FARM NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2200, 30 April 1896, Page 7

FA RM NOTES.

, Commbbciai Fibres.— la the " Cantor Lsetures," delivered before the Society of Arts, London, by D. Morris, C M.G., M.A., the lecturer places Manilla hemp at the head of all "Coidage Fibres." The bulk of tSe annual production, amounting to about 50,000 tons, of ~ the e&tima'ed value of £2,500.000 sterling is ehi^p^d to the United Kingdom, whence a considerable p&xb i» transhipped to- th.3 United £t»tt>s. The position of Manilla haaip in British, markets' prncticilly difcrmiues the prices paid for all "white rope" fibres, of which it is regarded as the cheapest and the bssfe. Mr Morm quoted the following prices ruling in England in March 1895, as affording a fair criterion of the relative value of cordage fibres, The various qualities of Manilla hemp tvt-re' se'ling per ton as follows : — Lupiz, £30 to £50 ; Quillot, £28 to £40 ; prime roping, £21 to £25 ; fair current, £17 to £18 10a ; seconds, '£16 ; good brown, £14- 10a ; common ditto, £13 10s. At the same time Sisal hemp wai selling per ton at £14, Mauritius bergp at £21 to £24, JSTew Zealand phormium at £12 to £14. The jol-.nt yielding Manilla hemp is a wild plantain, native of the Philippine Islands, where several varieties are now cultivated. The stem made up of the leaf sheatha rises to the height of 12ft to 20ft. It is propagated by means of enckers thrown out at the base of the parent stem. Plantations are established in fresh clearings on low hills and nnder the shade of . trees, left standing, at 60ft apart. The oost of establishing plantations is from about £5 to £8 'an acre, not including the coat of the land. After this the yearly expense of weeding, and maintaining the plantation in full bearing is, at the rate of 30i to 35s per acre. The first crop- * ib reaped at the end of 18 months or two years After planting. The yield during the third and f ourtfi yean ii at the rate of 4001b to 7001b of dry, fibre per acre., The cleaning is done .entirely by hand. No machine has yet been invented that will extract the 6bre so cheaply •nd well. A labourer, working nnder pressure, . Trill olean about 201b of hemp per day. Usually -tiro men work together— one oafcting down the Baft stems and splitting them, whita the other .Jftbttna fcha fibre. Ia man* auea fch& workers

are paid oue-halt" of the price of the .fibre cleaned per day. From thane particulars it >n«y b^ gnthnrfd that the Mauil.la hauip indnitry in the Philippines is fostered by very exceptional oironm^ance*. The plant is native of the country. It is cultivated on virgiu soil, of which there is in that part of the world an aulimited extent ; and in addition the labour supply is both cheap and ab itld&nt. It is ino- | portent to basr these facts in mind in B'a-- 'ing the caUivuHon of any fibre that ii likely to come into competition with Manilla hemp. Even in the Philippines there are distiic's in the western and northern parts, with a drier climate, where the plants will not grow. Hetce it is useless to attempt to start a Manilla hemp industry in any country whtre the soil is not rich, and where *h«re is not an abundant rainfall well distributed throughout the y far. A ru 30.es -ful attempt to establish the indusfcrjfcin British N rth Borneo ha* lately been reported. Owing to the heavy taxes iv the Philippines it is claimed tbat,North fijrueo can export its fibr* at a lower cost than the Philippines. Hahnesi the Wind — cl There is a great deal of wind going to waste on all our f arena," says a Connecticut farmer itr a note to the Rural New Yorker, to which he sends a picture of a sawmill on his place operated by wiud power. " This picture," he writes, " shows my windmill and the pile of wood sawed with it. This fhowß tbat^here is sufficient av«ilnble power in a 12ft gewed mill to ruu all mv-hines necessary on a farm. No'icj the sizo of the bocks. Some of them are 20iu acrocs, old, dry apple and knotty ash, which are very hard ; yet they were all sawed without stopping the saw. This mill runs a thresher thao cleans the grain from the straw and chaff at 'oae operation. A boy 15 years o'd and myself got from the mow and thre>hed 20 shocks of oats in one hour. My mill grinds all kinds of feed, five or course, and corn meal and Qr*ham flour for table nse. We cut our cornstalks with a big fodder cutter." Pigs in, Clover.— The old saying "pigs in clover " must have originated from the ob^ervafcien that, pigs generally had a good tima when it fell to their lot to get *ll th^ clyver they required. It is a f*os that they do thrive uncommonly well on clover, and although the c istotn of feeding pigs on it prevails only to a liiuitt-d rttent in Austra'ia, American pigfeederd aiM much moie alt\*e to the vala-3 of the practice. In that couatry- clover is grown for the special uae of the pigs, aud bo other animal fi allowed to pasture the ground eithev simultaneously with or in advance of them. As a rule the grazing system fr adopted in A-i.ericn, but a number of farmers in the States ms-fee a success of the "soiling" system, or in other words, feeding the pigi in yards on green fodder, which ia carted in to th«m If a succession of green crop* is provided there is no such cheap way of mating manure a? by the summer feeding of pigs in the yards. ■ Clover, or greeu m*iz- > , or grass of any kind is greatly relished by them, and there is no doubt that a much larger number can be fattened on a given area of 'crop when it ia cat for thsca, instead of allowing them to graze. Of course, the question of exp^n«e has to be considered in adopting the soiling plan compared with the grazing system. The Utter is sometimes impracticable, but generally it is to be preferred. The soiling system is, however, recommended in caie* where pasturing the pigs is for some reason or another impossible. Farmers in thi* c.uutry keep- far too few p'ga, and pig pastures are much scarcer than they ought to be. The pig is undoubtedly the farmer's friend. It is more prolific and comes to maturity more quickly than any other kind of stock on the farm.; it consumes and makes vaEnable much, wlrcb. would otherwise be wasted; and very little 1 expansive food is required by it. One great mistake on m»uy farms is that, as the pig ia a scavenger, and a few may be proSfcably kept oa refuse, the number is limited to the q uvntifcy of uffdl which the farm supplies; on the other hand, large numbers are kspt almost entirely on expensive purchased foods. Few farmers attempt to farm for their pigs. — " Thistledown," in the Australasian. PiiCTOTENCY of Red Polts —The red-polled cattle are well kn >wa iv the United {States (write* the Live Stocks Journal). In Americ* the prepotent powers of red polls are so strong that when mingled or crossed with other breeds the progeny are always hornless, and retain their colour and useful qualities to a remarkable extent. The first Eagliab settlers in the States in the seventeenth, cantur? took their favourite cows to Virginia- from Suff jlk »nd Not folk, aud subsequently they were pictured in the State of Miasipsippi. fa 1847 a Cork gentleman gave a red-polled heifer to Captain Forbes, who bad just unloaded a relief cargo of food from the United States ship Jamestown. Hence the red polls in America descend from these sources, and there are few States in which, they are not found. In the States this grtf'ud dairy breed yields an extra quantity of rich milk, and continue the Sow till calving time. When dried off they fatten cheaply and readily, and make fine beef. A Cow's Udder.— The udder of the cow should not be likened to a vessel, a bag, or even a sponge. It does not hold any apprec ; able quantity of completed m ilk at any one time. The milk cisterns, where alone completed milk oan be found in the udder, and this of very, poor quality, are quite the fo'ir together seldom holding more than a pint. The glands, between the milking*, bring together the materials, store up a considerable quantity of the serum or fluid portion, and prepare to make the milk. In the cells of the udder the fat globules are formed. -They are parts of the anatomy of the cow, like the fat in other parts of the animal body ; they form by the building process, ripen, loosen, or slonghoff, and are then moved along, floated by the serum through the ducts and channels to the cisterns. This final process, the mixing of

