AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Mr Gilrufcb, Government veterinary surgeon, left Wellington for Sydney by the Hajiroto on Friday, en route to Paris to take his bacteriological course at the Pasteur Institute. 'He goes on lesve on full pay, but will bear all hia own expenses. Ho expects to bo away from seven to eight moaths. During the absence of Mr Gilruth bis duties are to be performed by Mr Archibald Park, late Government veterinary surgeon of Tasmania, who has recently bean acting as hia assistant. The recent rise in wool means, it is said, an increased earning power to the Bank of New Zealand Assets Company of over £12,000 per annum. I The crops on the Taieri plain are looking excellent. A buyer of wool has just completed a transaction in the Hunterville district for a clip of wool at 8d per lb delivered at the railway station. In convereation with a Southland News reporter a settler who has had considerable experience in d&irving in Ireland as well as in the colony laid down three ruks that must, in his opinion, be unerringly followed before New Zealand dairy produce can hold its own in the world's market : — (1) The cowshed should be built on an elevation co that no stagnant water or. impure matter can collect, and enable all sewerage to be at once drained off to any portion of the farm. (2) If the milk of a cow yields inferior butter fab never mix the fluid with that from the rest of the herd, otherwise it will deteriorate the whole, and the butter will not keep. (3) Always milk the cows clean ; when they are getting dry, milk once a day, th^n once in two daya, until there is no yield, but as soon as milking twice a day ceases none of the milk should be sent to the factory, or it will inevitably affect the quality of the dairy produce. There are numerous other conditions that should be complied with, but these he regards as three essentials, and until they are complied with our informant has no hope* of New Zealand dairy produce topping the market in Londt n, as it shi uld do with proper care. The Melbourne Weekly Times says that the first shipment of Dorset sheep ever made to Australasia was despatched from Somersetshire this season by John Thornton and Co , and congistad of eight ewes and one ram. This breed is horned, as heavy as Shropshire Downs, with medium length and value of wool, is hardy, and has the peculiarity of lambing much earlier in th» se-isou than any other class. The meetiug of settlers in the Wallacstown district convened by Mr Keith Ramsay, for the purpose of consideiing the advisability tf reopening the condensed milk factory, ou Friday was (says the Southland News) well attended, despite the short notice. A tin of milk turned out by Mr M'Leod, the manager, two years ago for the thea proprietor, Mr A. H. Highton, and which has sii.ee been in the possession of Mr L. G. Rope,o >pc, who wished to ascertain ho* long it ■ would keep, was opened and found to be in as I fine condition a 9 on (he day it was tinned, Ihus I proving to anyone sceptical that the local ' art ; cle is every bit as _good as the bast SwUs. Inquiries made at the meeting showed an abucdant supply of milk would be available on the re-opening of the factory. There is no room to^think that, worked on strict busmtS3 principlea, the manufacture of condeused milk cannot be most profitably engaged in in New Zealand, and as the Wallacetown factory is the only one of the kind in the colony and profitable investments are scarce, it is unlikely that, with the complete plant on the premiEe3, and a competent manager available, the works will remain closed much longer. A writer in an exchange gives some interesting details of the South African farm 3 and their owners. Apparently the Africander, who in many instances •' runß" ostriches, Angora goats, and sheep, obtains extraordinarily good returns for a very small outlay bolh of labour and capital. The farms vary in size from 5000 np to 30,000 acres, but the more general size is about 10 000 acres. Anything over 20,000 acres is considered an enormous place, and the owner thorcof a man of groat wealth T r i^ land is almost all freehold, a-id \er> light.y t*x;d. A perpetual quit-rent is paid to the Crown — really a land tax, bub the payment is a very sm&U one, and is scarcely ever taken into account when properties change hands. " One property, which may be taken as typical of a good karoo sheep farm, consisted of 15,000 acres, all more or lees scrub-veldt, with scarcely a blade of grass. Carrying capacity reckoned at 5000, and numler of permanent hands employed six. Wild animal* were very bad, so that the flocks wanted eoust&nb watch-

