AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 21

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The experiment has been tried this season by Mr T. Hassall, of Kaiapoi Island, on a small plot of ground, as to whether diseased potato tubeis would produce a diseased crop. The potatoes were put in under the usual conditions, and the crop to all appearances is quite healthy. The leaves and tubers ha\e been under close observation for the reappearance of blighr, but so far no indications of its reappearance ha^ c been detected. A farmer on this coast, says the Jlananatu ytandard, has put up a good performance this season. Being unable to secure labour, he and his two sons have harvested nearly 150 acres of heavy crop, and his bill for outside labour has come to under 30s. Besides this, they Rave managed to milk 14 cows every morning. Though the yield of grain being threshed from the crops in the Temuka dietrict is small, the quality is excellent. We learn of one line of 1000 sacks of this year's wheat being sold on trucks at Temuka station for 3s Id. Potato-growers throughout complain that the dryness of the season has completely militated against anything in the way of big yields. With a few exceptions the tubers are small. After the ballot for the Plunket settlement the hope was expressed by unsuccessful applicants that the Airedale sections would be baJloted for earlier than had been intended, so that those who obtained land could obtain a crop off it next year. There is, however, no possibility of this being done (says the Oamaru Mail), as the fixed arrangement with the owners of the estate it> that it shall be taken over on June 30. A case of considerable importance to owners, of podigr-fe li\e stock (says the Field) has recently been do< iced in the Scottish courts. At the iimo of the lamented death of ilr W S Marr. the owner of the famous Uppei mill herd of shorthorn cattle, a valuation of the herd was made in the ordinary way for probate purposes, and the duty was paid on the basis of the valuation — namely, £9031. Instead of selling the herd in June, nhen the owner died, the executors decnled to retain possession until the autumn, which in the North of Scotland is regarded as the most favourable season at which to sell pedigree cattle. Accordingly the heij was dispersed in October, and so brisk was the competition, and so liberal the prices. that the sum realised amounted to no less than £17,722 17s. and on learning of this result the Inland Revenue mad-s demands for extra duty on the amount by which the probated valuation had been exceeded. Protracted legal proceedings followed this obviously unreasonable demand, and fortunately the decision has been given thai the claim of tho Inland Revenue was wholly untenable, and with this -view common sense will be in complete accord. As the judge in the course of his verdict asaerts. the Inland Revenue would have refunded not a. peunj of the duty originally paid had the herd realised loss than the June \aluation, and hence they could not with any shadow of fairn<*=» lay claim to any sum exceeding the original amount. It is exceedingly unfortunate that the authorities should pursue so arbitrary a policy in exacting State duty, especially considering that they posses unfair athantages as compared with private individuals in contesting a case of the kind. It is a common experience that a given variety of potato, which, when first introduced is healthy and prolific, becomes unprofitable to plant after a certain number of cropping-s. In other words, extended cultivation impairs the \itahtv of the tuber and re ndo is the plant susceptible to disease. For this an explanation can be found in the method of reproduction usually practised. Other crops are allowed to mature and reproduce themselves from seed, but the potato crop raised from tubers is merely a continuation of the former one, and not the offspring of it, and its vitality is weakened in proportion to the number of crops that remove the current one from the original offspring of the seed There is little doubt that the prevalence of disease in many parts is mainly the outcome of this geakejied. vitality, § condition of things

which renders tho development of new varieties from seed of the greatest import - , auce.— Rhodesian Agricultural Journal. The farmers of the Palmerston district are complaining bitterly of the damage done by small birds during the present harvest.