NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, 25 January 1900, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

All things considered, the past year has been much better than the average ; Th* Past from a farmer's point of view. j Year. Root, hay, and grain crops I yielded well, and the latter were harvested, lor the most part, in tolerably good condition, though the weather during wheat harvest was very showery and unsettled. The yield of ryegrass and cocksfoot were bumper ones, and the results, in the main, were •profitable to growers, notwithstanding the over-production and consequent low values. The oat crop when harvested promised very little in the way of profit, biu the demand which has unexpectedly arisen caused it, while still in farmer's hands, to return a satisfactory re=ult. Oftentimes an unlooked for and sudden improvement in oat prices comes after they have pasaed into the hands of tho speculator, who reaps all the rj'ofit. The financial result of last year's wheat crop is still an unknown quantity, as littla ol it has so far beon sold by growers, and though storage, insurance, and interest upon overdrafts run away with a, cons-iderablo sum during a long wait foi a rko, there is still hope of that rise being obtained, and meanwhile we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have not missed a good offer, as many unfortunately did with the previous crop. There were only two dark [■ho clows thrown across the brightness of the past agricultural year — namely, the unsaleablene3s of wheat and the severity of the winter. The ill effects of the exceptionally low temperature and heavy snowfall wera mitigated by an abundance of roots, grass, and h&y, vith tho exception of certain elevated districts in Central Otago, whore the flock suffered severely, the roots, where present, being inacesslble, through the snow tiding so deep. With ihosa exceptions, I think I may safely say that stock came through the trying time remarkably well, os i& evidenced by the good lambings and wool clips. Sheep keeping is now &o general ameng farmers that all will participate in the boom in wool and sheep, and tho»© who v. ere understocked during t'.ie winter will come off the bs3t. Pototoes ware a glut in the market, but generally specking few iarmers grow a sufficient quantity for the financial result to have ranch effect upon the profit and loss account of the whole Varm for tha- year. Strange to , my. pigs are still soiree and dear, though values for some time have been such as should have a strong impetus to pig-breeding. Dairying has beon, and i* still, a flourishing indiuiry. and exports of dair<* produce have increased by leaps and bouucK. thereby circulating a large amount of ready cash among mtihll tanners, who could not obtain tuch a quick and satisfactory return for labour and land in any ether way. Pise safeguard of the colony is its variety of products, and we have further proof of tl.nl fact each succeeding year. If we had all been depending upon returns from the wheat and potatoes, of last year we should have indeed, been in a K\d wav, and our political ; rulors would have had little to place to their credit. There is nothing like good seasons and paying prices for oiling tho political machinery, and I sincerely trust that there will be no lack of the sweat oil of prosperity for like lubricating purposes in tho future. Somebody has said, "S-neet.are the uf-es of adversity.'" but however admirable that sentiment may be in the abstract, or when applied to other 1 ;, each of us prefer to take it for granted os being pen reel, and havo no desire for a practical and peiaonal le~t. , We havo again had a good season so far, and j feed is abundant, everywhere. | T lie Ttv nips fire promising well, 1 Gtitifioli. gg l 'Un ciops ditto, and prices 1 ruling foi oats and Ihe .stock better than at this time la-.t year. Wool, too, iei c - bringing much higher prices than farmers G>ot lor their dipt, last season, coarse crooobied realising as nmeb or mora ft local sales as wrs got in London for t ! )c la-t clip. Store slier} are going at fancy price, and fat lambs, tiro ir keen domain! at half a guinea each, and rr>ore. "Wheat iei c still stagnant, but with that exception the agncullurnl horizon js without a cloud. It is probable that the temporary demand for our produce in South Africa, due

