AGRICULTURAL BREVITIES.

Inangahua Times, Volume 16, 22 October 1880, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL BREVITIES.

« — (Summarised from Exchanges.) An important maxim for farmers is — the timely performance of all farm operaliotis. Dr. Voeleker once hazarded the heresy that in fields, as in gardens', dpep eultiva& tion, properly performed, might almost take the jjlace of land drainage. Gypsum, commonly called plaster, is composed of 22 equivalents of water. 22 equivalents of water, 32 of lime, and 46 of sulphuric acid. It is to be found upon the surface of that large area of plains surrounding the Cloncurry hills. That land ought to grow splendid wheat. Generally speaking the better the fruit Ihe fewer seeds it contains. A farmer in Williamston, (Vt.) emptied the brine from some pork bairels at the foot of a maple tree. Early in spring, with Iho first run of sap, this tree was tapped, and sugar made from the sap. The sonar turned out to be so impregnated will salt that it could not be ealen. A recent examination in (lie luboratorv of the IJoyal Aprieultural Society of what the seller called " British guano," price £3 the ton, was fouud lo contain 14 per cent of ammonia and but little phosphate of lime, and ''not worth carriage." Desolalion and poverty are npon the colonists of British Columbia. The dead bodies of cattle, sheep, horses, and mules were to be seen embedJed in the snow in every direction ; almost every living thin" having perished through. Ihe excess sivf col tl of tl.is last winter. Latent English news speaks of six weeks drought ; the same weeks of last year were six of continuous wet. It is esl'maleil that there are six bun» died millions of sheep in the world, .or al ihe lowest csiimate 320,533 milos of sheep if sluing on end — nearly enough to en* circle the earth thirteen times. For the third time within the past two years an outbreak of typhoid fever has been reported iv Bristol as the result of using milk contaminated with fewer germs. Messrs Read and Pell of the T?oy;.l Agrieulmral Commission, who went to America, have not even yet issued their report, and people begiu to ask, ' Why this delay ?' There hnve baen several recent outs breaks of trichinosis in England. The expense of au ' eiqnry ' as to the p'oprieiy of purchasing a faun for sewage purposes, near ll;uii't>n Cuint, Englmid, amounted to £20.CC0. Th shorthand writer's notes fill a volume o! 2000 i>»ues. The Mark Lane Express says: • Aus~ tralion meat is not likely to be soil here at less lliBD 5J per In., and our second quality moat will wlwoys lie worth Id. per |ii more than ineit tiial lists leLMi Iroz-n.' lit,- wish is lnlher to the thought, w^ l.«-:k. Tl!<» rX[iiM'in>nnt mndc in Sydney to .ftt-nu'iie il.ti iidvi-.-ii'i.: y of s. uJiiiy r z n nit-'V's of tiiu'iuii ' in tin: \ko,;\ 'd our ui;i! a'-"s (iciii-nks (In; Mark L-i,.e Ex|*res«) do not tyke any ace* unt oi the liri, ami the space occupied W'Ul'l rt-pr. . sent a freightage uot adapted to the value i of wool.

The latest accounts from France state phylloxera is increasing fearfully. Tomatoes will yield by careful cultivation, on one acre of land, 400 bushels, A correspondent of the Australasian sends the following as an infallihlue cure for apple blight : — ' L-iy here tbo roots of tlie tree most affecterl ; scrape the parls mo«t nffecied. let them lie open to the weaHier a few days and nighls; then sprinkle a good dusting of sulphur over them, and cover them up n^n'V painting the whole of Hie stem and branches wiiii castor oil. This T Im" proved efecfual, and do not know one who has tried it but wifh success. Here is a dsscriplion ot a Mallee squatter's homestead in Victoria: The head sfnt'on at Brim presents a s;id snee« tacle. There is n large and substantially built brick house, but it is unoccupied, and the nbhits, by underlining it, are bringing it down. Before (he invasion of j (he rabbits, there was a fine fruit garden, j but it is now a wilderness. j The demand fir tomatoes in England is now so great that extensive e'ass« houses are solely devoted to growing them at all times of Hie year. The Royal florticul'unil Society of Ireland offered a piiza for an rxotic plant grown in a pot. A Mr Smith, who took tlie prize, was afterwards dis« qualified bfcnu'e hi* spee'en was 2ro*rn in a tub. Straw splitting, certainly. The Royal A sri cultural Society of England paid £115S Is Bd. for police projection during their last year's sbovr ; £"770 for refreshments and enfenainments in show yard ; £690 for stewards' hotel expenses and entertaining foreign visis tors ; and it took another £617 to furnish a tent ror H.JJ.H. the president. — Not at all bad for an Enslish * sliouf.'