AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2141, 23 December 1890, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

A Georgia inventor has contrived an insect trap to rid cotton and tobacco fields of moths. It consists simply of a lamp, beneath which is a wide pan containing > oil. The little creatures are attracted by the light, hit up against it. and down they go into the oil and perish. Evidently the rabbits in Australia, and especially in New South Waleq, care not for wire fencing or netting, for we notice that in some districts bunny has overcome the difficulty by burrowing underneath the fencing. What steps the unfortunate farmers will next take are not known, but it is apparent that they must bear the inconvenience for some time to comq. In some of the districts—at Wagga, Goulburo, and Albury—they swarm in thousands. When cattle have to go too far for water they will often go without to their discomfort, and when they get to the water they drink to their injury. The remarkable average of £53 19s 4d was obtained by Lord PoUvarth, Kelso, for 80 shearling rams from the Mertoun flock of Border Leicesters. Last year the Mertoun average was £3O 10s 4d- The highest price was c 155. Altogether 1236 Borders Leicester shearling rams were sold at Kelso for £14,769 12s 6d. Prom experiments made with the view of discovering the best fodder for French cavalry horses, the fact is established that oats and straw are, in reason, preferable to hay. The American cotton crop of 1889-90 90 was the largest ever ga hered. 11 amounted to 7,311,000 bales, or 373,000 bales more than the crop of the preceding year. The amount exported is stated to have been 4,956,000 bales, leaving 2,346,000 bales for conisumption by the mills of the United States. Hop growing must surely be going out of fashion in England. In the counties near London, where the hop industry has been established from a period now very remote, many farms comprising hopgrounds have been untenanted since Michaelmas, with small prospect of their being let at even half the customary rents. The substitution of chemicals in brewing and the importation of foreign bops are said to have caused this adverse change. ! The chief feature of the year 1889 in the cotton crop of Egypt was the increased cultivation of a new variety of cotton plant, Mitafite. This plant was discovered a few seasons ago at Benha, and although its produce is not quite so good in quality as that of the Asbmount plant, and it is shorter staple, it produces a much larger proportion ot cotton to seed than any other variety. At the same time it has the advantage of being earlier and less susceptible to atmospheric influence.