AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13892, 1 May 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

"Like master, like man," is a true proverb, and if a farmer is heedless about- the care of his implements it is very unlikely that the men" will trouble themselves. A Queensland grazier, Mr E. B. Baiter,-of Boina, has invented a woolpack to protect the wool against the encroachment of the jute fibre. 'By this process the jute canvas passes through feeding rollers into a specially prepared paper pulp as it leaves the weaving loom. Thence it travels under the guide roller? to another set of' rollers' under pressure, so as to force the pulp through the canvas; then other rollers squeeze out the surplus pulp. Afterwards the material is run through hot rollers, which has the effect of facing the canvas on" both sides with paper, connected here and there and forriied and finished on the canvas. The inventor claims that his wool-packs, sewn with specially prepared twine, are fibre and dust proof, and that wool pressed in them will open out in the sale room entirely free from foreign matter. A Sydney man lias invented a small steel hoolr for fastening wool bales instead of sewing. Jt is said that they are easy to apply, reliable, and of course there is no question of their spoiling the wool. Another invention for minimising the amount of vegetable fibre in wool is a method of singeing the loose ends of jute on the inside of the bale before it is filled. It would seem to be a quicker and easier job to singe the material before making up.

Not only in New Zealand, but in England, there appears to be a scarcity of farm hands. The " Mark Lane Express " say's:—"There have been ma.ny complaints in those parts of Lincolnshire situate ' Far from the madd'ing crowd,' as to the lack of suitable labourers. However, a novel experiment on tlie part of one farmer is likely to lead to : a real and . practical solution of the '.Back to the land ' problem. In the Grantham district a farmer resolved to pay a visit to: Sheffield, where it was said, a large number of really good and hard working men were. out of employment. He .found on arrival in the city of steel "that'the report was well founded, and duly engaged several liauds. Their work was satisfactory in every , way, and on detailing, the fact to his friend at Grantham market, they ifsked him to pay anotherKvisit and engage twenty similar men for/them, The farmer in question duly ..carried out his task, and had no difficulty in, securing the desired number.. They were all married men, and delighted at the prospects of regular employment in the country j and left Sheffield without a murmur. The terms' on" which- they- were engaged to "work was for six weeks certain, and if suitable they were to be offered permanent .situations,- their remuneration being 16s per week., , WHEAT TALK. The great -magnate of • America, 'Jim-Hill,'".-is- reported to "have said, "that the day for cheap wheat was past and -gone," and that there .will be nothing but dollar wheat-in the;fu L ture."

A compilation of the wheat crops in the several countries of the world in Bijerbuhni's Listj makes the total in quarters - as compared with 394,675,000 for .1907, and 431,955,000 for .1906: .The.'deficiency is mainly in the quantity for countries outside Europe, comparing the figures of 1908 and 1907. The visible supply'on December Ist, although 1,720,000 qrs. more than it was a year before, was, much below the level of some "previous years. Unless the growing crop ; in Jndia " proves a great -one, as it*may, seeing. that the sowing season lias been generally propitious, the reserve stocks. at the end' of the'current cereal year can hardly fail to be exceptionally low. The winter division of the growing crop of the United States is on a , reduced area, and not at air highly promising, and in Russia it lias been badly damaged, and in/ some districts destroyed, by severe frosts; more or less damage being also reported from some other European countries. " All that there is at present to set against these disadvantages is the extra large production in Australasia, and the probability of a great crop in India. Heavy exports from India, however, are usually brought forth only when prices are comparatively high. The latest returns from the Agricultural Department as to the grain crops, shows that the wheat of the Dominion averaged 33 bushels per acre, giving a total yield of 8,328,903 bushels. This is the highest for the last four years. In 1904-5 it was about 800,000 bushels more, and we have to go back to 1898-9 for a larger yield, when we then had 399,000 acres in wheat, which yielded 13,000,000 bushels. How much do we require of this year's wheat for home

