AGRICUTURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1474, 13 December 1881, Page 3

AGRICUTURAL NOTES.

Blood readily deeompos-es in the soil, yielding ammonia and nitric acid. Wool and li'iir decompose much more slowly, and their effect is spread over many years. Dried blood is an excellent manure for wheat. Wool and hair are good for hoi b. The State of Nebraska can boast of having the largest silos in America, if not in the world. Da Eager of Middletown, New York has constructed at West Point, Neb. four silos, each 60 feet long, 20 feet deep, and 16 feet wide : capacity about 2000 tons. It is becoming a necessity to save and economise forage, even in the Far West. Sorrel propogatea itself by seed and its roots. The seedling may be prevented, but yet the plant will spread with great rapidity by its roots uuless these aro destroyed by thorough cultivation. The most effective method is to plough the ground deeply, plant root crops, and keep the sail well worked with a cultivator, by which the roots are torn out and left on the surface to dry and die. If this is thoroughly done in the dry, hot season, it will be completely effective. At a aale of pure-bred rams at Kentucky, U.S.A., the property of Mr A. M'Clintook, 2G Cotswolds averaged £23 15s ; 8 Shropshires averaged £16 13s 4d, and 16 Southdowns averaged £9 7s 6d. The Mark Lane Express considers it " not an unlikely thing that before many years have paßsed the Shropshires will head the sale lists in the United States, as they have done this year in England." Pigs should be pastured and kept away from houses or shelters where they will create du3t to give them thumps and vermin to give mange ; also, out of sloppy, unhealthy mud holes, where, doubtless, many of their diseases are generated. They should have a little copperas occasionally, to prevent or de^toy worms, and sulphur to ward off vermin of the skin. Keep them in good, vigorous growth for fall fattening by free feeding in addition to pasturage. The latest addition to agricultural implements in England is the "steam digger," which is a combination of the plough and the spade, In the short space of an hour, and at a working cost of five shillings, it will turn over an acre of grouud, and that, too, in such a way as to produce superior cultivation. The inventor clnims that it will do as much work as 170 men in a day. A portion of the herd of shorthorn cattle, tho property of Mr S. P. Foster, of Killbow, Cumberland, has been sold by auction. There was a large attendance of eUortkQrn fauojere. T.he highest price.

reached \ras for Grand Buohess of Oxford 40th, for which Sir Wilfred Lawson paid 502 guineas. The sales realised in all about 3039 guineas, at an average of J691 10s each for 31 cows and heifers, and nearly £50 for the seven bulls sold ; the average for the 38 animals being £83 19s 6d. The bull Duke of Ormikirk was bought ia at the reserve price of £600 guineas. A new variety of sheep, the wool of which is likely to prove a serious rival to our Lincoln-cum-merino wool, has just been brought under notice in England. Mr Hobert Russell, of Horton Court, Kent, saw at the Vienna Exhibition some merino ewes of such fine character that he took several of these with him to England, and matched them with longwoolled rams. He has since gone on breeding them so skilfully thas he has quite a large flock of "them. Their fleece average, from the whole flock, 12lb of wool that almost rivals the merino in fineness, softness, and eilkiness. The length of staple is extraordinary. " Old Sheep Fanner," a wellknown writer in the Live Stock Journal, states thut some of the threads in a lock picked by him from the back of one of these sheep, measured 21in in length.