AGRICULTURE.

North Otago Times, Volume II, Issue 33, 6 October 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURE.

Smut in Wheat. — The following is from the " Sydney Empire :" — " Rust or smut will arise from allowing land to lie too long without working. In dry weather, after heavy rains, it will rise more rapidly than in wet weather. To prevent smut or rust soak your seeds overnight in wine, or sopmaker's leys, not too strong ; dry before sowing in slack lime— twelve hours being sufficient. If dibbed in rows nine inches apart, you will have a large yield. If planted in drills six inches between each grain in drills fourteen inches apart, you will have a good yield, hilling up as it grows. This may be tedious, but very effective, especially in very dry seasons. If you roll, do it in dry weather with a very light roller, as wherever a horse leaves a deep footmark the plaut will be scalled if wet falls. Sow in March, April, and May. If drought set in in spring, and your crops looked all but destroyed, plough it over, harrow, and roll it, and most probably you will yet have a crop. Do not turn cattle on it. Plough only in dry weather. To succeed with any crop you must plough your land immediately after reaping or mowing. Harrow and roll again before'weeds, &c, gain ground ; plough , harrow, and roll, and this must be done till there are no clods to crush, or weeds or fungus to destroy your grain. Airing your land is manuring it." Th following notice of another sheep washing machine is from the "Geelong Advertiser :" — " Mr Marshall, engineer and carpenter, Moorabool-street, has finished a new apparatus for the more efficient method of washing sheep previous to their being shorn. The machine, or rather the combination of machines, for it consists of disjointed boxes of large size extending upwards of ninety feet longitudinally, has been made by Mr Marshall and his assistants, after a model furnished by the overseer belonging to Mr Wilson's sheep station, at Brown's Water Holes, and is as ingenious as it appears to be efficient, for the purpose of expedition on the one hand and a thorough cleansing of the animal on the other. The first compartment is devoted to a kind of warm water scrubbing bath, the next is a trap on a light incline, which plunges the animal, after he makes his exit from the warm solution in which he is first plunged, into cold water ; from thence he proceeds along a wooden kind of corridor, and again undergoes the wholesome process of a heavy shower-bath. The practical part of the invention is so well combined with the experimental that there can hardly be a doubt that the apparatus will become generally used, as soon as made known to our squatting friends in the district." Scab Specific. — At a meeting of the Council of the Board of Agriculture, Melbourne, the secretary brought up a report relative to (Jostello's scab specific, and in submitting it to the Council produced specimens of the wool taken from the sheep on the previous day, after they were examined by Mr Brock and himself and pronounced to be clean. He stated that he considered the wool to be uninjured by the specific — that its staple was good and strong — that the wool felt quite healthy, and was not the least discolored by the application of the specific. The report was as follows : — " Seven sheep having been purchased by the Board of Agriculture to test a solution invented by Mr Costello, for the cure of scab, were dipped on the 2nd JulVi 1864. The proportions were as follow : — Three gallons of the solution to forty-five gallons of water ; temperature about 90 ° ; the sheep remaining one minute in the dip. The whole of the seven sheep were in the very worst stage of the disease. On the 12th July the sheep were re-dipped in the solution. The proportions were as follows : — Two gallons of the solution to forty-four gallons of water ; temperature, 70 ° ; the sheep remained one minute in the dip. On examining the sheep previous to re-dipping, it was found that the scab, though somewhat mitigated in its virulence, was still existing to a very great extent. On the 27th July, Messrs Brock and Winter and the secretary examined the sheep. After a very careful and minute inspection, by the aid of powerful glasses, no traces of acari could be discovered ; the sheep had much improved in condition, and the disease appeared to have been eradicated ; it was, however, considered necessary to postpone the final examination until such time as a definite conclusion could be arrived at. On the 23rd August the sheep were again examined by Mr Brock and the secretary. Their condition was much improved, and although, owing to the cold and wet weather, the wool had not grown very much, yet it was evident, by its general appearance, that in a very short time every trace of the disease, which had been so virulent, would be obliterated. A certificate from Mr Brock is appended herewith. Mr Costello estimates the cost of dipping sheep in this solution at one penny per head. I have no hesitation in stating that the sheep alluded to above are now perfectly cured and free from the disease. — J. M. Matsok, Secretary. — Board of Agriculture, 23rd August, 1864."