Agricutural Affairs.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 4807, 4 May 1905, Page 4

Agricutural Affairs.

The production of fat poultry does not increase (says the Lyttelton Times). An advertisement for 10,000 head has brought very few

responses, although good prices are offered. The fowls are wanted for export to South Africa.

A line of five bales of good quality half-bred fleece wool for which the •vendor refused 9d per lb some two months ago was re-offered at last week’s skin and wool sales at Ashburton, and was passed in at 7|d per lb.

One of the new settlers on the Rosewill Settlement has done exceptionally well this year (says the Wanganui Herald ), having made over £9OO out of his wheat crop, which is said to have been the best ever seen

in that district. Averaged over the whole year the actual profit made—£936—works out at £lB per week. The farmers of the Auckland district have successfully combined and opened a new freezing works near Penrose. The land is 100 acres in extent, up-to-date buildings have been erected, fitted with the latest machinery, and there is every prospect of the company proving a successful venture.

A privately owned estate of some historic interest is about to be cut up for settlement at Pakaraka, in the Bay of Islands. The estate, which is

' about six miles distant from Ohaea- [ wai, was obtained from the Maoris by the late Archdeacon Henry Williams, many years before tho Treaty of i Waitangi was signed. A correspondent points out (says ( the Christchurch Press) that this season, owing to a scarcity of honey [ in the red clover crops, the humble bees were attracted to other flowers for honey and pollen. Last winter being wet many of the nests of the humble bees in low banks and drains were swamped, and there have not been so many bees observed in North Canterbury as usual. In the North Canterbury district some of the potato crops, in spite of 1 the fact that the haulms have with--1 ered off prematurely, will give good yields (says' the Press.) There is , nothing like the demand for potato diggers which there has been in former seasons, but this is mainly due to the wet winter and spring, whereby a wide area of seed was destroyed. A farmer of long standing in the North Otago district informs the Oamaru Mail that the art of good stacking is being lost—in North Otago, at any rate. He thinks, from personal observation, that much of the grain already in stack this year might as well still be in the stook—better, in fact. As it is, the grain sheaves are thrown together, in the majority of cases, so that the rain gets into the stack, and the grain is more or less damaged according to the degree of carelessness shown in stacking. A West American farmer amazes his neighbours by keeping apples, pears, peaches, grapes, etc., in their natural state for years. He now has apples and grapes grown in 1901 which can hardly be distinguished from this year’s product. He recently explained his method of preservation, which is very simple. He merely selects well-developed fruit with good stems, picks it carefully, and sears the end of the stem with a lighted match. Then he wipes the fruit perfectly dry, places it in a piece of dry wrapping paper, and lays it away in a moderately dry and cool cellar. The Hampton Court vine has an offshoot greater than itself, and only ten years younger. The shoot was planted 129 years ago, and bears a crop of some 1000 bunches. This grand old vine (the Gardener's Magazine says) is growing in the Cumberland Lodge portion of the Royal Gardens at Windsor, and is known as the Cumberland Lodge Vine. It has outdistanced its venerable parent in dimensions, vigour and productiveness. Occupying a great glass structure 120 ft long by 20ft wide, it spreads its luxuriant branches over a roof area of 2490 ft, which is fully one third greater than the area of the house occupied by its parent at 1 Hampton Court.