HAWKE'S BAY FARM AND RURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 7

HAWKE'S BAY FARM AND RURAL NOTES.

(Fhom Otje Own Cobrespondent.) The Hatuma settlers held their annual I function a week or two I Harvest back, and made a very ] Home. happy night of it. These ' meetings go a long way

towards promoting a feeling of friendship and unity in the sertlemcir.it, besides tho beneficial results of tlie competitions for the various classes of produce. There were weight-guessing competitions for sheep, and; prizes for every kind of farm produce. It was quifco a show on a small scale. The guests included a number of the auctioneers and thair clerks, who .did their share towards helping the fuui along.

It is not often that fires occur in May, but it has happened so this Fires. year, and a considerable area of bush land has had tho fire over it. The losses have not been serious, though one sawmill a.nd a number of cottages were burn*. As for sowing the burns, it will be advisable to leave this till next spring, as it is too late in the season now. Speaking of sowing reminds me of a tip I got a few years ago from a man who had spent all his life in the grass and seed business. I came across him and his gang labouring up the hill, surface sowing a new burn, and asked his reason for not sowing lown, when he could cast the seed three times as far. He told me always to sow uphill and not down, the reason boing that by so doing the seed will go into all the erevioes. whereas if sown downhill it merely catches on what might be called fchs little terraces. I carefully noted the results of the two ways of sowing, and there is not the slightest doubt of the truth of what he told me : that seed which has been sown uphill will produce a much heavier crop of seed and will form a sole of grass in much less time than hat wJiich has bfen sown downhill. The extra cost of sowing uphill (which amounts to 3d to 6d an aero, according to the land) is repaid many times over.

At the time of writing the temperature is wonderfully mild, while The little rain has fallen for the ■Weather. last month, and the ground is very dry~y-so much so. indeed, that the feed is growing very slowly aud is disappearing rather faster than it should do. Still, what is left 13 good hard grass, wi'.ich is preferable to having a lot of soft green stuff. Hoggrts are doing exceptionally well, and with this good start ou.^ht to go through the winter with flying colours.

There is still * cood demand for fats of all descriptions. The cheaper Stock freights which came into Market. force at the beginning of this month have prevented the slight drop that would probably have taken place. Heavy wethers have been very scare? all through the season, and well finished sheep are getting scarce now. There are a great many sheep going to the works which cannot be called first-class freezers or anything approaching it. This is very pleasant while it lasts, but if it continues Hawke's Bay will bo increasing instead of reducing the margin in price between its mutton and that of Canterbury.

On the subject of getting this pest wdcr control a correspondent, California^ gives his experience as folThLstlei. lows:— He had a piece of land which was very dirty with these thistles. This piece he worked for turnips. The following year the land was worked for grass in the spring. Shortly after sowing a heavy rain washed the hill faces into ruts; and. determined to have a good job, he worked the land up and sowed it again, since when there is only an odd tiny thistle to be seen. He asks for an opinion whether his trouble is over or not. Well, I hope it is; it reads well, hut I am not samgnine ; there is a vitality m California-n thistle that is not to be denied, and as the land has been in. gra«=s for only 12 months ifc is rather soon to say whether the vitality has been destroyed or not. The odd tiny pla>nt will soon grow and spread unless they aTe so few that he is able to do something to kill them. It 'S no use pulling them, because the root breaks off. and it is the root that must "be killed. I recommend coarse salt where practicable. In the above case it might be possible to go over the whole paddock and put about a. cupful or less on each plant, and if the stock are kept off for a few weeks every okLut that gets salted will be dead for (rood

and all. On grass la.ud which oarries a good sward these thistles spread mostly from the runners. Where the thistles are in patches only the salt is a good and reasonably cheap destructor, besides being a safe one. HEPERE.