AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6493, 19 December 1881, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

iNXBBOOLOHIAIi.

The annual Dhow, under the auspices of the Taranaki Agricultural Society, was held at St. Germain’s square, Wew Plymouth, on Deo. 7, when there was a fair number of exhibits in the various classes. The exhibits of 'cattle were remark* ably good j and there was a decided improve* ment in horses over last year. The entries for sheep wore not numerous, but those exhibited were of really good quality. Agricultural implements were not largely represented. The exhibits of wool and dairy produce were good, and attracted considerable notice. There was a good attendance of the publio in the afternoon. The yield of the early reaped wheat crops South Australia is reported as exceeding expectations. During the last month 106,000 rabbits were killed on the Tertingallum station, in the Oamperdown district. Jn 1078, Victoria raised 7,243,708 bushels of grain from 964,398 acres j in 1879, 16,142,807 bushels from 1,688,276 acres. The Forest Board of South Australia are expending £4OO in raising plants for presentation to fanners and corporate bodies. A good supply of fresh water has been struck at a depth of 673 ft in a well on the Dunlop station, in the Buurko district, the water rising nearly to the top of the well. Foxes have become very numerous In the Geelong district, 181 haring been recently killed on the station of Mr Josiab Austin, of Duck Ponds, that gentleman having offered £1 per brush. The total area of Victoria is acres, disposed of thus t Alienated, 19 206,881 acres i roads, 960,319 acre* ; reserves, 2,001,770 acres j commons, 1,689,800 aores j pastoral and grazing, 22,296,994 acres I unoccupied, 10,241,496 acres j available for selection, 33,054,962 acres. A number of applications have been forwarded to the Commissioner of Trade and Customs of Victoria, asking for the imposit ion of a duty on imported preserved milk. The Weekly Timet says [—“The value of milk imported during the first nine months of the your amounted to £10,000." Mr Grave* im tends to lay the application before the Cabinet. The Camperdotm Chronicle states that rabbits are becoming alarmingly numerous in the vicinity of Mount Emu and the Stony

Bices. One paddock of 6000 acres for tho past year has not grazed more than one sheep to four sore*, and a property of 10,000 ecres supported 6000 sheep less than formerly, through tho same cause. Speaking of crop prospects in Victoria, the A u*/r airman says t—The reports from the (Miinlrv districts may bo summed up ae generally satisfactory. Water has come down creeks that hare been dry for many months, and an immense number of sheep and cattle have been saved from starvation. Feed will now bo abundant, and we will venture to hope that the rainfall so badly wanted will not continue so long ns to obliterate the great measure of good it ban already accomplished fur both graziers and farmers. Some hay has been spoilt, and some early barleys are not of quite as good colour as they might have been ( but as yet no serious harm has been done in tho grain field. The weather continues favourable in South Australia for tbe crops. Wo (Adelaide dimmer) arc glad to learn that tho Government have succeeded, after some trouble, in obtaining a site for the Agricultural Farm and College at which Professor Cuetonoo is to conduct his experiments, Tim place selected belonged to Mr I). Kerr, and is situated about three miles from Ga«.ler. The area is 728 acres, and tho price paid for it is £4618.

Another week of variable weather (says the Sydney Mail) has closed. Brisk showers and a fall of hail on the coast were followed by hot winds and unpleasant dust storms. Thursday was such a day as usually falls to tho lot of midsummer, but vegetation is so well forward that a few warm days will not do serious damage. As mentioned in onr last issue, rust has destroyed much wheat in Inveroll and Singleton, as well as spoiling some cereals near Sydney, bat it seems that the “ pest” is not extending, and a fair return is expected. Indeed, it is probable that last year’s average! will bo repeated. Beaping has commenced on the upper Hunter. Shearing is being carried out in tho Worth, but the arrivals st> far have not been heavy. Kef resiling rains have recently been experienced in Queensland, where the crops are looking fairly well. tffi«r%V,s>iiosPf .Glhahinob. Some Texas farmers are trying the experiment of importing from Bnseia a certain beetle indigenous to that country, which is represented as being.vory voracious and living on grasshoppers, locusts, cotton worms and other destructive

An American gentleman, writing to a New York paper, says that he has found by experience that if a plank, not less than two feet across is whitewashed on both sides and fastened in the ground, rabbits will not come within twenty yards or mere of it. A pound of bones contains as much phosphoric acid as ode hundred pounds of wheat. On many forms there are bones wasted sufficient to snpply phosphoric acid for all the wheat consumed.

