FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2617, 20 April 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Burr-fit Fautokie.s at Home.—A new butter factory has been established iu West Cumberland. The aim is to get tho home manufacture of that district into better markets, whore more remunerative prices tin bo obtained. The company comprises farmers and landowners of tho district, and has assumed tho title of the West Cumberland Dairy Company Limited. The site fixed on is close to the Aspatria railway station on tho Carlislo and Mitryport railway.

Cheese Faik.—Tho first cheaso fair of the present year in Lancaster took place on Wednesday. There was a capital allround pitch, and on a much larger scale than at the corresponding fair of last year, the number of dairies represented being upwards of 70, as agaiust 37. Though business was not particularly brisk, satisfactory prices were realised. Better class of cheese fetched 6ls to Gss per 1201bs ; medium qualities, 50s to 00s ; and common, 50s to 555.

Snow of Channel Island Cattle.— At tho request of several breeders of Jersey stock the council of the Birmingham Agricultural Exhibition Society have determined to hold a show and sale this year of Channel Island cattle »u the samo principle as that of tho shorthorn show and sale which has been so successful and proved so great a convenience to breeders. The exhibition will bo held in Biugrley Hall, and if the venture is well supported, the exhibition will, in all probability, bo mado an annual event. The show and sale is designed to suit the convenience of those breeders of Channel cattlo who may have surplus stock to dispose of, but who have not sufficient number to make a sale at home.

Pleuko-Pneu.uonia in Cumberland. —A serious outbreak of pleuro-pueu-inonia has recently occurred in Cumberland, and the local authorities have been obliged to slaughter two moro herds of cattle in that county. One, at Cardew Hall, consists of 126 cattle, and the other, at Guards, Gretna, consists of 101), making altogether, with tho previous herds slaughtered during tho last month, a total of nearly 600 cattle. The owner of the Cardew Hall herd valued his stock at £IQOQ. The magistrates have allowed

him £1500 ; and the valno of the Guards herd is about £1-100 or £1.506, making a total of nearly £30,000, which the'eounty of Cumberland will huve to pay fur these two herds,

American Law Respecting M vNriitx. —In Connecticut the laws are veiy siii.t vit.ii regard to tho sale of manure-. Every K.'lh'i 1 of manure of the value of C 2 .ind upwards per ton must atlix on every paeket. a. printed statement, certifying the weiaht of the package, tho name, brand, and trade mark under which it is sold, the name and address of the manufacturer, the place of manufacture, and the chemical composition of the manure expressed in tho terms and manner approved by the Statu Atriietiltural Kxperiineiital Stulion. Such printed statement much accompany every lot or parcel of a bulk sold. The fines for violating this law are i"2I for the first offence and £12 for each subsequent offence.

Sepakatki) Milk.—An address on tho Uses of Separated Milk was lately delivered before the West Eirle Farmers' Club, Lowe", by Mr A. Robinson, managing director of the Belgravia Dairy Company, in which he suggested that cream separating factories should open depots it large towns and sell separated milk, mixed in the proportion of one gallon of the real thing to three of " partially skimmed milk "at 2d per quart. Or that the factory owners should encourage the breed iug of leau pigs throughout their districts, and the feeding of them with the separated milk, anu in order to maintain the price of pork, let them establi-h bacon curing depots in conjunction with the cream factories. Mr Robinson considered the latter to be the bust course to puivue.

'Ynv, English Lambino Season,—The Live Stock Journal reportH ou the English lambintr season. The reports have been communicated by the loading flockmasters. The threat balanco of the testimony so far points to there being an average crop of lambs, with a percentage of twins, whioh is higher than usual. Tho lambs are reported strong and hoalthy, with a low rate of mortality amongst the ewes. Testimony is very pronounced that the very inferior hay crop of ISSS has been a great drawback to Hook management ; not unly has artificial food, in the shape of cake or corn, been neces sary, but the larger quantity of turnips consumed by the ewes has boen regarded as an element of danger. For tho rest, conditions from tupping time down to the present havo been favourable ; the r or.t crop is a largo one, and is still sound in the southern counties ; whilst the outlook fir spring keeo was probably never better thau it i~- now.

