NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 7

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Fhe routine of farm work, for January deals mainly with the hay Farm TforK ' and green crops, ' and in•far Jn»uxry. - eludes the preparation .of machinery for the approaching harvest. The prospects for, the coming larvest appear at the momenv to be good, ,nd if favourable conditions prevail till the rop is secured) the general average of corn cill be high. The want of moisture miiiated to some extent against the later-sown rops, but latterly they have recovered, and iow promise well. Turnips. — In January the horse work is lot of 6O strenuous a nature as usual. \ "Thinting turnips will soon be over for the year, iut the horse-hoes and grubbers w^ll still le kept going steadily in the drills as long s the horse can get a passage. The rain xperienced last week has been most beneieial all round. The late sowings of turiips will now get a start, and more moisure still would be acceptable for' all othe ;reen crop. The turnip crop generally has leen got in well, but«- growth has been slow ,nd irregular, although there is plenty of ime yet for recovery. / Mangolds, carrots, and potatoes are now rell forward, anfcl pretty well covering the ;rpund. If the potatoes have been sprayed nd require any assistance artificial manure nay be applied after hand-hoeing and beore the final earthing up. This is as^ good , time as any. In the mangold and carrot latches the drill grubber should keep tho urface soil stirred continuously. This elps to keep down weeds, retains moisture, nd stimulates growth. ' ' The hay crop bulks up well in some fields rhich have been already cut. and in a comlaratively dry season like this it ought to c secured in perfect order. Weeds. — Every effort must be made as pporfcunity presents to prevent the growth f weeds. Canadian and ordinary thistles bould be^ cut before seeding .and forming urrs, which get into the^wool and lower is, value Id per lb. Yellow weed and faten must be prevented from seeding either y weeding or cutting the crop in which aey grow for hay or ensilage. Some other rop, like late turnips or rape, may be rown in its place." - Water Supply. — There is every indicalon that the water eapply for dairy cattle nd household use will be troublesome if ry weather continues. Springs and creeks re as dry as they were during the worst art of last year, and the supply should to a-refully conserved. Bare Fallows. — When bare fallows arc ecessary advantage is taken, of the ry weather this month to crosslough and scarify. Weeds are eolsefced and burnt, or a flock of sheep limed in to clean them up._ But the fstem is bad, particularly on light soils, 'hich drain, easily. A continuous covering rop of some kind, with judicious manurlg to force the growth, is more profitable nd better for the ground. Lamb 3 are weaned towards the end of he month or during the first week of ebruary. This leaves seven or eight weeks [ear before -the rams are turned out, and ives the ewes a good .chance. They should ot be put on succulent food till the milk ries up, say for a week after weaning. _ Dairy work will now be in full swing nd cows in full profit. Provision for April lOuld have been made before lihis, but if ot attended to no time should be lost.

Cheap Bulbs, for present planting. Sf>e Jimmo andßlAh^s advertisement, page 8 f this issue, for specially cheapo lines of 'ulips, etc. . v J

Oats and vetches cannot be beaten for this purpose and a good fat stock of hay.

It is astonishing what an amount of apathy ; exists in taking the requi- v; Te«t the site steps to protect potaSpray. toes from the ravages of

blight. Instead of spending 40s or 5Cs on a knapsack sprayer, which is good enough for a 'small patch,i and making it do, some .farmers are quite •jontent to lose 'pounds' worth of potatoes. It is too late on the appearance of the blight to borrow a_ spraying machine and order the b^uestone 1 and wait till they come out; the fungus by that time has done its deadly work, and the money spent on spraying afterwards is thrown away. The whole object of spraying ie to prevent the possibility of the blight getting a hold. The ingredients used must ''be pure. If soda i 3 used, sometimes it is adulterated with Glaubers salts, 'and the result is disastrous, for the latter' will not neutralise the acid character of the bluestone ? and leaves will be blackened and shrivelled up, as by frost. It is a good safeguard to buy a small packet of blue litmus paper from the chemist. -If a strip of this is held in the solution ready for spraying for a moment or two, and is turned* red by the mixture, the spray is unsafe, and more lime must be added. , Even after weighing out tha correct indicated quantities it_is - >,not isafe to use the mixture without testing it: some of the ingredients may not be what' they are represented to be, or the lime may have been old and air slaked. The test is simplicity itself, and should never be omitted either on potatoes or trees.

It is ' very unsatisfactory that the value _of j ■ such ' a p useful % artificial, j Ihe.Nitrato manure as nitrate, of soda v Trait, should be , fixed at< the disv. cretion of the Nitrate Ring, and that .farmers all over fche^Tvorld should be exploited to line their pockets. The nitrate producers have a monopoly of ±he trade,' and by restricting the output can" name any price they like — thaib is," any price which the farmers do not consider i altogether prohibitive. As far- as 'we are concerned, witih. freight and other charges added the price now obtained is prohibitive. In this way they have gradually raised the price 70 per cent, during the last seven years, although the cost of production has remained the same. At the twenty-fourth annual general meet'ng _of the Liverpool Nitrate Company, in moving the adoption of the report and 1 balance sheet the chairman said that after-deduct-ing £4388 for plant renewals, £980 as depreciation on railway etock investments, and £500 as contribution to the Valparaiso Earthquake Relief Funds, their profit was £74,974, orneaTly £5000 more than last year, althoughthey had handled 3000 tons less of nitrate during the year. The directors had great pleasure, \therefore; in recommending a dividend of 150 per cent., and the chairman remarked that the shares were nicely and tightly held, and that " when we have a*" good thing on we may a/ well keep it quiet, and not say too much about it.',* This explains why we have to, pay £120 per ton for nitrogen, our principal plant food, when it might be procured from the atmosphere we breathe at less than onequarter of that cost by utilising the. waterpower at present running to waste in New Ze.aland. Cheaply produced-, the markets of the world are open to us.

