AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1236, 3 April 1880, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

1 A gentleman of considerable experienci as an agriculturist suggests that mori ' attention should be given to dairy farmin! 1 in New Zealand. He points out that wi live in hard times, and if we do not exer ourselves, and become more thrifty anc 1 more industrious, we shall have harde: times to face. It was easy enough to liv< * with a large expenditure of public moiiej in the shape of loans, &c., but that is nov 1 over. We have now the interest, amount ! ing to nearly three millions, on Govern ment and Corporation loans, to senc Home annually, and we are . taxed according to recent statistics, at the rat< of L 5 Is 8d per head per annum. It i: time, therefore, to turn to our manj hitherto neglected sources of wealth. Oui correspondent refers to the great success co-operative dairy farming has achievec in America. In a lecture he recently de livered, Professor Wellard, of New York, stated that in 1874 that city hac 1139 co-operative dairy factories, at whicl more than 23,000 farmers were delivering the milk of 308,352. cows. As the factories of New York have been considerably increased since 1874, it is estimated that at least 30,000 farmers and as many farms are now identified with th« dairy interest. For the last twenty yearsj or up to 1879, dairying of all kinds has been most remunerative, and American dairymen have a foreign market for all their surplus. The annual consumption of cheese in England is estimated at 504,000,0001b5. The British make has been ' estimated at 312,000,000, and is now, according to Professor Sheldon, 282,000,0001b5, leaving 222,000,0001bs as the annual amount required to supply the English demand for consumption. For the year 1878 American cheese exports amounted. to 134,000,0001b5, while the Canadian exports during the same time were about 42,000,000. At 4d per lb the Amerioan export of cheese would amount to about L 2,260,000, and the Canadian export to about L 600,000. " How is it," our correspondent asks, " that in New Zealand, we hardly manufacture enough "butter and cheese for our own consumption ? If it is remunerative in America why should it nob pay here, in a country superior in climate, where cattle thrive better, and where they do not even require housing for the-winter, We .have thousands of acres in this province whioh, with a little outlay in clearing and laying down in grass, would make the best pasturage for feeding milking cows upon." We thoroughly agree with these remarks, and fully believe that an increased settlement on the land of practical farmers, who would turn their earnest attention to the improvement and extension of agricultural pursuits in New Zealand, would be the best possible remedy for the prevailing depression. There is one particular industry connected with the subject on which.our correspondent writes, to which he does not allude. We refer to the curing of hams and bacon. How is it that this is done so badly as a rule in New Zealand 1 It is nothing short of a disgrace that we should have to import these things from England, especially when we have pigs in thousands running wild in our forests, and actually becoming a nuisance to the agriculturist from their increasing numbers. There is no reason why hams, equal to the finest Westphalian, should not be secured from the legacy left to us by Captain Cook, and we commend the idea to those whose wits are becoming sharpened by the " hard times," and who are looking

out for new ton Post.

Professor Law, an eminent veterinary surgeon of /America, traces the origin of pleuropneumonia to Central Asia, from whidh it reached England through Russia and lEolland in 1839, and America in 1843. He estimates the annual loss to England from tlio destruction of infected cattle at L 2,000,000, and that of the United States if thG disease spread at the same ratio, at'ybotwoen L 13,000,000 and L 20,000,000 i 4 year. f The Manawatu Herald says :—" The •farmers on every hand state that while the losses of stock by the flood are great, the loss of feed will be felt still more. In some places the silt deposited by water is of a considerable depth, and thousands of acres will have to be sowed with grass before being of the slightest use for grazing purposes. In consequence of th& autumn being close at hand, there is very little chance of grass seed sown at present returning any feed, as the frost will probably kill the young plants. It is therefore probable that most of the country covered by the deposit will be useless until the return of spring." Mr. Travers, of the firm of Travers and Gibson, who is now in London, sent a telegram to his Sydney agent on the 9th inst., in which he strongly eulogises the process of meat-preserving known as Giffard's. This process (says the Argus) involves the freezing of the meat, and it is claimed that it is much simpler than the Bell-Coleman system. Mr. Fairbairn and four other gentlemen have bought tho right to use the process, which has been patented in Australia.