COUNTRY ITEMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1901, 17 July 1890, Page 19

COUNTRY ITEMS.

Mr G. S. Brown, oholrmaster at the Limestone Plains Presbyterian Ohuroh, was the recipient of a presentation in tlie shape of a purse of sovereigns the other day. A oroisbred two-tooth sheep killed by Mr Gavan Dlckson at Otama the other day, when dressed ready for cutting up in Mr Klngdon'B butcher shop weighed 1381b. While pushing a log in front of a oircular saw in a mill at Croydon, a lad named Dryden had one of his | hands caught by tbe saw, and one of his fingers bad to be amputated. ' At Tokomairiro the other day Mr James Norrie was given a day's ploughing on the oooasion of hit taking over Mr G. B. Brown's farm. There were 26 double furrow and three single-furrow plpugbs. , The Southland Acclimatisation Soolety have been endeavouring to put down unlicensed coursing in the neighbourhood. Although It Is said to be very prevalent, difficulty is experienced in detecting anyone. The Papanui Sparrow Club last year paid away £37 10s in fighting the small birds. The expenditure was for 16,056 sparrows eggs, 4680 birds, and 157 black birds ; also for 35 bushels of poisoned grain and 490z of strychnine. The balance sheet of the Palmerston and Walhemo A. and P. Association shows a defloit of about £10 on' the year's operations A working bee of about 50 have promised to assist in improving the society 8 grounds, and a committee has been appointed to take the matter In hand. A Farmers' and Employer*' Club has been formed at Duntroon. At the preliminary meeting! opinions were expressed by working men that a man should be allowed to work as many hours as he pleaied, within rensonable limits, at the proposed rate of lOd per hour, and that payment at the rate of time and a-half for overtime would be excessive during harvest. , The Southland News, in an article on penguin*, advocates the cause of antarctic exploration on the ground that the birds which frequent the Macquarie and other ielandi periodically go away to the far south, to unknown reaionß, andalthoußh leaving in poor condition return fat and flourishing. The argument is that tbere must be grand fishing grounds somewhere towards the South Pole. A digger ploughing competition was a feature ot the Wyndham ploughing match, Messrs Reid and Gray having one of their implements, and Messrs Tothlll, Watson, and Co. two of Howard and Sons' on the ground. Bight farmers were seleoted at the close of the exhibition to pass their verdict, the result bejng unanimously in favour of Reid and Gray,

who therefore secured the flrat prize (£ 2 2»), and Messrs Howard and Sons the second (£1 Is). Mr Murphy, secretary of the Canterbury A. »na P. Association, attrlbutei ;the diminution of grasses observable in some parts of the colony to tho wane of proper treatment on the part of colonial farmers. In England the grass is treated pretty much the same way as an ordinary orop. Grass ii laid down In good condition, and almost every year top dressed. The reverse, however, is the case here ; the gnus Is laid down in bad condition, and left to take oare of itself. The consequence, of course, is deterioration.