AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Shannon News, 17 May 1929, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS

Canada's wheat yield in 1928, according to the Bureau of Statistics, passed the 500,000,000 bushel mark for the first time, the total being 533,571,000. Filial figures relative to the South African 1927-28 maize crop have recently been published, and show a total production .of 19,169,613 bags. The yield in 1926-27 was 18,256,898 bags. India is importing wheat from Canada as well as Australia at the present time. ■ An advice from tlie Dominion states that two shipments, totalling 520,725 bushels, -were made from Vancouver to Calcutta in December.

A registered Southdown lamb, the grand champion at the 1928 Los Angeles Christmas Fat Stock Show, U.S.A., was sold by auction to a Salt Lake City hotel for the record price of 11 d015.(455.. lOd.) ,per lb. live weight. As the lamb weighed 1101 b. the total realisation was £252,18. Bd. According to data collected by the Government Statist, the average quantity o seed per acre sown in South Australia last year was as follows. — Wheat, 641 b.; barley, 621 b.; oats, 50ft. Fertilisers wore utilised at the rate of 821 b. per acre for wheat, 961 b, for barley, and 801 b. for oats. The South African Government has agreed to the Veterinary Research Station at Onderstepoort, Transvaal, constituting a link in the proposed chain oi Imperial research stations. The Empire Marketing Board has promised a substantial grant to approved stations in connection with the scheme.

Dr. Friedrich Bergius, a German scientist, .claims to have evolved a chemical process whereby wood pulp is converted into a valuable stock food. It is stated that' the carbohydrates contained in wood >an be dissolved and converted into- by a treatment with'hydrochloric acid, thereby rendering the material fit for stock. In Lofhian, Scotland, , the results from some recent grass manuring ex periments show that the application of basic slag acts more 1 readily and gives better results than ground mineral phosphate. The best dressing for pasture lands was found to be lOcwt. of 2S per cent, grade basic slag and Gcwt. of 56 per cent, mineral phosphate per acre.

The total number of European-owned cattle in southern Rhodesia at the end of 1927 is stated to have been 951.835 repiescntmg a decrease of 36,38.1 compared with the previous year's figures. Native' owned cattle numbered 1.370, 567 in 1927. The total of sheep in the colony was 351,674, as against 331,640 in 1926, of which Merinos, Europeanowned, comprised 10,625 in 1927, and 7597 in 1926.

The recently published South African Agricultural Statistics for the year ended August 31, 1927, discloses u rather wide divergence between the average wool yields per sheep in the different States" of the Union. The general average of the 24,045,433 aduit sheep shorn was 6.91 b.; that of the Orange Free State 7.21 b., the Cape Province 6.91 b., Transvaal 6.31 b.. and Natal only 5.81 b. The general average weight per fleece., of the 3,627,265 lambs shorn in the Union -was 3.61 b.