NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2055, 13 July 1893, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

"5. That a thin and gathering crop run* more risk of the disease than an evenly planted crop." Mr Little also received from Sir J. Lawes ' and Dr Augustus Voelcker -important communications on the subject. Sir J. Lawes wrote to the effect that in his opinion plants are liable to be attacked, by fungi, parasites, insects, &o. in proportion ' as" the soil is deficient in available' mineral food. He says;—"l happened to pass through, the Fen district in the „ summer of 1884 and I particularly noticed that the effects of mildew depend materially upon the constituents of the soil. I particularly noticed 'the dreadful state of the wheat in that district; and as my own wheat, although; not a good crop, had nob suffered from mildew, I- was anxious to know whether the season in that district possessed any special characters differing from my own. According to my view, fen-land-wheat should be especially liable to mildew, as the balance.of the soil constituents is organic, and not mineral. Ordinary arable land esu'eh as* mine contains about 97 per cent, of mineral/ matter, and 3 per cent., of Vegetable substances. Some of the fen lapd . hjubV have these proportions almost' reversed.- . . , I am disposed to .say that .the greater amount of available mineral matter, potash, limej silioa, and phosphates at the disposal of the plant, the greater would be its powerof resistance to rust ■ or mildew." Writing to Mr Little in 1882, Dr Augustus Voelcker remarks, after having given the analysis of a soil upon whioh the wheat was so much mildewed that; the cue was very instructive, ."for,.it confirms the frequent observations I have made in various parts of England, that an excess of available nitrogenous food, be it nitrate of soda, ammonia' salts, or ., organic matters whioh are readily • decomposed in the soil appears, to me to have a decided tendency to cause mildew in wheat." Dr Voelcker proceeds , to' show that' wheat .after a' root-crop would be expected to be fat less mildewed'than wheat after clover, whioK leaves a large amount of nitrogenous food in the land, vllv 11 . ' •■ For many years great interest jn the question of rust has been taken in the "United States, where the wheat crops have been year after year extensively affected.' Experiments upon rust or mildew on wheat were also'carried out in 1890 at the Agricultural College at Guelp, in Canada, and the conclusions arrived, at; were so similar to those formed by Mr Little that they deserve repetition. v They were :-* 1. Seasons are the chief cause.of rust. Sudden changes of .temperature and rain, accompanied by close sultry .weather, are favourable ' to its spread. . , 2. Low-ljing rich soils are most subject to'its attacks. . • • ■- c - 5-k ' i 5. An excessive use of manures rich in nitrogen encourages the, disease.' :~, 4. Late sown crops are the most liable to the attack. ..' ,'- **'.'. ' .■> 5. Thinly sown wheat crops,.are the,most liable to rust. An inquiry of the same - nature was also instituted by ProfessorPanton of the Ontario College of Agriculture, and the results .were identical with those arrived at from the Guelp experiments.. ""^, .-' , In Germany the National Agricultural Society issued a.list of questions in 1891 upon the prevalence of rust, and received no less than>4oo replies from all parts of the country. These were to the effect that the Rhine provinces suffered the least from rust. In other provinces, wherein the disease was. not general, the percentage of .wheat land. rust free varied from 80 to 83 per cent, while in numerous provinces where the crop was badly, affected the percentage of rust-free wheat land'ranged from 42 to SO per cent. In answer to the 'question regarding the effect of manures upon rust, the general.reply- was .that. where nitrate of soda had been applied as a top-dressing the. rust was worst. In India—its arid climate withal —rust is very .destructive. According to official reports .the' disease, has been long existent in some of the most' extensive wheatproduoing , provinces, in , which the annual average loss to the wheat-growers of the area at 3,000,000 rupees. In Japan', again,- an official report stated that in the northern parts ' of that country, where .the Government had made strenuous and costly exertions to supplant rice culture by wheat-growing, the hitter crop is frequently .ruined, and" on J&e average damaged to the extent of 20 perlcent by rust.— (Abridged from the Mark Lane Express.)

