AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1740, 18 May 1895, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.

THE POOH II VIST’S BOTTER.

Is margarine to be a help to the English agriculturist or Dot ? This, says, ah English paper,-was the paramount) question raised" at the opening of Herr Monsted’s factory at Southall recently. The factory coyors some two acres., (though there are fourteen more in hand for future development), and promises to employ, when in full wovk,ordof, some 4000 hands, -whilst week by week some 30,000 gallons of milk will be called for, which means to the farmers of the neighbourhood a thru over of £7OO per week. , Herr l Otto Mousted was one of the first id set on. foot what in ’Eugiand may bo -termed the home manufacture of margarine. The o ipouent pares of the margarine manufactured at Southall are given as 60 .per cent, of tho best refined/beef fat, 20 per cent, of vegetable oil, 20 per cent, of unadulterated milk. Herr Monsted is no' novice at his work; besides a large manufactory in his own land he is the proprietor of' a .similar, establishment at Godley, • near - Manchester, and in the Southall premises he has brought his past experiences to bear. The place throughout is fitted up with machinery of the latest types, and this condition enables him to turn out an article which promises to form, and-■ which, to a. wide- extent, - has formed, part and parcel of the daily fare of the workman’s table. \ Among those present at the opening banquet, and.,who exprossod themselves warmly in regard to the edification which they had received from their visit, were that well-known agriculturist, the Earl of Jersey, Sir Charles Cameron, Bart., Sir Mark J. Stewart, and Mr F. 0. Frye, M.P., the three last named being members of the Select Committee now sitting on Food Adulteration.

ENGLISH TEA,

Another suggestion for the depressed English agriculturist. The tea plhnt will not grow in England, hut an acli;natised shrub, the ‘ Ohimonanthiis fregrans ’ first brought from Japan to England by Admiral Harvey, seems, we gather from the Horticultural Review, to possess the essential requisites of tea. There are three or fourvarieties, .all equally serviceable for making a beverage, from the leaves, which is not much unlike the best green tea when milk and sugar are added. The shrub, we ar e told,-.thrives well at Buck burst Hill, SEssesr, Gerrard Cross, Bucks, on a sandy soil with a southern aspect, and. 4 would do equally well in Kent, Sussex, Hants. Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, where many thousand acres now vacant, ov yielding unproductive crops, might be made serviceable, and create a new and profitable industry.’ The Ceylon tea is threatening to drive the China tea out of the market; it would be curious if‘English tea’ should ultimately supersede both the products of China and Ceylon.