lo Sept.. 1912.] (iciiiral Xotcs. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



DRILLING VI':RSUS BROADCASTING OF MANURES. 



I'hospliatic mamirt-s hci\e a sprcial t'llrct in encouraging the growth of 

 a <r()[) in its far]\- stages and thus establishing a good ])lant. In order to 

 exercise this effect the manure must be sowewhere in the vicinity of the 

 seed as the voung plant has no wide-spreading roots. Drilling the manure 

 with the seed gives the desired conditions with the smallest expenditure of 

 manure. ^Experiments were conducted in Hungary to find whether drilling 

 or broadcasting superphosphate gave the better return on cereal crops, and 

 the results are described in the Dent. Landic. Pressc, j8 (1911). Barley, 

 oats, wheat, and rye were the crops grown, and it was found that 102 lljs. 

 of superphosphate api)lied with the drill gave better results than 307 lbs. 

 ap[)lied broadcast on the a\erage of all the tests. 



MEAT EXPORTS. 



Four of the Australian States sent meat to the L'nited Kingdom in 

 191 r, the non-exporters being Tasmania and Western Australia. The 

 exports totalled 1,962.008 carcases of mutton. 1,649.043 of lamli, 

 and 521.654 quarters of beef. Compared with the figures for 1910, 

 the exports show a decrease of 28 per cent, in mutton, an 

 increase of 12 per cent, in lamb, with beef nearly steady. In the ca.se of 

 each class of produce, more than one-half of the total export came from 

 one particular State. Thus Xew South Wales sent 59 per cent, of the 

 mutton, Victoria 65 per cent, of the Iamb, and Queensland 95 per cent, of 

 the beef shipped from the Commonwealth. The Agent-General in London 

 reports the prospects for trade with the United Kingdom in 191 2 to be 

 " \ery satisfactory '" from the AustraliiUi point of view. From time to 

 time during the last six years, efforts have been made to- induce the Conti- 

 nental Governments to allow the import of frozen meat into their 

 dominions, but regarding this he states: — " Speaking generallv of European 

 countries, I fear that they are all imperxious to external pressure in the 

 matter of the removal of trade restrictions. There are many thousands of 

 workmen in all the great indu.strial countries who rarely taste fresh meat; 

 it cannot be supposed that this condition will last for ever, and when the 

 barriers against the importation of frozen meat are broken down, it will be 

 by pressure frrim within."' The position is encouraging to those who take 

 lonnr views. 



DRAINING WITH DYNAMITE. 



A good deal has been heard recentlv of the use of dynamite and other 

 high explosives in the removal of tree stumps and for breaking up hard 

 subsoils in the orchard, but the latest application of the explosives is in 

 the drainage of swamps. Such swamps are often caused by the surface 

 waters which collect on low ground failing to percolate through a com- 

 l)aratively thin layer of impervious clay. The water is held as in a saucer. 

 A Kansas farmer owned a 40-acre swamp of this kind on his land, and he 

 proceeded to tap it. Across the lowest part, where the water was about 

 3 feet deep, he blasted a row of holes. Tn a few days the water had dis- 

 appeared, and in the following season he is said to have reaped 1.600 

 bushels of oats froai the 40 acres. Since then he has produced four cutting.? 

 ■of lucerne annuallv on this land. 



