The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 928, 4 June 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1878.

MBHnMnaMmHhMhMMaMMMMIi v i: [ ,*•* f i • ‘ : \ ' Equal and exact jultice to all men, V' Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. * * * * * Here shall the Press the People’s right maintain, / Gnawed by influence and uhbribed by gain.

The re-fertilisation of soils is a matter of as much, import .nice, in a new country whtr,» much of the soil is often of & second rate, or of even still inferior quality, as in old countries where it has been worn out, or brought down dog-poor, as a farmer at home would say, through continuous and injudicious cropping, The Washington, department of agriculture. . laps been prosecuting enquires as to? the -re-fertilisation &f soils, and • has ' issued circulars throughout the State's; for the purpose of obtaining the experience of practical farmers on this subject. - A report lias been-issued in which the replies received have been summarised and commented '.upon,. A majority of the correspondents agree in regarding grazing, combined with cereal cropping, as the most profitable and easy way of restoring worn out land or enriching naturally poor soil. The process that is held in the highest favour is to sow the ground with the pasture most suitable to the locality, character of soi, &c, afterwards allowing it to be fed off with cattle or sheep, and rotate this crop with wheat and cereals. lira large humbeiv 6f returns very high testimony is borne to the value of peas both in clearing and re-fertilising old ground. The following is an extract from the official report;—" Many examples are given of the renovation of worn and apparently worthless soils,' and the increase of 'fertility in fresh but unpromising lands. Fields that have been cultivated exhaustively for 20 and even 40 years have been restored to original productiveness, not: by guanos aiid superphospates Goijj> to 80$ per ton, but by inexpensive local resources, the cheapest and most reliable of which hj found ,in cloyering. In one. case in Butler County, in section or thin gravelly land, on which ib was thought no one could isecure a decent living, came into possession of Uermau immigrants at riouuual rates. They cleared off the brush; ploughed, cultivated,, turned under green crops, saved every fertilising material available, never duplicated a crop in. five or six years' rotation, and that tract is now a garden, and from worthlessnes has advanced to the value of lOOdol. per acre, aiid is yearly becoming more productive. These owners in some cases have raised, and educated families, Jived comfortably, ride in carriages, a-ud have money at interest. Jn other instances, in which the aid of clover has been invoked, swine-feeding in the gloverfields has been made a valuable meant! of soil improvement. In the | &outh, a region which many northern writers on agriculture assume 1 most erroneously to be unsuited to grass, culture, and which southern farmers 1 have strangely neglected as fj. .tno?.t-pi"3dncing section tor obvious

reasons, a new era ia dawning, and clover and orchard-grass aie in many to be sources of imme.heavy profit, and of greatly temperature, the cow--19 quickly and. iuexwork of amelioration assignedJ||Fred clover in argillaceous ,Son^.^Tj| r 'is a plant literally worth millions to the South ; possibly as good an ammonia-gatherer as clover ;-perhaps, equally as good for, fattening swine, and grows with greater facility in poorer soils. .This investigation presents preminently three suggestive points : First, the use of fertilisers is becoming more general and more discriminating ; second, few if any soils in the country are so rich that they cannot be made more productive by judicious ieytilisatiou ; third,,farm* yard' manures are the bejst for general use; greenrmanuring is the cheapest means of soil renovation, and commercial fertilisers are useful for quick results, and for specific purposes,-; ;"; \ i ?' V :■ i i

