MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1737, 6 May 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS.

A fibrous plant, called Apocynum venatum, has been discovered growing wild in such quantities in Turkeatan that it may be expected soon to make its appearance in the market. Its fibres, as tender and delicate as flax, as strong and tenacious as hemp, are, by combining the qualities of the two, greatly superior to either. The Eussians will probably endeavor to transplant it to Europe, an attempt which might be made by other countries as well. The agricultural returns for the Province of "Wellington have been published. The total number of holdings is 1517. Land broken up but not under crop, 2595 f acres. Wheat, 1770 acres ; estimated production, 32,085 bushels. Oats, for green food or hay, 370 acres ; for grain, 2357£ acres ; estimated production of grain, 47,362 bushels. Barley, 190J acres ; estimated production, 3o2s bushels. Hay, 3279^ acres ; estimated production, 4591 ton 3. Permanent pasture grasses, ("including land in hay), 250/211 acres. Potatoes, 825 acres ; estimated production, 4563£ tons. Other crops, 360 i acres. Total area of land under crop (including grass land), 256,084 acres. The agricultural returns for the Province of Hawke's Bay have been published. The total number of holdings is 351. Land broken up but not under crop, 3178| acres. Wheat, 474|- acres ; estimated production, 12,225 bushels Oats, for green food or hay, 561 acnjs ; for grain, 732 f acres ; estimated produc tion of grain, 14,835 bushels. Barley, 232 acres ; estimated production, 5685^ bushels. Hay, 1964J acres ; estimated production, 2676| tons. Permanent pasture grasses (including land in hay), 79,594 acres. Potatoes, 283^ acres ; estimated production, 1355 f tons Other crops, 106y acres. Total area of land under crop (including grass land), 81.983 f acres. At our request we have had the following given us for publication. It is a record of buttei, the produce of twelve cows, with the amount each month. The result shows plainly that during the winter months the yield decreases, and that as the grass again grows in spring, so the return of butter increases. We think the farmers migbt draw the moral and save more winter's food : — The yield in May was 1661b5 ; June, lOllbs ; July, 521bs ; August, 621ba ; September, 43£lbs ; October, 74^lbs; November, 141 Hbs ; December, 2701b5 ; January, 2461bs ; February, 24Hlbs ; March, 3061b5 ; April, 242ilbs ; and in May in the following year the return varied by only 21bs — it being 1641 bs. — Taranaki News.

Building Societies. — There can b« no doubt (says a contemporary) but that Building Societies have been the means of inducing habits of temperance and saving in many. The old old adage, " Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," might well be the motto of every Building Society. Is 8d saved and invested at 10 per cent, instead of spent, will produce 2d a year for ever ; the cost of one nobbier saved, represents the value of 12 square yards of land, worth £10 an acre. These sums may be called trifles, but everything has a beginning. The first weed pulled up in a garden, the first seed put in the ground, the first shilling saved, the first mile travelled on a long journey, are but small things ; but they make a beginning, and are an. assurance that you are in earnest How many a poor idle hesitating outcast, who is now creeping through the world forlorn, might have been now holding up his head had he only made a beginning. ' Had not the base been made by builders wise The Pyramids had neTer reached the skies." Without sheep, farming cannot as a rule become a profitable pursuit, and without the raising of special crops to be consumed on the ground by the sheep, they cannot be made profitable. The only trouble that will be found to exist, if any, will in all cases be due to poverty of soil and light crops ; but, as this method tends more rapidly than any others to enrich the soil and enlarge the crops, thia trouble gradually disappears. The crops to be raised are rye, oats, and peas, sown together ; vetches or tares, rape, mustard, turnips, and beets, in addition to grass. Clover grown alone is not to be advised, but a mixture of clover, timothy, blue grass (so called by English sheep-grazers, but known as the plantago lanceolata botanically) or ribworth grass, and parsley would be found excellent for occasionally turning the sheep into when a change is desired or becomes necessary, ■buch a field should be laid down preparatory to commencing the system, as for the first year great need will be found for it, unless the other fields are aufliciently fertile to yield heavy crops, in which cases it will be needed only for medicinal purposes or for stimulating the appetite. Eye is suitable for winter pasturage, with mustard or rape to be alternated therewith ; oats and peas should be sown in succession ; tares, of which there are two kinds', winter and summer, would be a valuable crop. The winter variety would furnish the earliest spring feed, while the summer varieties would alternate with oats and peas and grass. The root crop would be the dependence for the chief winter feeding, and this is the only crop in the system which would need harvesting or handling. The roots, turnips, rutabagas, and beets would furnißh a vast amount of feed, as the tope can be preserved equally well with the roots, and could be carried from the pits to the sheep and fed in troughs wherever desired. The crops chosen being raised, they are to be fed off the ground by sheep confined within hurdles or light moveable fences made in sections or panels, and affixed to temporary stakes driven into the ground. These hurdles being set up across a field inclose the sheep in a narrow strip, and when the crop is fed oft* from that strip the hurdles are moved and another strip added. Then the sheep are confined in such a manner that the feed is all consumed, and the ground eaten bare is left evenly manured by the droppings. By carrying out such a system as this, not only can lands be raised to the highest degree of fertility, but heavy mutton sheep with desirable long- wool fleeces can only thus be most successfully raised. In the history of France there is nothing more tragic than the fate of the monarchs who for an age past have sat on its throne. For a huudred years no sovereign has succeeded, lived, and died, according to the ordinary lot of princes. Louis XVI. perished on the scaffold ; the Great Napoleon died the prisoner of Europe, under -the care of a British officer ; Louis XVIII. was for years an exile in England ; Charles K. fled from Paris in 1830, and never agai.i saw the soil of France ; Louis Philippe was buried in England ; and Napoleon 111. sleeps in British ground. The more seldom a barrister gets a chance to plead, the longer he talks when he does gets one. He is the less brief the more he is briefless.