FARMING NOTES.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5359, 17 February 1916, Page 7

FARMING NOTES.

The “Tapauui Courier” says: Recent heavy rains have damaged ryegrass, putting them down where the stub is heavy. A fortnight’s warm sunny weather is needed to put the grass in reasonable order for cutting. In Western Canada the farmers are lageiy i noeasing their sheep stock. Free trade with the United States for wool and live stock has enabled them to go on budding up their flocks, and it looks as ff over a large area mixed farming will become the vogue.

Refrigerated machinery is being installed in the Canadian Pacific Company's steamers between China and Vancouver, for the conveyance of poultry, game and eggs. At Shanghai capons are sold at about 2s 6d each, chickens Is, fowls Is sd, and at .about 2s each. The exports of wool for the first eleven months of 1915 totalled 492,107 bales, valued at £9,047,722, as against, 529,492 bales, valued at only £7,916,927, for the corresponding period of last year. In November last 12,430 bales, valued at £183,311, were exported ,a„s agatinst 18,17i3,« valued at £283,311 for November, 1914.

“The manufacture of whey, butter, only adopted here this season,” writes the Auckland Star’s Tc Aroha correspondent, “is proving a valuable addition to the scope of cheese factories In one ease the receipts under tins heading are more than sufficient for the payment of the whole of the factory's wages list.”

There is a class of bacteria known as “nitrogen fixers.’ 1 ’ rather than gatherers, which take the free nitrogen from the air and stores it up. It is through the operation of bacteria that the potential energy in the soil is converted into plant food for the use? of the growing crop. The conditions are most favourable for their work in warm weather, and it is in such weather that the loosening of the soil by cultivation should be carried on, in order to best facilitate their operation. A measure for checking the traffic in horseflesh for food, brought forward in the British House of Commons, is designed to prohibit the exportation to the Conti o-nt of wornout horses intended for human consumption. Harrowing stories were told of the cruelties inflicted on horses, and gruesome accounts were given of the manufacture of horseflesh into sausages. Several private members spoke with personal knowledge of the shameless Continental trade in horseflesh. The question 's frequently asked: If manure spread upon the field dries before it is ploughed under, what loss, if any, is there of its nitrogen? Experiments conducted to ascertain information on this point showed conclusively that when manure is spread in thin layers and allowed to dry out, fermentation is rapidly arrested and that the loss from volatilisation of the ammonia is very small, ami may he. disregarded unless the manure is in a state of exceedingly active fermentation when spread upon the field.

ft is stated by the Southland “Times" that competent authorities at last week’s wool sale at Invercargill estimated that a fair average for the prices ruling would give a value of £2O per bale. For the purpose of the calculation the number of bale's sold may be put down at 13,<X10, so that the proceeds of the sale amounted to a sum in excess of £250,000. The prices were fully equal to those obtained at the Christchurch sale on Monday, and somewhat higher than those obtained at the last Dunedin sales. No sales of Southland wool at higher prices than those obtained at Invercargill are known to have been made, so that district growers who follow the patriotic policy ot sending their clips to the local sales were rewarded by recci viug the best, prices, of the season.