RURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1972, 26 February 1885, Page 3

RURAL NOTES.

Dairy Farming.— In concluding an ,11 tide on cheese and butter making, in the N.B Agii>'ultuial for the 31st December, Piofessoi Sheldon lun.uks : — " It is abundantly clear that tin- old slip-shod ptactices followed so long m (Uuy fanning, ami still so veiy pievalent thioughout the land, will not ansvv ur our pmpose in the future, even as well as they have done in the past, which is not veiy much after all The jield of dairy piodtite on almost any given fauns, even on those that have been well managed, h.ia been much smaller on the axetage during the past se\ en years than it »vas in any other seven, I may say, in the last thirty years ; this is owing to the wet and almost sunlesi sea-ons we have had, and to the reduced feitility of the land. The volume of foteigu competition has more than made up the dilTeience, or prices would have been so much higher 'than they are, as to make amends to some extent for the reduced yields of beef, of milk, of cheese, and of butter. It is to be hoped, indeed, that onr yield will improve with better season*, but there is no pio»pect of «i falling off in foieign com petition. Pi ices, therefore, aie not likely to inciease veiy much and the only way to iuci case them a little, and eve-i to maiutii'ii them where they arc, is to produce a better article ; and in ordei to this, a comprehensive system of dairy education, encomaged by landloids, Kind agents, and eveiybody interested in the welfare of our insular a^ncultuic, must spreul itself over the face of the countiy. It will afiuid .ne pleasure ami satisfaction to contnbute my mite, be it nevei so small, to the improvement which is so gtc.itly tobede.Mitd." Rooks a.nd Steeped Wheat —Mi W. F. Muiphy, wutingin theGaidcner s Chronicle says : — ' The following cuiious ciicumst.mce, new to me, may in t- rest your readeis, especially come of them us have a "home faun " besides the garden to look after. I was engaged at the usual tune in getting in some wheat, which I had pieviously steeped in Gouldnig's Anti-Smut, or "Bunt" nnxtuie, ami then diied on the barn flour with lime Every one of those mixtures aie poisonous, and so labelled, generally having copperas a base. I took elaborate precautions to scale away the ciows, or rooks, and jackdaws ; but it was quite unnecessaiy, as not only would they not touch a giain of it, but they would not even alight wlmie I had the seed strewn. This tact may inteiest in other ways.' Might not this tieatment answei in this colony for spartovvs? Lvnu in Canada.— A Canadian con tempotary says: — 'One of the nr>st striking passages in the repoit of tic Secretaiy of the Interior is the gi.ise announcement that the day is colse at hand when the National Government will no longer be able to give its people fiee homes on the public lands of the Great West. After deducting from the public lands ltmaining the and and mountainous tracts and the bodies of water iinsurveyed, little will be left by ISSG upon which the pioneer can build his hut 01 feed his cattle. It will natuially take time for the great body of the fortune-seekers to realise this change, but when its effects ire ftlt in full theie must come some icmarkable altciation in the value of land both in the East and West. The alteration may not be so great as is assumed. There will still be an abuud ance of good land for everybody, but it will be in the Dominion of Canada. When the United States lands have been taken up, Canada will still po«sessseveial hundred millions of acies of the finest agricultural and grazing territory of the woild. After we have exhausted the Canadian North-West proper, we shall still have the Athabasca and the Peace River counttics, possessing :\ fine climaW, the i ichest praiiie lands, good water, oil, wood, coal, and other natural ad van tages. Mr Bright avd tiik Depression' — Mr Bright has written to a Snlisbtny gentleman who forvanird him a copy of a paper on the a<*ricultuial depression, read by Mr Lywood before the South Wiltshire Chamber of Agiicultuie at Wat minister. He says what Mi Lywood wants is th.it Parliament should cieate a banier against the impo. tation of foreign wheat, and thus iaise the price of w heat in the markets and the pi ice of In cad in the home of every Eng lish family, and thus give piospenty to the farmer, and through him to the general trade of the country. Mr Blight suggests to Mr Lywood that his tenit-dy would at once tend to «ive steadiness to lents and. raise the letting value of fauns, and that all this would come fiom the tax levied on the tables and the biead of the millions of the population ; whether it would be of permanent service to tenants may be more than doubtful. ' May I suggest further," adds Mr Bught, ' to Mr L) wood that if the piesent oi the future pi ice of wheat will not yield the present icnts of wheat growing land, would it not be better to adjust the rent to the quality and produce of the soil rather than to attempt to tax all the bread consumers of the kingdom to sus tain tents which the land will not yield ? If land isnotwoith rent, it should be, and will be, lent fiee. If land is paying lent which it will not yield, then the question is one between the tenant and the owner, and the taxpayei cannot be called upon to make up the dilleiPtrcc between them. -So long as Kiit is charged for a farm the tenant can only look to the owner for rediess if the lent U excessive.' Puoorcfc ok Crops i\ Ireland.— A return published by the Registiai Genet al gives statistics of the pro duce of the crops in licland in 1884 as conipaied with 18S3. Alltheciops, except wheat and bailey, show a dcueasc<l aveiage late of piodnce pei acie in JSS4 comp.it ed in ISB3. The yield cf win at met eased by 0!) cm t , and barley by 0 6 cwt ; whiile oats decreased by 0 2 cvvt , bfic by 07 cut., and tyebyOS cwt ; potatoes by O'o ton, turnips by 25 tons, mangel wor^el by I 2 ton, flax by 24 stones, and hay by 01!0 1 ! ton. The rate for 1884 compared with the average tate for the ten years, 1874 ISB4, shows a decrease tv all crops except wheat and potatoes, which exhibit an inciease of 0'- cvvt. and 0 5 tons respectively. The pioduce in 1884, as compared with the average produce of the ten years, 1874-1884, shows in cereal crops a decrease in wheat of 1,121,542 cwt ; in oits of 1,207,720 cwt ; in barley of Btfi 702 cwt; in !>eiu rf 4323 cwt; and in i>e of -21,121 cvt. The I vain* 1 of "ols exhi! its a dccicaso uf | £161.087 • onipa»ed with tlm a\ei\i c for the tcu yeais, and wheat and barley show a decrcaso in value les^ectively of i.IGOJIOand £38,680, The j£K.sfcV Cow as a Buttkk Producer. — Thcie is an element in the value of Jersey cows that does not exist m regard to any other breed of cattle, at least to the same extent. I refer to the butter records of this bleed of cattle. It is tuie that individual and very mie specimens of the shoithoin, the Ayrshne and the Holstems have made recoids equalling, or peihap3 exceeding, the reooula of the Jcrseya, lmt this is not characteustie of these breeds, while the ability to make a good rccoid at the pail or the chum is almost second natuie to a Jeisey. Intelligent breedeis have fuby appieciated the importance of this tiait, , and have made the most of it. Public tests of Jet sty cows arc of frequent i occurrence in this countiy, while I have i never yet heard of a test of an animal of : any other breed conducted in the same i formal manner. A public test of a Jersey I cow is conducted, when conducted under ; the management of the A.J.C.C , in 1 something like the following manner :—: — i The club appoints two of its members to f piocecd to tho farm of the owner of the t cow to be tehted. These two gentlemen, ) who are of known integrity .and highly . lespected, oversee the milking of the - cow during the peiiod of the test, usually one week, take possession nf the milk 1 and secuie it fiom all interference, aie piesent dm ing the churning and the handling of the butter, and in short, in t effect, perform all tl.e operations per aonally. Those gentlemen, at tho coa-

