NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1519, 7 March 1916, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

In spite of the efforts of the Agricultural Department, lucernegrowing has not been taken up as energetically •as it should be. Suitable soil for lucerne exists in most farming districts of New Zealand-, and this wonderful fodder plant, where successfully grown, is a veritable goldmine. A Hawke’s Bay farmer has earned a profit trom ten acres of lucerne amouutto no less than per acre. The land used was previously a mass of Californian thistle, which the lucerne has completely killed.

Mr Ashmead Bartlett casually mentioned in, the course of one cf his lectures in Sydney that in most campaigns it was unusual for the man in the firing line to see even his divisional commander, but General Birdwood made it a daily practice to inspect the trenches and pass a word or two of encouragement here and there as he moved along the line. Incidentally he told a story of the General, who happened to be wearing his decorations under his great-coat while making his customary round, one day. An Australian, noticing medals as the General strode past, and evidently reflecting philosophically on his own chances of coming through the campaign unscathed, in his best colonial remarked to his comrades: “I’ll never be long enough in this war to earn a row like that!’’ And he was not, He was killed next day.

A most extraordinary peculiarity was revealed at a meeting of the Otago Education Board recently when two members who had visited the Makarewa school stated that the writing of one of the scholars, Frederick Miles by name, was shown to them, and it was all upside down. The , boy starts to write with his left hand at the bottom of the page, and forms his letters the reverse way. He gradually works his way to the top of the page, and when the page is turned round the characters are revealed as perfectly made and true in every respect, and the sentences are easily read. He is adjudged to be the best writer in bis class, of which he is also dux. The boy has never written any other way. No apparent explanation can be given. Samples of his writing are to be procured by members of the board.