NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

While Mr Cooper, the editor of the Scotsman, was on his recent visit to the A Gigantic Australasian colonies he sent a Fraud. series of very interesting letters

to his paper upon the agriculture of New Zealand." He devoted a good deal of attention to the frozen meat trade, and expressed himself pretty strongly in favour of frozen mutton ; in fact, he says he can vouch for it being the bast of mutton, and no Scottish mutton is or could be better, and b=tber meat could not be desired by the mo ih fastidious. He go2s on to say: — " I am informed that at the present time the wholesale dealers at Home will uot pay more than 2-Jd a pound for the meat. . [He is writing of meat from tbe Wellington j works.] If they were content with a moderate proflb, the meat could be sold at from 3d to 4_ a pound less than the price commonly charged for it. What this would mean to thousands of families I need not say." Of course Mr Cooper looks at the matter from the standpoint of a British consumer, and does uot refer to the injustice to us, but waxes indignant at the butchers putting such a high price upon it in order to make an inordinate profit. A British farm paper, referring to this statement of Mr Cooper's about the big proflb and high price, sajs the reason is that the best frozen mutton from New Zealand is sold in Britain as home-fed meat,~"and the unwary purchaser pays the high price, thinking he is getting the primes!; mutton from the rich pastures of Great Britain. , The same paj>er goes on to say that each ■ British Government has been slower than its predecessor in the matter of taking ways and means to put an end to this gigantic fraud. We come in for a share of blame also, for we have, says the paper, connived at the fraud by not starting retailing establishments in the chief centres of population for the sale of that foreign meat under its proper name ; or we could mark our frozen carcases in such a way that they could be at once known a3 foreign meat. There is no doubt that if this were done our mutton would sell batter, and would probably bring down the value of British-fed meat. The Home paper, however, contradicts itself in > the most glaring manner. After sayiDg, as I have just quoted, that our best frozen mutton is bought at a high prica by the consumers thinking it is home-fed, it goes on to say that ' British producers need not fear the competition of frozsn mutton if sold under its true name, I because the " wasting away of the natural juices in thawing" necessarily affects the' l flavour and nutritive value of the meat, and the . well-to-do Britisher — even the working man — < wants to have the best of meat, and is willing to pay a good prica for it. The paper winds j up by eaying : "As a matter of justice, this colossal fraud of selling foreign meat as home meat should ba put down with a firm hand." It would indeed be a matter of justice, to us as well as to Home producers and Home consumers. Let everything be sold on its merits and under no false colours. ~lf wp could get our mutton sold as ! whatitisatafairprice,say4dperlb, the demand would soon increaee, for it is quite certain that good mutton from New Zealand and Australia cannot be dear at 4d whils British mutton is selling at 8d per lb, notwithstanding the alleged " wasting of the natural juices." An increased demand for frozen mutton would

bring down the demand for aud the prica of j English mutton, and therefore the British producers have very good cause to tear the result I of our mutton being s >ld on its merits under its -<?al name Though the British papers, writing in the interests of 13 itisn producers and consumer?, terra tho present sysbetn pursued by the salesmen a "gigantic fraud," they may yet see th« day when justice is done to us and to them, and they may then have cause to regret the abolition of the gigautic fraud. i

When the difference in the selling price of English mutton and the iraProseiit ported frczon arbiclo is taken into Position of account all mu3b-allow that the the Frozen present position of the frozen Jleat Trade, meat trade is anything but satis-

factory. When we consider that in a little more than a dozen years tho frozen rac-at trade in England has sprung from nothing till in 1896 it reached an import from various countries of 5,717,000 cheep, the development of the trade must be regarded a>» siaaply marvellous. The principal countries exporting are New Zaaland, Australia, and the Argentine. Large though the number of sheep exported seems to be, yefc they only suggest 71b of mutlou per annum per head of population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain aud Ireland. Ib is quite clear, therefore, that if tha fxpor'o from the producing countries were donblrvl it would fall very Far short of supplying tho demmods-of the British consumer. Yet we often hear of a glut in tha London market ! The mistake is made too often of shipping Home 100 freely at one time aud too sparingly ab others, for all fchfc rn^fc Australia and New Zealand could send would never glut the English markets. And if an increase o£ H per lb on the ruling price* reached by the produce could bs obtained the export mea'o trade would b'i a srood paying business. Tha chief trouble is tb&fc want of organisation at the producing end leaves the spoils to the bufcohora and middlemen, who are reaping the lion'a share of the profits, while the consumer pays near!/ an much for imported as he does for tbe fresh-killed British article. A little orgiWß&fcion -jroulrt give the advantage of cheap mfab to Uio Brit : sh cojisumer and allow a substantial profit ro the pcoclacer. But only active combination amongst colonial producers can brenk up the London combination againsh us. The meat trade haa reached a crisis, and unless the London combination is broken up the export; of frozen meat cannot long be continued. Solf-p?eserv«tion Is the first law of nature, and sclf-presorvjitioa ought to impel every ship-owner in the colony to join in with a combination to combine tha frozen meat export trade. A colonial combination could secure far better terms from the shipping companies, and the openiDg of retail shops ia London would placß the colonial article on the market for what it; really is at a satisfactory twice. This is the keynote to the aoMtion, and the sooner the position is Faced the better for the prosperity of these colonies.

