AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1230, 27 March 1880, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Since the harvest it is computed that the sales of British wheat in the 160 principal markets have been 544,364 quarters > against 1,005,391 quarters in 1878; while in the whole kingdom the sales have been 2,177,500 quarters, against 4,022,600 quarters in the previous year. When the manufacturers of oleomargarine (says an American exchange) produce an article that supplies nearly half the current consumption of butter in ... New York without the consumers knowing but that they are using an excellent quality of the product of cows' milk, they have accomplished a great achievement, and it is no wonder the dealers in the legitimate product of the dairy are exercised over this state of affairs.: There is no pretention that oleomargarine' is un- . wholesome as a food article ; only that it : is not butter, and should be so handled that all parties shall know that it is not butter.. A butter, dealer in New York ia reported to have stated that " nine>-tentha of the people who buy this stuff do it under the belief that it is butter, and eight-tenths of them would not think of buying it if they knew its real character." The butter dealers are now renewing an active war upon the " tallow-butter" trade. Writing to one of his constituents from Africa, in a letter dated December 24, Mr. Plimsoll, M.P., says I judge from the papers that we shall return to something very different and far less enjoyable, but duty is duty, and I feel that my constituents have a right to expect me to discharge mine. Besides, I want to make an effort this session to put an end to loading of grain in bulk. The loss of the s.s; Tiara, 1180 tons, and the loss of the s.s. Emblehope, 1255 tons, from shifting cargoes, and the loss of the Joseph Pease, and of the s.s. Telford, of the Heimcall and the s.s. Capella, nearly all of which have carried many brave men - and fathers of families to a watery grave, compell me to return, and once more uae ; the great opportunity I possess by favoy of the people of Derby, in a Strenuous effort to reform' such a dreadful practice , as loading of grain in bulk—a practice which every winter causes such deplorable loss of property, and, what is more important, so many valuable lives, aud a practice which admits of so cheap and easy a remedy. We know of none of the ordinary pursuits of life so pleasant, so healthy to the body, so little distressing to the mind, as that of the farmer. He has none of the capricious conditions of human character to depend upon. External physical nature, in its plainest aspects, and under its invariable laws, is the element on which' alone he has to work. Everybody wanta what he has to sell—all that he has to sell. The more he produo.es the better is the world satisfied j while, at the same time, the material on which he works is such that, by inoreased skill and industry, he can produce more, and get a higher profit. His way of life requires him to observe nature's hours ; to rise and go down with the sun. There ia a call for constant exercise in the open air; not in the irksome and tedious way of a constitu-. tional regimen, but with a direct object always in view. His horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry are a perpetual source of interest. The variations of the Seasons bring agreeable and interesting changes with them, There need be no speculation, no bad debts, no goods hanging on hand. Then, what are luxuries to others are enjoyed by him at little post—riding horses, garden, the delicacies of the dairy and the poultry-yard" 5 some exemptions from assessed and insurance taxes and toll?. • : • '■ .