FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2668, 23 July 1891, Page 4

FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD NOTES.

An Acnicri/riirai. I'aucki.s I'ost.— Mr .1. llemii'ter lleiitou is an advocate I'm- the establishment of an agricultural parcels post which already exists in I'Yance. In a letter addressed to the loading Knglish journals on the subject, dated from he says : " Sir, — I am sending bv this po-t to friends in England boxes of flowers at the cost f>f IJd s>ach for postage. Ttie distance is over 000 miles, mid I know by experience .hat flowers packed in frail boxes will arrive fresh and nniujured on Monday morning. The ol'jfct of tho French rJovernmeut in «'' v i"n these facilities is of course to encourage native industry The obvious question then arises, whycannot we establish an agricultural parcel" post in Knglatid, at special low rates, for tho benefit of fanners, market gardeners, dairymen and others ? By doing this we would encourage an important home industry, which is at present subject to ■he fierce-t, foreign competition. Thousands of households in London who pay cash for everything would gladly arrange to receive fresh butter, eggs, poultry, and such garden produce as is in season, if the parcel rates were reduced to a Id per lb, minimum of 3d for a parcel :j I'd in weight. In order to give practical effect to the Mi<ri;ostinn, I bejr to say that [ do not wish to hear from people who have long thought of or advocated the idea and believe it impossible to carry out, but. I ask '.allies and gentleman in tho country and fellow members in tho House of Commons to write to mo fit 3G Katon Square, .London, expressing their willingness to form a deputation to wait on the Postmaster-General. I am cdii iindeut Mr Raikes will not give us an unfavourable answer."

Tub Fkozkx Meat Tbadk.—lt is a sign or rather the efect, of tho boom in meat, growinir that land which has been itoinjr Dogii'iug for u long time is now being eagerly sought after. The enormous strides made in the frnzen meat industry will largely alter the eouditiou of sheepfanning. It is likely that lands which arotiow devoted to both rearing and fattenI iug sheep will be confined to the one purpose for which tlioy arc best adapted. Thus the hill runs will supply tho storo stock, while tho low-lying lauds will be more profitably employed ia fattening sheep for the frozen imu-kot. Sheepfanning, which in the pa--t was supposed to be only possible on largo areas of country, can now be named on successfully on fanin of a, few hundred acrM in extent, numbers of sections of land, the b,iliinces left over from sales of Crown lands, nnd which were supposed to be worth no one's whil-; to take up, have been 1-itely ftoutrhl. Then.' land sdes offer a pni-peuc of an iii'nvised di'iiiiiud of I iLour, and generally of increased prosperity. The comparatively smtll funnel's will lind their profit in the rapid turn-over of their money in tho fattening- nf small lots nf store sheep ; and in the bush where on the cleared lands gra*s abundant, lirgo numbers of animals lit for freezing could bo turned oil' every season. This ■system of trealiuent of bind assumes that iho supplies of storo sheep and lambs will be kept up to allow of tho development of r>lo fro/en meat industry to its fullest possible extent. That it i« capable of being developed to proportions compared with which the present industry is only in its infancy, admits of no doubt. Tho trade has only as yet been pushed in Kngland, and even there, it is capable of great ex-, tension. It has not yet been realised to what e.Nfenl New Zealand can supply fat meat. No systematic effort has been made :.m a-je'.-rtaiu the fat'ening capabilities of Ihi! country, for hitherto sheep-farming ha* only been carried on in the crudest of fashions. For the most part the Hocks are running wild and if the .sheep get fat, well and good they aro sold ; if they do not get fit for the butcher it i-i put down to the season. On many of the (-tations considerable bivadths of land arc sown with mangolds, turnips, or Cape barley, but tho great bwlk of tho country has only been partially improved, awaiting time when tho demands of Iho frozon meat trado will compel a more generous treatment.

