Here and There

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 November 1913, Page 4

Here and There

Potato blight has made its appearance in several parts of Levin and district. All farmers are wishing for a few weeks of warm and dry weather, for improvement of the potato crop and also to facilitate the making of hay, There are many extra fine fields of hay in the district, but so far there has been no possibility of haymaking, consequent upon the broken nature of the weather.

An amusing incident happened at the marriage in Pretoria of Captain Bartrop and Miss Geraldine Tripp, a one-time New Zealander. An old working man with mudcovered boots was solemnly viewed the proceedings, when some of the guests bore down upon him »and demanded his boots to hang on the back of the motor car. He reluctantly parted with them, and they were forthwith tied on behind with white ribbons—mud and all—and a subscription was taken up for the old man and resulted in a sum which would buy him several new pairs, and a hat also.

The average cow of the ten best herds of one of the Agricultural Department's illustration cow-test-ing associations produced last year 2711b of butter-fat, while the average cow of the association produced only 2011b. The difference in value at Is per lb of butter fat equals ,£3 10s per head. The census for the year 11)11 credits New Zealand with 073,733 cows. Could each of these be increased in productive capacity by the difference recorded above (says the Agricultural -Tournal), the value of the increased yield would exceed the value of our annual export of either butter or cheese.

The latest District Orders give intonialion as to the examinations to be made of men who are medically fit for drill duty. In future when a Territorial claims exemption on the grounds of medical unfitness, he is to be examined by an officer of the N.Z. Medical Corps, who will state definitely to which category the man belongs. (a) Temporarily medically unfit. (b) Fit for training in General Section only. (c) Permanently unfit. In the case of (a) the man will be granted leave from drills, etc., for the period ordered by the medical officer. If, at the end of that time, he still claims to be unfit a further examination will take place. In the case of (b) the man will be transferred to the General Training Section. In the case of (c) the man will be discharged forth with. The following experiment is reported in jjie North-Western Farmer: At the Mississippi Experimental Station three cows were kept without salt for four weeks, and their milk record kept during the last two weeks of this period: then they were given the usual allowance of salt for two weeks, and on comparing the milk records it was found that the cows •rave 4-VUb of milk during the first period when the salt was > withheld, and -ifi-llb daring the second period when the salt was furnished, a ditVereneo of 1101b of milk in I wo weeks in favour of salting.

The atmosphere seems to be ehaiged with an electricity which is contagious. party of boys tvbo act as selling agents in Gisborne for a Wellington weekly newspaper have issued the following ultimatum to the Gisborne disIrilnitor: "We boys arc on strike for ninepence a dozen, and if you do not give it to us you can get someone else." Six initials follow in bold letters. Owing to a lack of proper organisation, it is understood (says the Times) that the strike will be short-lived, and may resolve itself into a lock-out .

A correspondent of a Dunodin pupei narrates the following incident : —"A cream waggon was proceeding through, the city. -Just after it had passed a street intersect ion, the uneven surface of the road caused one of the cans to he .jolted out, and tne cre«in pour-, ed over the surface of the roadway. The driver's attention was attracted by the shouts of the onlookers, the cart was stopped a few yards further on, and the man jumped down. By the time he reached the can, its contents were about half-spilled in the germladen dust. To my amazement, and amid the jeers of the bystanders, the man with his dirty hands commenced to scoop up as as he could and replace it in the can. Whether that canful would be turned into butter I am unable to say I hope not -but I cannot avoid a suspicion that in a few days our people will he swallowing by the million microbes formerly disporting themselves in one of our streets."