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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10141, 30 August 1904, Page 1

On the day following the recent snowfall poisoned wheat was laid on a farm m Canterbury, and! within three hours 68 dozen small birds were secured. The. destroying operations were continued till the tally of dead birds reached 3600. Larks vied with sparrows m devouring the fatal grain, and largely contributed to the list of casualties. The owner of the farm says that larks are even more niischievous than sparrows when the crops are just showing above the ground, for they walk along a field pulling up every blade m their path, while their companion pests are content to fly among tlie seedlings, uprooting one at intervals.

At the commencement of July the Cape of Good Hope offered m London 3£ per cent, stpckjjp the amount of £3,000,000, at the issile*"price of 95, and as the payment of the instalments thereon extended up to October 10 the price to the public Mas really but little over 94. Under those conditions the return to the investor was fully 3| per cent., yet the British publio did not bite. Back iv 1898 the Capo placed 3 per cents, at close upon 103, and even m June, 1902, her 3 per cents, were taken up at 96, so that the Gape, like Australia, has lost credit extensively m the London market. But apart from the South Africau war, the Cape and Natal huye of late years bor-l-owed far too rapidly, and we should rank those two colonies as more incorrigible m this respect than either New South Wales or West Australia. It is high time they were stopped.

The Tarunaki A, and P. Society intends to make a new departure this year (says the News) iv counection with -the judging of dairy cows. Formerly the practice lias been to milk the cow and test the milk on the show grounds, but it has long been recognised that this cannot form a true criterion of the animal s quality. It is now proposed to detail a steward at the farms from which the entries come. Ho will take the samples, seal them andl send Ihem (numbered) to an official tester. One point is allowed for each pound of milk, 10 points for-per-centage of butter fat, one point for every ten days over the first 28 and tip to 120 days after calving. TTie testing of the milk is carried out m a public hall, the computations are made up, and the result* are sent m sealed envelopes to the President. Oil tlie day of the show h« oiwns and roads them oti the ground, after which the cowu are classified and decorated, and their positions m the test stated.