Notes and Gleanings.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 342, 13 February 1889, Page 5

Notes and Gleanings.

Euvdicatino Couch Grass — In <=ome districts couch is a terrible pe^t to deal with. On the West coa.st (Taranaki) it has been f ound especially tioublesome, no doubt owing to some local condition of soil or climate. We published about two year? ago some special pipers by farmer's in that di&tiict on the best method ot clearing land of couch. Here is an English farmer's plan which lie appropi lately calls " stifling " :—: — "First, take a fnirow about 3in. deep, or under all the couch, then follow with another furrow in the ssme place, 3in. to 4m deep, thrown light on the top oF the other ; thi& bottom fimow has the advantage (being looaei) of closing the seam I',1 ', and bo prevents vegetation commencing between the furrows, as it generally does first. It is there it has the advantage over , one furrow the same depth. J have seen i ho above adopted successfully, but of course, it cannot; be clone where theie is not sufficient depth of mould, neither should it be done where it is considered necessary to plough a<jain before cropping. Land after wheat, although lather foul, if worked as I suggest in February orcaily Maich, would make a nice hce seed-bed for barley or oats, and by autumn ploughing again you would not see much of the couch. "' Small Sm: or American 1 Flocks. — An American writer says :: — '• The sy-t'.ma ot wool-gi owing in Australia and our own country, especially in all the older States, are entirely dissimilar. Sheep here are kept in small flocks, and it would be entirely impracticable to grade and bale the clip on the farm a- is done on the big Aubtralian ranches. To illustrate :It has been possible for a local buyer to purchase 150,000 pounds of wool in our local market, but this amount was pui chased from at least 150 and more, probably 200 different farmers. A good deal of it would be received in lots of less than 500 pounds each. The whole 150,000 pounds would not bo considered a large amount for a single Australian wool grower. In all this kind of trade the grading mu3t of necessity be done at the warehouse." Benefits op Crop Rotation. — Every obsen ing farmer knows that cattle can be pastured in a field after horses, and will subsi&t for a time where the horses would have stars ed ; and that sheep will do well after the eattlo. A similar principle applies to the raising of the various farm crops. Wheat may thrive glorious'y on the plant food left in the soil by a corn crop ; oats on that left by the wheat and corn ; potatoes on what wag not taken by the three precedingcrops. Butthe requirements of plant nutrition arc not the only reasons ror the strongest ones that can be urged in favour of a strict system of crop rotation. Tho chief objection to planting the same crop year after year in the same ground is that the injects and di^oa'es affecting that crop attack it- each succeoding-year with Increased force, Frequently the entire

soil, and tho wholo vicinity become ovorBtocked witjh the in3octs and tho spores of disoases injurious fco that particular crop. WarbusS in Hides. — Mr J. M'Gillivray, of the Newcas'le Hide Inspection Society, iqad a paper on " Warbles in Hides" boforo a meeting of tho Ncwcastlo Farmers' Club lately. lie stated that the direct loss that was cnu&od to the cattle owneis of this country by the ox warble fly was from (Ive to seven millions sterling per annum ; that this loss, recurring annually, with tho regulai'ity of tho reasons, was icaUy greater than was caused by many epidemics ; that it was wholly preventible : and that each cattlo owner, at nominal cvpouso, had tho means at his disposal of cniiioly protecting himself from it. In tho Newcastle hide markets they inspected in i round numbers 100,000 hides every year. Of thesso, fully 60.000 were more or less warbled, realismg 1 an averago of 5s each Ics^ in consequence. Thus in Newcastle hido traikets alone, in ono year, the hides sold for £ 15, 000 less than thoy would bring woe they clear of garbles. Even in the wor.stca.se, if piopcr measures were taken duiinaj tho hot weather to protect the animals, thcic need not be, and thoio ought not to be, a single egg deposited on their backs. Djsi'REssiox of L\nd im France.— A long scries of observations has been carried out all o\ er Franco siiico the year 1884 for tho purpose of detecting any variations of level of the land. Thoso observations have been earned out by men belonging to tho Genio corps under specially selected oiHcors. Tho lcsult of ihis bciics if observations is most impoitant. It would appear that a secular dcpiesfrion fiom south to noith is in pioKiess. While on the coast of tho Gulf nf Lyons no alteration of !o\ ul has been noted, on the line between Marseilles and Lille, a stietoh of 820 kilometres, the giound is sinking tow aids the north at the \eiy serious late of three centimetios yeai ly. It is noteworthy that thcdiicction of tho .sinking is complicated ; it i? about thicc times gi eater towards the north-cast than in the direct line from south to north. Tho rate along the line ot the meridian is about one millimctic yeaily on every t\\ r cnty-be\en kilometres ; whereas it is one millimotie on every ten kilometres in a noil-h easterly diicction. Should this rate ot depress'on continue, north eastern France would, in the course of a few ccntuiierf, encounter a calamity similar to that which, at the end of the thirteenth ccntiny befell the Netherlands.