Since our, last issue the Sheep Inspector of the district, _Mr John Runciman, in company with Mr Allom, veterinary surgeon, and Mr Isaac Coates, who has had the experience of a scab infected run iu Australia with some 70,000 sheep, all raorepr less infected, visited Mr Jolly's farni at Hamilton and carefully inspected his sheep one by one, together with some two hundred sheep belonging to Mr Cox which happened at the time to be mixed with them. We need scarcely say that the most careful and minute examination did nob lead to the discovery of a trace of scab, which could hardly have been the-case if the skin which formed the subject of the late scab case against Mr Jolly in 'the Auckland Police Court had been really infected. It now remains to be seen whether Mc Jolly's 1 challenge to Mr Lewis, the Sheep i Inspector of.the -Auckland;district, will be taken up. Mr Lewis stated; that should Mr Iluncitaaii pass the! Sock as clean, he would himselfj come up and prove the existence of 1 scab. We scarcely see how Mr) Lewis can refuse to fulfill, this en-! "gagement without by so - doing i tacitly admitting that he was' wrong iii his conclusion''that the ; flock was infected. Be this however as it may, the matter has gone too far to be allowed to drop. The members.of the Cambridge Farmers' Club as the custodians of the agricultural interests in this district have a pkin duty before them and will not, we feel sure, shrink from it. At their next meeting, the matber should be fully considered and practical issue taken. As it is. the whole district cf Waikato is most unjustly laid under the imputation of being an infected district. Jsither it is so, or the trial which took place the other day in the Auckland Police Court, has resulted in a miscarriage ,of justice. Steps should ■be taken to set aside the one and to prove that the other is not so. It is to the interest of every sbeepowner in Waikato to assist in doing this, for the imputation as it now rests on the district is a loss of so much a head, on every sheep, and would, were it really fact, impose on him endlefrg trouble and annoyance in constant inspection dipping &c. There is clearly a mistake somewhere. Either Mr Lewis was'too' zealous, and allowed his zeal to run away with his imagination, or Mr Runciman is too lax ; for it is absurd to suppose that an old and aggravated case of scab half cured and breakiug put again, as represented by the prosecutor, could exist for such length of time in a single sheep in a flock.' and not communicate the disease to others. If Mr Lewis, has mistaken the scarred wound arising from the bite of a dog for scab, let him manfully acknowledge his error. If he still maintains that the thsep was scabby let him accept Mr Jolly's challenge, and come and show the existence of S3ab in the rest of the flock ; and if he does neither—if he leave the. matter alone in the hope that it may drop out of sight and be forgotten, let the Farmers' Club and the sheepowners of the district remind him by practical action that bhey will not have the cleanliness of the Waikato wrongfully impugned without t\ determined effect to vindicate it. We reprint from our issue of the 25th ult. the challenge refeired to.

(To Mr .Lewis, Sheep Inspector, Auckland.) [PER FAVOTJE WAIKATO times.] Sin, —It is now a month since you condemned my sheep for scab. When I met you on that occasion you told me I should have to dip. remainder of flock, and you said'"you had not seen my other sheep, but if Mr Rnnciman, our Inspector, passed them as clean, you would come up and shew him scab. Now, sir, I request you to come up. I have neither changed nor dipped. • These sheep are the balance of flock you condemned. You have made a serious charge affecting my flock and flocks in this district, and I call upon you to substantiate it.—l am, &c, Thomas Jolly.

The Waipa Coxstii.'Uency. Mr Alfred Cox, M.fl.R., in observance of the time-honored custom of addressing a constituency'-before, the meeting of Parliament, will meet his electors on Thui-sdayevpningthc 13thinst. atthe Court; House, Hamilton. The occasion will doubtless be taken advantage of by elcotorc $o indicate the course they would wish thojx representative to take on certain forthcoming measures in the next session of Parliament. A Select QtrABRjxLE Pahty will be held to-morrow evening hi the Victoria HidL, Hamilton. Mr J, S, Btjcklasd will hold his monthly sale "of hqrses' afc the Criterion Hotel, Cambridge, on Saturday next. Meeting oi- Parliament.—We learu from a private and reliable source that it is more than doubtful whether Parliament "wilt opezj b'w-i'uvo thu ilct July.

Animal Manure.— Messrs J. D. \ind * K. Hill are advertising the prepared animal manure as received from Australia. Tho advertisement contains analysis of the manure, which ia, higkly recommended to agriculturalists. For our own part vje, cm speak ijo its being-more quick iiviliseffects than fine bono dust or what amoiuuf of rate shoidd bo struck for the current year. Tenders are invited by Mr W. S. Laurie, of Auckland, for the erection, of a shed, stable, and barn, at the Waitoa station. s Plans.and, the proposed"^buildings may'bo seen at the office of MF'Gfeo. EdgecTimbe,*Hamilton, and tenders will be received up to the 12th instant by-Mr'Latxrie. ''"'..:'.'•'.,'<• The ' Election of Auditors for the Borough of Hamilton took place on Saturday.; There was little interest taken in tlio'matter,'possibly because all four candidates nomiuatod were good men. Tho numbers were/ for Mr Edgecumbe, 3-t; for Mr Morris, 25 ; for Mr T. 0. Hammoud,!2l ; for Mr-A. Priinrpse, 20. The two -first named gentlemen were therefore declared duly elected. .