There Is something radically wrong with' our methods- of distribute

Fruit ing ripe fruit. At certain Distribution, seasons of the year the prices go up to an enormous figure, and a month or two after there ''a suoh a glut on the market that growers not only fail to got a profitable price, but do not even clear transport and pickingcharges. At one time the trouble is -with pJums, next with apples, and frequently pears are- not worth pulling-. Whichever crop happens to be a good one for the year floods the market, and brings the prico down to an unprofitable level. During three months of the year there is more fruit produced than can be consumed, and no provision is made by ivav of cool storage, which would enable the fruit to be placed on the market as required. For the rest of the year complaints of the prices charged are frequent and deep. Perhaps one of the reasons for the irresfularity of the market is the dependence placed upon the provision merchant for supplies of jam. If the town housewife"' felt it -her duty' to lay in a stock of jam which would last her family for 12 months there would be less hea-rd of gluts on the market. In the country the- next two or three weeks j the. small fruit season is one of the busiest times of the year. And the enormous quantities which are preserved and bottled for' home use throughout' the year point to the fact that if the practice were Universal we should hear leas about plums and currants rotting on" the ground because' they do not pay to pick. There can." be no question! that it will pay • all householders handsomely to make this provision. The supply would be cheaper and the quality better, and there would be n6 doubt about the composition of the preserve used. Past experience shows that the householder does not" aWays reap the advantage he should from the low prices goinjf. to the producer in tiroes of plenty. Thisl is largely because the fruiterer if nor

trusted to fulfil orders which should havo been given him > in, anticipation of the fruit ripening.. He 'is iorced .to buy and exhibit a lot ,'of fruit, wbich wastes in the "process,, when ilie orders migh"t' be for-|vwardQd-»"direetly from2_the ''gardens. The fruiterer would be quite pleased vv f or a small consideration to ,act as -intermediary between the grower. and- 'the' householder. His Irisk of loss would b© diminished, 'the co&fe ' to the householder reduced, and the fruifc'delivered more expeditiously and in' better order. But such>mattere- will, no doubt, ha allowed to drift tilT local district associations are formed to -"control the trade. If a> fair, steady price "we'reT -obtainable for all fruit grown the supply" could and soon would be enormously increased.

Farmers sometimes . experience considerable . difficulty, in attending perNatnre sonally ,to their domestic Study. • requirenaents co far "as the garden -is'Voncerned. - There is the ceaseless^ attention 'demanded- in the outfield, and garden -.seeds, are not got in in ieasonable Dry weather comes along, and later sow» seeds' do not come away as they 'should, with the, result 'that the vegetable supply runs short and ,the commiesariafc department suffers. , -Unfortunately this has been' my experience this year, and when' my young hopeful brought; home a. huge cauliflower from his. -school garden it was very acceptable, and \ gave' rise to a discussion on the Nature study, taught in our district school, and subset quently.to an inspection of the results in evidence at orie of, r them. A description^ of the exhibits will prove as interesting and instructive to others as they did to my- 1 self. • In 1 the school ground an enclosure had; besen fenced off' for -vegetable growing, and', divided into plots, which were distributed among- the older boys. So many boys for_ each plot - trenched and ' cultivated the'■"ground, sowe<J the' manure^ and seed, in. time thinned out the vegetables and kept" down the weeds •'during tile season ; in; fact, did all the work themselves" necessar jr ~ to grow the vegetables properly, and with ' excellent " results. The manure .wsed 1 had , been varied so as to demonstrate the' effect i of different applications ; no less . than , three' different mixtures weTe applied tg each vegetable grown. One plot, receives the same working as the others, but \&a no manure applied to it. Some really creditable specimens of produce resulteoV and reflected credit alike on the teachet , (who had taken a lot of trouble over the plots) and the children,' ,who cT>uld no€ help learning some useful lessons from the work. Inside of the school there were collections, anore or less complete, of-

grasses and 1 weeds dried, mounted", and ] named, and hanging on the wall sketches of leaves and flowers drawn from- Nature, . and not copied from a "drawing book," and a weather chart on which the observations had been daily recorded by the pupils themselves. In the flower gardonseveral successful grafts were exhibited, and loses properly budded with healthy-looking-buds, and -many flowers- had been successfully grown from seed by the girls. Such work has far-reaching effects and vast possibilities. Well directed, it ie capable x>i training 1 m^nd and hand in a way that probably nothing else could do. The children get enthusiastic over it, and schoolwork is no longer the dreary, tiresome task, but a distinct pleasure. A bond of good fellowship is established between master and pupil which leavens the whole ■work of the school.^ Such work undoubtedly deserves all the encouragement which the authorities can give it. AGRICOLA.