Man on the Land.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1212, 17 December 1919, Page 3

Man on the Land.

A; Jersey heifer sold in England the other day at S7sgns, a. record for an individual ofvtho breed.

An Aberdeen-Angus bull was sold in the Argentine recently for £9ooo—a record. The previous record price was £7200, obtained also in tho Argentine a few weeks previously. Unrest among farm hands is not limited to the United Kingdom. In tho United States and Canada the farm labourers aro demanding big'concessions, and,in Sweden tb e . position on the approach of harvest is so critical that the Government has appointed a conciliation board.

It was reported in London at the week-end that the British Food .Minister (Mr Roberts) intended from 3.oth November to reduce the maximum' price for New Zealand mutton by 2d a lb owing to considerable arrivals of imported meat and the plentiful supplies of home-grown beef. London newspapers foreshadow a reduction of 2d a pound in the controlled price of bacon, an increase in tho weekly butter ration to 1% ounces, and tho release from bond of a greater supply of whisky! At the Border Union Society's big annual ram sale at Kelso (Scotland) a. Border-Leicester ram was sold for £OOO, J,tr Boss, of Culloden, "Inverness, being the buyer. The price is a record for the breed : tho previous best being £3OO at tho Society's sale in 1914.

A. '1)0101 step lias boon taken by the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society in announcing the horsoleaping championship of New Zealand, to take place at the show in February. The prizes for this event amount'to £lO5, with the president's cup added to the first horse's share. This is the, largest sum offered for- show jumping in New Zealand. The New Zealand championship for hunters will be the other leaping attraction, the prizes totalling tso.

.'_ Does fanning pay! T;Lte 'Farmers' Union Advocate' reports! sales of turnips in the South Island yielding £3O an acre. To obtain 30* "bushels of

\vheat from an acre is considered a very good average. At Cs Od per bushel the wheat would give £f) .15?. Turnips are evidently more profitable. The Tapanui paper reports sales of swedes at £ls per acre. There is reason to believe that the recent reduction in the price of meat in Great Britain was partly due to the pressure of Australian meat interests. Finding that all the cold storage ac-

commodation in Great Britain was crammed with meat, thus preventing the discharge of incoming shipments, an Australian firm informed the authorities that unless more meat v.T.s released the price would be reduced to encourage, freer consumption, and they Mould be compelled to dose their Australian works next season.

In future no dairy produce exported from Australia may be described as choice unless it complies with that description. The Minister for Customs (Mr Massy Greene) has issued the following instruction iu officers of- Customs regarding the trade description'to be applied to dairy products:—'The terms "finest,'' "superior," ''verysuperior," "ideal." or any terms of similar character, indicating choicest quality, when applied to dairy products, are to be regarded as indicating choicest quality, and if the officer classifies the product as below choicest tho exporter's description is to be treated as false.' In a recent bulletin from the Minnesota Agricultural College results are given of an investigation carried on in the State relative to tho use of farm tractors. One of the questions upon, which information was gathered was the saving in horses and men effected by the use of tractors. It was found that 127 Minnesota farmers kept an

average oi : two less work, horses. hl'lct purchasing tractors, and 87 out of J45 using tractors wore ablo to reduce the amount of hired help, as compared with that needed for the same acreage before the purchase of the tractor. Early in September there were forwarded from England 000 prize pedigreo'Shorthorn cattle, 30 Shorthorn 'bulls, and 2000 prize chiekeus, all being the gifts of British farmers to Serbia, via Piume, and organised by the Agricultural Kclief of th'o Allies Committee, formed tnnle-r the ■auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society for the purpose of restocking devastated Avar areas. This was the fortieth shipment which has been made by the committee to France, Belgium, and Poland, but the lirst shipment to SeiIbia. King George sent a gift of live shearling ranis. In reviewing the butter position in England, the London 'Grocer' states that there is no prospect of rolicf for ,som c time to come. There i* a shortago of supplies in Europe. Export from France and Holland is prohibited, except from the latter country a ecr-

tain amount can be done under license

The Danish production is decreasing. and while other countries* are receiving certain quantities from this source,' nothing is going to Germany o\vhvg to ; the severe depreciation of the currency in that direction. Scarcity of freight has delayed shipments from the -\nt ; - podes and Argentina, and arrivals have practically ceased. Only limited(supplies may be expected from Canada this year, and some purchases have' ibecn made in the United States, where stocks aro large and prices high. To ascertain whother the 2,200,('00 bushels of wheat of the 1917-18 crop stacked at Gcelong would suffer by longer storago to meet possible requirements in other states where drought conditions prevail, the Minister fur Agriculture (Mr Oman) ■ visited Geelong on 12th :N"oyember. After inspecting the stacks Mr Oman said that despite the fact that the wheat had been stored for two years it was iu good condition, being free from serious woevil damage. . A- longer period c f storage would, in his opinion, not be harmful to the grain. Speaking at the opening. of the Matangi Glaxb Factory last woelc. . the Prime Minister referred to the danger, where'the whole body Of the milk was utilised for manufacture as at present,, of the country becoming depleted of stock, owing to "the lack of skim milk and whey for feeding the young animals. J While, he „said, it ' was right that they should; establish ra. payable. :'; industry, arid 'secure the ' best prices - ! thny also had a duty to* the .country, which could not prosper unless stock vverp produced. . Tfe would n<*£.

suggestthat theyVftlfould curtail "the dried milk industry, ■ but they 'Would have to fiad [soma other, suitable food upon which iyouag stock could be seated. There were others/ways to,raise cattle than oa the bucket, aad he felt, sure that the farmers of the country •would find what these ways were. Mr Massey then gave some figures relating to the stock of New Zealand, and eaid that despite the fact ''that the output jof frozen meat had been greatly increased during tho past few years,, there were : over "1,000,000 head of cat - tlo and nearly 2,000,000 moro sheep in tho country at the present time than in 191.1. These figures were veTy gratifying,, and were proof of the great productiveness of the Dominion. The Americans are a great nation. They have done some of the finest things that have ever been accomplished and some of the silliest. For sheer childishness the great dinner given to the Jersey bull 'Financial Sensation 4 (who was sola for 60,,000 dollars) at. the Waldorf, Astoria Hotel, in New York, must about annex the biscuit. The teporter of the 'New York American,' who described the dinner and its preliminaries, said: ' Two duya in advance of the dinner the bull was.covered .with blankets and rubbed .down twice a day with crudo oil to get his coat in sleek and shiny perfection. Hft also received a hair-cut with fine hair dippers. His horns received special attention; They were polished Jind scrubbed and powdered and oilod and repolishcd again and again. First thoy werp rubbed down with line emerypaper and then briskly polished with. pumice-stone. Having attained the highest possible degree of smoothness, a. bit of crude oil was applied, and the horns were rubbed down-again.'