WaitetunaL Dlstbict Sokooi,.—At ■ the" meeting, of tho Education Board held in Auckland on Eriday an application was received from the Chairman of the; Waitetuna dchool Committee asking for money (£1;3). tp.build a new chimney, for the following reason: " The old iron chimney can be sold; it would be a good investment for any person having a large insurance on his house and willing to realise." The request was granted amid considerable laughter. A .Gazette ' of the.; 23rd ult. contains a notification that "section 392 of the Parislp of Mgaroto, Hamilton survey dMriCty containing three roods more or cemetry. purposes.- A"'Gazette' lftlv'ulti. announces -that. Lots ,600, 678, and 47 in Carnbridge East town have been permanently reserved, as a site for a library, the second forsa" site as a town hall, and the third as a site for a telegraph and post office.

Brtter titan Sparrows.—lt has been determined (says the ' Lyttelton Times'), by the Acclimatisation (Society, to make, an effort introduce the sugar maple into 'this colony. A sum of not more than #6O js to be expended, and probably the -plan adopted will be to have young plants sent out in Wardian cases, as it appears impossible to obtain' seed which has preserved its germinating powers. Through Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia the sugar maple (acer mccharinum) forms immense forests, and frequently reaches a height of from 00 to 70 feet.' It is stated that in Great Britain the tree requires a dry and sheltered situation, but. the climate of Canterbury would probably prove far more favorable to its development. The tree, when pierced during the opening of the season, yields a copious flow of sap, which is I readily converted into sugar, and the flow ■ is stated to be more abundant during a hot sunshine, which has been preceded by a frosty night. - Isolated trees are richest in the saccharine matter. The tree has a highly ornamental appearance, and its wood is particularly valuable for cabinet work.

Mrs Stantost, an advocate of woman's rights, lately gave a lecture in San Francisco .on " Marriage and Maternity,*' which is thus summarised:— The idea that woman is weak inherently is a grand mistake. She is physically weak because, she neglects' her baths, and because she violates every law of her nature ; because she dresses in a way that would kill a man. I felt it my mission to arouse every women to bring up her daughter ■without breaking her up in doing so. I early imbibed the idea that a girl was as good as a boy, and I carried it out. I coidd walk five miles before breakfast, or ride ten on horsback. After I was married I wore my clothes sensibly. The weight hung alone on' my shoidde'rs. I never compressed •my body out of its natural shape.' Another idea: it is of more importance " what land " of children we raiso than " how many." It is better to produce "one lion" than "twelve jackasses.'' We have jackasses enough, lot us go into the lion business. We must have a new type of womanhood. We need it more than gold. The old idea of the oak and vine is pretty; but it is merely pretty; the emergencies of life prove its fallacy—tho lightning strikes them both alike

In the days of tho Hamilton Town Board, before as yofc the township had blossomc 1 into "a borough, a very useful regulation was passed by the local Board that no cow or horse should be allowed to be at large between the hours of sun set and sun rise. During the day time owners of gardens and other.enclosures havo some opportunity of preventing wandering and. brcachy cattle from breaking in, but not so in the night time. Somehow, or another, this rule of the late Board has, under the Borough regime, been allowed to fall into desuetude, and Ave have heard many complaints from residents in Hamilton of fences broken at night, and cattle found in the morning browsing contentedly and happily amid the ruin and havoc they had made amongst shrubs, cabbages, and flower beds. One person complained to us that he had fGur panels of fencing torn down during one night last week by horses. A medical man informs, us that a oow anxious to qualify for the profession had commenced a series of lectures (botanical) by an investigation one. night last week into the plants growing in his garden, and was so intent on her studies as only- to leave them when driven away at day break with a. stick. Wo would recommend the matter to the attention of the" Borough Council. In the daytime cattle can do no harm upon the streets, but at night they shoidd be kept from the possibility of mischief such as that we have indicated. The Sporting Editor of the 'Dunedin Star,' writing on the MoGee disqualification case, says:—"'lhe Dunedin Jockey Club have followed the action of the Auckland Club in disqualifying Mr Owen 0. McGee from running any, horse for' a period of two years ; John McGee, the jockey, from riding for a similar period, and the horse Falcon from running for ever. There appears to be some reason in disqualifying Mr O. McGee for asking the jockey Meurant to pull Perfume in the steeplechase, but why young McGee and Falcon should be disqualified for 'winning the Selling iiace' requires explanation. The only ground seems to bo that Mr McGee told his son to win by not more than a nock; and, though ' cutting it fine,' as is is termed, is very risky work, and often loads to bad results; still, there is no racing law to compel an owner to win by every yard that he can. As a matter of fact, if every owner in New Zealand avlio gave similar instructions to his jockey was disqualified, therewould at present bo few owners of racoliordes. I myself and scvcr:il other people at a recent meeting- heard one of the principal racing men in the country openly tell his joe-key, just before leaving the saddling paddock, to 'win l#y not more than a neck, whatever you do,' and we constantly see instances of a horqa that is full of running coming past the winning post hard held, and winning by perhaps a bare head or half-length, when ho could ha-vs won by a dwen lengths."

