AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2232, 10 December 1896, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Six splendid Southdown ewe hoggets which secured firtt, second, and third prizes at the show at Wellington were shipped to Sydney to Mr Bruce, chief inspector of stock for the New South Wales Government. The sheep were bred at Te Bangitamau by Mr Stuckey. The Great Northern Railway Company of England, we read, has issued a list of farmers, market gardeners, fruit-growers, dairy producers, and others living at places served by that line of railway who are willing to supply small parcels of produce under the company's system of special rates for the carriage of such produce direct to the consumer. The list, which is distributed free of charge, gives not only names and addreseos, bub states what each person can forward, and whether in large or small quantities.

The Australasian says:— "The experiments which have been conducted at the Dookie Agricultural College into the diseases of wheat and oats promise to dispel the mystery which has always surrounded the occurrence of ' white heads.' The barren head known to farmers by this name seems to be independent of climatic conditions, as it occurs in web and dry years alike, and its appearance in otherwise healthy crops has always puzzled agriculturists. From observations made by Mr Pye, 'the principal of the college, that gentleman is of opinion that the barrenness is caused by minute insects, known as 'thrips.' He has discovered hundreds of tbe parasites feeding upon the ju'ees of the fertilising organs of the wheat ears both before and just after they Tiave shot. ' The pesb is of European origin, bat there is pp official record of its presence having been detected in Australia beforo. The result of the further experiments which are to be conducted will ba awaited with interest."

11 Lastspring," remarks the Rural New Yorker, " we told the story of a farmer in an eastern State who mounted a small engine on his waggon, and thus secured a strong power for spraying fruit trees. A boy drove the waggon and attended to the engine, while two men held the nczzlea and directed the f pray. By means of this device the work of spraying was robbed of many of its discomforts and was pushed rapidly along. This man worked for his neighbours, and bad more engagements than he could fill. A man in lowa has now put a small engine and a cream separator and tank on a waggon, and travels from farm to farm separating the cream and taking it away, leaving the *kirn milk on the farm. He covers an area each day that provides 30001b of milk. This gives him a profitable business and saves the farmers the time and expense of hauling their milk. Ir stead of carrying it to some central power, the power is brought to them. When the roads ate made first class, end we have a perfect ' horseless carriage,' the same power that runs tfee separator will drive the waggon, and the horse will take a vacation. These two men, one in the east and the other in the west, have thought out two ideas, and made them practical. With each succeeding year new men begin to investigate and experiment;, until agricultural changes are taking place with great rapidity."

Milking tests at shows are, writes " Hadden Gray " in the Melbourne Weekly Times, now being much discussed in dairying circles. I often hear of odd ways and means which some people adopt to win these tests. Imagine a competitor feeding his cow on fresh milk to improve her yield of butter. All is fair in open competition, but such tactics are mean and despicable. The man who cannot win under ordinary conditions should not be tolerated in A shovrjttound*

The übiquitous magpie is (says the Queenslander) fast piling up evidence in his own defence in Victoria. His latest virtue is a penchant for the " apple-borer," known more familiarly as the " elephant beetle," or simply •• elephant." A correspondent of a southern .paper cays : — "It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the nwgpie* of our district (Doncaster) have acquired a taste for our most destructive pest, the apple-root borer, and may be seen walking along the rows of trees, gathering them as they drop back from the zino bands placed around the trees to prevent the beetles crawling up the stems. I have asked several of my neighbours whether they have noticed the same, and they tell me they have seen the birds feeding on them. This is another reason why the magpie fhould be protected by the frait-growers, more especially as some persons are clamouring for their destruction."

Like many another supposed specific, the lately-invented German system of inoculating soil with bacteria beneficial to leguminous plants, such as lucerne, peas, and beans, has failed in practice. . Professor Nobbe, of Tharaudt, Germany, was the first to prepare a gelatinous cultivation of these nitrogen-pro-ducing bacteria, and to place it on the market in commercial quantities under the name of "nitragin." It was claimed that for an expenditure of 4s 6d an acre of land could be infected with nitragin, to the immense advantage of the farmer. Practical test, however, has failed so far to justify this claim. A tieries of careful experiments arranged by Dr Somerville, of the Durham (England) College of Science, have nob proved favourable to the preparation. For instance, experiments on a plot of 15 00 th of an acre of lucerne yielded 1051b without and 1021b with inoculation, ar.d similarly a plot of red clover produced 159£1b in its natural state, while with the application of the nitragin ib yielded only 1551b.

One of the leading defects of the mowing machines at present in use is authoritatively declared, writes the Queenslander, to be overoome by an improvement invented and patented throughout the colonies by Mr D. J. Crosby, of Black Oak Farm, Kadiua, S.A. Everyone who has used a mower knows that a stone or strong stick or any other obstruction that may be caught between tho fingers of tho bar and the cutters is apt to break some part of the machine or bring it to a sudden (top. Mr Crosby's invention is designed to do away with this risk. It consists of a spring relief connecting rod, which is said to entirely overcome all difficulties caused by the catching of small obstructions in the bar. A trial of a machine fitted with the spring rod was lately made at Glenroy, Victoria, and this is the report of the Australasian:— •' (Several wooden stakes were placed in the crop, and among other obstructions used were a lin by £in iron rod, a rasp, and pieces of hoop iron 2in by £in. Yet in no one instance was the mower ttopued. The machine used in this trial was a Walter A. Wood, with a Sft cut. The etop, a beavy ore, estimated to give four tons of hay per acre, was cleanly cut, and the machine was not injured in the least." The Wyndham Herald says that the daily milk supply of the local factory is about 1900 gallons, and that the whey is fed to 140 pigs.