NOTES AND GLEANING.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 322, 5 December 1888, Page 5

NOTES AND GLEANING.

Testing SfcEDb. — At Suttons warehouse, a most elaborate pi oees& for determining the peicentagc or vitality in every parcel of seed that the firm despatches or receives is gone thtough. A moso complete record is kept of all transactions here. Fifty or onu humii'jd seeds of the turnip, grass, mangold, or flower seed — what not— aie subjected to several sepalate triaK In one case they aie carefully sown in boxes ot moistened eaith all round the apartment ; and in another they are put between sheets of wet blot-ting-paper, standing on porous bricks, which, again, bland in water— the whole being kept at a temperature ot about 80 deg. The numl.ei ot seeds in each case that sprout da ly are removed, and, after a while, the itmnant is removed as worthiest. It is a curious up&hot arrived at, nut only that the earth tjst and the appaiatus test dilier from each oiher continually in their lesults, but that each diners continually from itself in a consecutive set ie.-> of trialb. The conclusion iiv.il, .1- wverywhoie ei&o wtieie lite is concerned, la that an average ot re-ults is alone trustworthy. Single tii.ils are ically inconclusive. Heie, as inev eiy otherdepartmentasurpriaiugly minute i ecord is kept, and every parcel ok -eed fiom every giower can thus betiaced and attested, through the trial ground^ and through the t eating-house, not only as a truth of character, but as to soundness and vitality. A Useless Agricultural Socjlty.— lt -.eeins that agricultural can be mismanaged in other colonies besides outown. The Sydney correspondent of the Ail*') nlian Ironmonger writes :— The Finance Committee of the City Council, at their meeting held on the 20th inst., passed a resolution requesting the ]\layor to use all legitimate means to obtain possession of the Agricultural Society's grounds at once. The grand .stand has been utterly dbtnoiislied by a '■ southerly burster," and so prevented the Associate 'in endangering people's lives in permitting them to occupy beato. So far, so good. In A'ain have tho Mayor and Municipal Council, uu er whom rhe Association holds it:- ground, implored that useless body to justify it;- name by doing something for agriculture ; but, instead of which, they have turned it into a sporting J ground, and all their appeals have been in vain. Now they have come to the conclusion—and very rightly so, too— that the grounds shall be taken fiom them, and ir they succeed in doing so they will earn the thanks of the general community Improvement of Stock in the Arg^tive. — Much progress, says an American paper, has been naade in improving the stock of the Argentine Republic. There is some iutei'est in horned cattle, and a good demand exists for thoroughbied Shorthorn and Hereford bulls, to cross on the gaunt and longhorned native stock. Several breeders have imported thoroughbred Merinos from Vermont, also hordes from the same State, which have &oid at very satisfactory prices. E. A. Sumner, of Pontiacs, Mich., early this year sold nine thoroughbred Hereford bulls and sixteen cows at fancy prices in Buenos Ayrea. Some of the horses imported from America (believed to be the refuse from New York auction houses) have been of poor quality and were beaten by native half-breeds at the races last fall. The result has been disastrous to the horse interest. The Argentines are very confiding, but wjipn humbugged once can't be swindled a second time. iU] stock consigned to Buenos Ayres should be of the finest quality and honestly registered. For such there is a good market, the auction sales of imported breeding stock in Bpenos Ayres having been over £120,00J in 1887. Abandonment ov Sjieep Bkjskdinw in America.— lt would appear as though before long farmers in the United States would have no interest in resisting the abolition of the woollen import duties. ' \ Writing recently with regard to sheep ' breeding and its prospects, the National I Stockman says : --The work of cutting down ■ the flocks in all this sccti in of the United States still continues, individual farmers L Tire quietly ridding themselves entirely of a ) kind of stock in which they have Jlost conJ fidence, and substituting other varieties. • In a good many instances the change is so I groat as to mark a kind of neighbourhood 3 revolution. A farmer who palled on us 3 the other day remarked that the 700 1 sheep which he had a year %go were now t reduced to fifteen j and his ca&e fairly illustrates a kind of n>ove»ient which thougjji 3 quiet h having a marked .effort <on the flock r totals of this coantryi' I« Pennaylvunja -* the change is v&y largely to horses, though V since cattle prospect* we vegwded as'iteb assuring thero is here and there a mwifa--P , inclination to give them the vacant place.