At the celebration of the tercentenary of tha

potato at Dublin, Mr Mitchell, Twenty-five representative of a firm of ssed-

Years' growers of Rothesay, read a Experience paper entitled " Twenty-five

Of Years' Experience of PotatoPot ato-grow- growing." In this paper he ing. pointed out that experience demonstrated the following fact — that farmyard manure is not the best for potato crops. After trying all kinds of mxnure, he had given up farmyard manure excepting when he had no other usa forjt. The best plan Mr Mitchell found was to manure with farmyard manure the previous year for oats or wheat at the rate of 20 t0 .40 tons manure to the aero, according to the state of the land. Plough the stubble after the crop is cut in tha autumn, and stir the soil well with the cultivator in springtime, and plant whole seed. He found seeds weighing from 2£iz to 3£oz give t.be best results. Open the drill* with single furrow the one way and cover the sets returning. Two ploughs, he saye, will easily put in three acres a day in that way. The drills are opened 28in to 30in apart, and the sets put in 12in to 14in. Mr Mitchell found the best potato manure nitrate of Eoda with superphosphates, or sulphate of ammonia instead of the nitrate. The manure should ba made just prior to usiDg it. With regard to the method of ueiog the manure, this experienced- grower says he always got the best results by the application of artificial manure sown over the drills when planting. The mixture used has bee.> 4cwt mineral superphosphate. 2cwt pure bu-aemeal, and lewt nitrate of soda. This is the: approved mixture after due experience. It is a cheap manure, easily applied, and after a straw crop that has had a good manuring with dung the resulting crop is generally satisfactory. The main objection to the use of farmyard manure at the time of planting is that the development of vegetable spores in the decaying manure leads to a more or less diseased state of the tubers.

I suppose every farmer makes some effort to save what he can of the farm- ' The yard manure produced on his Farmyard holding ; but very few attempt Manure Heap, to get the very best results out of the manure saved. For the most part the manure heap is built anywhere for convenience, and the liquid portion of the manure is allowed to go to . waste. No greater mistake could be made, as the por- ! tion that drains away is the richest part of tbe manure. If farmers only realised this they would make some effort to save the liquid drainings from the manure heap. Every well- | appointed farm ought to have a concrete tank

sunk into the ground to catch the drainage from the stalls of either stable or cowshed. A good plan then is to pour the liquid over the manure heap from time to time, allowing surplus drainage to flow back into the tank. Where a good clay subsoil exists it is only necessary to excavate a pit and then to plaster it inside with cement, or rather a mixture of oemeni and clean sharp sand. The ecieutiflo method of dealing with liquid manure would be to put superphosphata into the tank in the proportion of lowt to every 200g%1 before pouring it over the manure heap. This will convert the carbonate of ammonia, which is very volatile, into sulphate, which ia not, and will cot therefore evaporate into the air when applied to either manure heap or to the laud direct. Tank liquid treated in that way is at least four times as effective as when loft as supplied by Nature. When the value of the liquid drainage of the stable and cowshed i* taken into account, the trouble of saving it will ba repaid ten times over to every farmer who makes proper provision for doing so.

