NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2295, 24 February 1898, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The returns published by our Department of Agriculture show that the Export of volume of produce exported has Produce. not in any way shrunk. There is, as one would naturally expect, a greater amount of dairy produce exported, with a corresponding falling off iv frozen meat. The value of the butter exported last j ear was £400.445, and of the cheese £164,938, or a value of something over half a million sterling. The total value of frozen meat was — beef, £53,062; mutton, £919,837; lamb, £502,205 ; or a gross total of nearly a million and a-half sterling. In spite of the shrinkage in prices frozen meat still figures very largely in the vaiue of our exports. It is questionable, if prices gave an impetus to the frozen meat trade, whether we could very largely increase our export ; bub in dairy produce there is room for very great expansion. When the values of dairy produce and frozen meat exported have been pretty nearly equalised, the landholders in New Zealand may bs considered to ba utilising the lands of the colony to the greatest advantage to the greatest number. All the landholders cannot be sheep-owners, neither can they all derive a profit; from dairying. Much of the land that is now wholly devoted to sheepraising is well suited for dairying, and some of the land devoted to dairying would be better utilised for grazing shsep. However, these things will right thomeelves iv time. Happily, fche frozen meat trade is not a monopoly like that of the Argentine, where some four shippers control the total output. In New Zealand every sheep-owner cau become a shipper if he so desired. Tho same thing applies to the dairy industry. Although we. have a New Zealand Dairy Association, it is not a capitalistic concern, but is strictly cc-operafcive, in so far that all of the associated factories handle their own produce for their own exclusive benefit. With experience the dairy industry in New ZeaI land must grow to very much wider dimensions. Our bubter has "caught on" in the Home markets, and all we have fco do now iB fco make regular shipments of a reliable article. The round of the seasons enables us fco place - our products on the market at a time when supplies in England are at their lowest, and thab is a circumstance we must not lose sight of. Tnen in climate we have every natural advantage — • our winters are mild, and housing of daiiy cows is not found necessary. Ice is seldom required in our creameries, and thab again g'ves us a long pull over our neighbouring colonies in Australia. We only require to push our natural advantages to tho besb of our ability to make New Zealand take the lead as a producer of first class dairy produce.

Farmers are familiar with tho word " humus," and have a hazy sort of idea The ihal it is the name of the subFttiiclious stance which gives the black ■ r of colour to good land, and that it Humus, is owing to the presence of huraus in a greater or lesser degree that one soil is bettor thau another. This is correct as far rs it goes, but; it must also bs remembered that hurnu? is organic matter and is the re3ulb of a chemical combination of decaying animal and vegetable subBtanceß with the potash, phosphoric acid, and

lime of fche soil. Hutnus is necessary for " firing" or absorbing nitrogen in fche soil, and thus preventing this valuable substance from being lost. It also aids the soil in absorbing water, and renders pobash and phosphoric acid soluble aud thus available for being taken up into the sap of plants through their roots. Aa farmyard manure contains decomposing animal and vegetable substances, ifc is valuable for supplying' these to the soil for tho purpose of making humus ; hence ifc possesses an advantage over and above the market price of fche nitrogen, pobash, and phosphoric acid ifc contains. The humus of virgin soil is much richer in nitrogen than the humus of soils which have been cropped for a long time, and it is said that clean culture — that is, fche hoeing and weeding of crops — tends to exhaust fehe soil of humus. Green manuring is a good msans of restoring humuo to soil, as fche decay of green crops ploughed in promotes fche formation of humus, and fertility is thus restored to some extent by means of the nitrogen fche plants have gathered from the air during their growth and the phosphoric acid and potash their long roots have brought up from the subsoil. The nitrogen collected by psas and beans and contained in the small outgrowths or nodules attached fco fche roots of these plants is said to ba sufficient to take the place of a strong dose of manure to fche succeeding crop.

The foregoing remarks about nitrogen remind me that the * ( nitragin" theory "Nifcrngin"' of German and French agriA Failure, cultural chemists has been quite exploded by fche investigations made by instruction of the Highland Agricultural Society. Thij theory was fchafc the nitrogen contained in fche nodules found at the roots of peas and beans could bs extracted and handled as a commercial commodity under the name of "nitragin," aad that a few ounces of this po.werful stuff would be sufficient to supply nitrogen fco an acre of crop requiring more of that element ta?.n fche soil contained. In fact it wa& claimed th'.t land could be practically vaccinated in thia way with v, nitrogenous compound at the rate of a fe .v ounces per acre. It seemed to ba feasible enough provided fche nitragiu was of snob, oiauurial tsbfr.nglh as wa3 supposed, but ifc has betn found, aecoroi«ig to latest r»por&ft, fch&t nitragin caunofc fulfil what was expected of ii. There seemß to b ; i a genera! opinion among 8.-iti3h scientists that thoir brethren on the Continent are inclined to move too fast aud jump fco hasty conclusions about some alleged u-jw discovery. There may hi a little jodlousy in these matters, but at all events nitragiu has failed to satisfy the investigators who wero entrusted by the Highland Agr.cultural Society to conduct; fchs tesbs.

