RURAL AFFAIRS IN EUROPE.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11491, 26 January 1903, Page 10

RURAL AFFAIRS IN EUROPE.

"Weekly Press and Referee." LONDON, December 6. THE WKATHER AND GRAIN MARKETS. A sharp spell of frost, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, comes as a Christmaslike change after the gloom and the muggy weather that bad for some time prevailed. Snow also, in places, though not in real winter fashion; only a spasmodic foretaste of what is yet to conn-. A very dry atmosphere and anti-cyclonic conditions are general, permitting threshing, carting, anc other operations to be performed with expedition and ease. Grain samples, also, have improved in all the markets, but I do not see that prices have ripen in consequence. Maize runs a shade easier, owing to the aßundance of winter keep, and the grand crop of oats everywhere. Hamburg shows a hardeninc tendency for beat barleys afloat for the United Kingdom. ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE. Aberdeen-Angue breeders are in high spirits over Lord Strathmore's success, for the second time running, in winning the championship at the Birmingham Show, with a heifer of this breed. Hereford. Shorthorn, and crossbred ran the winner hard, in carrying off prizes and ftonours to a value of more than five hundred pounds Should his Lordship be in the like fortunate position next year, the ownership of the challenge cups will be c-arriea off permenently to Glamis Castle, Forfaruhire. CANADIAN STORES. A farmer in Scotland, Mr William Henderson, waits wrath over the exclusion of Canadian .stores, and supports his position strongly by facts and figures: — " 120,000 Canadian cattle were fattened in Great Britain annually, and, say, at la, low estimate, the beef on each animal was increased by 2 cwt, that gives a, total increase of 240,000 cwt, which, at ■ the present time, would easily be worth 64b a 'cwt, or £768.000 uterling. Besides, the whole beef of the animals was improved by about twenty per cent. Here you have a loss, far exceeding a million sterling, to the fanners who fattened the cattle—a sum that would go a long way to keep our arable land in cultivation instead 'of its being sown out with grass and the people driven out of the country for lack of employment." A TAX ON BEER. The proposed increase of taxation on beer and tobacco in Germany, to meet the 150,000,000 marks of deficit on the Budget, is certain to raise an unusual amount ot warmth in the Reichstag. For there is nothing that the small fanner sets so much store by, in the way of a petty luxury, as his penny glass of beer and his halfpenny cigar. The agriculturists are quiet so long as untouched by additional taxation; it matters not what other classes have to pa;.for their meat or their daily bread. Ann as they are an acknowledged power in thi' State, their grievances will tend to make matters harder with the other difficulties that have to be faced by the Kaiser this winter. , STOCK DISEASES. Every autumn brings a crop of reports of poisoning of animals by browsing on the cuttings of yew trees. This year Ireland has had not a few cases, notwithstanding the great abundance of keep. As the yew is indigenous to all parts of these islands, it is perhaps surprising tiiat not more instances of poisoning occur. We have some amount of sheep scab still to report, and even Lincolnshire, that has Hitherto suffered little, has to complain ot the stringent regulations not being complied with. Perhaps the strangest thing among our flocks is a case from Carlisle, of a sheep, apparently fat, healthy and thriving, which, when* slaughtered, proved to be suffering from tuberculosis to an unwonted extent. The bacilli had spread over nearly all the organs, more especially affecting the peritoneum and the mesenteric glands. We had also some 235 swine slaughtered as diseased last week, and innumerable cases of farmers being fined for removing animals without a license in the proclaimed districts. A CHEAP REFRIGERATING PLANT. Among the novelties to be exhibited at the Agricultural Hall next week I do not doubt that the new departure in refrigerating machinery on, a small scale, for ordinary butchers', use, is likely to receive much attention. . The makers, Messrs West and Co., employ frozen brine —which actually becomes solid at 17 deg. under the freezing point of water —as the direct agent in obtaining the necessary reduction of temperature, and by means of the physical law that melting ice is a great remover of heat in the process of return to the fluid form, great things are accomplished. The apparatus necessarily combines an air cooler, a compresser, and a condenser, and those who have tested it s*ay that the resultant cold air is pure end dry, does not make the goods stored clammy or dull, and that the meat maintains its bright appearance for weeks, no trimming or painting being necessary. The cheapness of the outfit is much in its favour. THE MEAT MARKETS. The news from America has raised the price of beef for all Continental markets, though, mutton and veal have both had a smart drop, especially in-Paris. In Denmark the killing of bacon pigs has mounted up to 24,000, but the stocks held at the chief centres become less and less. Opinion ig much divided in this country ac to the future range of prices, some experts assuring us that no appreciable r.'se is likely, while others assert —and I think with some show of truth—that a drop of 700 cattle sent off daily from Boston alone must make iteelf felt in * short time. The United States has seldom suffered from contagious diseases among animals, and their former attack of foot-and-mouth disease passed off in very mild fashion. Of course, the New England States suffer severely, and Canada has taken legislative steps to protect her borders. At present the transatlantic steamers are not provided with refrigerating apparatus, but that is a defect which would Boon be remedied, and the meat would come over in dead state. Even then, there is the gauntlet of our Home inspection to be run, and I am glad to say that such inspection is a reality—not a "mere form. In last month 60 tons were condemned, of which fully 10 tons consisted of imported frozen meat. Some of the carcases were actually putrid, some diseased, and the remainder had received injury during life, the stuff (representing 2384 seizures) being all destroyed in the usual manner. I think they would have even more to do in the French capital, where 29,683 horses, ueses, and mules were slaughtered for human food last year— this in addition to 311,604 head of cattle, 300,819 calves, 2,167,615 sheep, and 410,346 pig®. RUSSIAN PEASANTRY. There are greater signs of awakening among the Russian peasants than could have been looked for a dozen years since. More tied to the soil than the people of Western Europe, and steeped in ignorance which, may be felt, and with gaunt hunger often staring them in the face, it is snuUl wonder that the quickened life of the towns attracts not a few of them. The alliance between working men and the students is becoming more of a reality, and some day it will bring forth unexpected fruits. Just as in Spain, little ie done for the peasants, while the lack of education, the grinding poverty, and the overcrowded Government service keep them hard ca the grindstone. Ie the latter country, with its abundant natural resources, the people cannot help themselves, and look in vain for the rulers to help them. If a man-of-war, for instance, is to be built in six years, a full command of men and officers has to be paid for itie day tlif contract is signed. Happily the young wheat is reported to be vigorous throughout the Peninsula. CANARY RAISING IN NORWICH. An interesting little local industry is so. To many a home they are the means of paving the rent, or of eupplying comforte "cot et-aerwise attainable.' I«v«rai

