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1889
5 January 1889
Agricultural Items.
Our Mudgee correspondent writes: - Mr. G. H. F. Cox's butter factory is doing good work, and the demand for his butter is increasing so rapidly that he finds it impossible to keep pace. The supply of milk is a long way below the capabilities of the works or the demand for the butter. It is pretty well acknowledged that inferior articles are never imitated, but as soon as a production attains a name for itself it will be sure to be pirated in some way. Mr. Cox has found it necessary to warn purchasers of this, as inferior butter is being placed in the market under the name of factory butter1
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27 April 1889
Agricultural Items.
Our Mudgee correspondent writes: "Our local butter factory at Putta Bucca is doing good work. The article supplied has already established for itself a name which causes it to be sought after in preference to the old makes. Mr. Cox cannot get enough milk to keep his customers, daily increasing as they do, going. With the return of good seasons, however, it is hoped that more cows will be available, and as a consequence more milk for the factory. The industry may be fairly said to be fully established now, and its produce tested. Mr. Cox sends butter all the way to Mount Victoria, where he has constant customers.
At a meeting of the Mudgee Pasture and Stock Board, held on Wednesday, April 17, at which Messrs. A. H. Cox (chairman), W. H. Lowe, H. A. Lowe, S. A. Blackman, and R. Rouse, jun., were present, a communication was read from the Tamworth board, with a copy of resolutions passed by them concerning a deputation to wait on the Minister for Lands, urging on him the injustice of exacting the assessment for the present year under the Act, and asking this board's assistance. The board passed a motion that a reply be sent agreeing with the views of the Tamworth people. The scale for the year was then fixed as follows: Large stock, 2d.; sheep, 2s. 1d. per 100.
Bell's Messenger of April 21 says: - A new and important application has been discovered for the ingenious machine known as Strawson's air-power distributor. The work that the machine can perform as a seed or manure distributor, and as a spray producing apparatus in the case of insectifuges, is fault less, during the coming season it will no doubt be very extensively used. But its latest application opens up a wide prospect of still greater utility, for it has been found that in distributing a dressing of fine sand upon roads and pavements, rendered slippery by either frost or mud, it performs the work in a manner hitherto unapproachable, there being simultaneously a saving of time, labour, material, and expense. It is likely, therefore, that in the near future it will be as common a practice to "strawsonise" the roads and highways of the towns as the fallows and green fields of the country.
Mr. A. T. Pringle, Government - Inspector of Vineyards, has visited the Dalwood vineyard, and finds no trace of Phylloxera vastatrix. The insect reported as being the phylloxera is of a distinct character, and is not injurious to the vines. It lifts under the loose bark above the surface. A sample of the insect is about to be forwarded to Sydney for inspection,
The leading pastoralists of Muswellbrook intend to soon erect a slaughtering establishment on the property of Mr. Thomas Cook, close to the railway line, so that they may commence to forward carcases instead of livestock to the Sydney market during the coming winter.
A very successful trial has been made of a cornstalk cutter, patented by the maker, Mr. W. Mitchell, of Richmond. The farmers in the district are well satisfied with the results of the experiment.
Complaint is made of the high standard of examination required by the R. A. Society of England, inasmuch as it is beyond the scope of ordinary farmers. What should be aimed at would be a syllabus requiring a fair knowledge of agricultural chemistry, bookkeeping, land surveying and mensuration of a nature to meet the needs of ordinary everyday farmers, together with an elementary knowledge of botany, animal physiology and entomology.
Last year Russia sent to the United Kingdom the largest quantities of wheat, barley and oats, and the second largest quantity of linseed. Her policy is to sell everything can spare, and her wheat rules the market, irrespective of America2
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3 August 1889
Dairy Notes.
Our Mudgee correspondent writes on the 27th ultimo: — With regard to the discussion going on in your columns about the new system of butter making - viz., by wrapping the cream in a cloth and burying it, Mrs. G. H. F. Cox, of Putta Bucca, has tried the plan with a decided success. Several persons who saw and tasted the butter declare it to be excellent. "It has a rich, mellow taste, and is quite equal if hot superior to churn butter." So says one of our locals: Mrs. Cox has scored a success, which must be regarded as a set off against the failure recorded in your last. Perhaps others will try the plan, as there is nothing like a good many trying, then the true conditions of success will become known, so that there will, if these be carefully followed, no such thing as failure. Mrs. Cox has called the butter thus made "Perra" butter, why I don't know. Perhaps, as it was made in the earth, "Terra" butter would be a better and more apt term, and would necessitate only one letter being changed3
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