This deadly disease is weil known to British

sheep-farmers, and is said to Tjirer Flake carry off about a million sheep or Hot. every year in Great; Britain. 16

is due to tho presence of paraBites in tho liver, and takes its name from a flat; fish called tbe flnke, which ia very similar to the flounder in general tppearance. The full-grown fluke as seen on a ahesp's liver is from three-quarters of au inch, to an inoh in length and from oae-aighth to half an inch broad. It is flattened, and brownish in colour, and attached to the liver by a sucker on tao utider >urface. Canterbury and Otago are as yet frea from this dreaded scourge, but; it is prevalent in some parts o[ che North Island, where certain avean are from time to' time gazatbed rs being quarantined under tho provisions of " The Stock Act 1893," which provides that any land found to bs carrying flukey sheep may ba declared an infeciisd pUc«, and no one is allowed to remova any ♦• -iheep, carcase, ov any portion thereof," except uudar the direction of an iuspeofcor of stock. The flnke worm, like the tapa wbrm and bladder tvorav, which, causa gid or sturdy in siieep, depends en more than oue "host" or receiving animal at different atages of its exisfcanco. In order to describe ifs lift) history as briefly a« possible, 1 will aupposn that we have a, flukey sheep, and show how the flakes get into auoiiher sheep. The matured fluke is found in the bile <suci>«, or passages, and feeds upon the blood of th.9 liver, preventing tins organ froru performing Its proper functions and thus setting up inflammation. The flukes do not propagate in,- the liver, but lay numerous wggs, which are passed from the bile ducts into the intestines and thence ejected with tho dropping*. If the eggs thu«s expelled meet with water they soon develop into hairy embryos, which swim about until they meet Weir second " host," which is a small water sut.il about on«third of an inch long, with a scientific nftma three iechsa loug, bub no popular name. After being in the water a. few daya they losi their cilid (hairy processes) and become » creeping larva, and in this form they burrow into the poor water snail, and while there undergo two more chauges, and ultimately e3eape in a 1 fourth form into water. It is quite fivident, therefore, that it can only propagate and thrive in wet, marshy land. In this fourth form it sticks bo the grass and herbage, and they ara thu» eatea and swallowed by sheep. Getting in this way into the digestive system, they find their way into the liver, and there mature into full-grown flukes ; and go I have got back to the starting point. As the flukes grow after getting/established in the liver the irritation they cause leads to an increased flow of bile, which makes tha ehoep put on fat very quickly. For this^eason butchers and graziers sometimes put^sheap on flukey land for some time before killing. About three months altsr the entrance of tho worms the second stage and a rapid falling ,offi and emaciation is seen and the sheep soon die, 'this stage only lasting about three weeks. It appears that & is not the actual presence of the fluke that caujAdeath, but too many of- them, jusb as is the cafio with bots in a horse. A dozen may nob do an^ mischief, but a hundred cause death. As eitoc fluke may lay 40,000 eggs, it can be readflj understood How one sheep carrying a few b«u« dred flukes can expel enough eggs in its dsw* pings to infect a large area of grass. Vt it essential, however, as may be gathered htsPi foregoing remarks, that the land must be v«>/y wet and full of stagnant water. Drainiag and liming such land is recommended as preventive measures. There is no cure for the rot when once it has set in. Fluke is referred to in tha oldest agricultural works extant, but its circle of lives was not known, and it was thought that the worms originated in the sheep itself. Turpentine doses were recommended for expelling the fluke,. bufc, as with the bots, what would kill the fluke worms would be strong enough to kill, the host. In 1882 the life history of fluke was first traced by Professor Lencart, in Germany, and Professor Thomas, in England, and an account of their investigations was publishes! in the R.A.S. Journal of that year.

The wet and low-lying lands in Victoria and New South Wales have loDg Fluke been affected with fluke, and all in attempts to st&mp it out by Australia, attention to drainage and improvement of pastures appear to have failed. Last week's Witness contains a paragraph from the Sydney Mail concerning the fitness of flukey mutton for human food. Reference is made to the fact that aheep fatten quickly in the early stage of infection and that the mutton is none the worse until the crisis of the disease, after which the sheep rapidly

wastes away, and the meat becomes entirely unfit for consun- -tion. Though there are occasionally very dry seasons in Australia, the flake seems to ba able to stick to its htsb until such time as rains come and enable it to fall into water and go through its various stages and get back to the sbeep again. I suppose, however, that stock do get free of it in time, for the areas in Hawke's Bay now gazetted as being quarantined cannot remain so for long, for what is the good of holdingland and itock if the occupier is notto be allowed to sell any sheep or any carcases for a number of years ? The wool alone is not much to depend upon, and therefore I think the quarantine is only a temporary infliction. Agkicola.