FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 347, 4 August 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

In the drying of clover there is much loss of leaves from the frequent turnings. In the north of Germany a better process is adopted. The swath, on being cut, is raked into small heaps ; women follow and bind each heap into a sheaf, placing it in an upright position, the flowers uppermost, taking care to turn the bundle to the sun two or three days before carting it home. The demand for commercial manures has taken an enormous extension this season, and their price is regulated by that of Peruvian guano. To combat the cruel frauds still committed, the agents of the Peruvian Government publish every week the analysis of all cargoes of guano on their arrival in France, and the local authorities throughout the country have been- officially advised to urge upon the farmers to purchase from accredited agents only. Belgium consumes 70,000 tons of Peruvian guano annually, and one-half that quantity is adulterated with foreign matters, which vary from 15 to 30 per cent. A ship on clearing Antwerp has a portion of her cargo in pure guano, and the fact is certified on her papefs. But on passing clown the river, or through a canal, she stops during the night alongside a lighter in waittng ( and takes in her due supply of sand, ashes, &c. On arriving at her destination her papers attest of course her cargo is genuine. This brings us to the only check, that of having analysed all commercial manures, not received directly from the deptot or the factory. The Belgian small farmers subscribe so much per week towards raising the means to purchase the genuine article from a genuine source, and these Co-operative Societies have produced marked benefits. On the Continent the fabricated manures are, as a general rule, only regarded as auxiliaries with farmyard manure ; when applied as top dressing to young cereals, they are invariably covered or ha.trowed in. Sidphate of ammonia, at the rate of one cwt. per acre is the favorite spring stimulant for wheat, taking care never to sow it during wet weather, but a few days before the rain arrives. Rotating crops is based on the belief that the second does , not take the same quantitative subetances from the soil ais the first, and that the third may extract matters of a different quality from the second or from both. However, science has yet to explain why, in France at all events, clover dies out or dwindles, though manured, in the course of three successive years ; while potatoes, identical with clovei in point of analysis, continue to flourish on the same soil almost indefinitely. Some farmers and writers on agriculture put groat stress on the early sowing, to save seed, but the stress ought to be put more especially on the condition of the land. There is little good in getting a thick braird if the land cannot bring it to maturity. Let the land be in good heart, and it will tiller out thick enough with a small quantity of seed. We do not doubt that the land will throw out more tillers in the early part of the season than it will -when the coolei- part of the year draws on, but we question the advantage to ba gained on poor land by having so many stems proceeding from one root ; we think it would be better to have the plants, more distributed over the ground. When the land

1-. rough enough co boar a eiop, tlnvt 1 peeks may do for early sowing when the seed is good ; live or six pecks may be required when the season is Lite and the weather cold. In North Germany the reclamation of the extensive low lands, that have heretofore remained uncultivated for the lack of drainage, is now proceeding with vigor under the auspices of a company employing a large capital and effective steam ditching machines. Each machine cuts a canal 20 feet wide and G feet deep, and from 100 to 120 feet in length, every 10 hours. The peat is delivered on the surface of the ground alongside the canal, where it is dried, cut into bricks, and sent to market. It is an excellent fuel. In Holland and Friesland there are 1000 square miles of this bog land now worthless, which will be rendered habitable and profitable as fast as the canals are cut, to say nothing of the immense quantities of fuel that will be obtained by the ditching operation.

Interesting facts given in a Liverpool paper prove that the working classes of that city — and they are not exceptional — have become meat eaters to such an extent that the consumption of bread, has seriously and proportionately declined. The dear food has supplanted the cheaper. In one street the butchers' shops during fifteen yean have increased from seven to thirty ; while the number of bakers' shops has remained the same. Oatmeal, also, which formerly was largely sold, is now scarcely bought at all by the poor. No more striking proof could be given of the general advance of our working men in material comfort ; but it is to be regretted that we have in this as in other instances, illustrations of their readiness to spend ft m eely increased wages instead of saving during years of plenty against the chances of times of dearth. They enjoy their feasts with jollity ; they endure their famine with manliness, as the demeanor of the Lancashire people throughout the American war amply pnned, but it is a pity that there is not less drinking and more moderate eating where wages are high. It would bo curious to ascertain whether the operatives of Lancashire, who now recruit their physical strength with meat, execute more work and get through more hard labor than they did when they found bread, with meat occasionally, quite enough to sustain their bodily vigor. The late Mr Brassey used to say that the price of labor all over the world was about the same, though wages greatly differed. The Englishman paid handsomely, g.i\e services proportionate in. quality and quantity to his higher pay ; foreigners, receiving le&s, did little ; and so it came to the same thing in tlie long run. Does this hold good as regards these Liverpool men? Do they accomplish more on high wages and meat dinners than on lower remuneration and rations of bread '?