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Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 6

More Planet, Jr., agricultural and gardenimplements ar« in use in the world than any other three makes pat together.— Nimnao' and Blair.

ing to the latest official report, there are 7Q0,000 beekeepers, producing annually 20^000,400 doHara' worth of honey and 2,OGQ,GOa dollar*' worth of beeswax. In British c*in this means an aggregate vahie j annually of nearly £4,500,000. Further, the ! Teport states that th« honey-bee- probably does more good to American agriculture as j a pollenising agent than as a honey-pro-ducer. The- extraordinary progress made since tbe New Zealand Department of Agriculture considered bee culture worthy of recognition has- fully warranted the assistance it has received. Nothing has contributed more to this advancement than the passing of the Apiaries Act. It has put .new life into the industry. A dairy farm near Manaia, Taranaki, has changed hands at £65 an acre. The Taranaki Herald says the price is exceptional. It adds: "But it was not a speculative investment, made with the idea that the land would presently become town or suburban property, nor, as far as we know, were the improvements upon it of extraordinary %alue. The price appears to have been based upon what the farm has actually yielded during tfcw hat year or two, and on that basis the deal may be a perfectly sound one." The Herald suggests that, " while values may be said to have reached their limit based an the actual present productivity of the land, and that a- marked fall in the price of butter-fat would probably make present values too high, yet it is possible by a better; system of farming to make the average value of dairying land jn the province considerably higher than it is." '" Mr, Turpin,. of Daanovirke, has invented an™ appKancie for pharpeninfr ' the knives of chsflcufters wit&oui necessitating a stopP»B«- 1!tt» iikventtea is mrr automatic sharpener, whioh puts- an edga on the knives as they- revolve* arid* consists of a block of emery adjusted to the knives by a set of springs by which its pressure against the blades can be regulated. Rabbiters may be interested to know that the well-known writer Jerome- K. Jerome has experimented with a steel rabbit trap to learn - how ifc feels to be held fast in j one. He let the trap close gently on one finger and grip ifc for three minutes. He ! testified that the suffering increased with j every second, and an almost intolerable ache spread over the whofe body. What must it be to Be a rabbit to be held by a leg for hours or days? The Aahburton County Council will shortly, pujb in hand the work of preparing a quantity, of poisoned grain for the de- j struction of small birds next winter. Tenders have been called for a supply of grain and poison, and as scon a* those have been accepted the work will be commenced. Babbit trappers have recently made goo-t money near Wellington, and also a gcod Tiddamce of the worst of the pest. On an area of 2000 acres in tie Porirua district, they, accounted for no fewer than "9006 rabbits in three months, or nearly 'five traibbifcj to the acre. < A Morton Maine correspondent writes to, the. Southland Nevs : " Quite a Chinese I colony is springing up in the vicinity of [ lavercargfll. Lately several farmers ;n; n I the Mwton Mains and Edendale districts f hitye shown, a marked preference for the* ! -C&lestials, - and it is given out on • authorify that some farmers intend to inisredtace. Chinese labour into their milkinp sheds. s T6e> easperimewt will fee w»tche:» "with interest as marking- a new departure in the dairying: industry." A rabbiter look.? up«n ihis incident in his ■work as something: of a record. In 62 s°ts of his traps (saws the MHton Mirror) he Tiover failed to htuve a cetofa. registering3170 rabbits, which wwe trucked from Mount Stuart to Bureside. ' Mr E. Short, of Feilding, has received advioe of the safe arrival at Monmouth, j Oregon, of the 11 Romney ewes and one ram sold to Messrs W. Riddell and Son 3, | and also the Lincoln ram bred by Mr W. < Perry. The purchasers express their ap- ' preciation of <he superiority of the sheep ' seQt by Mr Short ower those purchased in,,; "Eftgknd. The English sheep were larger, ' but in every othwr way inferior to those ' from New Zealand. j The recant sale of a merino ram in Vie- j toria for 1350gs marks the hieh-water re- I cord. The previous best, 1200gs, caused , some stir._ especially when the pronrief-ors of Canowie were announced as the pur- ' chasers. The tall fiffur-a of 1500srs was . asked last year by Mr A. J. Murray for one of his rams, but the price scared the po-os-ocotive buyer. Both the above rams are from the Wane-anella flock, founded by the late Mr T. Millear. Writing- of New Zealand cheese, the Montreal Herald says:— "There is a very satisfactory demand for cheese from the Do- | minion at present. The fact that the ' quality of th© Canadian cheese shows a superiority over that of the New Zealand | commodity has. of course, given a fillip to the former. There is strong rivalry between the provisions imported from thfse two parts of the British dependencies. No i pains are being snared by the New Zealand i authorities to still further strengthen the bold upon the British marksfs. In spite

' t of these endeavours it is satisfactory to ! find that the Canadian shipper* are able to ' beat their rivals as regards the quality of the cheese. There is no doubt that advantage is being taken of the experience gained in previous years as regards the requirements of the British markets. The Canadian commercial agents who are stationed j in- various parts of the country have abo { been able to forward to the Dominion some ] valuable information as to tbe needs of. ; the British customers, and this has kept the trade up to a higher level." | A ' Disappointed Butcher" thus writes from New Zealand to the Meat Trades' i Journal: "My idea of colonial butchers, taking the majority, shop and slaughterman, is that they are the dirtiest, uncouth lot I ever met, and they would not be toler- ' afced in a knacker's yard at Home. My advice to anyone thinking of coming out here is to stop in the Old Country, even if you stay out of work till you take root under the old clock in the Smithfield Meat \ Market." One knows these "disappointed" ! ones ! ! " What is the secret of your success?" asked a writer in the Pastoralists' Review, in talking to a Waikato farmer vrho is making £400 a year on 8& acres. " The beginning, the middle, and the end of it," answered the farmer, "is economy and hard work. Nowadays it is all talk and write, and not enough work."