Give milch cows extra feed as Boon as signs of falling off are seen. When fattening a beef animal, hog or other animal, let the process be as qnick as possible. Any stint in feeding will make the meat tough and dry. Stall-fed animals will fatten more readily than-others, and young animals require richer food than older ones. When cows have free access to salt they will not take it to excess. But it is better to give them a small handful, about one ounce, each day in their feed or otherwise, which is a proper and healthful quantity. English shire bred horses are beginning to find favour with American farmers. The possession of two much land is the bane of farming in many countries. No one can afford to let an acre of land lie idle. Unless producing some valuable crop, it is growing weeds, which are usually the most expensive crop both for himself and neigh* hours that a farmer can grow. The Eat of areas infected with foot-and-mouth disease shows an increase in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Northampton* shire and Yorkshire, and a decrease in Wiltshire. American flour sent in quarter sacks by the Chinese merchants from San Francisco to Hong Hong, is said to bo entering largely into Chinese consumption to the supplanting of rice. 1 The Engineer states that the refrigerator recently erected at the Boyol Victoria Bocks has given great satisfaction. The refrigerator has been erected for the purpose of receiving the frozen meat imported from Australis. The “biggest” grain elevator in the world has j oat been erected in New York by the firm of Messrs David Dow and Co. It has 1200 ft water frontage, and the main building includes three towers 100 ft apart and each 175 ft high. The machinery in the elevator can take grain at the rate of 8000 bushels an hour from the barges »t the pier. The grain is elevated, sifted and fanned, weighed, stored, put in bins and then transferred to vessels at the pier. About five miles of belting, called conveyors, cony the grain up at railroad speed. No shovelling is necessary. The Mark Lane Express, writing under date of 3rd October, says;—“ In the north of England and in Scotland much progress has been made with the late harvest, but the condition in which the grain ia being stacked is very indifferent. In the later districts of Scotland there are crops of grain still green, and it is not probable that these can coma to maturity. As thrashing progresses the season's damage becomes more apparent, and those who persuaded themselves that they had harvested their grain in tolerably good condition find, to their sorrow, that their samples are not only neglected, but for the moat part rejected by millers and dealers.” Here is an instance of how hunger for land has increased its value ih England. In 1889 a Dorset farmer entered on a farm at a yearly rental of £BBO. On the renewal of the lease in 1861 the rent was put up to £450, and in 1862 to £675, at the latter date 25 acres being added to the holding. In 1877 the rent was further raised to £726, nearly double the rate of forty years before, and without change of tenancy. During that period the cost of labour had increased 50 per cent. Is there any wonder that farmers cannot pay their debts, and the agriculturists cry out about “ depression ?" Some experiments have been made by Woolfo to test the digestive powers of horses and sheep. The same food was supplied to each sot of animals, and in comparing the figures it is evident that a horse digests meadow grass and hay less perfectly than a sheep, and the difference between them is apparently as. great when the food is young grass as when ordinary hay is employed. On the whole the horse digests about 12 per cent, less of .the total organic matters of grass hay than the sheep. With lucerne bay the digestion of the horse is far better, and (save as regards the fat) nearly equals that of the sheep. In a trial with wheat straw chaff the horse digested 22. S and the shaep47.6 per cent, of the total organic matter, with corn the digestion of the horse is apparently quite equal to that of the sheep. The beans and maize were soaked In water before they were given to the horse.