THE FARMER.

Patea Mail, 17 July 1880, Page 3

THE FARMER.

“CHAMPION POTATO.” The following account of a famous new potato is from an English paper:—“ The variety of potato known as the ‘Champion’ has of late been creating quite a sensation in Scotland by shewing a power to produce extraordinary crops under most unfavourable circumstances. How the ‘champion’ propagated from seed wc learn that Mr Bowick, from who informs us that some years ago Mr. Nicoll, at that time gardener at Ouchterlony near Letham, planted three potatoes in his garden, all of different kinds, and they all produced ‘apples’ on the tops. These seedlings, when planted, yielded a great variety of kinds, and from what he deemed the best 1 to cultivate for four years, weeding out the inferior. When Mr. imcuu left his appointment at Ouchterlony, he gave all his potatoes to farmers. One of them, a Mr. Hotaertson, stuck to the produce of a single potato as it was the most promising of the whole, and to it he assigned his name ‘Champion.’ It gradually spread over the district and it paid the grower well being large in size and producing from eight to twelve tons the /Scotch acre, or, say, on an average eight tons the imperial acre. It was, in adition to being a heavy cropper, a good potato as to quality; but in no year was it worth so much as ‘Regents’ or ‘Walker’s.’ However,it somehow lost fame among farmers about three years ago, owing to the large ones having a cavity in the middle. Last year it entirely recovered its character, notwithstanding the great downpours of rain in July and August, which all but destroyed the Logouts. In these two months the rainfall, even on the eastern coast, was over twelve inches ; yet in the following month (September) the Champion stood out so green that it could be distinguished from others miles away. Wherever the potatoes grew they came away with barely a trace of disease to digging time, which last year fell in November. They have kept well in the pit, and the quality is really good. Thus, a little pains on the part of one gardener has been the moans of carrying many Scotch farmers successfully through one of the worst seasons over known in Scotland. There yet remains much to be learned in the propagation of seed, and many farmers might try experiments, and thus profitably employ their leisure hours.”

SMALL BIRDS AND SLUGS. Whether small birds are a great and unmixed evil, and whether their multiplication is a blessing or a enrso to the farmer, are questions not yet finally decided. It is more than probable that if the opinion of each settler could be taken, birds would be doomed. When it is remembered that in sowing- grain an increased quantity to the acre has now to be used, and that before and during the harvesting operations an immense amount of the crop is destroyed, it would seem to bo a duty and a necessity to endeavour to put an end to the ravages of the birds, and that, in some way or other, they should be destroyed. Some parties are of opinion that there should be an immediate and wholesale extermination ; others would simply keep them in check, not allowing them to increase so rapidly, The small birds nuisance is agitating the minds of fanners, both in this and the old country. Some months ago the following was published in a Home paper on the subject:— “What would you think of a nurseryman who boasted to a friend of mine that ho had destroyed 12,000 thrushes’ and blackbirds’ eggs in one season? Perhaps ho did not count them, so call it 10,000, or2ooo nests. Now, I have watched a pair of starlings during the breeding season, and found that on an average they brought a grub or fly to their young ones in three minutes. This for ten hours a day for twenty days gives 4000 grubs to one pair of starlings. A pair of sparrows lias also been seen to come and go from the nest for food 400 times a day, and this will give 8000 grubs or caterpillars to one sparrow’s nest during twenty days. Thrushes and blackbirds are quite as busy among insects, slugs, and snails in the early spring, so that the wanton destruction of 2000 nests of those sweet songsters saved the life of some 9,600,000 slugs and snails, grubs and caterpillars, which, I sincerely hope, did justice to their benefactor in eating buds and blossom on m- ’■' no u u<ll is that man overreaches himself when be breaks the balance in nature ordered by a wise Creator. Cutting down too many

I trees turns streams into torrents ; while j on the other band', too much draining of j the laud floods ua in spring and autumn, and gives us drought in summer. , So also docs the destruction of birds only multiply vermin of all kinds, and changes onr beautiful lanes and woods into long and dreary solitudes.” That kind of teaching may do very well for England, where long and seveie winters, and a scarcity of food, must have the effect of checking to a largo degree the increase of birds. But it is entirely different in these colonies, where hardly any check exists to atop the rapid increase that is going on. A line must be drawn somewhere, for if left uncontrolled the birds will soon become so numerous that it would be almost impossible to produce a grain crop—at all events it would be a precarious experiment. In a Southern paper 1 saw a case mentioned in which 16 acres were sown with oats three times over count of the ravages of the birds, each sowing being at the rate of four bushels to the acre, well dressed with blue-stone. At the same time, a liberal quantity of poisoned grain was used. The dead sparrows made people fancy that a crop of potatoes had been turned up, and still they came ; aud at harnest time there was not an oat in the paddock.— Auckland Neiot.