FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1917, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

NEWS AND NOTES. The demand for foxskins is very keen from American buyers at the present time, best foxskins selling to las lOd each, and medium to good sorts to 14s 2d each, in Sydney. r Revised Queensland stock returns issued by the Government Statistician show that on January 31, 1917, there were 697,517 horses in the State, an increase of 10,640 on last year's figures. Cattle numbered 4,765,057, a decrease of 15,230; sheep, 15,524,203, a decrease of 425,881; pigs, 129,733, an increase of 11,m.

The dairy and cheese-making room must be kept as free as possible from cheese flies. These pests cause a lot of trouble in the cheese ripening room; they lag eggs in cracks in cheese. Later on maggots hatch out from these eggs, feed on the cheese, and do much damage to it. Cheese flies are small in size, about a sixteenth of an inch in length. A further analysis of war census returns show.# that the unimproved value of freehold estates in the Commonwealth is £455,876,104, made up as fol-lows:—-New South Wales, £172,345,401'; Victoria, £102,156,836; Queensland, £42,148.281; South Australia, £45,108,107; Western Australia, £18,985,350; Tasmania, £15,022,114; .Northern Territory, £34,898; and Federal Territory, £72,024. The values relate to 718,569 separate estates.

The estimated average yield per acre of wheat and oats for the current season, Ml 6-17, are as follows:—Wheat, 25.15 bushels toi the acre, compared with an actual average, of 21.59 bushels in l!)l.i-l'fi l and oats, 30.88 bushels per acre, compared with an actual average of 35.1)8 bushels in 11915-10, The total wheat yield is put at 5,400,000 bushels, compared with 7,105,360 in the previous season, and th e oat crop at 5,600.000 compared with 7,653,208. The Agricultural Institution of Ontario estimates the loss from the stinking smut of wheat and the loose smut of oats to be about £1,000,000. The experts further state that the best results from preventive treatment have been from immersing the grain for 20 minutes in a solution made by adding one pint of formalin to 42 gallons of water. This has been found not to injure the germination of the grain. South-west Africa is a pastoral country, and agriculture is confined to the territory around Grootfontein, Amboland, and the Okavango River Valley Since the rinder-pest of 1897 the Pro. tectorate has been practically free from serious diseases, and that stock-raising can be just as successfully and cheaplv carried out there as in other parts of the world is proved by the fact that concerns like the Liebig Company have acquired large interests in the Protectorate.

The final crop estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture show a decrease of 60,000,000 bushels in the maize crop compared with the November estimate, and an increase of 32,000,000 bushels in the wheat crop. The final estimates of the last season's production compared with the 1910-I,* five-year average, are:—Maize, 2,583,241.000 bushels against 2,73-3)437,000; wheat, (i;>!),!132,000 bushels, against oats, 1,251,* 992,000 bushels, against 1,157,901,000*barley, 180,927,000, against IS(i,2OS,OOO'. The chief inspector of stock in Soutli Australia, emphasises the danger of distributing strychnine in a wholesale manner. In his opinion hundreds of cattle in days gone by were poisoned in South Australia through eating the bones of rabbits that had been destroyed bv strychnine. When animals ar e poisoned With strychnine the poison is absorbed by all parts of the body. It is quickly absorbed by the spinal cord, which appears to have the power of collecting the strychnine from the circulation and storing up in its structure.

Encouraging success has attended the efforts of those interested in sheen rais'i'v g Eho ' lcsia . reports the Bradford vi 00l Record. Some pessimists forecasted that this part of South Africa was no place for sheep, and it has to be admitted that a great deal depends on the character of the soil. Where this is suitable the Merino breed is bein? Kent most successfully. Exhaustive trials have been conducted, and it can now be confidently asserted that so long as highclass sheep are used, the future of the sheep-raising industry is safe. Sheep are proving more profitable than other classes of stock, largely on account of the excellent prices which can be made tor the woo).

The London Meat. Trades Journal, regarding pig rearing, says that Argentina has so far preferred to sell corn rather than to feed it to hogs, and the average rate of increase from 190S to lflU lius been only SaO.OOO hogs a year, 'and sinco . on 'y a year. The increase in til,, number of hogs and the maintenance of tlie stock of hogs seem to be due -argely to alfalfa. From 18S8 to Hi 14 swine increased from 400,000 to 3,-500,000. In Australia, however, swine production k and always has been a small industry comparatively. There are fewer now than there were in the early nineties. In 1313 the swine numbered SOO - 000, and at 110 time has the number reached 1.000,000, except in 1904, I <lO5 ■lOlO and 10H, when this number was barely exceeded.