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, AGRICULTURAL NOTES. j

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AGRICULTURAL NOTES. j BY A PRACTICAL FARMER. PRESENT POSITION AND FUTURE PROSPFCTS. With a large crop of fodder last year, and a verj mild winter, farmers this spring are content tc wait for the return of the grass season without experiencing the anxieties" and expenses wliick attend a deficient supply of homegrown feeding materials. Indeed, there is this year an abundance. In regard to prices of his produce the farmer is net so favourably situated as be was a year ago. Fat cattle taken generally are a little lower than at this time last year, but mutton and Iamb are slight]; higher. Bacon, however, is going down, and pigs must follow. In regard to dairy matters, whilt the price of cheese is maintained at about last year's prices, butter is of a lower value. The price of corn has lately gone against the farmer. Com- pared with this time last year, wheat is 2s. per qr. cheaper, barley shews a fall of 3s. 7d., and oats of 3s. 8d. It may be, however, that some of this reduction is due not only to the lower value in the markets, but also to the reduction in the quality due to a sunless sky and wet autumn, which in many districts acted unfavourably on the I condition of the grain. It is very likely that the recent re-opening of the Argentine markets for live stock will affect the agricultural situation in two I ways. With an increased supply of fat cattle from that quarter some slight influence on the price of meat of an unfavourable character may be ex- perienced, but on the other hand there will be a greater demand for bulls of a high class and pure breed. At a recent sale in Northumberland five Shorthorn bulls were bought for South Africa at an average of 241 guineas, and one of them was purchased at 505 guineas. In the past Argentina has been one of our best customers for high-bred stock, and the same thing seems likely to be repeated. This, however, means that in the future we shall have a better class of fat stock and dead meat imported from that country, and the compe- tition with our own supplies will be more keen. Still, in the future as in the past, our most profit- able course is to aim at a high quality, for which there is the best demand, and which foreign pro- ducers as a rule find the greatest difficulty in com- peting with. HELP FROM THE RAILWAYS. The Great Eastern Railway Company has hitherto been the most ready of the English railway com- panies to meet the requirements of the agricul- turists now it appears the Great Western Company think it time to make a bid for the farmers' support. The compauy have recently issued a pamphlet which shows the rates of conveyance of agricultural produce, including passenger train and goods train service for all agiicultural produce, fruit, vegetables, &c. Rates have been reduced and other facilities offered. The company say, in a statement signed by the chairman and secretary, that they wish it to be known that if the agricul- turists, at any point on their system of railway, will co-operate and agreo so to aurirregate their consign- ments as to make up reasonable truck loads of the different descriptions of their produce for consum- ing centres, the company desire to consider the subject with them with the view of making convey- ance arrangements that should enable business to be done. The company also say they will be glad to send a representative to any point upon their railway to confer with intending senders upon this subject, and to afford information and advice in regard to conveyance rates and transit. IMPROVING THE DISPOSITION; To improve the all-round character of a dairy cow, the great degree of placidity of disposition is an important factor. From this point of view, the milking winners are worthy of double prizes, one for milking as at present, and one for the greatest degree of domestication, which also concerns the milk yield. According to the improvements in this respect since the early history of Egypt, the domes- tication must have taken a long time, but we must remember, on the other hand, that probably more has been done for the development of live stock in Great Britain in the last one hundred and fifty year than during the preceding 6,000 years. This, says a great writrr, who does not lack a sense of humour, is very comforting, because if all the cows of ancient Eypt were. kickers, and there are, sav, five out of one hundred addicted to this practice, the rate of improvement must have been very small. Within the last feneration the improvement must have been in something like geometrical ratio, and there is, therefore, ::re;»t reason to hope that perfect domesticity will be shortly attained. We nowadays understand far bi-tter heredity of dis- position, as well as of bodily qualities, and the principles of natural and artificial selection con- tinually put in practice must before many more years further domesticate our animals. A savage bull is a great hindrance to improvement in this line. His female progeny must inherit some of his nervous and irritable temper, and be, therefore, lessened in value for milking purposes, so that the employment of placid-tempered bulls is a great help. The cow of to-day gives more milk and more butter fat than her ancestor of bygone genera- tions, and this may be still further advanced by increased domesticity. THE ABSENCE OF Liitp IX SOIL. There has been a wonderful change during the last fifty years in thf use of lime in land manuring. In the early part of last century lime was uspd as a dressing every few years, and no doubt in many CES S the practice was overdone and the land made poor in consequence, as lime, although a necessarv constituent of the soil, is not, after all, a manure. ow farmers have yone to the other extreme, and seldom use it at all. This is just as great a mis- take as the former practice. In the Wcburn ex- periments the need is shewn of lime where it does not exist naturally, and especially when sulphate of ammonia is used as a manure. For two or throe years the continuously grown wheat and barley on the sulphate of ammonia plots were very thin of plants, and yielded very little corn. Where, how- ever. lime was applied within about four years the results were much better on the sulphate plots. This is a matter which should not escape attention. EQUAL DISTIMUUTION OF MANCKES. The distribution of manures is scarcely of less importance than the selection of them. Whatever the amount of manure that is employed,care should ba taken to have it spread equally over the area for which it is intended. Care should be taken to secure good mechanical condition, and to do this it may be necessary to pass the stuff through a half- inch riddle, breaking all the lumps that fail to go through..Some manures, such as kainit and sul- phate of ammonia, go into hard, almost rcck-like masses if stored for some months, and when in this condition the expense of pulverising them is no small matter. This is one reason why it is seldom wise to store manure for a long period. If this has to be done the addition of a small proportion cf peat- litter dust or sawdust will make the substance more friable. The necessity of insisting on good mechanical condition is evident from the fact that one often sees artificial manure being sown contain- ing lumps as large as a walnut, and sometimes as large as a cricket ball. Not only does the presence of lumps prevent much of the crop getting its fair share of the dressing, but the spots on which the lumps fall are actually poisoned, so that the. plants are weakened or killed outright. The loss from the latter cause is greatest in the case of such a crop as clover,and with highly soluble manures like nitrate of soda. VALUE OF MANURIAL RESIDUE. In farm valuations a rough-and-ready way is often adopted to settle matters between the out- going tenant and the landlord or (as is often the case) the incoming tenant. A committee of the Cheshire Chamber of Agriculture have suggested some alterations of the existing system, which seem fair to both parties. For instance, in regard to compensation for unexhausted value of feeding stuffs, they suggest that it should be based on the manurial value and not on the actual cost, and should be for the last two years of the tenancy. That hay and straw roots should be estimated in the same way, but subject to local conditions. The face value should be given for temporary pastures of two years and upwards. That tenants should be fully reimbursed for seeds sown during the last year of the tenancy, but that the neglect to make such seeding should be a matter of counter claim. It is also recommended that foul land should be charged for as dilapidations, according to the position of such land in the rotation, and that in every case the condition and previous management of a holding should be kept in view in arranging a valuation of the improve- ments. These proposals seem fair enough, and it is in the power of tenant-right valuers in the various counties to adopt and carry out these recommenda- tions. This they can do by their associations where such have been formed. In those counties where tenant-right valuers' associations do not exist iC is very desirable that they should be formed, as by that means a fair system of valuation can be adopted and carried out consistently.

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