AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 29, 2 January 1884, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

The following is from the Melbourne Leader of the 15th ult.: — , . The weather has been very changeable during the past week, hot days alternating with storms of wind, thunder, and rain, which have caused some damage to the crops, although the work of harvesting is generally, progressing rapidly and upon the whole satisfactorily, though supended in certain places on account of the storms. Heavy yields are still being estimated and in some instances have been reallv obtained. In the neighborhood of Durham Ox 33 bushels per acre have been bagged from the stripper. It is expected that the yield throughout the district will average 15 or 16 bushels per acre. On the rich lands of the Loddon some of the crops are so long that the machines in use are not able to cut them, and consequently tons of straw are left ungarnered. On the farms of Messrs. Gilfillan, O’Keefe, Hamilton, and others the stalks exceed eight feel in height. In other places it is found that the strippers are useless, as they will not cut within three feet of the grain ears, owing to the great height of the crops. Twine reapers and binders have become the harvesters of the day. In the bt. Arnaud and other districts, the reapers and binders, up to the present, hold premier pl Awiecial feature of the reaper and binder trial, held in Mr. James Baird’s farm last week, under the auspices of the Ballarat Agricultural Society, was the Ferrier machine, exhibited by Messrs. Humble end Nicholson, of Geelong, which secured Sir W. J. Clarke s handsome premium of 50 guineas, offered for the best reaper and binder of colonial manufacture. New wheat has appeared in several country markets, and will presently reach the seaboard ; the price, as was to be expected, being below that of last year. . Reports from New South Wales are in the usual strain—showers in some districts and drought in others. About Sydney, Wagga Wagga, and tlienee to Deniliquin, Balranala, and Alburv, there have been showers: but about Deniliquin tlie pastures are eaten bare by graeshoppeis, and dry parching winde are reported from Hay, which are having a serious effect upon the grass on the stock routes. From Hay to Booligal the country is reported to be in a wretched state, and it is dangerous and practically impossible to travel either sheep or cattle in that quarter. The Lachlan country is still fortunate in having a grand growing season. Hot weather prevailed about Narrabri, and at length heavy rain lias fallen there, and is doing much good. The Bogan country, too, has had more rain. At Nyngan the country was flooded for a short time. The northern and north-western districts are still in want, of rain. Some of the stock routes are getting into a bad state again. Beyond the TwelveMile the track is said to be almost destitute of feed, and is very bad to Hay ; below Booligal the road is described as lined with carcases of sheep and cattle that have perished for want of sustenance. The Government of New South Wales have contracted for a num--1 ber of large iron tanks, some of them being 25 feet square. They are to be located near ' the wells and dams on the principal stock routes, and are to be kept filled. From them the water will be run into an iron trough v from which sheep and cattle can drink withI out waste. . . Near the Tweed, on the northern border oi that colony, last week one of the largest fires ever known swept over the country, and the trees were falling day and night with snort intervals of quiet. The returns from South Australia respecting the wheat harvest continue to be very satisfactory, and where reaping has commenced the yield is in nearly every instance turning out better than was expected. Heavy storms on the 2nd, sth, and 10th inst. caused a good deal of damage where they passed ; many crops were levelled to the ground, several paddocks being completely ruined, one man losing over 200 acres. The delivery of new wheat commenced in the last two days of November, the price realised being 3s.Bd. per bushel. Yields are averaging 10 and 12 bushels per acre ; from one district 20 bushels is reported, and on some Mullemsed land—the first crop—2s bushels is expected ; and the same from another place —Grace Plains. On Wild Horse Plains, farmers have cleared 8, 10, and 11 bushels per acre, whilst in the southern portion 16 bushels is expected. Wages are slated to be 355. per week with board. The agricultural reports from Queensland are of a very gloomy nature. In the neighbor--1 hood of Brisbane the grass is browning, the fruit is withering to premature death, cattle i are starving, agricultural operations are dearily slow and cheerless; there is no gayness in cultivated parterres, no buoyancy of commeree in the shops or in spirits of the people. In the principal wheat districts i of the Colony the yield will be very light. In some cases tIUMBH is an entire failure, in others similai IgM cumstanced a tolerable success—the diiMMVI being caused in the majority of neglect of timely work through the faMß* being shorthanded. The rust in whefltfjflft l pears to be more frequent and also more ’ virulent than in any of the other colonies. ■ Tlie farmers have therefore determined to introduce the better varieties of Indian wheat, which, wherever tried heretofore, have bt*en found practically rust-proof. This determina- ’ tion of the farmers has necessitated a move on the part of the millers; for the Indian

