FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2781, 10 May 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

FARM, GARDEN, AND ORCHARD NOTES.

« Twenty Pigs at a Birth.— At Darniok, near Melrose, a sow, belonging to Mr Robert Taylor, dairyman, littered 20 live pigs the other day. Creameries in lowa.—lowa contains 693 creameries and 164 cheese factories. Delaware and Jones counties have the highest number of creameries, 44 in each, and Blackhaw county shows the largest product of any county in the State. The live stock of a wide reaoh of county in Dakota is suffer ing from want of forage, and unless assistance reaches this drought stricken region, the condition of farmers will be appalling in the spring:. No seed, no teams, no provision for the summer, the situation at this time is bad. Irrigation in India.—The cnpital invested in Government irrigation enterprises in the North-western provinces of India is about £8,000,000. The revenue received for the use of the water nets 3J to 4J per cent interest on this sum annualh above all expenses. About 8000 villages or farming settlements receive water from 35,000 outlets in the distribution of the five main canals, The cost of maintaining the system is from 40 cents, to Idol, per acre annually, averaging 71 cents per acre in 1887. The value of the crops raised that year on the irrigation land was £4,400,000, of which 60 per cent was in wheat. The canal system has been wonderfully developed in the past 12 years, and now represents nearly twice as much capital as in 1876. Success of Sugar Beet Growing in California.—The result of the sugar beet experiments in California is said by the San Francisco Bulletin to have been very successful. Last year 2000 acres were planted. The yield was 13,500 tons, which brought on an average 20s per ton. The farmers in California declared therate satisfactory, and have put a much larger acreage under crop this year. The beetwas manufactured in the Watsonville factory, taking 47 days in the process, and yielding 1650 tons of In California Mr Spreckels has taken up the question, and established factories of a very extensive kind. Beet evidently yields a larger return than wheat, for which £6 15s per acre is much beyond the average. Prices of Farm Produce in America, —In a summary of the agriculture products of the United States for the year 1889, The Rural World, says that as a whole they average considerably lower in price on Ist January, 1890, than they did one year ago. Flour is rather more than 1 dol. a barrel cheaper now, corn 2 c. per bushel off, oats 3c. lower. The prices cf pork products are nearly 20 per cent lower than a year ago. Western beef is in heavy supply with prices fully ]-J c. lower than 12 months ago, Butter now ranges 2c. to 5 c. per lb. lower than Ist January, ISB9, cheese 1 c. lower, eggs 2 c. lower, hay 1 dol. lower. Apples are fully 1 dol. per barrel higher now than a year ago, potatoes 10 c. higher and poultry 3c.or 4c. higher. Hops are lower, tobacco firmer and wool slightly off from the quotations of Ist January, 18S9. Filtering Milk.—The method of filtering milk through sponges immediately on its beiug drawn from tho oows has been practised for some time past by most, if not all, of the dairy farmers (some 40 or 35 in number) in Dumfrieshire and elsewhere who supply the Annandale Dairy Company with milk. This new method was started by the company's dairy inspector, aud has provc=d very successful. It is apparent that filtering the milk at the farm before being put in the cans is a much better plan than filtering it after it arrives at the creamery; as by removing all impurities before hand the milk reaches the consumers in a much purer and more wholesomo condition thati after a longer or shorter transit by rail in an unfiltered or imperfectly filtered state.

The Earth's Fertility.—ln a second letter to the Times on the declining fertility of the earth, Mr Kains Jackson replies to some of his critics, explaining that he never meant to predict a dearth of food. With respect to the indestructibility of matter, Mr Kains Jackson contends that matter may exist without being available. However, there seems no reason to apprehend any con-iderable reduction of available fertilisers for many thousands of years, because improvement in farming will more than make up for extra difficulty in extracting mineral manures from the bowels of the earth, while the means of increasing the store of nitrogen in the soil are already within our reach, and may be indofinitely increased by future discoveries. The chances of some future generation being frozen out appear much less remote than the chances of its being starved out. Planting Fruit Trees.— It is to be hoped that planters of fruit trees will, in future, adopt the advice given by Mr Larsen to allow their trees greater space than is generally the case ; his opinion is that the trees should not be less than 24 feet apart, with peach and other earlybearing fruit trees in between. He might even have proposed a greater distance for apples and pears ; in the United States very few trees are planted less than 30 feet apart, even where irrigation is not practiced, aud irrigated trees should certainly be allowed a greater space than those, more especially where intermediate trees are planted also. Those who have seen old apple or pear trees on suitable soil and standing singly, either in the old country or in the colony, will admit that a circle of 30 feet diameter may be easily covered. Besides, trees require air on all sides, for if growing into, or even touching each other, there must be a loss of fruit ; therefore, a tree in a circle of thirty feet should not be allowed to extend beyond 25 feet. There need ho no loss in consequence of the trees being thiu on the grouud, for besides the temporary trees recommended, or even without these, the ground may be fully and profitably cropped throughout the year with vegetables, fodder crops and others, so long as water is at commaud, manure being used whenever necessary, so that the fertility of the soil may be retained, The "Big Four" oe Chicago.—The monopoly in cattle dealing is causing a strong and disagreeable feeling among farmers in the United States. Some strong resolutions directed against the " Big Four"—the great firms at Chicago who buy up nearly all the cattle and pigs sent to that market at prices arranged between themselves, and slaughter chem to send them out as dressed and otherwise prepared meat—wero passed the other day at the Missouri Cattle Grower's Convention. The principal resolution ended as follows : —" Resolved by the stockmen of Missouri here assembled. Th?t we demand of our National Congress and State Legislature the enactmentof such laws as will prohibit the extortionate monopoly of such combination and restore to the farmers free and fair competition in tho sale of their products, whereby they may reap the legitimate reward of their labour. And we _ further urge such legislation and foreign treaties as will secure a free exchange of our commodities with those of other countries, and thereby open the markets of the world to our surplus products." The formation of a deep water

port ou the of Texas, for foreign trading, was also reoommended, as well as the ownership of the public lands of the United States by large syndicates of capitalists. Mr Norman J. Coleman delivered a stirring spoeoh against the " Big l'our," who, he said, had crushed all honest competition, and brought the producers of hoef and pork entirely within their power, lowering prices to those producers without reducing them for the benefit of consumers.