AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1967, 5 November 1891, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

(Continued from page 7.)

At a recent meeting at Adelaide of the Central Bureau. Mt S. Valentine, chief inspeotor of Btook, suggested that the various bureaus throughout the country should be requested to ask the managers or secretaries of the various co-operative Eoaieties throughout the colony to personally inspect the cows from which milk was obtained from time to time to see that the animals were free from disease. He knew of one case in which milk drawn from a cow ■uttering severely from tubercukmis had-_ been supplied to aco operative dairy. Immediately the inspector saw the animal he destroyed it. This was most dangerous to the community, aa it might be the causa of spreading disease. It was neoasaary that the managers should io■peot cows, as a small staff of inspectors could not do bo. It was decided to carry out Mr •Valentiui'sr suggestion. In the whole of Australia it is estimated that there are 95,000,000 sheep and 11,500,000 oattle depasturing ; the value of a season's wool clip maybe estimated at something over £20,000 000 sterling, and the amount of capital invested iv the pastoral industry in Australia set down at £300,000 000. The actual number of persons employed iv ordinary pastoral labours (as distinguished from the work of shearing) in Aus- ] tralia is roughly estimated at 50,000. During j the shearing season it may be estimated that fully another 50,000 persons are employed at the wool sheds as Bhearers ' and general labourers. The earnings of these man vary— forshearern, hom*£4 to £5 10a per week, »nd for geupral labourer from £1 to £1 10 a, with rations found, according to oiroumntauces. It may be claimed that as tha pastoral industry is the main source of permanent- wealth and employment in Australia, fully tbrae fourths of the whola of the population obtain their livelihood directly and indirectly in the production of the staple of the continent. A correspondent in the Agricultural Gazatte draws attention to ihe danger to which valu able draught animal a are submitted in the process of- tha artificial fattening for exhibition, which is so prevalent at all leading shows. Tnio, he says, " will infallibly lay the seeds of disease in what ought to be the parents of the finest race of draught horses in the world." Every experienced horse-owner is opposed to the system, but in prc.otice every exhibitor follows it, for the reason tbat unless draught horses aro shown aa fat as they can be made they have no chance with tLe judges. As the writer points out : "We do not ■how fat greyhounds, pointers, racehorses, hunters ; why should we show fat carthorsea ? $ venture to think that it is aotunlly misleading, as our animals are shown so loaded with this deformity that the muscles cease to be defined, and many of the lines are obliterated. . . . A large proportion of the mareß shown in the •pick of condition' in tha spring are barren for years ; a large percentage die in foaling." In a case in whioh one of these marcs died a Eoat mortem examination showed that' the ver, whioh was in a very diseased state, weighed 41lb, the normal weight of that organ being about 141b. *On the subject of cooling dairies tha Australasian says :—' lt is easier to establish butter factories and commence dairying upon a more or less extensive scale than to so arrangedetaila Mto ensure entire suocess, For-a long time the attention of Victorian farmers has been engaged with the discussion of the profitableness of dairying. Those who upheld the affirmative, and advocated the establishment of butter factories, have apparently won the day, and the dividend paying factories are haying the effect of calling numerous other factories into existence. But very little attention is being paid to the practical details of butter-making and factory management. It is quite, time now to consider that several factories have been worked at a loss through bad management, while others wonld not have paid but for the Government bonus, which cannot be expected to last. It is only good management that can make dairying pay, and amongst other matters of importance a cool dairy is necessary. With the cream separator a smaller cool room is required than under the setting system, but the cool room is quite as necessary as ever. In our hot climate, where a supply of cold water is often not available, the mo3t pro? musing means of cooling a dairy are an underground air channel and the evaporation or • canvas bag ' system. By ventilating through an underground channel the air is cooled in passing through the cold pipe or covered passage, and in the canvas-bag system cold air is produced by the expenditure of heat in evaporating water from a wet cloth. It is in the application of these two systems that success is likely to be attained, but we cannot expect entirely satisfactory rr suits until general attention is directed towards working out the details." A correspondent of the StaweJl Times has a word in favour of the crows:— "The crow is known to be a great enemy to farmers' wives 'pad daughters by the depredations committed

by stealing eggs and carrying away and killing yonng chickens ; yet there is something useful in the orow. Not long ago my wife was rather alarmed at seeing some crows very busy not far from the house, and naturally thinking they were following their ÜBual mode of pirating, she went towards them and found they were busy killing young rabbits, and they, were not long in destroying them." Where man neglects, Nature is apt to step in and remedy his defects. This is seen in an account\ of the eff eot produced on ploughing and harrowing pasture land. A Mr George Davenport, of Headington Hill in Queensland, ploughed a portion of a paddock with the intention of laying down artificial grass, but something occurred to prevent this, and the land was allowed to lie fallow. In the course o|a couple of, years it was thickly, covered with grass and hnrbage, much of which was of a different nature from that grown on the unploughed portion of the same paddock. It was also notioaable that the sheep preferred the herbage on the ploughed land. It is tha experience of every farmer who combines the keeping of sheep with the growing of crops that sheep thrive exceedingly well on Btubble land. Whether this is due to the difference m the nature of the pasturage, or whether with the turning over the soil many of the salts have been set free to enter more fully into the herbage is a question that may not be easily determined ; but the subject is one that might repay experiment. , The Lochiel Branch of the South Australian Agricultural Bureau has reported to the Central Burean the occurrence of what they are pleased to call "black rust " in the wheat crops. It is stated that the wheat had been pickled in a solution of sulphate of copper. Some of the members were of opinion that the disease arose from tha seed having _ been sweattd or from the soil being sufficiently damp to start growth, but not moist enough to promote healthy growth. Professor Lowrie was of opinion that this was merely a stage of the ordinary rod rust.