FARI AND STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2326, 29 September 1898, Page 14

FARI AND STATION.

( Continued from page 7.) -^ — — — ■ AGRICULTURAL ABD PASTOKAL HEWS. Mr W. Spragg, manager of the Auckland Dairy Association, has just returned from a trip to the Home country. In the course of an interview with a representative of the Auckland Herald, he said: — "I am not impressed with the advantage of grading, or rather branding, as at present carried on. I think examination should continue to be made, and reports be given to manufacturers, in the interests of the country, and that classes of butter should still be marked, as at present, 'Factory,' 'Dairy,' 'Blended/ and I would add another brand Co the list — ' Pastry.' This latter designation ought not to be a correct one, but it is generally understood to indicate the dintinctly inferior butter.*. Tho branding into Bub-divisiona of these as firpt, second, or third quality is needless, and if it were not Bo generally uaolsss ifc would often be misleading. You goo different graders have different ideas of quality, and butters turn out differently in London from what they appear to expect they will. For instance, in London I saw two samples of butler from two different New Zealand facloiies; one was Government branded ' JTirsti mialitv ' and the other ' se-

cond,' and in the judgina.i cf the New Zealand Government represent: l n c in London, Mr Lorell, of Lovell and C'hrintmps, and myself, tho number two was di:-'.inctly better than the number one. I do not intend this as a reflection upon anyone. I found the same thing happening in a striking manner over the hundred casks of samples which I saw at Copenhagen. This story is too long to tell | you now, but I have carefully made memoj randa of it. In this latter case, different j judges graded differently, and the aiscrepancy was enormous, and if trained Danish judges, who know their work as well as most people do, differed so greatly in their judgment, our NeV Zealand graders need not consider themselves examples of incompetence. Indeed, I believe our own men aro reasonably j expert graders, but the system implied a disj crimination and exactness which does not ex- [ ist, and for -which there is no necessity." I Mr J. A. Ttuddick, the newl chief dairy exp3rt, was born in Canada. J-!e went (o an Ontario factory, and before completing his first tenson there, aud when in iiis nineteenth year, ho was selected ■ out of 34- applicants to supervise a number of factories, a position which lie occupied for seven years. During 1889 and 1890 Mr Ruddick acted as travelling instructor for the 33af>tcrn Dairymen's Association, resigning in 1891 to_ accept a position on the staff of the Dominion Dairy Commissioner. By means of a travelling dairy, he aided considerably in tho development of co-opcrativo dairy work in Mnnitoba. ilia North-west Ooun-

try, and British Columbia, and ho was the "builder" of the famous Canadian mammoth cheese exhibited at the World's Fair at Chicago. On the State taking over the Kingston Dau'y School Mr Ruddick became its permanent superintendent, and the school has prospered under his management, the number of students increasing every year. The Victorian" Department of Agriculture has published a report by Mr D. M 'Alpine, the pathologist, on "fairy rings" and the fairy ring puff-ball, a fungus which produces a curious disease in lawns and grass plots forming decayed areas in the shape of large rings. The disease is found in bowling greens around Melbourne, and on tho lawns at Flemington racecourse, and in front of the lawn at Caulfield course, and the germs have been carried to at least one public park. This is its first appearance in Australia, and, as it is easily transmitted, the matter is of considerable importance. The name of " fairy rings " owes its origin to an old belief in the mother country that the rings were caused by gome supernatural agency, and that fairies held their midnight revels within these circles. The rings begin small and increase in size. At Prahran bowling green, where they were first noticed soven or eight years ago, the largest is 24ft in diameter, and they may go to 300 ft. In Queensland an area of 339,000 acres of grazing land is to be thrown open for selection in the Mitchell district, and in the Hughenden and Winton districts 635,000 acres are to be offered for selection. In BOKI3 parts of the district (asys the North Otago Times) the lambing has been good, and notwithstanding tho rain the deaths have been fewer than might have been expected.