FROM OUR EXCHANGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1376, 21 October 1886, Page 2

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

THE BRITISH APPLE CROP. The crop of apples in Great Britain averages 85,000 tons, valued at £lO per ton; about twelve million gallons of cider are yearly. The production of cider in France averages 200 million gallons. The orchards of Great Britain cover 180,000 acres; an with forty good apple trees will produce 1300 gallons of cider. Great Britain imports 900,000 barrels of apples yearly from the United States and Canada.

LAVENDER CULTIVATION IN ENGLAND.* In the neighdorhood of Hitchen and other places in England, an endmoos quantity of lavender is grown. The lavender is propa* gated by parting the plants (tearing thorn asunder, so that each piece has a little bit of root) in the month of November. They are put out in rows about 18in apart, likes cabbages, in a well-manured light soil. They must be kept clean from weeds,by hnai»». The first year they produce bat little KirvWthis increases in quantity to the third or f° u rth year, when the produce begins to diminish. It is; therefore, usual to maim fresh plantations every three - or lour years. The demand for lavender is so great that its cultivation in Australia and New ought to prove remunerative.

THE ANGORA GOAT. The average yield per goat in Asia Minor is about ,31b. This includes, one-year-old k<ds and poor bred animals. The fleece of the buck loses fineness with age, and shears from 5 to 91b ; the female fleece is finer, from 3 to The fleece of the ewes and kids is in special request for the more delicate fabrics of ladies’ wear. At the Cape of Good Hope, where the goats are properly oared for, and to which colony only the purest bred animals are now exported, the yield is greater, being from 5 to 61b, including crossbreds. The yield entirely depends upon the choice in the first instance of pore-bred, heavy-wooOed animals, and the care bestowed upon them afterwards. There are many choice goats in Asia Minor whose fleeces will weigh from 12 to IBlb. The Cape fanners have found that the breeding of Angora goats is remunerative at even the low prises they have lately obtained for their mohair, notwithstanding the fabniohs prices paid for some of the stnd rams and ewes exported to the Cape from Asia Minor.

PROCEEDS OP COLONIAL FARMING. Farming is supposed to be a paying occupation, and no doubt under good management the land is capable of producing a fair interest on the money expended in its purchase. But there are times when it is extremely diffimit to make farming pay, and the following figures which are taken from official returns shew that this is the ease. The Minister of Mines, in opening the Conference which ii now sitting in Sydney, said that he found that the value of horses, cattle, and sheep in the various colonies was estimated at £78,984,871, And that the gross income which they produce Is estimated at £33,669,973, The capital value of land, improvements, and plant, with the stock added, represented £359,000,000. By calculating the interest which this sum represents on the capital, we . find that the average proceeds of farming in : the colonies may : be pit -down at twelve pec cent, gross. The net income is very much less, and can only be arrived at by dadaatlng the actual cost of working', &&, and this differs .with different managers.— Warpanxt PRESERVING PENCE POSTS. Barking the poets—charring them—end dipping in coal tar, are very common and popular processes, but as unwise as they an common. Take post for post of tits same quality of wood and put info the same Hnjf of soil, the one with the bark on, and foe Other with bark off; those with foe Baric on will last considerably longer thtq those peeled. Again, charring the wood does not make the post last longer, bnt rather otherwise. Charcoal, it is true, is almost iudeetrnatibla ; bnt the wood of a post cannot be all charred, and the charring only dissipates foe resin in the wood, and cracks the surface to allow foe water and air to reach the inner uncharted layers and destroy them. Goal tar, again, rather Aggravates rot than preserves wood; almost aoy other appliance is better coal tar for the purpose. Tilm« washing is a help; tar is good. Grease, or oil of any kind, or turpentine, assists in preserving paling posts and exposed wood of any kind. The best of any land, however. Is foal of creosote, or oil of tar.

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. Speaking at a meeting of the File (Scotland) Farmers’ Club, Professor W&lley said that there could be no hereditary tendency in pleuro. Hereditary tendency could only come into force where there was some disease capable of being transmitted from mother to offspring. Having had considerable experience In one of the largest cattle districts of Great Britain, he could honestly say that he never yet saw a newly-born calf with the slightest trace of pleuro about it With as little truth could pleuro' be attributed to climatic influences ; for the fact was.it was their own fault that pleuro had not been got rid of long ago. He maintained it was dne to want of energy and vigor in carrying out the suppressive measures—to an absolute su pin ess In reference to all preventive measures from disease; for it due attention were paid to theea measures, he was prepared to say that , then would, be no pleuro in this country in twslve months. They bad succeeded in exterminating it in the Netherlands, and why should they not do so in Great Britain? Professor Wailey said there was no proof that on inoculated animal while under the fever of pleuro was the cause of infecting others. AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION. The series of tables setting forth the imports of grain and flour into the United Kingdom, the average price of ohm, butcher’s meat, wool, and other agricultural produce in the years 1681-2-3-4-5, cannot be mid to be attractive reading, but the facts which they embody ore very valuable as bearing upon the growth of population in relation to agriculture. The total imports of grain and flour for the five years named show a material increase for the first three yean, namely, from 126,635,563 cwt in 1881 to 150,763,140 owt in 1883. Then a sudden fall to 110,600,056 owt in 1884, and a revival in 1885 to 144,012,463 owt. Oaring the same period wheat fell from an avenge of 45s 4d per imperial quarter to 32s lOd, the lowest at which it has stood since 1828, to which tbs return gqes book, and probably’tire lowest on record since the banning of the century. Beasts of the third class (large prime) also fell from 5s 2Jd per stone of Sib. rfnfcing the offal, to 4s llsd, the highest point reached being 5s BJd in 1883. Mutton (Southdown) fell from 6s 7d to 5s 6£d, having reached in 1883 7s IJd, English wool fail Iran Is l}d to 10|d, Australian wool from Is 2Jd to UM, and South African from Is 3d to 9M. Butter fell from £3 6 IJd per owt to £4l6s B£d, and cheese from £2l7s per owt to £3 4b 4|d.