AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3713, 17 January 1891, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Turnip sowing and re-sowing is beingjiarried on in the hopes that will soon be followed by others. Just now is a critical time, for the reason that so much depends on this crop. The season will soon be past when turnips may be sown with the certainty of securing good payiDg crops, A copious fall of ram would now benefit the grass and root crops infinitely more than the grain. Oar enquiries regarding the potato crop bave elicited on all sides the same replies as those referring to the turnips Jf we only get rain in quantity any time within a week or ten days, the potato crop will be a fairly good one, bo that the position is similar to that of turnips. No rain—no crop. The haulm is looking very well, but the tubers are not coming forward as they should be at this advanced season, An Aberdeenshire farmer has had an experience with a sample of oats which he had grown on his farm this year as an experiment. The seed was 6 own rather late (about the middle of jyiay), but it appeared from the outset to take very well to the change of the soil and climate, and was ready for reaping about the same time as the ordinary home grown oats. The yield, too, was something exceptional as six and eight stalks springing from one single grain of the seed. The grain was of very good quality and -weight, but the straw just a trifle strong to make it of the highest value for stock breeding purposes. Experiments have been made in Spain on the action of sunlight in martiring wines. Layers of new wines in bottles of coloured glass have been exposed to the direct rays of the sun, w'ith the result that both flavour and quality have been improved. In south Europe there has been a practice of ripening cognac by exposing bottles on the roof for years.—Presa.