fats and serum in dv«- proportion to ms.k«milk, occurs almost wholly during the active operation of milking. Tue distend d udder may indicate tb.»fc the cow in ready for milking, but it ia not true that " (he uddar is full of milk," There is practically ao fully-fortmd milk when thi teats are seized by hand or calf. Tfie tnilkrcukiog by Nature is coincident with the act of in;lluru --Ex-hange. ■ Spbtustg Sow*— "The Irish -bacon-curera h*v<j apcecbameoV' says th& Australian -Farm and H«mn, " fch*t the uld-fiisuiiuie'd custom of Ijpeyingeow pigs has been discontinued to a vary large exteut, and hnv. given notice th<tt on and after January 1, 1893 they will not purchase the sows that bava not gone through the operation. A', the present time the competition be£weeu foreign and Irish, bioon it su keen that everything raurt be done that will improve quality, and as ths fle^h of spoked animals is decidedly superior the practice aunt be again resorted to. Moreover unspeyed sows cause great <lam*ge aad hindrance to growth of those feeding with them, thus inflicting unnecessary lo«* upou both breeder and curer. The bicouearere prats this point on tae immediate attantiou of all pig-b.-eeddrs, as is it a matter of very great iiiporcanoa to the whole trade." Later on the article deal* with the question of tha prevention of consanguinity or close breeding, and on this point the writer remarks :—: — • Th« evil wffeofc of c!os> breeding shows itself sooner in the case oi p'gi thm in any other of our domestic animals, and therefore fresh blood is most essential, la practice it will be found tb.it a well-shaped pig cau be reared, fed, and brought in a shorter space of time to a greater weight upon a smaller amount of food than a mougrel-bred one ; while the bacon and h»m cut from the carense of a well bred pig are superior in quality and command a higher price in the market."

Growing Sooas Beet in Scotland. — The Gjreenock Beefcroob Sng*r Association recently held its third annual competition for the encouragement and cultivation of beetroot in Scotland. I'rizas to the v*lue of £25 were offered, a* formerly, by the association to far-" mers iv Scotland for the growth of a plot of beetroots, and seeds of two varieties, French and German, had been distributed atmngst intending competitors. Thirty fanner* received theae seeds, but in consequanca of the dry neither in May and June many of the plots were failures, or partial failures so that only 17 competitors came forward for judgment*. Trie exhibitors show in most cases six red-Sop roots from French seed, which are eariier and larger than the white roots from German seed, bul> throe are erpectod to be richer in sugar. The half-pole of roots without leaves, lifted and weighed by the judges, was also cihibir.tvi, and it is from this the undressed weight- per acre is t*k«n. Last year the weight per half-pole was 1391b, while this year it is no less than 2121b ; wt.ile the lightest last year was 50 ib, a^aiuab 59 ib now. The roots are ganerallr of good shape. The analysis will proceed during the week, and thereafter the prizes awarded. The competitors ara (torn nearly every d'stricfc in Scotland, including the counties of Ayr, Renfrew, Bute, Dumfries, Wigtown, Selkirk, Duiubvrton, and Mid-Lothian. — North British Agriculturist.