The little birds had indeed better be prepared for danger, seeing that it is pro? Sparrows , posed to put the arm of the law Beware.' in- force against'their* knavish tricks. NeyerthelefS, I think they are quite safe for this year, because everybody will now refrain from any action until it is seen what is to come of all this talk about legislation and local rating. I am reminded ' thereby of an old fable of a lark who had a nest ' of unfledged young ones' in a field of ripening wheat. Every morning, so goes the fable, the farmer and the son would visit the field and take note of its ripeness, and say that they must see about getting the neighbours to help them cut it down. So.long as the.old bird heard* them talking about the neighbours coming to reap she told the little 'uns there was no danger; but after awhile the wheat got very, ripe, and the farmer told his eon that it must be cut at once, and as the neighbours did not seem,inclined to help they must set to and cut it themselves.' When the old lark heard this, she hurried back to the nest and said, "Now, my dears, we must quit, for they have'made up their minds to tackle the job themselves, and'ifc is therefore not safe to stop,here any longer." It certainly is not encouraging for a \small, farmer to endeavour by poisoning to kill off the birds while thousands remain alive upon his neighbours' land and swoop down upon his crop at harvest time.;' Mr M'Queen, too, hit .the right nail upon the_ head when he .drew the. attention of the Gore Farmers'' Club to' the futility of zealous' poisoning' in' the. country while the towns and boroughs breed them faster than the country can- kUI them. " It is 'use: less to expect to 'exterminate the birds, » and palliative measures are. all that have been adopted, in'the past, and I hardly see how much more is to be done in future. Desultory poisoning,- destroying birds' eggs and young birds,' and keeping hedges closely trimmed will probably be as efficient as any measures that are likely to follow; the enforcement- of the act. Rather than apply* to the. Stock department to send forth its. minions I should advise making application to the Minister. for Labour for the services of as many of the unemployed as could be paid With the amount ,of the salaries of 80 inspectors—that is, one for " each county in the colony;' The men could be employed in laying poisbn under the direction . of councils or road boards, and,ttielQoverntnen^ ,':. could furnish the^poisoned^grain'out'o| the.. ' sum that would be saved;, in red'tape through^ * not having 80 inspectors to administer' the ,; Sparrow Act of 1891. r \^Mr,M'Qaeen very s traly,'",,, and sensibly remarked at the' meeting'of the,'/ Gore Fanners' Club that' 4 an army^of inspectors :- would be required.to make poisoning compul« ;~v sory, and the last'state of v the farmers would bft „': worse than the first., Meanwhile people have' ~i. begun to inline, tWi some prodigious result;?X