v to the exigencies of the war, will result in apermanent market being available there for certatin of our exports. So long as it paj r s ' to export mutton and lamb there is no likelihood of sheep falling so low in value as has ' sometimes been the ease in past years. Taking ' into consideration the fact that v. - c consume ourselves more than a million and a-half sheep per annum, and that a still larger number is I exported each year, besides the average mortality from various causes, it is apparent that, I with nearly five millions thus accounted for I per annum, our flocks will be a long time mii creasing to such an extent that the local mar- ' kets will be glutted with store sheep, unle?<s, 1 indeed, a much larger proportion of the total number is devoted to breeding purposes. Though wool may not maintain its present high value for long, it is just as likely that i wheat may experience a sharp rise, so that i our outlook with regard to those two comma- | dities is about evenly balanced in the matter of chances. At any rate, we have every reason J to be nuisned with present prospects, and may | salefly leave tho future in the hands of Providence and the Premier. ! On the other side of the world the farmer's position and prospects are just Our Brethren the reverse of our«. They iii have had an exceedingly dry Britain. season, and the .farming reports are very doleful, such as "Turnip crop very indifferent; potatoes very poor ; hay very light, wheat a fair crop, but tearful prices, 27s per quarter only for splendid samples ; barley unsaleable, oats hardly making £1 a quarter ; labour scarce, and wages very high." A farmer in the South of Scotland, writing last November, said that after a Inarching summer they had been favoured with a showery and open "back-end." The country, though very bare, was then looking fresh and. green, with little frost ; swedes small and unhealthy, and not likely to keep well; yellow turnips had improved during the autumn; rains, ' but, at the best, were very deficient in bulk, and a third less than the average of years; beef seemed to be selling well, nearly a shilling ' per 1b being obtained for the best; Clydesdale hoi.se* were in good demand — a two-year-old geldincf. winner at several local shows, was sold for £70 by his breeder. I have more than once in previous notes ret » ferred to tho good work being i Cross-fertilising done by Messrs Garton Bros. v Grnin. in experimenting with tho cross-fertilising of cereals. Just before tho In^t mail left Mr T. R. Garton lectured beEoro the Glasgow Agricultural Dis-cu-sion .Society upon this subject, and I glean a few uraful facts from full reports in Roma paper?. In the course of his remarks Mr Garton said that it was a subject upon which . the future prosperity of agriculture in Britain to a large extent depended, for if by any scien- ■ tific method or principle the yield of their 1 crops could be increased by even 15 or 20 per cent, without any additional cost it would m a las an immense difference in their profit. By means of lime light diagrams and photographs he showed his audience the details of j some of the work he and his brother had been [ engaged upon during the past twenty years at i their place in Cheshire. It is the general opinion that the quality of grain is maintatined by selection of the best and largest heads at , harvest time, but Mr Garton said that the good results from that plan were fanciful and corresponded to in-and-in breeding in the case of animals. He said that efforts in the direction of improving cereals by selection were based upon the idea that all plants are open, to cross-fertilisation in some natural way, and that therefore when a plant showing an unusual amount of vigour appeared in a field crop it was taken to be an improvement of the variety, whereas in all probability its apparent superiority was owing to cerlatin favourable conditions. He said that until quite recently it was an accepted principle in the botanical world that cereals were all open to natural cross-fertilisation, but that there was now overwhelming evidence to prove that such is not the cas°. He mentioned, afi an example, the case of potato oats and black Tartarian oats. These two, he paid, are distinct in every particular. By artificial cross-fertilising these two an innumerable number of distinct plants were produced, some ripening earlier and some later than the original varieties. From the plan to produced by this cross it would be possible^ he said, the second year of sowing, to select typos growing a black grain with tho potato oat ear, and tho reverse— namely, a wl-ite grain with a Tartprian-sr-aped ear, besides which all the intermediate types imaginable could be selected. He argued, therefore, that if such results appeared from artificial crossing, they would ako appear from natural causss, but a? these two kinds of oate could be grown side by sido, year after year, without any t-.ucb mixing and crossing, it was proof that natural cross-fertilisation did not take place from the actions of insects, air, or any cause s whatever. The room was darkened down to permit of the micro-photographs illustrative Explaining of the different stages in the the proce=& of cro<=s-£ertilisotion Photographs, being effectively seen. Each photograph as it was thrown " , en the screen was fully explained by Mr Gar- ! ton. Dealing first with wheat, he showed the | male and female organs, pointing out, among ' other things, that many of tha failures afc first ; were due to the fact that it was not known that the male flower was only productive for a | very <-hort period of its existence. The cross- ! ing of the home wheats with foreign sorts was done to add a larger amount of gluten. Some of the foreign &orts would not cross directly with the home grain ; but by crossing Chinese wheat, for instance, with Russian, they eot the . home groin crowed with the produce. Barley and oats were dealt with in tlio <-ame way. The n.ost striking Uiing in legard to barley was . that, by crossing Chevalier with different kinds, an ear was produced bearing six fullyfledged rows of seeds, instead of the usual three. At thp same time, all the charactoris- , tics of Chevalier were retained. A^ regards , oats, a variety of naked grain, without any ! hu«k, and which came away from the chaff bare, was evolved. The advantage of that ; mirt be great to the miller. It also gave , thorn an oat from which it was possible to I breed other varieties with almost any thickness of husk. The views in many cases showed not only the matured produce, but also in , several instance? the original paronK The j coii trusts, as a rule, were very marked, and it i was HJeciallv so in the case of some* of the grrsses which had been crossed and recros-ped until maay of tho kinds were obviously of iminen«ely superior vigour to those from which" they had been bred. It was the same with orls; the now kinds scorned to be a great improvement on the old. not only -in the matter of wealth of head, but also in the matter of strength and vigour. The whole demonstration was of an exceedingly interesting nature

and was followed with, the closest attention by the audience. AGRICOLA.