AGRICULTURAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 231, 4 July 1872, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL.

It is a common mistake of inexperienced people to consider size as the most important of all qualities, alike in flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Within certain limits, size is undoubtedly of imimportance, but the instant we favor size at the expense of colour or flavour in vegetables we encourage retrogression, and voluntarily surrender some of the greatest advantages that have been secured by painstaking, cross-breeding, and discriminative selection. It is quite a common occurrence for editors of horticultural papers to be invited to admire gigantic rhubarb and -celery, colossal asparagus and cabbages, remarkable only for their coarseness. That they occasionally denounce the over-grown samples, and express their pity for the cultivators who have wasted their time producing them, is not surprieing, ard is the more desirable because of the prevalence of an injurious belief in " big things," that for all their ostensible uses are absolutely worthless, (xreat cauliflowers are usually as rank wi flavour as they are ugly in appearance. "Very large celery is usually hollow, stringy, and flavourless. G-ood flavour, tenderness, and be"auty of appearance arc three most important qualities, and should be sought in preference to size, although, as remarked above, when certain limitations are recognised, every advance in the size of any particular vegetable is an advantage. In any and every case quality should be sought for first, and, as a rule, of two sorts equal in quality the largest must -have the preference. This subject is to be considered in connection with cultivating as well as in the purchase of seeds. • The ambition to grow large cucumbers canses many an amateur to cut for his table, or 'his friends, coarse fruits of great size that are simply tough, bitter and unwholesome, instead of smaller fruits of tender texture and delicious flavour and perfect wholesoraenesH. Nearly all the vegetable marrows in cultivation are too large. The largest beetroots are much more suitable for the pig trough than the salad bowl. We have frequently advised the cultivation of the smallest in preference to the largest sorts of cabbage, because of their superior elegance* and delicacy" of flavour. The largest onions are ,the worst keepers. — The "Gardener's Magazine."

It appears from the Agricultural returns that Great Britain, with her 25,000,000 of people, has only 8'">,885,567 acres under cultivation, of which only 9,075,261 acres are under corn, and 12,435,412 under permanent pasture, the remainder being clover, green croos, and fallow. The total number of horses was 2,110,590, of cattle 5,337,759,. of sheep '27;i19,569, and of piu's, 2,492,602. These figures are exclusive of Ireland, and show a decrease on the year of 12,000 horses, 65,000 cattle, and- 1,378,000 shesp. This decrease "of Sheep has been continuous, the falling off since 1868 being 3,690,000, or 12 per cent., which will explain, in part -at least, the price" of mutton, and, we may ad.d, the present price of wool.