AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2146, 11 April 1895, Page 16

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The General Committee recommended at Wednesday's meeting of the City Council that offers be invited for suitable sites, of from five to 20 acres, for the erection of the public abattoir; that competitive designs of the necessary abattoir buildings, &c, be invited, and that a first priza of 20 guineas and a second prize of 10 guineas be offered for the two most suitable designs ; that authority bs given to the committee to have the debentures printed for the abattoir loan, that two sets of debenturer eprinted of the face value of £100 and £50i respectively, that the interest payable on the abattoir loan be at the rate of 4£ per cent, "per annum, and that such debentures have a 20 years' currency.

Our Invercargill correspondent telegraphs: — "The Ellerslie.eotate, subdivided into eight con-Teniently-sized farms, was submitted for ea'.e by auction to-day (Tuesday) on easy terms, but elicited no bid. The above estate comprises 1901 acres of good quality and highly improved land, adjoining that portion of the Merrivale estate recent'y purchased by the Government. The property was offered on behalf of the Dunedin Sinking Fund Commissioners, into whoso possession it has come »s mortgagees."

A correspondent of the Melbourne Age atates that for some tims past Mr M. J. O'Mara, of Bathurst, has made footrot in sheep his s'udy, and, after much careful experimenting, lie has succeeded in manufacturing an ointment which has proved most ■successful. Within the past few weeks he has operate d on G2 sheep belonging to a wellknown squatter, Mr James Rutherford, of Hereford station, near Bathurst ; and in each case the result has been most encouraging, and the cure perfect. The operation was performed in the presence of Mr G. S. Smith, the local inspector of stovk, and a number of others interested. It is needless to point out wh&t a valuable boon this musb prove to grjziere throughout the Australian colom'e- 1 , for there are comparatively few who have not been serious losers by this disease in their flocks. The ointment is applied as follows : — First of all the affected sheep have the corrupted part carefully pared, particular care being taken that no blood is drawn ; the ointment U then wo!l rubbed in with the thumb end lefb. The very worst cases have been perfectly cured in from two to Tour days.

The Bruce Herald says :—": — " Threshing is itill in full swing, and with fair weather should be finished in about a month's time. Ecporfca from all parts of the district are to the effect that the crops are particularly good, both as regards quality and quantity. The seascn has been a notable one on account of the large Binount of grain which has been threshed out of the stcok. We aro assured that (he quality of the crops surpasses anythirg seen in the district for years past, while as for quantity light crops are the exception."

Messrs Murray, Robert?, and Co. shipped "by the Moray shiro on Saturday 60 live sheep, mostly young, for the London v aiket.

In tbe bulletin of the Society of Agriculture, France, under the heading of "Importation of Cattlo into France," it is stated that from January 1 to July 31, 1894, 63,784 foreign beasts entered, against 3442 of the corresponding period in 1893 and 12 353 in 1892. Tbe-e principally came from Algeria — viz., 4-1,878 in 1894 an sgaiDsb 2337 in 1893 and 9867 in 1892. The United States eeut 6275 in 18S4 againßt 1 and 170. This increase shows that the StatD3 have found a new nurkeb for their cattle. The next article is upon ths harvest of 1894. The results, so far as the farmers of France ere concerned, appear to be that thsy have bad the best crop of wheat they have ever grown excepting that of 1874, and that they wiil have a surplus of over two million hectolitres (or about 700,000 quarters) to Bell or carry over to next season. France is therefore not likely to be a competitor in the foreign wheat markets.

M. Schribius, the director of the Seed Trial Station of the Inatitnt National, France, states that for several years the stations have received ■wheat from England, and that from the first he hes been much struck with tbe exceptional behaviour of these samples when g. rminating. "Whilst those harvested in France germinated completely in from three to five days, and those from Algeria in le3s, the English samples took from three to four weeks to germinate completely. Subjoined are the Ggure3 for the 1892 test per 100 grains germinated :—: — Number of days 2 3 5 7 912111G10 21 21 French wheat... 3 S6 100 English wheat 1 1G 33 50 07 72 SI Ho — •The English wheats take up water and swell as quickly as the Fiocch wheats, but the breaking up of the store of tjje kernel by the diastase is slow, due to the want, or rather insufficiency, of nourishment-, which in the case of English Tvjtieat delays the development of the germ," its physiological ripeness boiog still incomplete. Ei glish wheats, like all wheats grown ia climates affected by the eea, are more or less damp, and it is the excess of moisture that hinders the formation of diastase and delays germination, as proved by the following experiment. English wheats of the harvest of 1892 were germinated in October of th&b year. The subjoined table shows the results. Number of grahi3 germinated per 100 after :—: — Number of days ... 5 7 9 12 14 16 19 21 2<l "Wheat No. 1 (17 85 per

cent of water) ... 1 16 33 50 67 72 84 95 99 Wheat No. 2 (1723 per cent, of water) ... 25 81 9S 96 99 Part of this same wheat was left for eight days in an oven at a temperature of 86deg Fahr. 3?lie speed of germination was quite aUered, as is aho^n by the following figures :— Is umber of dav3 3

ul uaj a 5 7 9 Wheat No. 1 (13 76 per cent, of water) 4 Gi 88 93 Wheat No. 2 (13 - 43 per ce:it. of v,\itei) 72 90 The duration of germin&iion is reduced from 24 days to nine days for wheat No. 1, and from 14 dajs to Gvo day 3 for wheat No. 2. By drying grain slightly and depriving it of part of ila ■water germination ia much accelerated. The Glasgow Herald of Febrjary 7 contains an article which well describes tho consternation 1 amongst the Danish dairyfarmers and bnlter-makers owin# to the competition of Australia. The Danes had established a special grade of good, well-made butter, and they were

accustomed very much to dictate their own terms. They accepted contracts based only upon the weekly official quotations wired bo England every. Thursday, and had quite distanced the other Continental makers. Then Australia stepped in, and gave the tradein Great England an alternative which h&s practically knocked their official quotation on the hcud. Orders were no longer sent to Copenhagen, and in di fault the Danes have had to ship and accept tha prices ruling in London, which ha 1 ! been often 10s to 203 per cwt under their official price. The Glasgow Herald concludes : — " The final issue is difficult to forecast, bub whatever happens the position of colonial butter is assured. The c atonies prove they can place a choice quality on the Home markets, and get a reidy ?ale for it. We may depend upon it, every effort will be mida by them to batter the position already gained." The Doiies, bo jrcver, are still holding their own in regard to the supplies they furnuh. Their shipments ta the United Kingdom were larger in January 1895 than in January 1894 by nearly 15 per cent., but Australia already ran a good second with 78.687cwt to their 102,C67cwt. But the co!ouial butter exports havo knocked tfee bottom oub of the margarine trade, which has its hfine in Holland. The imports of Dutch margarine into the United Kingdom in January were but 85,310cwt, against 111,051cwt in January 1894 and 124,755cwt in January 1893. Margarine cannot stand pg'sinsb pure batter when it is to be had at a moderate price.