will be the outcome of all the present discussion, and will accordingly hold their hands in anticipation thereof. Therefore chirp and be wmyTye little birds, the fatal day is postponed sine die,' As there appears to be an idea abroad that the .birds have not been legislated "« The Birds for, it may not be amiss to quote Nuisanco Act the provisions of the act for the iam » > benefit of all whom it may con- ' Wn. The full title is "An act to provide for the destruction of ißJurious bfrdT" and the word /"birds" is to mean any birds not for the time being comingundertheAnimals Protection^?. .Briefly, the act gives any local authority power to apply funds, by ordinary resolution,' to, destruction of injurious birds, or to levy a special rate of not more than one-sixteenth of a penny in the pound for that purpose. >• The, money voted or collected by rate may be expended as may be deemed most expedient. Poisoned seed paay be laid on roads in counties subject to public notice being given, but not laid within 10, chains of a dwelling house unless the occupier consents thereto. s Borough Jcouncils and; town boards may also carry out the objects of the act by any means they think fit.- Any inspeotor under the ' « Sheep Act 1890 " . sliall be an inspector nnder this act to seq if the same be carried into effect. The Minister for* Lands jmay put this act into force if local "authority fails to 'do so. The "Small Birds. Nuisance Act 1882" is hereby repealed. ,"„• " « , Two weeks agd I noticed.' » paragraph in the Witness,, taken, from the TuaToo Good to peka Times, with reference to the ' be True. [ fodder plant Lathyruß silvestrisi or flat everlasting pea.. It appears that Mr Langmuir, of Lawrence, has taken - some trouble to give the plant a trial and has saved some of its seed for distribution in the district. If the plant is what it is represented to be Mr Langmuir deserves great credit for his praiseworthy efforts to extend its cultivation, but I am afraid the wonderful qualities attributed to the, flat ped are quite too good to be true, and farmers will not respond to the offer so kindly made. The Tuapeka Times says ..that this plant can be depended upon to produce ajery heavy crop of fodder for 50 years in' succession and that without any manure except the application made at the time of sowing. " A plant which produces from 12 'to ,18 tons of fodder every year without any- expenditure of labour and without any, *egard-,to-s6ii;cir. other ordinary considerations ift truly worthy of some attention on the part of farmers." I should think so, indeed, but, unfortunately farmers are so pig-headed that they will. not believe everything they are told, and bo ignorant that they do not know what is good for them. There is a saying that a thing is " damned by, faint praise," but I think that more condemnation is brought about by exaggeration and absurdly overdone praise. When I see a cow that will maintain a full flow of milk and cream for 12 months after calving with nothing but ordinary feed and no attention beyond drawing off the milk, or when I am satisfied of the existence of a horse that will maintain his full strength and' vigour forjan. indefinite time with no tucker but what he can.pick up in the pasture winter and summer, then I will believe that there is a plant that ,wiU produce an enormous bulk of stuff year after year' for an indefinite period without* rich soil or repeated manuring) or any attention, in the way of stirring the surface of the goU : from start; to finish. Under favourable conditions-it will no doubt givea heavy yield, and I have no prejudice against it, nor 'any wish to decry its good qualities, but {like other, good tilings it has been kept back by - tbeing foolishly puffed beyond all reasonable i bounds. I have .seen the Lathyrus tried in good Jtich garden ground with very' ordinary results, >nd I have good authority for saying that a large farmer on the driest part of the Canterbury Plains, thinking it would, be just the thing for him, got lowt . of seed from Home at great expense and gave the plant a fair and impartial trial, with a result that did not by any means prove that it i» a large oropper on light land. We know that 90 tons of mangels were grown upon an acre once as, an advertisement for a largd firm of seedsmen, and we also know how it was done', but we do not look for 90 tons, per acre as the usual .yield of mangels. Huge yielders are, as a rule, gross feeders, whether it be said of a cow or & plant. The animal and vegetable kingdoms in nature do not differ much in the main points relating to cause and effect, and I.can well believe the Lathyrus could be made to v produoe, say, 15 tons of green stuff per annum for a large number of yean, just as a good milch cow will respond to liberal feeding and proper attention. Lucerne gives a heavy yield under favourable conditions, so also do cape barley, .tares, &c, but nothing comes out of nothing, and therefore no plant can be expected to do any good on " sandy, worn-out, or stony soil."-! ,/; . ■ f , There was a time when the plant commonly called New Zealand flax covered New Zealand large areas of land in Otago and Flax. .Southland.. All the swamp - lands,' rich alluvial flats, and more fertile hillsides were more or less densely clothed with this' valuable fibre plant. When it was most abundant its value was not known, and thousands of pounds' worth of good fibre were eitherjdestrpyed by fire or uprooted to make way for ordinary /cultivation, ■ ;In these days, when as yet the face, of, the country had not been changed from a state of nature by human hands, on the .richest alluvial lands immense flax bushes, as they are familiarly called, were packed together so "densely "that 'they formed almost an impenetrable' jungle, and many of the lance-like blades were lift or 12ft in length. I have heard the. accuracy of this statement doubted, but I think itean be verified by any old Otago colonist at any rate. It would be a matter of utter impossibility- to' estimate the wealth that was consigned to the' flames- when large areas of heavy flax larfd were cleared for cultivation,'* and' it Is only now. when flax is scarce that its value has come to be appre- - oiated. Although the early colonists made good use of the flax in its native state, using strips to tie up paroels, &a,-yet it never occurred to them thai/., it would be turned to good account aa; a cordage fibre. ' This is the more to be wondered at as "everyone saw what a beautiful silky fibre the Maoris prepared from the flax merely by scraping it with a shell. The inventive genius must have \been , wanting amongst.us in those days', else our noble flax fields would have been turned to profitable account. It is true in addition to its use for string, the children of the early colonists and the natives regaled themselves on the sweet liquid secreted tofche flax flowers, and in the absence of the chemist and the doctor boiled flax root supplied a purgative that was always available. \ * The part is gone, and there is no use in crying over spilt milk. The possiThe Future bilities of the future concern us of the most. T The fluctuating value of •»„ Tndustrv fl.ax fibre is due to a variety of Flax industry. The chief is the abundanoe or scarcity, of manila, its only real rival. : Well-dressed an* carefallyWeaohed flax W no,

farm, or indeed about any country house. By means of the experimental plot the farmers or others who care to try the experiment will find out how best to grow the flax, and will be prepared to plant out good areas when the demand arises. In the Azores, where the climate is not unlike that of the north of Auokland, the New Zealand flix plant is being cultivated extensively, and there where ,so much hand spinning and weaving is done, the fibre will be turned to good account.

The importance of the subject must be my excuse for writing so many The Waste from notes this week on New Zealand the Flaxmlll. flax. At every fiaxmill operating throughout the country there is a great deal of waste material produced. This for the most part consists of broken fibre, shreds of dried flax from the edges and tips of the blades, and gum. As the flax cells are held together by the gum secreted by the plant, there is a great' deal of gum goes into the waste from the flaxmill. It is this gum that makes the work of flue-dressing so dirty an' occupation, and everyone handling the raw flax is in a more or less sticky condition from contact with the exuded gum. Now it is just a question . whether this waste* product could not be turned to good account. Flax gum is a good strong gam, and I. have used the clear kind for offloe gum and found it quite as satisfactory as the best gum arabio. Now if a separation of the gum and fibre could be made, both could be put to some use. In the meantime these are thrown out to form evil-smelling manure heaps, or at bestaportion'of the refuse is fed to cows, as it is found from the gum in it that the cows eat it readily, and in winter, when turnips are fed freely and produce looseness, the flax waste acts as a good corrective if not fed too freely. - I would suggest that some of our flaxmill owners should try the effect of boiling a portion of this waste material with the view to extracting the gum. After boiling for a time the mass would have to be strained carefully and the liquid further boiled to thicken the gum. I don't know how the experiment would pan out, but I believe it is worth trying.