AGRICULTURAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 8452, 21 August 1911, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL.

ITEMS FOR FARMERS.

The wattle is flowering earlier at New Plymouth this year, and is more prolific This is regarded by some as an indication of an early summer.

Waikato cattle buyers have been operating freely in Taranaki lately; the reason given is that young cattle in the Waikato are scarce, and prices are fully ten shillings per head higher there than in Taranaki.

A crossbred hen belonging to a farmer at Dovercourt, England, has laid an egg weighing 4^-oz. When broken, the egg was found to contain not only a double yolk, but another, perfectly formed egg with shell complete.

Some of the settlers in the back parts of the province are complaining of the shortage of labour at' present (says the "Taranaki News".) Efficient bushfellers are difficult to obtain and more difficult to keep.

The estimated average yield per cow from Victorian herds is from 250 to 300 gallons of milk a year; the average butter return ranges, between 11 lib and 1131b. The "Australasian .remarks that n ofigures could more clearly show the low grade of milking cattle that must be; included in many herds. Observant and experienced men compute that' 'eight or ten rabbits eat or destroy as much grass as one sheep. Considering the millions of rabbits there are in Australasia the loss in the carrying capacity of the country must be exceedingly heavy. A valuable experiment has been tried in the cultivation of thousandheaded kale by Mr Willian Perry, of Penrose, Masterton, the well-known sheep-breeder, and with highly successful results. The kale has proved blightresistant, and sheep eat it with avidity and thrive upon it. The Stock Department has been busy at Feilding. At the S.M. Court there two settlers, charged with exposing for sale sheep infected with lice, were each fined substantial amounts with costs, whilst another, charged with failing to dip sheep within the specified time was fined 50s and costs. A Timaru farmer who paid a visit to the Winton district the other day expressed himself (says the "Record") as being highly pleased with the country passed • through. He could quite understand the fertility of Southland soil, and remarked that at. Timaru, land of the same quality was realising £40 per acre.

Extraordinary bargains in prize sheep were secured at a sale at Riby Grove Farm, Grimsby, England, last month, owing to the closing of foreign ports to English stock u^nv 'account of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Two rams fetched 150 guineas each, as compared with 1450 guineas paid for the same breed a few years ago.

A petition is being circulated throughout Marlborough urging the Government to acquire the Hillersden Estate for closer settlement. It is pointed out that this estate, which comprises 176,000 acres, is bequeathed to forty-seven beneficiaries, most of whom reside out of the Dominion, that the profit from this huge area is thus spent outside of New Zealand, and that, if the land Were subdivided it would provide comfortable homesteads for hundreds of landless people.

The Veterinary Department has extended the scope of the regulations in reference to pork to include the inspection of carcases of pork to be sold for human consumption in any form whatever (including hams and bacon), no matter through what source they are intended to be purveyed. The further protection afforded the consumer by the Department's action should be greatly appreciated accordinly.

Grubs have done, and are still doing, a lot of damage to the grass pad-, docks in the Milburn district'(says the "Bruce Herald"). In some cases they have eaten off the roots of acres of grass, and the grass can be gathered up in heaps—fquite dead. It was thought that the frosts would kill the pests, but it seems they are not killed so easily. Heavy rolling is advocated by Mr Hilgendorf, of the Government Agricultural Department.

At a recent fat cattle sale in Dunedin only 81 head were offered, and keen competition resulted. Prices rose alarmingly. Cattle which ordinarily fetch £9 to £10 sold at £13 10s. One prominent butcher declared that the memory of no man could recall such a day when prices were so. high and the quality 'co inferior. On the average, beef realised from 40s to 45s per 1001b.

A Taranaki farmer had been watching nights in-a paddock for sheepworrying dogs. About one a.m. he heard the short snappy bark of a dog and the plaintive cry of a sheep. It seemed about one hundred yards away. It was very dark, but he fancied he saw the black form and fired his gun. He rushed over and found the dead carcase of the dog and the sheep it had been worrying alongside. He had shot the dog without hitting tho sheep.

Mail advices from tho Argentine recently announced the death of the ram Sylvan, grand champion at the Sydney Show a few years back. Sylvan* says the "Sydney Mail") was purchased and used on Canonbar station, and was subsequently sold to a South American brelder for £1000. This Esk Vale ram vvS greatly admired and the enterprise of the Argentine buyer in coming over here to give such an outside price deserved better luck Sylvan' s sons have since gained high honours in the show ring here, and probably the South Americans will try and make up their loss at this year's stud sheep fair.

A Taranaki settler, who was recently on a visit to New South Wales, speaks highly of the prospects of various parts of that extensive country. He was much struck with Wagga Wagga, which is situated some seventy miles from the Victorian border. The population is about 8000. * The land in the vicinity is utilised for wheat growing. Wheat, he says, is to be seen piled up in stacks, with a covering of corrugated iron, at all the railway stations in the district. Intending settlers are rushing in every day from every part of Australia. Land agents abound, there being no less than 32, and they cannot cope with the number looking for land. "I have never seen anything like it in New Zealand," ho concluded.