whtiati, being all flinty, mot be ground with millstone*, and steel flora are about to be introduced to meet the nergency. Early crons o! maize, potatoes, id hay have been seriously affected by the ought, and it is only where heavy thunder towers have fallen that they are tolerable. 3e dairying induetry is also being conduct© under distressing circumstances. The augandustry is thriving because of those very erumstances which are proving so disastrous 1 other cultivators. On account of the continid dry weather the density of the cane of iaa season now going through the mill is maintned, and the yield of sugar everywhere is coriderably above the average, but the drought Is been disastrous to new grounds, very fe of the cuttings having grown. Owing to the drought wch has prevailed during the past season, ht of local production (says the Queewlande is a very scarce commodity. Not only is in great demand in the city and suburbs, bi also in the country, and even in agricultur districts, so that , produce-merchants find it o easy matter to obtain a sufficient supply The abundance a in the south is, fortunate* for consumers, B preventing any excessive rit in price*; but if the supply is to be maintain! throughout the season, our local fanners rill have to find " some substitute of summergrowth to make up for the deficiency of aen and lucerne hay. We had occasion that nine months

since to notice a comparaVely new fodder i plant— Setaria germanica —-hich is exactly L the thing that is wanted at he present moment. In good growing wither, this glass B will mature for hay in siw days, and in ■ some ten days or a fortnigb more it would ■ ripen its seed. So far as J has been tried, hay made from this grass hxds its own with lucerne or oaten, while it isess costly in production, and yields in goc soil very heavy crops—at any rate, consierably above the average of oaten hay; 10U or 121 b. of seed will suffice to sow an acre Harvest prospects in Western Australia continue favorable. It appears that the abndance of grass is not an unmixed good, io as we learn, several brood mares in the Marlbrough district have died in foaling, or inuediately afterwards, which is ascribed to thei having become too fat in the paddocks. Its stated that, both in that neighborhood nd in the Northern *■ districts, the number of leaths of mares under such circumstances is fr above the average of other years. There) no doubt that allowing a brood mare to beome too fat is highly dangerous. Therefore where grass is prolific, mares should be Iken out of the rich paddocks for a period efore foaling. It appears that, hppily, the philloxera scare turns out to be i delusion, and that the disease of the vines proceeds from another cause; at any rate, tht is the report from the Department of Agiculture; but it seems very strange that Mr. Dodds, Marong, who sent parts of the diseaed vines to tae Bendigo Advertiser, should notknow the difference between beetles and phyHocere. One would fancy that, by this time, e«ry vinegrower in the colony would have male himself acquainted with the insect, and w< cannot help feeling a doubt on the subject, vhich we should be glad to have dispelled, espeaally as the report of • phylloxera in the Moray Valley does not apptar to have been iiquired into. At any rate, here seems to ha-e been a considerable amourt of apathy on tie subject, both on the part of the Governmen and the Winegrowers’ Association, whose busness it clearly was to have takes immediate tepe to ascertain the correctness or otherwise of the reports. At a meeting of the Beechworth Agricultural Association the same subject was brought up, with the result that a motion was carried to the effeci that they communicate with the North Western Agricultural •Society with a view to co-operating with them in their proposal. Grasshoppers continue to do great havoc in the Echuca district. Farmers and owners f of gardens are suffering alike. In Lenne's Campaspe Vineyard great damage "has been done, and the loss is estimated at £lOO on grapes alone. Strawberries, olives, and other shrubs and trees have suffered also. The plague is much worse than it has been for several years. Potato shows have not vet been taken up by our agricultural societies. We mean a show of different varieties, not the mere bag or two for which prizes are offered in connection with other farm-produce. The Brighton Horticultural Soeiety annually offers a prize for collections, but very poor displays have hitherto been made. The following seems an excellent plan for ascertaining the comparative value of different sorts, even superior to the practice at tbe London *»hows, where all those exhibited are picked samples, not at all calculated to give an idea of their cropping qualities, which the follow, ing mode of showing, as given in an American contemporary, evidently does: —At the State fair in Rochester was a very notable and unusual exhibit, from Geneva, made by the State Agricultural Experiment Station. On plates side by side were shown 90 varieties of potatoes, each plate containing the entire product, large and small, sound or diseased, of a hill grown from a single eye, all planted on the same plot of land, cut, planted, cultivated, and in every way treated exactly alike. It was designed to, and did, show conclusively the productiveness and healthiness as well as the market value of the several kinds under similar conditions. While some varieties only produced one or two little worthless tubers, others yielded all the way to six or seven large, smooth, fine potatoes; while some, w’hile producing sufficient quantity, were nearly all small and unmarketable, others were all of a uniform and fine size; while some were entirely healthy, others were badly diseased, and some entirely worthless. It showed some loudly-praised varieties that had been sold at high prices in their true light as great frauds. If all varieties were to pass through a similar trial before being offered for sale to the public many thousands of hard-earned dollars would be saved, and much valuable time not wasted testing inferior kinds. Such a course mighi be bad for the originators and pushers of new sorts, but it would be a great advantage to the general public. This exhibit attracted great attention, and was carefully studied by thousands of the intelligent and careful farmers in attendance, and could not fail to be of great use as an object-lesson to the potatoegrower. Dr. Sturtevant, the director of the station, and his assistants were on hand and tireless in their efforts to make all clearly understand the lesson, and they are entitled to much praise for having made this a very instructive display.