AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8076, 11 December 1906, Page 1

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

There has been some talk of the Government acquiring the late Sir Walter Buller's property at Ohau for closer settlement. In this connectio i a coutempi rary is informed by » geDtleman who claims to he well con- : vtrsant with the property, which coni taius Some thousand aerrs, '.lint ii would corufortabiy carry from lhirt\ to forty families, and readily fetch an average annual rental of -0s p< r acre. A contributor sen is the Mlowiig item to a contemporarj : —" >k m milk as a fertiliser fur crops is iteresting many farmers abroad, se\ - ral of whom declare ihat astonishing results have come from its use. In the vicinity of one farm a dairy bad a iot of skim milk that could not b> used. Two farmers took the milk snrl poured it on their lauds as an experiment. One emptied seventyfive cans and ano.her one hundred ifty cans. Remarkable results have 'veu obtained. Their grass is now >eveu limes as vigorous as an ftdjoh - icg fields where the milk was no* used, which were covered wi;h conmercial fertilisers.'. Mr J. C. Dromgool, of Stratford, well-known in euucatioual circles in New Zealand, who is now in Lo - don, wiiting to a frieni in New Zealand, says:—"l visited the Dairy Show in the Agricultural Hail at Islington last week. There was a magnificent display of cheese and some superb dairy stock. The butler exhibits were not, in my opinion, above Taranaki staudard. New Zealand had a striking fancy exhibit in this section, charmingly Bet off by amateur fancy exhibits, which were streets ahead of anything I have previously seen in that line. On the whole, everyone speaks highly of our system of grading, «tc." As a dressing for sore spots on horses caused by the animals rubbing for relief against parasites of various sorts, an ointment consisting of 4 z. of sulphur and loz. of mercurial ointment mixed with half a pint of olive oil will be found to give good results. The three essentials to know about a dairy cow are: How much milk she gives, how rich in butter fat and other solids it is, and how much it costs to keep ber. When these points are determined for each cow, the owner will know which ones pay to keep and which to sell. To show the marked difference in the value of dairy factories' outputs this season as against last, the Taranaki News instances the Kiverdale factory at luaha, on the Waimate plains. For the October month the amount paid to suppliers in 11)05 was £IGOO ; this season it was £37 ( JO. i'he amount of butter-fat received daily at this factory, which possesses no creauieries,is now 9G,.'iUolbs, which constitutes a record for a factory under the one rojf. The country at presen: stands sorely in need of a good two days' rain, and if the dry weather lasts much loßger the prospects of a good harvest will be very poor indeed, sajs the Timaru Post. 'lhe pastures are everywhere drying up and there is not nearly so much feed about now as there was at this time last year. Especially marked is the effect of the dry weather in the Kingsdown district, where less rain has fallen tbia season than in any other part of South Canterbury. The ground, however, is very warm now, and if rain comes soon, growth will be rapid and the situation will be saved. In different parts of the district wheat is now to be seen coming into ear and present indications point to an early harves'.

Another meat preserving process is announced. It is calied the Craveri method, which has been recently subjected to searching experiments in Italy. By this process meat is preserved in a fit and edible conditiou by the use of harmless chemrfals. The slaughtered animals, from whose veins the blood has been drained, are injected with a mixture of salt 25 parts, acetic acid 4 parts and water 100 parts. The amount injected is one-tenth the weight of the animal treated. The result of the experiment is reported to be highly satisfactory.