The liead of the chemical department of fche Fr.sncb arnay is considered fco ba Kntritire the ablest au'hoiity in Franca Propprties upon organic chemistry, and his j of Oatb. papers upon matters pertaining to tho alimentary section of the army generally lead to interesting discussions among tbe scientific authorities of Europe. Part of his duties is to teßfc all food supplies for znt-,u and horses in the army, and he has rec e nbly been engaged upon a searching analysis ot 1000 samples of oats grown in different regions and upon various soil-!. His object was to asa»rfc*in tha an-> ( vec to fche question, To what is tLu: exciting, sfcimul '.''ing, or fiery principle in oats to bo attributed ? He found that the kernel contains & small quantity of essential oil, which he considers explains the exciting and stimulating property of oabs. He maintains that oars form a complete food, as they nev.?r contaisi l^s than 3 and sometimes as much as 7 per ees't. of fatty matters. Oats of average quality c *ntain, he says, froen 61 to 61 pT Cr-iifc. >>f sir-.roh o" Sf.cc'aarine substances, and from 7 io 14 per cent, of nitrogenous substances. The k<^roel forms about 70 per cent, of tha total weight of fche grain, the husk making up *-fae otb.ee 30 per cent. Thia psri cenrago musk vary vary much, according fco fche plumpness of iiie grain and the consequent amounu ai mc-al. Oita grown on light land in ! a dry seasou cannot fi 1 pronerly, aud I am cure I feuch fctvnples have ,-*o little kernel th\fc the husk | mas'-, equil in in weight. The husk is mere ! woody fibre, and of no nutritive value worth I considering, and as it is difficult to masfcicafce ifc is necessary to bruise oats, especially for old horses with bad fceebh. Tho mibritlve value of oafe straw depends entirely upon fche stage ab which i 6 is cut. There is a large amount of fat-forming compounds in green oaten straw — by green I mean fche afcafcs in which it is when the grain is fully formed but still qaite milky. The riper ifc gets from that point the less its nubrifcive value. The soluble nutritive matter in greon oaten straw is about 16 per cent. ; when straw is half ripe 10 per cent , and when fully ripe only 4 per cent. Thereforo fche greener the crop cau be cut without losing the proper complement of meal iv the grain the better it i* for stock food. The same may be said of wheat, though, of course, wheat straw is not bo nourishing at any stage as oaten Btraw. There is no advantage whatever to fche grain in letting ib stand uncab till dead ripe and fche straw is nothing but mere woody fibre.

The effectiveness of superphosphate upon a crop of oats has been repeatedly Superplios- proved by practical trials, and pliato for there is no doubfc that the use Oats. of this manure increases tha proportion of grain to straw. Farmers often complain of the lack of grain in & bulky crop of straw, and in suca cases put fche dtficieucy down to a superabundance of moisture, but the deficiency ol superphosphate is really the reason if tha land be good — this substance being of no beneSt in light, sandy soil. It has been said that a top-dressing of lewt per acre to oats has caused tbe yield to be so much greater than that of an adjoining field not so treated as to pay for the manure and give a good margin besides. Superphosphate can bo drilled in with the seed oats with equally good effect. Aokicola.

BabMl Export. TO TEH EDITOK. Rabbits, which hitherto have been considered as pests and pests only, now form an item of export oi' some importance. After several small trial shipments the industry grew, uutil in 18S6 there were 7523 tons of frozen rabbics exported from Australasia. These were equal to about 350,000 sheep. The rabbib export trade has been subject Jo fluctuations, and the fact that tha rabbits reach the Home market at the wrong season of the year hampers what ought to be a growing trade. Of necessity trapping must be denaiu our winter, when the rabbits have ceased breeding, and when the young oues are b : g euough to bxnorfc. Then unless we store them for several months they reic'c London in tha hottest months of the year, when no oae cares to buy them. Wholesale prices have ranged from 7s to lls psr dozsn, which ought to leave a fair margin for profit. Already rabbiters are securing areas of ground to trap over in antioipatiou of a good demand for rabbits for export in the winter season. Tne bulk of the rabbits shipped Home have come from Australia- bub New Zealand

has had a cut iuto the trade. Jusfc at the time when the rabbiters are looking forward to pay« ing employment the rabbit inspectors are issuin notices fco landowners asking them to lay poiso for rabbits. Of course the inspectors must d their duty, bub if they see to it that the rabbits are kepi down within reasonable limits, it does not really matter whether that is accomplished by trapping or poisoning. I know alvnost all of the big land-holders look upon rabbits aa a pesfc in every sense of the term, and without; doubt ifc would pay far better to feed cheep than rabbits. Bat the trouble is the rabbits have come to stay ; and in spit of all the kindly attentions of a paternal Government their ranks have nob been sensibly thinued. If, therefore, the carcases which have hitherto been left to pollute the hillside and , every stream in the country can be turned to profitable account, then let them be so utilised by all means. I have asked a good many farmers in southern dip,tricts where trapping wag carried on" last season, and the consensus of opinion is that rabbits have not been So numerous during the past summer as they have been in previous seasons. If that be so, then I think the rabbib inspecbors ought bo be satisfied to let well alone. Of course they must see to it that everybody does trap and that all do their duty to their neighbours. The coming winter will settle the matter as to whether trapping alone is sufficient to cope with the rabbit pest. lam of the opiuion that trapping j will keep the rabbits down while they can be j profitably exported, and when they cea?e to piy they can be finished off with poison. Trapi piug and closer settlement will solve the rabbit problem in New Zealand ; in Australia the circumstancas are different. February 18. A. Secusdus.