AGRICULTURAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 237, 15 August 1872, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL.

The farmer who, at a great distance from a market, or from a navigable river, expects to make much by tillage, is very likely to be disappointed. Prices are generally so low, and the transportation so high, as to preclude it. But while prices are low is the proper time to improve impoverished lands. More money may be made by thus enhancing the value of your farm than by raising grain. The recent advance in the price of wool will tend to increase its production ; but then there is all the world for a market, and there is no fear of a glut. This should point to a flock of sheep as the resource of the farmer who is too far from market to produce butter or to grow cereals. Sheep and artificial grasses are what he wants. It should be remembered too that a flock of sheep are absolutely no expense at all to the owner who has fenced paddocks. Numerous large flocks of sheep are kept year succeeding year, costing nothing but the salt they are given. And there is still another advantage in keeping sheep. It has been found that by keeping a flock a year or two, even on partially exhausted lands, they will come into white clover, which in due time will improve the land to such a degree that a stand of red clover may be obtained. The great want of farmers is a breed of sheep of a hardy kind with a good fleece, but with a heavier carcase than the merino, and suitable for the butcher as well as for its fleece. To those farmers who are at a loss what course to take for the future, we would say, remember that a single acre of average land laid down in artificial grasses will support will support from four to six heavy-car-cased sheep in all ordinary seasons. Ponder on that fact and act accordingly. A farmer's wife writes : "Of all the products of the farm, bb u tter is the most liable to be tainted by noxious odours floating in the atmosphere. Our people laid come veal in the cellar, from which a little blood flowed out, and it was neglected until it began smelling offensive. The result was, that a jar of butter which I was then packing smelled and tasted like spoiled beef. Another lady reader remarks that there was a pond of filthy, stagnant water a few hundred feet from their house, from which an offensive effluvium would be borne on the breeze directly to the milk room, when the wind was in a certain direction, the result of which was that cream and butter would taste like the disagreeable odour coming from the pond. As soon as the pond was drained we had no more damaged butter." The pronged hoe, whether with six teeth, or with only three, according to the particular purpose for which it is intended, is one of the most useful implements for farm vineyard, or garden, ever invented. The teeth or prongs are eight inches in length, the outer ones being eight to ten inches apart, which is the width of the actual cut. The prongs are square, of the best steel, and inserted in pairs into a malleable iron head, in which they are .firmly wedged. They are delicate, bnt very strong and elastic. The implement stirs the soil thoroughly nearly a foot wide, and from two to four inches deep, killing all small weeds, lifting out stones of small size, removing roots and all obstructions as effectually as a rake. On light soil, it is as easily worked as a hoe, and on heavy soils, if dry enough to work at all, very much easier. It is safe to say that a man with one of these can do several times as much work as with a common hoe. It is most useful as a potato digger, far more so than any other implement made for the purpose. '