ing, each shepherd having under his special care about 1200 sheep. No dogs were used for sheep at all. The only water conservation wss a big dam near the houce. Tho owner had no mortgage loadstone weighing him down, and the prolita for last; year even with the low price of wool wera £800. The following io a rough balance Bheet for last year : — Exuonditura: Four shepherds, at 10s a month e*c&} £24 ; four shephords' keep at 153 a monfcb; £36 ; two generals at 10s a month, £12 ; two generals' keep at, 153 a month, £18 ; shearing 5000 sheep afc Id each, £22 ;— total, £110. R*; ceipts : Sale of 500 fat sheep at 14s on famrj £350 ; 84- bales of wool at 4d per lb, £560 ;-r total £910 ; less expenses, £110 ; proßfe, £800; The two principal items that help to make io profltablea return off such a small fl >ck and such poor country are the cheapness of black labous and the high price for fat stcck. Tho laboutr employed is entirely black. I have never seei^ a white labourer on a farm, and as the blacS races, in spite of cheap brandy, are steadily on the increase, their employment must ever rsmain at a discount." At Palmerston North last week the Btook inspector found that a cow which ho had examined but had not decided whether it was afflicted with cancer, had been aold to a batcher. On reachiDg the yards he found that it had not been slaughtered, and it is only right to tay that the butcher disclaimed any intention of slaughtering it for immediate consumption. He was going to pickle it, he said. The cow was slaughtered and fouud to be in a very bad condition from cancer. As the cow had been recently milked, an inquiry is to be made as to what was done with tho milk. The rise in wool is said to be due to a chango in fa-hion set by the upper classe?, and now very general, for the wear of all-wool and cellular underclothing. Os'end rabbit dealers do not welcome the Australian importation, and the scare aboufa putrid and poisoned rabbits may be ascribed to trade jealousy. Those by tho Aberdeen realised 8d each. A flock of lambs, raised on a farm near Danevirke, averaged 4-Olb each whoa killed and dressed. At one station ii> the Ma&tertt n district the shearing machines have been abandoned iv favour of the hand shears. Nearly £3000 worth of agricultural implsment* were sold at thePalmeisfcjn Agricultural and Pastoral fhow. The Timaru Herald of the 21st says :—": — " We heard yesterday that a farmer of Arowhenua had sold a line of wheat at 4s. and a farm« r of. Mil ford, for 4-3 2d. One fairly Jarge holder near the Levels is still holding, and expects to get 4s 6d for his whe*t and 2s 6d to 2* 8d for bis oats." D..ubb has often been expressed as to whether the alfalfa of America and the lucerne of Australia are one and the same plant. Apparently there is a good deal of d'ffr.rtnc, but by careful testing it has betu found tha ihis difference is due only to the acclimatisation. The lucerne grown from imported seed has much smaller leaves than that from colonial seed, whicl} latter also gives more vigorous plants. A priza was offered by Messrs H. Mtteon and Co at the recent Courtenay show for guess ing (•be value of a pen of fat cheep. Out of about 200 competitors, Mr Rd. Croskell's e&timate ofc £1 la 3^d was found to b« the u&areit, the actual value being £1 Is 2d. At the end of 1894 there were in Ireland 30 co-operafcive creameries with eight branches, hay ing £25,000 invested in plant, and producing 3,567,8551h of butter, realising £151,352, and selling at 10 22d per lb. Tho ave«»j»a price paid for tho milk was 3 53d per gallon, and 2 53gal of milk were required to make lib of butter. There were IG4I membars. m'lking 20,71+ cowe, and after allowing £2271 for depreciation of factories and plant, a neb profit of £1892 was earned for the year. The position of the Mildara settlers is (saya an Australian exchange) exciting a good desl of sympathy among all who have watched with interest the experiment that has for e'g^fc yenrg been in progress at the irrigation c.iloay. Defects in the water supply have been the m un cauie of trouble, and it; is difficult to see, unless the Government of Victoria omes to the rescue, how the settlement is to be saved. Chaffey . Bros, will scarcely be prepared to fulfil their whole responsibility. By tfce temporary Mildura Rating Act passed 'in 1893 it is enacei that Ch»ffey Bros , Liniited^sh»U within five years ot Juiu»ry 1, 1894, plsSl tha whole of the Mildura irrigation works in such a condition of efficiency that not more than one* fifth of the water pumped shall be lost in dittribution and delivery, and the chief* engineer of water supply ia to report year by year whvthec due pr<*gre-t8 is being made to this end. Chaffey Bros Lim<ted are in the unfortunate position that <vhile they are required to undertake this large expenditure thoir revenue f 10m the settlement ha* almost totally ceastd. Sales of land have stopped, and for the land already sold \jjhere are arrears due to thorn of something like £40,000. That tha effectiveness of the irtigation arrangements would have placed matters on a very diff-rent footing in proved by tha case of the. Rm'urly es r a*f>, known as Old Mildura There th« w*t^r difficulty has not arisen, and Mr Pickering, the manager, states that already the property is paying all expenses, though not more than one-fourth is yet in bearing. He looks forward confidently Io good profits in tho future. This estate ha 3 suffered its full share of all the troubles (except want of water) which have beset the pUce A large portion of it has been replanted on account of the bad stocks obtained in the first instance, and want of experience as to the peculiarities of the soil. It has an independent water supply, which costs £1 per acre per annum. Lemons are regarded as one of the most profitable crops which can be produced. They grow well here, and three cases to the tree at the