elusion of the test, publish a shipment of the lesult, ami this statement, nude on the honour of these two di*inlen^ted jientlemen, is quite often accompanied with the sworn statement of the owner of the cow, or of his foreman 01 the daiiymaid. Those who are unfamiliar with the entei prise of our Ameiio.m Jersey bleeders and dairymen, may Indisposed to ask in leferenee to the ic.ison for all this trouble and care, accompanied as it is with considerable expense. The reason is to be found in the fact th.ifc a cow that 13 publicly tested and makes a high neoid, as, for instance, '20 to '2~)\h*. of good butter pei week, becomes .it once of consiileiable \;ilue, and hence the necessity foi all this c.\re— the necis«-it.\ for liavmir a successful test of a .Ju^-y cow, like Gull's wife, above suspicion Hence, aUo, the advantage of making the lesult of a s.iti^factoiy test as public as possible. A public test of a Jeis>i'V cony it, the best ot advertisements for the breeder. — Forrj-vt X MoufcLA\i>, Og densburg, New Voik. U S A.

The Indian whotiiud to lasso a locomotive ne\ei afti'iwaiil hail much of an opinion of railioails Yes ! It is certainly true. Ask any of >our friends who lii\c purchased there Girhck andCranwell \\i\e numerous unasked fur and vcrv t.nniir.tble rommemJ.Uions from ronntrj enst mers <>n their excellent p.ickinir of Furni ture, Crorker>, and GHss, &r. Lirlies and gentlemen about to fumi-li should n member thit Garlic k and Cranwel) s is thf Cheap Fnrniihinff Warehouse of Auck1 »nd Furniture to suit all classes ; also Carpets, Floor Cloths and all House Netc? sines If \our new limite is neirl\ hniMud, Or you in- noinij to j;et m irr.t d, vi^it (iiiluk .nd Crinwell, Q)ueen-street nml I orr,- s'rect, Au. k Hnd Intpndini. pnr< li isi rsr in li-i\e i < its.U)(,'in sc-n fry