AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 2715, 30 January 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

In 1689 on Act wu p*ned prohibiting Vam exportation oi wool or woollen goods from Ireland, or our plantations, to any country except England. It is now claimed that the importing -nation* of the earth need 500,000,000 bushels of wheat, while the exporting nations have a surplus o* only 410,000,000 bushels to meet this demand. The American insurance companies which issue policies on cattle have been led to the conclusion that & distinct increase in the caused by the use of wire fences on farms. Ine number of cattle reported as killed by lightning is very large. The Spanish wheat crop is officially returned at 8,803,000 quarters, as compared with 9,147.000 quarters in 1890, 8,40G,000 Suarten in 1889. Spanish wheat-growing is on ie decline, and the uee of barley for human and also hone food is increasing.

The dairy school at Kilmarnock, Scotland, closed for Wxe annual session during the first week in October. During the year 420 pupils attended the school, giving an average of eight daily. They used 27,200 gallon* of milk, 22,988 oi this being made into cheese, and 4,212 into butter, equal respectively to 9$ tons of cheese, and 1,4721 b. of batter. The figures given by the French Government as an approximate state of the harvest in that country show an immense deficiency in wheat, both in area ana yield. There were under wheat crops about 14,548,767 acres, wkkh is 3,106,580 acres less than last year. Thi* fallmß off was due to the great destruction of the wheat plant by frost and rain during the winter. The estimated yield of wheat is 225,194,942 bushels; and when this is compared with the 321,518,670 bushels crop of 1890 it will be seen that there is tho great deficiency of 96,323,728 bushels, or approaching a third of the preceding yield. This means a money loes to the French agriculturist of over £21,500,000 sterling. The average yield per acre is estimated at three bushels ess than in 1890. A the profits in the poultry business are due to close calculation and watchfulness of small things, saving in everv way possible, be it large or small. Of course the manner of feeding and proper accomodations have much to do with it, but the disposition of the stock that has been raised this season as well as the old one that has been used for breeding or laying is of the importance. The time of selling makes all the difference in the world Sell as soon as they are fit for market. Keep at them as fast as they are ready, even if the price goes down. Th®y grow enough faster to make it up, so that they are bringing a good price all the time and the expense of feeding iB being lessened, or rather the same amount given to tbe other chickens to force them along. The prison farm at Princetown, Dartmoor, comprises about 2,000 acres, which, until the year 1850, was waste land. A report in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society says this is a notable ttapaaple of the results of skill and capital. High stone walls, built of granite boulders, raised in the prison quarries, or from the land, as the work of reclamation proceeds, divide the land into fields of 15 or 20 aores. Excellent roads have been made where needed, and are extended as required. Swedes are followed by barley, with which are sown the seeds for permanent grass. No cleaner or purer pastures are to be found anywhere than those laid down on this farm within the last few years. All kinds of vegetables are grown. A dairy herd and a flock of sheep are kept, and all the calves reared. Annual auctions of surplus live stock are held, at which £1,400 or £1,500 worth are often sold. Private sales of ponies, sheep, and pigs are also made. The whole of the work is done by convicts, without the aid of horses, except for carting.

A SILAGE HARVESTER. By Professor J. P. Roberts, Cornell University, New York. Up to the last year there had been no machine for cutting and loading ensilage mai/e. Becoming thoroughly disgusted with the “ terrific” labour of cutting and loading upon waggons 10 to 15 tons of green ensilage maize per acre, I packed my grip last fall and started to find someone who would undertake to construct some kind of maize harvester. At Albany I found four machine*, iu various stages of development, which it was hoped would successfully cut and bind in large bundles all kinds of maize. But I was iu search of a machine to cut large maize and load it on a waggon at one operation, and none of the partly constructed machines were “ built that way so the attachments for holding the binder were removed, and then and there the plans for a carrier were made. The machine was used to harvest about 100 tonß of ensilage on the university farm, and did its work in a most satisfactory manner, without a skip, or break, and five minutes was ample time in which to cut and load a ton where the maize was heavy. Where the rows are 3ft. Sin. apart and the yield 10 tons per acre, a gait of two miles per hour would cut a ton in six and two-third minutes ; if the yield was 15 tons per acre, the team would have to pass over 792 ft. to cut a ton; and at two miles per hour this would require only four and a half minutes. The body of the machine is Bimply the self-binder with the cutter bar shortened nearly one half. The method of cutting is changed radically, as the cutting is done by two disc knives fastened to the bottom of two upright shafts running towards each other; the material is forced up to them by the sprocket wheel revolving on the same shafts as the discs. It will be seen that by this ingenious contrivance the motion of the cutting 2>artß is continuous aud not vibratory, as in reapers and mowers. The arms, which extend well to the front, are armed with iron ends which pick up the down and leaning corn ; and sprocket chains like those seen on the long earner assist and hold the corn in an upright position. While the frame and other principal parts of the carrier are much like those of any carrier for elevating such material, th* sprocket chains and other contrivances which the mass of heavy material raised nearly eight feet are unique. The maize falls from the elevator into a waggon driven separately, but simultaneously alongside and immediately under the carrier. The harvester is an assured success. I have never used any other machine with the same lazy satisfaction as I did this corn har - vester, because I have detested for years the back-breaking, shirt-splitting end of ensilage. Sever il farmers should join and purchase a machine, and change work during the ensilage harvest, or one man should own a machiue and cut for his neighbours by the acre or day. We have learned to raise, and are inclined to put it in the silo instead of so much wood and water. The maize harvester was the one missing link : now that that has been discovered, maize ensilage will become more popular and cheaper than ever.— Rural Nnc