STEMS FOR FARMERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 8258, 26 December 1911, Page 7

STEMS FOR FARMERS

As a precaution against an outbreak of foot and mouth disease at Middlezoy, near Bridgwater, fifty-eight cows were slaughtered on a farm and cremated in a Held, five tons of coal and a quantity of petrol being used. At a meeting of members of the Farmers' ■•.; .and Settlers' Association, held at Wagga (N.S.W.). last week, to discuss the demands of the Rural Workers' Union, Mr L. Cox said that if the union log were agreed to, and preference to unionists granted, the position of the farmers would be worse than that of serfs. He urged members to enter into a whole-hearted opposition to the union. A representative meeting of potatogrowers of Pukekohe was held recently, when it was decided to take steps to have a central market, and to regulate as far as possible the supplies coming forward, so as to make" the crops payable to growers. It was estimated by one of the growers present, and accepted as correct by the meeting, that the cost of laying down an acre of land in potatoes was £26. As the average crop from an acre woxild not be likely to exceed five tons, potatoes at the prices ruling at present entailed a loss on growers. . On the Hauraki' Plains, in the Tliames Valley, near Auckland,' they Government have put down five artesian wells to depths:-of from 300 ft. to 600 ft. A splendid supply of water has been met with in each case, the flow rising several feet above the surface, and yielding from 4,000 gallons up to 115,200 gallons per day. But the water is warm soda-water, and the people who first drink at the crystal flow usually get a taste which makes them look thoughful for a while. -As a matter; of fact although this water can be ranked as a first-class corrective in cases of rheumatism or bladder troubles, it is not a plasant beverage, and the settlers have not yet cultivated a taste for it, so they depend on rain. Stock seem to like thi sdrink even unadulterated, and thrive on it, and there seems a likelihood now that the district is carying so many cows that milk and soda-water will become the general product of these newly-reclaimed fertile plains. An Owaka farmer, speaking to an "Otago Daily Times" reporter last week, said:—"lt is the best grass season we have had for many years past. Owing to the continued dry seasons some of the dairy farmers were thinking of giving up. dairying, and resorting to sheep; as cow feed ,is greatly hindered in, its growth- in districts which have been cleared of bush and rain is not plentiful. But so far this year the weather has suited the dairy farmers admirably, though many townspeople may complain of its unseasonableness." '