AGRICULTURAL NOTES FROM THE CAMBRIDGE DISTRICT.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1319, 11 December 1880, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL NOTES FROM THE CAMBRIDGE DISTRICT.

Our Cambridge correspondent supplies the following : — Rural matters generally are looking remarkably well. There is an abundance qi grass everywhere, and, as a consequence, fat cattle are far more plentiful than is usually the case at this season of the year. Hay-making, i» in full swing ; the birr of the mowing machine having become general throughout the entire district. Fortunately, the showery weather suited this locality very well, and heavy crops will be the rule. A week or two's continuance of the fine warm weather we are now enjoying will find the bulk of the hay placed beyond danger. Cxbbots and Mangolds occupy an average aoreage. The former is doing remarkably well, but the latter, owing to the ravages of the insect pest is reported to be very irregular. Oats, for oaten hay ; a large breadth of land has been sown. The crop promises fair to yield heavily. "We hear of some specially fine growths on th« estates of Messrs Fantham, Clark, Alwill and others. Whbat. — There are also several very fine looking fields of wheat. Some of these, situated in tha Fukerimu district, on the properties of Messrs. Gane, Scott and Fisher, »re specially noticeable. With a continuance of passably fine weather until harvest time, this crop should be a heavy one. Potatoes afford fair prospects of a good average crop, although, in some cases, growers complain of loss of plant, to an unusually large extent. The cause of this failure is not at present known. Turnips. — There is every prospect of a large extent of land being laid in turnips. Swedes are just now being sown on considerable areas, and the sowing of the Aberdeen and white kinds will follow in due course. The great advantage derived by the grazier, in being able, with the aid of this crop, to carry as many live stock during the winter months as it does during the summer, and fatten them on these roots, equally fast as on summer grass, has led to a much more careful cultivation of the turnip crops than hitherto, and hereafter with the application of manure, and the use of a manure drill, much larger weights per acre, may be looked for. Victorian bone dust, we understand, is the favorite manure for turnips in Waikato. From inquiries made from those who used this fertiliser last year, we are given to understand, the experiment was highly successful. Its action is found to be much quicker than that produced by steamed bones, and it is otherwise more successful in starting the young plant. Altogether it would seem that, the results obtained from crops upon which this discription of manure has been used are in all respects, encouraging.