Farming Notes

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 251, 25 April 1898, Page 2

Farming Notes

A process has been invented in France for the sterilisation of all fermentable liquids by means of compressed oxygen. The liquids in a' closed vessel, are subjected toa current of gaseous oxygen, proportioned in volume to tbe quality and quantity of liquid to be sterilised, The inventor claims that by this process milk can be kept indefinitely. He is enabled to prepare a very healthful and agreeable drink — " champagnised " milk. The milk must first be skimmed, then the necessary sweetening and the desired flavour added. The whole is placed in a closed vessel and sterilised by a current of oxygen gas, then " champagnised " by the introduction of the necessary amount of carbonic acid gas. The result is a refreshing, healthful drink, which keeps fresh indefinitely. Mr Sanders Spencer, the noted English pig-breeder, is a strong advocate of gr.een feed for pigs, that is, allowing them to graze on pastures. The milk fed baconers do well on the market in New South Wales, the bacon being sweet if rather luscious, and when maize is mixed with the milk diet a most palatable and well streaked article is the result ; but the same complaint is made in that colony as here, that there is a tendency to rush the pigs on to the market as soon as they are thought fat enough. " I cannot help thinking," writes the Shoalhaven correspondent of the Sydney Mail, •« that this system operates against tbe interest of the farmer as well as against the reputation of the bacon. When a young pig is nearly filled out to tho eye it is just beginning to solidify the meat that haa been rapidly fed on to the carcase. A week or ten days on the milk, and, if possible, a bit of corn will add to the weight very quickly; the pig will • die well,' and the farmer will get a better price if he sells to a good judge — and most men buying pigs are very good judges where their own interests; are concerned." A Bill bas been introduced into the House of Commons to provide for greater uniformity in the weights and measures used in the sale of corn. The term " corn" is taken to include peas, beans, vetches, grass-seeds, and the flour-meal and bran derived from them. The Bill would render null and void the dealing by measures of capacity, and would render legal only transactions by weight, taking lcwt of 1121 bas the standard. The Act would not apply to quantities under that weight. High prices for meat are expected to set in at the Cape owing to the heavy losses of live stock, which for the year 1897 are officially estimated at;— Horses 26,000, cattle 143,000, sheep 1,461,761, goats 411,000, ostriches 51,000. "It will be seen," says •' The South Afrioan Record," " that over and above the enormous loss of cattle through rinderpest, close on 1,500,000 sheep have been lostthrough drought. Cape wool is not a sufficiently large item in the world's production for last year's losses to seriously raise the price of it. Rinderpest and drought together have, however, amply sufficed to considerably enhance the price of beef and mutton." Egypt was once the great grain field of the world. It is likely again tci aflect the world's agriculture. Since the British occupation, the cotton crop of the Nile Valley has been doubled. Even Americans import 100,000 bales of Nile cotton each year. Engineers have stated that if the waters of the Upper Nile can be used, to irrigate the Nubian deserts, cotton fields would be made tbat would render England independent of America for her cotton supply. The fertility of the soil in the Nile Valley is remarkable, and Egyptian labour may be obtained at 15 to 18 cents per day. Grain and sugar may, also, be produced in this wonderful land, when once the water supply of the Upper Nile is under control. Egypt has been asleep for centuries. Now she is waking up. The present expedition to the head of the Nile may mean wonderful things things to the world's agriculture if the water o£ that river can be controlled so as to water twice the land that is now under cultivation.