labels or inscriptions, which, however, should be stamped upon the box itself, lest they should be removed* by the wily Chinee, and used' to cover ai) adulterated article, which would bring the imported product into. disrepute

A successful trial of tt4 Bferiqapi whe*t has been mode ft one fcft^d&^tnVte of. Victoria (St. ArasHid), this seaap,^ The, flrafc yield, ob ?

to the acre. * In May last the wheat was againsown, this time on fallow land, and although this has been the driest season experienced for many years, in November 20 bushels to the aero, we're obtained. The average yield from the ordinary purple straw and white Tuscan wheat was only four bushels to the acre, and the crops did not ripen until nearly a month later than the Mexican. The grain of the Mexican wheat is described' as small, but very plump. It is easily stripped and cleaned, and half a bushel to ,the acre is sufficient for seed.

In the approaching winter nearly 1,000,000 ; trees are to be planted in the various forest reserves of South Australia.

A number of farmer* and others interested proceeded to Mr W. Smith's farm at Bald -Hills, Beaufort, the other day (says the Melbourne Leader), to witness the trial of a new plough 'which has been constructed expressly for use* in mallee aad stony country. Severalpatches ot very rough stony ground were selected on which other ploughs had been tried without being able to do anything with the land, and &t the cost of 'a number of ploughshares and much damage to the framework of the ploughs. There appeared on the surface a quantity of loose stones, but underneath the thin crust of earth a number of huge boulders were concealed. These were not discovered until the plough was set to work. The shares having been set to work in shallow, it was soon seen to accomplish all that had been, said of it. The draught was then dropped and ploughing was made deeper, and several furrows were ploughed over other stony patches with the same if not more satisfactory results. The first obstruction was a boulder which weighed. something over 601b ; this was lifted clean out of the ground without stopping the team and cast on ono side. A second stone, much .larger, was taken in the next furrow ; the ploughshare! caught the narrowest end of it, scooped it oufc and turned it clean over. This was eolipsed later when a stone lnrgcr still stopped the team, which were going at; a slow pace. The horses were again started and the stone came up, the plough glided gently along and entered the ground as before. This was considered an extraordinary test of the strength and usefulness of Mr Dixs plough.

With the view of establishing a recognised .centre for the exchange and disposal of. grain and other produce, Messrs Reid, Maclean, and Co. have determined to hold regular auction sales. Thete is little doubt that if this movement is successful, it will be to the mutual advantage of both buyer and seller. These sales have been established for some time in Ohristchurch, said arej increasing iv importance. A deputation from the Roseville DaJpy Factory waited on the Hon, Mr Richardson, on Thursday last, to remind the Premier of the interview he had with the deputation on the subject of a bonus for preserving milk, the Roseville Dairy Factory being the first factory started here for that purpose.

A brother oS the Duko da la Rochefoucauld has left a beqnost of £4000 to fouud an annual prize for the best "Farmer's Almanac" containing & summary of all scientific experiments concerning agriculture that may have taken place during the preceding year in France.