AGRICULTURAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 25 April 1872, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL.

• The hop grounds in the neighborhood of Nelson are now a scene of great activity, the season of picking being at its height. We (Examiner) learn from enquiries made of the principal growers, thai< while the sample is good, the crop will not be nearly equal to that of last year. The dry season and high winds damaged the crop considerably, but under all circumstances there will not be , much .reason for complaint. A German agricultural journal observes that farmeis usually pay very liule attention lo the length of the furrows to be ploughed in a field, and yei, great waste of time and labov is the necessary consequence of unsuitable arrangements in this /respect. The turning of the plough, and the commencing of a new furrow, requires more exertion in the ploughman and the ..earn than continued j work on a straight line, and how great may i-eally be the loss of time from frequent interruption in short i.urns may be shown by the following calculation: — In a field* 225 feet long, five and a half hours out of ten are used in rerlirpciing the plough ; with a length of •375 feet, four hours are sufficient for Llie purpose, and when the plough tan proceed without interruption for 800 feet, only one and a half hours of the daily working time are consumed. Hence the rule to make the furrows as long as circumsiances will admit. Buckwheat flour is said to be'a remedy fur lhe aphis in cabbj^ges. The gentleluan who communicates this- fact to an agricultural journal says: — " I have cleared my cabbages from aphis with a very simple remedy, which I accidentally heard of from an old nurseryman. It is this — Buckwheat flour, sprinkled on ilie cabbage when the dew is on, or when the cabbages are wet. I have made but one application — a very thorough one, though — and there is not an insect to be seen ou a single plant. Two weeks ago I gave up my plants as ruined. And not odlv cabbage plants, but it is equally efficacious wiiih Lhe enrranfc-wonn, rose-bug,, &c. It is a very simple and sure remery. Opium growing seems to have been successful id the Wangaratta district, Victoria. A n acre of white popies is t>aid to yield about £15 worth of opium. We (Wangaratta Despatch) had an opportunity recently of witnessing the ordinary working of the three furrow plough lately invented by Mr W. Hughes, of the north Wangaratta Foundry. The farm where the new plough vvas at work was that of Mr James Willett, of the Three Mile' Creek. Several practical farmers were present, onu their unanimous opinion was that the implement was the most useful one ever yet introduced into the district. The soil on which it was at work was of a very unfavourable character, being thick with sorrel and stubble, and baked almost as hard by the recent drought as if it consisted of dried brick clay. The plough however, wenttb rough it with the facility utmost at depths of five and seven inches respectively; so easily indeed, as was remarked by a bystander, a boy of ten years old could drive it. The furrows also were quite straight and well finished. Insiead of being thrown up into lumps, the soil was pulverized, and altogther the work was far better done than it could he by any single or double furrow plough in the district. This, however, is uot by any means all the advantages gained by Mr Hughes' new plough. The saving of the labour of both man and horse is extraordinary. Mr Willett's forty-five acre paddock has generally taken four men and eight horses to finish in a fortnight. This year the same will be better done by one man aud four horses. Mr vVTilletl reckons that he will save considerably more than the whole cost of the plough in the first year of its use. Condensed or .concentrated milk is obtained by the evaporation of the wafer from Lhe milk in pans. For condensed milk the puns n.u>t b 3 open, for concenLraied milk they must be closed vacuum pans. To a French man named De Leignac, and an English medical man named Moore, the honour of inventing this process belongs. The latter had extensive manufactories in ' } Staffordshire ancl Middlesex. The evaporation, of milk was next practised in New York and in Switzerland. When the Swiss company commenced, they u ook the milk of 350 cows one day a week, and paid Id. a quart for it. The demand for the article has so increased, that they now evaporate the milk of 8,500 cows daily — using in fhe process more tlun a ion of sugar. The cows are not their own — they contract wiih fche farmers around. They are increasing their works, and hope soon lo put np ) 0,000 tins daily to export to all parts of the wo del. An important breeding experiment is about to be tried in the United •States. Mr. W. Emerson Baker, of Riclgebill, Wellesley, (Mass.), has brought several bisons to his farm, and proposes to try the effect of crossing them with Jersey, Ayrshire, and Durham stocks. Mr. Baker, who is known as a very enterprising grazier and stock farmer, *is very sanguine on the subject. To destroy rats and other Vermin : Sponge, if cUtin small pieces, fried or dipped in honey, and given to vermin, distends their intestines, and effectually destroys them: The addition of a little oil of rhodium will tempt them to eat. ' ' ' ' ' ' *