SllKEi , . —The demand for sheep here this year (says a writer in the Otago Witness), has been quite phenomenal, and northern lloek-owners took advange of the circumstance to supply us with huire, drafts. Whether those who have invested in sheep at tho high prices lately ruling will have as unpleasant an experience as those who bought cows at high prices when the dairy factories wore being started remains to be seen. Up to within a month ago there was a great run on merino cwo.-i, old sheep «f this description fetching as high as Us each, and in -iimo cases :i few peiioo over that amount. Sheep of this description would a few years asro nt have been saleable at more tiian It per head. Such are some of the vicissitudes of the farmer's lot. For himbs al<» high prices have been given, 10s beinir about tho average, price for the beat lots offered. Last, your they could bo purchased for about (is, and many doubled the money invested. It, is clear that, puri:lii:>er» this year will have to be content with smaller profits. Other descriptions of nheep are correspondingly high, but the market is bcemninj.' weaker, and some f:in.i..-r.i ii;-u po.-tponini,' i.ureiuisiny till sprinir, whf u they anticipate, a fall in prico owing to the scarcity of. feed and to bills bi coming due. A Urge, number are ciimineiicing to keep sheep this year, and there are others inuivasiug their iloeks, This dui s uot mean ;i material (liminution of cropping, but rather the giving up of dairying- on the part of many. Owners of lurgu areas will iirnb.ibly crop Jbss, but I'linuurH will iilvvtiys- rind sumo profit in Mi's even ill the prcnit. ]niije in all those districts in which (ho avi'rago yield varies from 10 to 50 bu-hcls per aoro. Wo heap a frroat (.'eal said about, tho profits of sheep farming , , but it, has brrn noted that Jeven our host, ;-li-np.farmers who farm good hind grow a hrnn ipr.intity of oafs, and many ol' them will not. deny that they find the j/ruwiu:.' o] oats ]>refit,:ible, nnd that iSiey would not: think ~,f growing only wh.:t tliey rripiiro for the use on tlm farm, notwithstanding tiic impetus r'iven to shecp-farming by the sue'v-s-i of r.h" fro/cn m , 'ill trade. Skal.sk 1.7 JJriT.H.nrsv—Thp sealfkin Imffiilo, made by noting pollid Auerdocn

cattle on tho wild stock, is said to have a fine glossy fur, a* beautiful as that, of the fed, and much thinker. The hump on the buffalo almost entirely disappears iu this cross, and with it tho (Oi.iggy mane for which buffaloes have bo< n noted. There are now I'J of these seal buffaloes, and the eros-< promises r> become a successful am) valuable hreed. The; , lose their wild trait- and become as easily domesticated as are our common cattle under like circumstances. The Hudson's Bay Fur Company is giving np business because furs are no longer to bo had, and the sealskin Vuifi-.ilo, many of which show fur marked like a tiger, will doubtless becomo a valuable product in northern climes, whero the winters are too cold for tho common broods of cattle to succeed. The above c.rossinit will no doubt yield a greatly improved fur—if fur it, can bo called—but it will probably bo a long time before it ia recognised as a " sealskin.

TIIF. OUAIX TRAIiP. IN SorTIIKRN Russia. —Tho Rritish Consul-general at Odessa in a recent report gives Rome in teresting details of the grain trado in tho South of Russia. Tim revelations mndo during the last few years of the nbiiFCH which exist in the grain trade! of that country have, he says, produced <v strong feeling nmnnjr tho public in favour of " grain elevator-," Tho famo nf these palatial warehouses and tho services they iuive rendered to the corn trade of America linvo fired the imagination of tho Russian landowner, who jumps to the conclusion t.hut. their introduction into his country will provo a panacea for the evils of which he has long been thn viotim. But thor.on ditious of tho trado in the two countries lire widely dissimilar, nnd though it is hoped by tho instrumentality of elevators a better system may gradually be introduced, tho day is far distant when anything liko the regularity and expedition with which grain, operations aro fiondnetod in tho States can bo realised in Russia. While in tho former country a eat earn is taken in tho wleotion of the seed corn, which can bo graded in five or six different classes, tho farmer boinsr thus enabled to deliver his wheat at tho nearest elevator, nud to receive in exchange a warrent specifying its grade, which becomes a negotiable instrument, in Russia the qualities of wheat present such diversities iiR to be quite incapable of grading. This diversity in quality renders South Russia a favourable field for the opera dons of the manipulator. When a merchant has contracted to deliver a cargo of wheat, h« finds it impossible to furnish all of one quality, and lie accordingly employs the middleman to buy different I parcels which he mixes together until the product comes up to the required sample. Opportunities are thus offered to unscrupulous agents to p.ilm off inferior or damaged grain on their principal", who have to tilte extromo precautions against the fraud inevitable to tho situation. It was tn protect themselves against the losses to which they wore thus exposed that tho home merchants established in the principal English ports committees of arbitration, by tho decisions of which the foreign merchant is bound by hie contract to abido. It is in his dealings with the agriculturist that opportunities aro furnished for the operations of the manipu tator. Thn former is no match for the local middleman, who is to bo in every village in the double character of corn dealer and vendor of spirits, nnd to whom the farmer is almost obliged by his commercial isolition to have recourse when he wishes to dispo-e of his crops. These men aro almost invariably Jews, and the coluins of the Russian newspapers teem with articles exposing their chicanery mid bud faith. They are iu close relations with Hebrew merchants established in the towns, who transact business with the capitalists of Odessa, who again hnve connections with houses in Paris and Loudon, and thus the grain trade, which was once in tho hands of the Greeks, has graduallv shifted to the counting houses of tho Hebrews The Russian landlord undoubtedly fails to secure the samo profits from his husbandry as fall to tho lot of the American farmer, mill the Government, which is in full sympathy with its orthodox subjects, is now tentatively introducing the system of elevators, as affording the means of enabling them to i-ell their grain without applying to tho middleman.