NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1044, 28 December 1912, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Journal of Agriculture has the following paragraph : To keep household milk in good condition it is essential that the vessel containing it is perfectly clean. After the vessel is well washed it should be thoroughly scalded with boiling water, being then alio wed to dry by draining and exposure to the air in a clear atmosphere. A cloth, generally a contaminating medium, should not be used for drying purposes. Having received the milk the vessel should be stood in cold water, which, in warm weather especially, should be occasionally changed in order to keep the temperature as low as possible.

Some people would find it hard to nelieve that in Victoria a child could attain an age at which children are usually able to talk, and yet not have seen a man other than its father, but such an instance was cited before the council of the Bush Nursing Association at its meeting in Melbourne last week. The residents of Madalya, in Gtppslaud, wrote to the council, putting forth the needs for a bush nurse to be sent to their assistance. Doctors were unknown, they said. There were many children who had never seen a doctor, and there were also a gopd many in the district who bad never seen a man other than their fathers. “To cite a case,” the latter continued, “one child who was standing outside of its mother’s house saw a man coming up the track. It ran inside, calling out, ‘Mother, mother! come quick there’s a funny thing like father coming up the track,” The bush nursing council expressed the need for a bush nurse after that.

The crested dogstail grass-seed harvest which entered so largely into the calculations of Manawatu growers last years, is being almost entirely neglected this season, said a Saudon grower to a New Zealand Times reporter. Fast year’s harvest of this crop showed particularly good returns, both in yield and prices, and as every farmer had a paddock or two laid up for seed the market became overstocked for the time being. The same grower has been noting the partiality that sheep have for crested dogstail. In his comparisons with that grass and perennial rye he finds that the crested dogstail has carried just on a sheep more to the acre during the winter. Nearly twice as many lambs have gone away fat off the dogstail, while the ewes have done splendidly. It should be mentioned that both paddocks were sown with their respective seed solely for seed saving purposes and contained no other mixtims. For ieeding and fattening purposes the farmer spokeu to says that crested dogstail is much under-estimated, and he thinks that the addition of a little white clover would make it still more valuable for this purpose.

The coinage at the British Mint during the year ryn amounted to over 146 million pieces, of a currency value of nearly thirty-six million pounds sterling. The issue of gold coin amounted to over thirty-three million pounds, an increase of nearly eight million pounds over 1910, and more than two and a half times the average of the previous ten years. Gold bullion, upwards of live and a half million ounces, of a value of over 2i l /s millions sterling, was imported into the Mint for coinage during the year, and the light gold coin received for recoiuage of a weight of just over half a million ounces had a value of slightly over two and a third millions sterling. The sovereigns coined during the year numbered upwards of thirty millions, and the half sovereigns coined totalled upwards of six millions. At the end of the year banks in the United Kingdom held gold coinage of a value ol fifty-four million sterling. Silver coinage of a cuireucy value of two and a half millions sterling was issued during the year, the numbers of the various coins issued in round figures being : Half-crowns two and a half millions, florins six and three-quarter millions, shillings twenty millions, sixpences ten million, threepenny pieces four and three quarter millions. For coinage six and a third million ounces of silver bullion were purchased at a cost of ,£650,000, the issue value being .£1,750,000. The issue of bronze coin had a value of ,£140,000, the various pieces coined being : Pennies 25,860.000, weighing 240$ tons, halfpennies 13,843,000, weighing 71 3 stons, farthings 5,568,000, weighing 15^tons. A summary return of the coinage of the world shows that the value of the British coinage was 481 millions sterling, out of a world value of millions.