Sbbd Wheats.—Mr A. Laybourno, of Fort street, Auckland, advertises a list of seed wheats on hand and to arrive Arrangomciftu v 4fave been made with Cautorbnvy grtpyovs fori'suppltes of both see.l wheat uu<|fsped oats. The the Hamilton evening' nexfcj at Hotel. A3i open belayed; the same dayf coihinencin&jit <l p.jnS i i!!\> The; >tabl^morils>y■' Mrpf V: Mcdonald in Wyndhain-strect of *E receiving office for paruels to be sent by railway will be a great convenience to country settlers and-to persons visiting town who have many small commissions to make, as such parcels can be sent to the receiving office, and addressed to be forwarded by any dosircd train. ''.'.*,"*. "'!"_, 7 Work has, wo are glad to hear, toen started on .No. 1 section Tuhikaramea and Hamilton road, and tenders will be called for No. 2 section on Thursday next, and also for a bridge .and culvets, iii other parts of the district. The Board seem to be displaying a praiseworthy energy in opening up-their long quiescent -district b} r making good roads throughout. Wo feel sure tlioylwiil bo amply repaid, as there is a large quantity of excellent land lying idle pimply because it is unapproachable.

The f act that bad kerosene is in considerable quantities in the New Zealand market has occasioned no litt'e nueasiness in many places. We learn that in Wellington persons, in the employ of the police, are going from store to store making purchases, with a view to having the purchased oil tested. If it is found to flash below a certain standard, it comeß under the class of petroleum, or dangerous oils, and can be sold only in vessels plainly labelled, "Dangerous: fire must not bo brought near." If a seller of oil below the minimum.standard sells even a pint in a bottle or any other vessel with- ' out such he renders himself liable to a penalty of £5. ThSMuty of appoint- • inginspectors rests withßorough Councils, but the police are de, facto inspectors and prosecutors under the Amiudment Act. Wo hoard of a kerosine lamp bursting in Hamilton last week, but without serious result- ' -

" Now that there is a smell of sulphur in the atmosphere, and that martial , topics are in fashion, it may be well to recollect," observes the London.' Standard,' " that we have recruiting grounds for our "army outside England. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand arc as patriotic as the mother country, and would send ■i recruits of a sturdy stock to help to fight her; battles, if necessary. , Australians ,now mnre populous than were the Airieri!can colonies when they threw ofl their allegiance, and made such a stubborn fight agaiust our choicest troops. The last census gives two millions and. a half as the population of Australia, while its trade is estimated at £80,000,000, equal to the commerce of England at the commencement of this century, when she foiled united Europe in its confcdera6y against her. Her pastiu'es are occupied by 52,000,000 sheep and 3,000,000 cattle. Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor ©f New South "Wales, calculates that at the end of this century Australia will have a population of 5,000,000, and in 1950 of 31,000,000. New Zealand is also rapidly increasing in wealth and population, and is not devoid of loyalty to the old flag. Seeing that these Britons beyond the ocean owe so much to the parent land, the suggestion that they should raise soldiers for her defence is not unreasonable. New Zealand, as a member of the Army and Navy Club writes to a military contemporary, might well raise two regiments of active militia, Queensland two, New South "Wales four, Victoria four, and South Australia two regiments. If these 11 regiments were carefully trained and kept up to the strength of a thousand men each, England would gladly pay for their services for garrison duty in the East, when" compelled to concentrate some of her regular infantry elsewhere."