present stage of growth is a common return. The recent shipment Hume, though ib did not realise all that was hoped' from it, gave a net return of 93 per tree, and, a? there are 80 trees to the acre, this ebons the' splendid return of £36 per acra. The oranges planted originally were nearly all of inferior; sorts, and though the work of budding the stocks from choica varieties is proceeding as rapidly as possible, it muab necessarily be a slow process. These facts have been disclosed to a special commissioner of the Argus, who. was lately sent to Mildura to inquire into the condition of affairs there, in view of special legislation which was in contemplation. Ona peculiarity has bean brought- out strongly ia Mildura experience. In irrigation channels "which are nob watertight or nearly so there iff not only tho lo3s of water to be reckoned with — indeed that is only the smaller of two grt* it evil<i. It appears that there exist ia the subs >il below workiug depths quantities of salts that are inimical to plant growth. Where there is large leakage from irrigation channels the ground is saturated to a depth ci manjr

feet, and these salts are dissolved in the water, and thus are brought up to the surface and Vvithin reach of the plant roots, upon which Ihey exercise a disastrous influence. And when once the surface soil has become impregnated with these «alts it is no easy matter to get rid of them again. Too much irrigation water, therefore, is worse than too little. '• Seepage," as this saturation is termed, has been the ruin of many a smiling orchard. An experience of Mr T. Ayson over the disposal of some fat lambs may (says the Wyndh»m Herald) interest our farming friends. Last April Mr Ayson was offered 6< for a line of übout 400 fat lambs. He thought the price rather small, and so decided to ship them to the Home market on his own account (through the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Invercargill). He drew what equalled 6i fid per head (skins included). He has now got tiis returns, and is naturally very pleased to find that, in place of 6s, he has received equal to 9a 6d per head— 3a 6d better than the effer he wisely refused. And this a r ter paying all expenses of commission, &c. — in short, the gain stated is net. Mr Ayssn has kindly given ub the flic's, and we present them to our farming readers, who will, no doubt, find matter for reflecting upon. Mr J. TouDg, the new manager for the New Zealand Farmers' Dairy Union, has just had the firm's factories at Wellington" and PalmerBton fitted with 'concussion churns.' They are Bimply plain boxes sft 6in long, 3ft wide, and 3ft 4in deep. The lids are fastened by iron attachments working on a lever principle. The churns are swung on spindles bolted to the ends, and revolve at 60 revolutions to the minute. Each is copabla of turning out 600 ib of butter at each churning. There are two at the Palmer* ton factory, and one of Cherry's butter workers, capable of dealing with 1121b of butter in five minutes, has been added. Only artesian water is now used at this factory, and' it is believed that with the new plant the expenses will be reduced by fully 50 per cent. The new churns work admirably. They trtfefftctive, easily worked, and economical. I believe that the factory at Ballance is the only o.her establishment in the colony fitted with this kind of churn. Tho milk at the Dairy Union's creameriei is now tested under what is known in Victoria as the "dripcan" process, and a cream tester will shortly be used as a check on the separators. Milk is now c ffering freely at the creameries in the district, and the output of the local factory will soon rise to 25cwt per day. Mr James Hurley, of Weudonside, recently brought oub a patent for thinning turnips, or other crop?, sown in drills. Tho Waimea Plains Review says the invention is a laboursaving machine, calculated to do tho work of 16 men. Hitherto, as is well known to farmers, turnip- thinning has had to ba done alnaoat exclusively with the hoe by hand, any invention for a similar purpose having failed to meet requirements. In consequeuco, the growing of such crops involved a great amount of labour and expense. With the aid of Mr Hurley's machine, this trill be done away with, and as the price of tne implement will be moderate, it possesses all essential qualifications of success. Mr Hutley intends to have a model constructed, and- will give a public trial at the earliest opportunity, and the machine will al-p likely be exhibited at the Dunedin and Gore shows. The patent is descr.bed a3 a combination of hoes worked on an eccentric shaft and drawn after the ordinary giubber, to which it is attached. It can be so regulated that the turnips can be tbinned to any requited distance. Some idea of the advantages of the implement from a labour-saving point of view may be gathered ■when it is mentioned that the amount of hoeing or thinning out a man could do in a day is half an acre, whereas the patent would put through from eeven to ten acres. In construction it is very simple, being easily worked and regulated, and several farmers who have inspected the plans and drawing are very sanguine of its success. The Danes and Swedes have for some little time been sending to England frozen milk, which