LAND, STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 195, 31 May 1934, Page 7

LAND, STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By "The Tramp"). Many methods are practised in getting ewes that have lost their lambs to foster a strange lamb. Camouflaging the lamb in the skin of the dead lamb is sometimes followed, but the difficulty is in covering the tail effectively. A Herefordshire farmer, however, describes a method which he claims to be 100 per cent, efficient. He skins the dead lamb from the shoulders to near the tail, which he cuts off about three inches from the body. Then, starting from just above the hocks, he bares the hindquarters and pulls the skin carefully so as to peel the tail like turning a sock inside out. The live lamb's tail is placed inside the casing of the dead lamb's dock, tying the skin in the usual way under tho belly, and across the chest. He emphasises the need for puncturing the skin thoroughly to let out body heat and for the lamb to be thoroughly hungry before being taken to the ewe.

"The farmer makes too complex an affair out of his daily work. I believe that the average farmer puts to a really useful purpose only about 5 per cent, of the energy that he spends. v If anyone ever equipped a factory in the style, say, the average farm is fitted out, the place would, be cluttered with men. The worst factory in Europe is hardly as bad as the average farm barn. Power is utilised to the least possible degree. Not only is everything done by hand, but seldom is ,a thought given to logical arrangement. A farmer doing his chores will walk up and down a rickety ladder a dozen times. He will carry water for years instead of putting in a few lengths of pipe. Ho thinks of putting money into improvements as an expense. Farm products at their lowest prices are dearer than they ought to be. Farm profits at their highest are lower than they ought to be. It is a waste motion —waste effort—that makes farm prices high and profits low."—Henry Ford in "My Life and Work."

In centenary mood, Australia is renewing its memories of the founders of primary industries. It has definite information of the sheep if not of the cow; also of wheat.. Before ever he came to New Zealand, the 'Rev. S. Marsden helped to lay the foundation of Australian flocks. "Sheepman" writes that after reading Press correspondence, in connection with the centenary of the death of Captain John Macarthur, "tho average person may be pardoned for believing that the sheep and wool industry of Australia owes its being solely to his energy and discernment.. That such is not the case, and that others had a share in the initiation of Australia's greatest industry, will be shown from a perusal of the following short resume of the early history of the venture. "When the first merino sheep were brought to New South Wales (from ISouth Africa) they were divided between about half a dozen settlers, amongst whom were Paymaster Cox, Captain Macarthur, and the Rev. S. Marsden. These three, alone, did any good with the sheep. Macarthur kept a pure stud, and by careful breeding improved both wool and carcass. He also orossed them with the colonial sheep of his day, and proved that their hairy fleeces could be improved to be of commercial value. Marsden also experimented on'the same lines, and the samples of wool resulting from his crossings of, the different breeds of sheep, together with the notes in his own handwriting, are to bo seen in the Sydney Technological Museum. He also kept a pure stud from which the celebrated Egelabra flock is directly descended. If Mr Paymaster Cox be the ancestor pf the Coxes of Mudgee, then it is most probable that his sheep were the progenitors of the greatest flocks of fine wool sheep bred on the Australian mainland. "About the year 1800, Captain Macarthur visited England, taking with him cloth woven in the colony, also samples of his wool, which found great favour with the manufacturers there: Whilst in England he was able to secure, at the first auction salo of the Royal Stud at Kew, some pure Spanish merino rams and ewes, which he sent to Australia. About four years later (1804) the Rev. S. Marsden went to England, taking with him the first consignment of wool for sale from the colony. This wool was packed in barrels and stored, pending sale, in an old building in the village of. Farsley, near Leeds,, and Bradford. Marsden had a suit made from this wool, winch he wore when presented to Kmg George 111. by Mr Wilberforce. The ■King was keenly interested by Marsden's account of the. experiments in wool-growing, and presented him With some merino rams and ewes from the Roval Stud at Kew to take back to Australia. In the Parish Church at Farsley is «f stained glass window and, nearby, outside, an obelisk erected to the memory of Samuel Marsden by the manufacturers of Bradford and Leeds as a mark of their appreciation of his activities in developing the industry. From the foregoing it will be seen that equal credit should be given lo Macarthur and Marsden for inaugurating the export trade of wool and to the Cox family for showing the quality of wool which can be produced in Ausj, tralia." . u . Another correspondent writes: As it has been decided that the Prince visit Canberra in November, may I suggest that we include in his programme a visit to Lambrigg'(six miles from Canberra). William Farrer began his experiments with wheat on three acres at Lambrigg, and is buried there. No single individual contributed so much as Farrer to the wealth and prosperity of Australia/ No Australian is less honoured than this ' scientist, who lies 'Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung' on the Point Hut road to the Federal capital, and almost within its boundaries. The inclusion of Lambrigg in the Prince's itinerary might do something to remove the stigma of ingratitude that we bear as a nation through our complete indifference to Farrer's memory."