firms of buyers and exporters have naturally sprang up, and quite a large home iind foreign trade is carried on. One of tin.- Liverpool liners carried no fewer than 3000 of these creatures for New York last week ; an evidence that they are much in demand for Christmas presents. The German rearers complain that the people of East Anglia are proving quite a match for them in the various markets of the world. RA'LS IN HOLLAND. An open winter always adds to the plague of rats in Holland. The brown rodent is larger, stronger, more determined and cunning than the indigenous black rat, which lie has almost pushed out of the way altogether. Of course they fulfil a useful office by way n£ scavenger?, for much waste is visible round every homestead of the low countries, but the creatures are not loved any the more for the service rendered, while their direct depredations are patent to all. Then they are splendid emigrants, and no vessel ever leaves Amsterdam or Rotterdam, or Antwerp, for England, without bringing a fresh consignment to thrive in our midst. Hence the bonus on rats' tails, which amounts to a substantial item in many a village further inland than might be generally .looked for. CHOP YIELDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. The Board of Agriculture naive Just supplied the official figures of the produce that of canary-rearing in Norwich, and the villages around, for a dozen o r acreage, and average yield of our various field crops for the year. Little that is new is gained from an examination of the figures ; but the forecasts and estimates are singularly confined. Hay is the crop of the year, mangolds come in a good second, while potatoes are well under last year. For the ten years' averages all crops, with this one exception, are in excess, and Scotland has relatively fared better than South of the Tweed. THE VINTAGE ON THE CONTINENT.

Although the vintage of champagne grapes was unsatisfactory, there are still large stocks of former years remaining in the hands of the stronger growers. It is the old story of a good crop being accompanied by low prices, and contrariwise; but \ iticulturists both in France and Italy have fallen on evil times of late. The great skill exercised in the various processes incident to the production of a high-class brand demands a more continuous outlay than could well be imagined. Very different from our efforts at '"homo-made wine" manufacture, still to be found in out-of-the-way places. We have just had a case in Essex, of two families being poisoned (with one death resulting), who had met together for a wedding feast. Plum wine, two years' old, had- been prepared in a copper, from which all the verdigris had evidently not been removed ; and dreadful sufferings were experienced by all who partook of the prized beverage. THE ONION TRADK. Real service has been done by the Board of Agriculture in lmiking investigations into the conditions under whiyli the export trade in onions is carried on in the Netherlands. This was undertaken from the representations of our home-growers in Bedfordshire, who, as I mentioned in the spring, felt the onion-growing trade slipping out of their hands in an unexpected manner. Their chief complaint lay in the alleged preferential treatment accorded by railway and steamship companies. Formerly," a flourishing industry, the trade has "gone down at a rapid rate for seven years past, the Dutchmen carrying off the cream, and hardly leaving our people the skim milk. So a "clever expert. Mr R. F. Crawford, was despatched to investigate, and he wisely associated with himself a leading Biggieswade grower, Mr Herbert King, whose fuiriily have long been frontrank people in the industry. Every faciiitv was afforded on the Continent for a study of the facts ; and I am bound to say that a good deal deeper causes were found to be at work than the mere matter of cheap freight, or even of Government subsidies (given, it is true, under another name), while our growers have evidently not a few lessons to learn from their neighbours. Dutch Silverskins and Gherkins have developed wonderfully, until they are now of almost national moment; but they appear to have succeeded because labour ie cheap—even a small farmer being far behind our average labourers in actual comfort ; because co-operation has laid hold of the growers in evexy detail of cultivation ; and because of the State-supported schools (chiefly "winter schools") for instruction in market gardening and horticulture. Now, I happen to know—for I lived in the country a dozen years —that the technical instruction imparted to our workers is of a totally different nature. Round Sandy and Biggieswade, where the industry centres, a large percentage of the growers hold a beer-house license, in addition to their outdoor work. The talk over the pipe and the mug of ale is the chief instruction ;■» country gossip the most potent factor; and growling ait the Dutchmen and at the Government the perennial stock subject of conversation. This official enquiry will do us all the good in the wcrld.