ia, when thawed, sold in London and elsewhere as fresh, and it is now said that they are even threatened with a flood of frozen milk and cream from the other side of the Atlantic. The supply of frozen milk comes, as yet, from a Swedish factory, where the milk is treated by a patent process, being first heated to about 75Jeg C, and then cooled to about lOdeg C , after which the freezing ia carried out. The cans afß> said to be half filled with milk and frozen for three hours, the frozen milk and fresh milk being then filled into pine barrels in equal proportion, thus the barrels can be filled to their utmost capacity and shaking avoided ; at the same time the proportion of frozen milk is in sufficient quantity to preveni the cream setting, and also to keep the milk fresh for 26 days. The barrels are said to be capable of holding 10001b of milk, 100,0001b being shipped per w»ek, received at Newcastle, and thence distributed to various centre 3. The patent rights of this process are said to have been bought for Ireland. We (Christchurch Press) understand the lambmg has been exceedingly good on the Star--bro' ran, Awatere. This season 10,200 lambs have been marked from 11,000 ewes, equal to 92 per cent. Two-thirds of the breeding ewes are merinos. The same station has also sold a large line of fat merino wethers, oft the shears, at trom 7s 3d to 8a per head, and a line of two and four tooth halfbreds, shorn, ab 9s per head. Speaking at the quarterly meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Agriculture, Mr J. B. Dowdall estimated that out of the £13,000,000worth of butter annually imported into England more 'than £6,000,000 worth is handled by Manchester importers. The statement is Surprising, but Mr Dowdall doe 3 not speak without knowledge. Despite the enormous quantity represented by these figures, he says that with the cold storage and extensive means of distribution in the hands of the provision trade organisation in Manchester, colonial butter-makers need have no hesitation in consiguirg a large share of their produce to Manchester. « Mr Hill, V.S., and Inspector Holderness, visited the quarantine station yesterday, says the Pr( ss of the 22nd, and released a boar and two sows, purebred Tamworth pigs, for Messrs "Wilson Bros., of Apora Farm, Chaney's Corner. They arrived in the sailing vessel Lake Erie 70 days ago, and have ju*t gone through the quarantine regulations, and are .in good condition. These pigs came from the yards of Major Hamley, who ia the principal breeder in England, and are superior animals to the Messrs 'Wilson's first importation, -which arrived here the beginning of Januar-y this year. Tarn worths need for crossing purposes with Berkshire and STorkshire produce splendid bacon pigs, the-pro-geny being very hardy and prolific. These Tarn worths are the only ones that have been imported Late New .Zealand. ■ Thefoliowingrecipe for cooling water for dairy •purposes in the summer time is given by Mr Sf'Cormick, the expert in charge of the Tasjnanian travelling dairy : — Take 81b nitrate of ammonia and 41b chloride of ammonia, both .Jinely powdered; mix well together and use 51b Of the mixture to every gallon of water. This quantity will be found sufficient to reduce water at a temnerature of BOdejg Fafcr, to freeain^,

point (32deg P*hc.) in a few seconds. In order to regain the salts after usiog, evaporate the water over a slow fire in an iron vessel. The salts should then be laid on a plank and allowed to thoroughly dry iv the 6UQ. Bs careful hot to boil the mixture, because a portion of the salts will thereby be Icsb. Never allow the ammonia to come in contact with batter or cream, but stand the vessel containing these articles in tho mixture, so that they may be entirely surrounded by it.

Mr J. R Charlton, M.R.C.V.S., in a letter to the Christchurch Press on the local meat supply quotes -the following cases to show that he is not unnecessarily apprehensive regajeding the health of citizens : — No. 1 : A cow in milk (borders of Christ jhurch) had been ailing 10 months. When seen was in fair condition, milking well, but had an enlargement in the perio'neal region, which presented a raw and irritable surface. The discharge from this enlargement passed downwards, ran over the udder, and dropped off the points of the posterior teats ! The case was one of undoubted cancer, and the owner on becoming awara of the nature of the disease immediately invited me to put a bullet in the animal's head, which I did. — No 2 : A -milch cow about two miles from post office. Had suffered from udder disease for eight or nine- months ! When seen by me her general health, to the ordinary observer, appeared to bo exec llent, and her condition very giod. Examination of the udder showed, however, that suppuration had taken pla^c at varions points, that these opeuiags had healed from time to time, followed by an opening at some other part. A fresh opening was sought for from** which matter was oozing, a minate driplet of which, under the microscope, revealed the presence of the lining organism actinomyce3. The animal was slaughtered, and it was then .found that, in addition to acfcinomycosis of the'udder, there were many centres of tuberculosis affecting lha abdominal aud thoracic contsnts.