consumption? Probably 5,500,000 biisliels, and another ouu,ooo DUbueis ior ; seed, making in all (3,u0u,00u bushels. There is, therefore, a considerable quantity lor export. Taking the civilised world' as a whole, wheat forms the principal food of man, and is far niore widely distributed, .than ivs commercial rival, Indian corn, or maize;' or . its rival food cereal, rice. It is a prime necessity of civilised life. Both in the quantity produced and in its value, wheat is tne world's King of cereals, though 54 .per cent, of the inhabitants of tne globe, derive their sustenance chiefly -from rice. The world's annual production and consumption of wheat is, nearly three and a. half billion bushels. Bananas, rice, potatoes, and other. soil products will sustain a greater population on a. given unit of land than wheat, but they are not so well adapted to a high, standard of living. Herein lies £he present and the increasingly great importance of wlieat, for it is : the general tendency of the civilised world to raise its standard of living. As the standard of living rises, wheat becomes. a relatively more important part ,of human food. Eye. and oats furnished the bread of. the great body of the people in .Europe during ..the' middle ages, when wheat was high-pric-ed and not very extensively grown. England early became ' a wheat-eating nation, : France and other Latin countries gradually following. Rye is still extensively used in Germany but is surely, if slowly, being" superseded by wheat. Even Russia is using more wheat flour than she did twenty years

ago. The following were the provincial acreages 'in wheat Auckland ' 2594, Hawke's Bay 668, Taranaki 756, Wei-. ' lington 6000, Marlborough 1978, Nelson 1071, Canterbury 183,015, Otago 56,- , 309. . ' .■' ' < SEARING LAMBS' TAILS OFF, "A Fat Lamb Breeder" of Gisborne, writes to an Australian stock' journal: —Uelieying that there are still a number of your readers who have not yet', adopted the searing iron in place of the knife, because they recognise that, there is a danger of burning the; organs of the lamb when using the iron in a hurry, and because they do not recognise the drawback the loss of •blood and exposure of the nerve to the atmosphere means to each , lamb, .1 beg to describe a simple, but import--ant, contrivance 1 made use. of last season in order t° avoid the possibility? of burning the organs of any lamb. In the left hand the "tailer" holds . <i>: light wooden spade, about 15 in. long, cut in a spade shape from any light ■i in. pine board; out of the bottom of this cut a V (reversed) to take" tlie lamb's tail, and push what loose skin and flesh possible back towards the' root of tail, and then, using the irpn in other hand, sear tail off any desired length (not more than 1J- in. for my choice); the "tailer" will find after a little practice that he can hold tlie tail just as easily with the spade, as by catching hold of it with his hand. By pushing back any loose skin and. flesh with the spade underneath the tail, it allows the same to cover the end of the bone well after it has been severed and released, which you can-

not clo when holding tlie. tail with the hand. Pulling the tail out tight before cutting or searing oft' leaves the tlesh and skin shorter than the bolie, and naturally, the healing takes longer than with my method. 'lf the spade is inclined to Are with the iron touching it occasionally it can be dipped into a tin of water kept handy for the purpose. Should any of your readers make use of my invention I shall be glad to hear through your columns whether they have found it a success, and I trust it may convert a few more sceptics to the use of the searing ir°n, which in my opinion is both more humane and more economical than the

knife. THE FREEZER MARKET. A South Canterbury correspondent of the " Pastoralist's Review," writing on April 3rd, lias the following: —Autumn is with us, and signs of approaching winter can be seen on every side. "The fall of the leaf" always marks an interesting period, for it is the crisis of the year, a time when nature's annual statement is completed and the earth's endowments for the year ascertained and appraised. In many ways the year has been one of disappointments, starting from the heavy fall in wool values and its disastrous consequences and ending with a heavy fall in the value of frozen meat, the two causes combined helping to depreciate the value of sheep by some 4s per head or more. A veritable panic has lately seized the buyers of fats, and as the month closes two or three firms have drawn out, though the prices now offering are the lowest known for many years, and have apparently reached bedrock—only 4gd per lb over all for grade 2S-36, 4>d 36-42, second quality, and 3-fd for over 421bs. Asexpected, supplies of fat lambs have ben Very heavy throughout the month, owners who had held back for so long in the hope of better prices being badly beaten in the end, not only in the price-for the prime grades, but more especially in the heavy discount off over-weights. Certainly the pricing of each grade presents a, difficult problem. On 23rd February the chairman at the annual rneetina; of the Christchurch Meat Company laid it down as one of the canons

