AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12796, 30 September 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

Ilie following list of stock sales should e handy for reference:— Albuiy.—As arranged (on a Monday). Fairlie. —As arranged- (on a Monday). Ueraldine.—Every Wednesday, at Hundell a yard, at . Farmers' yards.Pleasant Point.—Fortnightly, alternate Mondays. ■ ft- Andrews.—Alternate Fridays. Btndholnie.—Alternate 3?rjds.ys. Temuka.—portnightly, alternate Tuesday*. Wwhdyke. _ Fortnightly, altenut* Xueaaays. Waimate.—First Friday in month. A message from Montreal of August Bth s^ys:—All indications point to a magnifi- £? n yield in Manitoba and the -North-West territories. The Canadian Pacific estimate the yield at 100,000,000 bushels, but the Ogilvie Milling Company pla*ss it at 75,000,000. Next week 30,000 harvesters will go west to gather the grain. " The: farmers of New Zealand," said Mr J,. A. Kinsella, the chief dairy commissioner, "are losing £1,000,000 a year through :not weeding out their unprofitable daily stock." It was astonishing how many cows there are in the colony which are not worth keeping. In Denmark, he says, the Government provides an expert, whose salary is paid out of the contributions made by the owners of the cattle, and if he finds that any cows are not giving at least--2GO;b of butter-far per annum, they are slaughtered:.. Mr Kinsella has found great relustance in-farmers to part with their poor cows. V He says we are going to have a wonderfully prosperous dairy season, but he is rather afraid that the high prices will have the. effect of making the farmers more indifferent than ever to the necessity of improving the quality of their herds.

A. DANGER, TO THE MEAT TRADE. -In - the. course of his annual report the Chief "Veterinarian (Mr J. A. Gilrnthi refers to the fact that the Produce Commissioner reported last December that 955 carcases tout- of a parcel of 1396) had been condemned at Smitlifield market. Those sheep,, it appears, were killed at Mataura, and bought-" for .a firm which had a large order from South Africa for sheep that were not fat. After going exhaustively into the the Chief .Veterinarian remarks : "So far as I can .see at the present time we have no meats of preventing a recurrence of-such a. state of affairs, which might do very serious damage indeed to the meatexport trade of the colony. In my report for 1902-3, after dealing with this question, I recommended: (i) The grading of - export meat by a Government officer; (2) That the exportation of any meat below a certain grade be prohibited; (3) the impression of a registered and indelible brand on at'least each quarter of every carcase; (4) the etsablishment- of a Government Veterinary ■ Officer of the colony at Smithfield, who would report npon all meat arriving, and so enable us to have a check at both ends. Were these recommendations adopted, I am positive the result would be beneficial greatly to the meat-exporter and that this last condemnation is bound -to reflect very adversely on the trade of the colony, and that it seems ridiculous that the -present -heavy annua] expenditure on the inspection of meat does not permit us to safeguard the interests of the colony to a greater extent than is now possible."

SCIENTIFIC FARMING. As the microbe plays such an important part in the well-being or otherwise of our everyday life, so it bids fair to revolutionise some of our farming methods. Nitrogen,- one of the most essential and at tie same time most expensive of plant foods to purchase in the shape of manure, bids fair to become the cheapest lie- 1 : it is'fully understood "ow by the means n i micro-organisms the enoraous amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere we breathe, can be brought into-practical use bv m<a.ns of the said organisms. It may be that these recent discoveries of the powers of the nitrogen fixing organisms, may lead to a revolution in our methods of farmning, and New Zealand, as in other matters, is not lagging behind. the rest of the world. The A. and 'P. Food Co., Ltd., of Wellington, were not slow to -perceive the possibilities of this new idea, and their chemist, Mr H. W. Lawrence, F.C.S. (wlio, before coming to the colony,, had the advantage of being in charge of the nitrogen fixations investigations of Messrs Lawes and Gilbert, of Rothamsted for something over ten. years) set to work, to find some means by which the farming, community of this colony could have the organisms delivered to them in such a form that they would require no treatment or technical knowledge in application by the farmer himself. In this matter he lias been perfectly successful, and it is due to the enterprise of this local concern, the A. and P. Food Co., that farmers can now procure in small bottles sufficient organisms to inoculate either half or one acre of soil for a small charge without fear of failure on their part from want of technical knowledge or scientific skill ; as is necessary with the imported organisms, which require considerable treatment when put into the farmers' hands, and which are often useless on account of loss of vitality due to their being latent during transport.— iN.Z. Times.)

FAULTY WOOL PACKING. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce has received circulars from the Bradford. Chamber of Commerce dealing with the presence of vegetable matter in the wool sent -to England. ' " It is stated that spinners ani. manufacturers at Home complain that quantities Of vegetable matter* such as fragments of hemp, jute, string, straw and dried grass are found in colonial and foreign ■wools: This appears -to be due "in some ■ cases to the sheep being shorn-and the fleeces wound, in places where fragments of grass and straw are littered about, and in others and -more largely, to the string 'and the hemp or jute material used in. packing the wool for shipment, this'material moreoygr being said to be inferior to that used some'years ago, inasmuch as it appears to be more loosely spun and woven; and is, consequently, more easily frayed. The circular adds, that during handling, in ship"unshipping and warehousing, the hales' become 'more or less damaged, and fragments-of the bagging and sewing twine get intimately mixed with the wool. Owing to the colour being practically the same, these fragments are very difficult to detect. ' ShoSd they not be detected and removed when the wool is sorted, they not only become as white as the wool itself during the subsequent, stages of scouring and combing, but are also reduced to small particles and distributed more thoroughly among the wool. It is practically iippos'sible to detect their presence in the top or •rain."" They consequently becfcne incorporated- in the woven piece, and are not■yisibie until the piece is dyed and finished. Vegetable-fibres absolutely refuse to take the dvesrused for wool; consequently, when thb pieces are dyed and finished, these.par-. •tides of - Vegetable matter appear in. black goods as tiny white streaks, and in goods of other- shades they are also easily perceived. The value of the finished article is thus serloiislv depreciated." Some of the principal suggested are- (1) that care should be taken to see that no grass, straw, etc., is wound with the fleeces; (2) that at!; far as practicable the bales should be cut open at the ecajns; where that is not done care being tat.cn to so cut the bagging as to damage i* - little as possible in order to' minimise ti.a fraying of the loose ends; (3) that the bagging should be paper-lined (i.e., that it should consist of 'a double texture, bagging on one side and paper on the other) so as to prevent detached fragments- of the bagging from getting into the wool; and (4) that the string used for sewing up the bales should be dyed black, so that if any fragments get into the wool they may bs more readily detected and removed during sorting. A "great deal of the trouble is caused by small farmers sewing up their bales of weol with binder twine, as it gets into tie wool, and cannot be got out again. In aeg'ari. to the suggestion that the bagging ■skcmW be paper-'ined, that could not be -done here. but it might- be possible to dye i£he string used for sewing up the bales.