Fkoit at the Melbourne Exhibition : Best Vakiktibs ok Peaks and Api'Lks — The following are the best eaiinif tipples shown at the Centennial Exhibition :—Margil, American Mother, Cox's Orange Pippin, Ribston Pippin, Prinoo of Pippins, Blenheim Orange, Gravenstein, Gipsy Queen, King of the Pii.pins, Northeru Spy, Jonathan, Mercer, Washington, Draper's Seedling, Cornish Aromatic, Ohio Nonpareil, .U»rriU's Pearmain, Winter Quoining, Whatmore's Pippin, Stone's tieedling, Pomme de Neige, Rome Beauty, Adarn-'s Pearmain. Choking apples : Rninftte de Canada, Waltham Abbi-y Se.-dhug, Annie Elizabeth, Peasgood's Nonsuch, London Pippin, Alfristmi, Ti'wer of Giamuiis, Allaubank Sendlinsr, Munro's Favourite, Roundaway Magnum Bonum, Chronical, Alexander, Dutuelow's Seedlinsr, Bismaruk, Twenty Ounce, Winter Mnjetin, Havcouit So.dliug. TliQ following live amongst the best pears shown : —Poire de Berriays, Louise bonne of Jersey, GanselPs Bergamot, Doyenne BoN-'sonu, Souvenir dn Congres, Marie Loui-c, Seckle, Thompson's, Twyford Monarch, B.;une Bose, Duohesse d'Orleans, Williams's Bonchretion, Duehesse d'Angoulotno, Beurrt Hardy, Winter NpHs, Beurrrf d'Anjoit, Bcurr6 Diol, Madame Cole, Vicar of Winkfiold, Josephine de Malines. The Plh.m Trade ok Bosnia.—ln a

report which was lately issued by the Foreign Office, Mr Freeman, consul at Sernjcvo, desctibed plums as the most important produut of Bosnia, and the fruit in a dried state an the chief article of export. The poorest peasant has a few plum trees by his hovel, wealthy land owners never think of planting any other kind of tree by their country houses, and, in consequenco, tho well being of the agricultural population, deponds on plums more than anything else. In a good season 10,000 tons of tho dried fruit, valued at more than £200,000, are exported. That the production and value of the total harvest must be immense is evident from the fact that, in addition to this large expert, ths spirit " sliv-oviU," commonly drunk in the country, is made from plums, and also a jam, much oaten by Bosnians. The fruit dried for export eotnes from the northern districts; the cost of transportation from tho interior bciutrtoo heavy. The largest part phsshk through Brika, on tho Selar... The plums are dried in ovens, and then separated into six qualities, determined by the number of fruit required to make half a kilogramme. This is effected by passing them through sieves of different sizes. The first quality must not have more than 75 plums to half a kilogrammo, tho second 80, tho third 85, tho fourth SO, the fifth 180, and the sixth 110 to 115. The first quality is packed iu rough boxes, containing from o to 10 kilogrammes ; the others in sacks and barrels. When there is a good crop there is usually a deficiency in sacks and barrels. The prices paid to the producers of a horse load of 2S'zlb. ranged last year from about ISs for the first quality to 7s Od for tho sixth.

AIrRICULTUJtAIiDEPI.iKSSSIOX IN KItANCE. —Tlie United States Consul in Marseilles in a recent report says that the real question of the hour in France is the extreme depression and increasing embarrassment of agricultural industries in France. There are, indeed, some extreme French economists who urge that the only method of preserving the agriculture of central Europe is for France, Germany, Austria and Italy, to sink all political antipathies and jealousies and to form a customs union, to exclude all food products from Russia, India, Australia and America. The area in France under vines lias decreased from 5,708,522 acres hi 1577 to 4,80-1,202 in ISS7, while the vintage has decreased from 56.000,000 to 24,000,000 hectolitres, and the import of wine has increased from under 1,000,000 to over 10,000,000 hectolitres. Assuming 1877 to be a normal year, putting the average market value of the vintage at 20f. per hectolitre, and funding at 5 per cent, interest, the cumulating deficits of each subsequent year, £200,000,000 sterling would lie the loss which has fallen in the ton yeai'3 on French agriculture through the diminished product of the vine ulone. Other agricultural products have suffered from foreign competition—wheat, cattle, meat, pigs, silk, &c. " Thero is, in fact, not a singe agricultural or natural product of France which is not now produced iu profusion by new countries at a comparatively nominal cost."