of.the trade " that in! view of the rapid increase in the lamb exports from, the North! Island, Australia and' the' Argentine, it is obviously of the'utmost importance that. every . effort should be made by; Canterbury stockowriers 'to continue to produce that .high standard of quality wliicli.has in the past earned the' excellent, reputation., which .Canterbury enjoys on the home markets; unless that is doiie it would seem; unreasonable to, expect that our Canterbury lamb can long; maintain the premium which it fortunately still commands;" The wisdom of such advice: is undoubted, but the prices now offered , area direct negative ; only a week ago the .prime grade 36-42 lbs stood 1 bracketed with' the second, quality grade at 4id, the; latter often, consisting of plain or yellow carcases. We may weir -ask if such a system is calculated _.to "maintain the premium which \ Canterbury still commands." . shipments from Timaru have been heavy—--106,006, against. 84,535 ; for thesanle month 1908, but even with this increase in the'month the total to date , is only 170,530j : ' against , 184,728 . the date last year. 'lt is expected r.that April .shipments will ;be about, the same as March, though supplies of .fat lambs towards the end of the month are likely to : ease oft.- . . ' . . . . . • FAIiMING IN, NEW SOUTH WALES. In recent issues of "The Pastora* lists' lieyievv " attention was drawn to the fact that in spite oi ,;all the: apparent rttge ,lor .laud throughout Austraithe jncreased products;of : ' cultivation, m the- lorin of ; grain- di> not appear. • Mr ,\y it E; Abbott lias been ; urawing attention to the saiiie fact in the " " Sydney Daily and he quotes sonie rather interesting figures. The Premier of the in a .recent, speech, made the stateinent> that during the last live years 11>000,00() ..acnes of Crown lands liatl been alienated, and 1,000,000 acres of Privately -.held land resecured for subdivision,. and yet the demand, for closer settlement .was more insistent than ever i\otf bile; wpuid think that with 12.000* 000' acres passing into the hands of the small-holdor the cultivation of the soil would- be going ahead with giant as Mr Abbott points out, the ptaije statistics- show 110 abnormal in- fact, that the cuitiVasoil .is about quiescent.: To unci place this enormous area iii yf productivity would, lie •points oC| t, represent an expenditure of v i a bout £oo,Qou,ooo, and tne employment for the whole period of five years of 'fibout 115,000 men, and yet the area under cultivation had not increased, and he is, pestered daily by men ostensibly looking for work. The "Daily Telegraph" labours to' prove that there has* been an increase of cultivation, and mentions an increase for the live years of 324,000 acres, as well as 253,000 acres under:artificially sown grasses, but -nevertheless it .finishes up by admitting that the area under crop has fallen off by a quarter' of a, million acres froni 1907 to 1908, and that in 1906 there was an even greater area cultivated than in 1908. These figures rather justify our contention that the land gambling fever is at least-not resulting, in a proportionate increase of cultivav lion.

DANISH DAIRY REGULATIONS, A good deal lias been said about the proposed dairy regulations. Here is what the Danish people have to abide by: The following are the principal reasons why.Danish butter is good;a 11 the year round, and not just at certain seasons:—(l) The cows receive roots all the winter, and thus the butter is soft, and not hard and dry,- as when fed on hay and cakes alone; (2) The milk is pasteurised to 185 deg.' Fah.>' thus getting rid of the turnip and other bad flavours. This pasteurising to a certain high temperature ist a law.! The local policeman comes into the dairy about once in every two weeks, and takes a sample of the milk, and sends it to an analyst. If it jias not been heated high enough the manager .is lined; (3) The cream is cooled down to 64 deg. Fall., and a starter ' of pure lactic acid added The cream is only kept for 24 hours. Thus, when the starter is in'and .the cream only allowed to stand for a tlay, bad flavours are not likely to arise; (4) The barrels, the day before being'used, are steamed, and a coating of moist lime, put on the inside. This is allow ed to remain on till next morning, when it is washed off with boiling water. The inside is then rubbed with salt. Thus any odour from the wood is prevented. The paper which lines the barrels is steeped for two days in salt water before using. Also the churns, butter-worker, and cream tuba are coated with moist lime after being used, and allowed to run into all the corners. This is allowed to remain on for ten minutes, when it is washed off with boiling water. *