ON THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 143, 16 June 1916, Page 9

ON THE LAND.

Agricultural, Pastoral and Dairy Interests.

AUSTRALIAN FARM AND LIVE STOCK NEWS.

A GREAT SHOW. The Sydney show tnis year was greater than ever. These continual successes suggests the query as to where this great fixture is eventually going to land. One day there was a gate ot 95,000 people. Likely enough next year this figure will grow to six figures. There was not a department which could not be described as great. It is astonishing how widespread arc the people to be met at this gathering—from every corner of Australia ami Xew Zealand, South Africa, America, and from Kiirope. The evidences of the war were present, but the evils of the drought were more pronounced, though New South Wales has well-nigh forgot her troubles in thie reepect. The war as a stimulant to prodnction made ite mark, especially in the constructive indu6tries, for we now find ourselves making things which we did not dream of doing before the cataclysm. A point of interest was the dearth of rets., 6o many having gone to the front. But if there were no Departmental officers of this sort left, the committee made up the shortage by appointing its own vete. to do the weeding out in the horse sections, and are to get the Government to ratify it. The catalogue contained no less than 8275 exhibits, easily a society record. Big as were the pavilion arrangements, the management 'hed at the eleventh hour to make temporary arrangements for a lot of the things. Cattle numbered 700, and horses 400. TRAPPING THE FRUIT FLY. Xew Zealand orchardifta will know something of the system, discovered by accident in West Australia a few yeare ago, by which fruit flies are lured into a kerosene bath by fixing a shallow tin in the branches of the tree. The pest is attracted by the smell, which they apparently appreciate, and thus go to their destruction. White an agricultural expert was seated on his verandah with the oil known as ritrone.lla smeared on his hands as a mosquito antidote., he noticed that the fruit fly was specially attracted by tho aroma. Other oils have since been tried, including several irom indigenous trees, and it is understood that a preparation from among several i= to be put on the market. The idea is to either lure th<a fly on to sticky paper by means of the smell, or use 'baths where they would be destroyed. The question is being widely uiocuseed in the Brisbane papers. Jt ie suggested that with the aid of the citronella preparation that the sheep fly might thus be attacked, an infinitely more serious pest than any fruit enemy. It is hoped that questions of this sort will be shortly relegated to the Bureau of Science and Industry, which the Federal Government is arranging to establish. The question is of the greatest importance to all producers, for all have their insect pests. SHARE-FARMING URGED. In- this campaign to. .settle returned soldiere on the laud, the paramount difficulty is how to arrange to get the laud iii eases where the Crown have alienated it, or it ie held under long leases. To acquire it by purchase or compensation would entail a much larger sum of money than could be raised for such a purpose in these days. It has been suggested that the land-owners should establish the tenant syetem in tho ordinary way. but to the man without means this means a blank. The next best thing, it ie urged, is a system of share-farming, much the same as has been in vogue for some years past amongst the dairy «r\d wheat farmers. Some legislation, however, will be needed to give the sharesman tenant rights in improvements and other rights. Evidence on tho whole question is being taken by a Royal Commission now sitting in New South Wales, which is inquiring into farming generally. It is being Ghown that the share fanner, as against the ordinary 1 tenant, has a personal interest in the work of the farm above that of the ordinary farm hand. Witnesses point out that the system has a side which sharply relieves itself against the ordinary wage system, bo that a double purpose would be served by more of this, in that it would provide for repatriated men as well ac supplant the ordinary fii-rm-labourcr system. It is known that it is a very hard matter in these days to get farm hands to work ionestly, but ne share farmers they would study their own interests. VETERINARY SCIENCE. Veterinary science is no lohger tho monopoly of the quack. Every year his I grip on the business grows less. The Victorians are paying special attention to this profession, and claim to be the j first country in the world to establish ; a four years' course for students before ! securing their diploma. The foundation ■ of the university chair was a private ! college started neatly 23 years ago, i and in later yean; transferred to the uni- | versity by arrangement. A great numi her of the graduates have gone to the j war, 60 that in that regard they have ' proved of great value to the Empire. Some, too, ire engaged in work here. The institution is generally the medium by which the breeders and stock-owners in Victoria arc aided in their wodc. One feature of it ie that maimed beasts taken in hand by the Prevention of Cruelty Society arc treated there, and thus tho students are given material upon which to work. People who cannot afford to pay get their animals treated free of charge. During last year no less than 1100 cases were so treated. The students do practically all the minor operations and the dressing. All sorts of domestic animals and birds come within this scope. Horsee rejected by the military for certain blemishes are ueed to produce serum for meningitis. Thus the faculty will have a large stock with which to meet a possible outbreak during the coming winter. Broadly speaking, the conclusion naturally arises that the days of the "iuw3 doctor" are over. BULLOCK WORTH ETvE HUNDRED. It seems incredible that a fat bnlloek should be worth five hundred sovereigns, yet that is the price which the owner in New South Wales has refused for one. The extraordinary animal is of Durham breed, and weighs 3000B>. He measures 12ft 6in round the girth, and 4ft through the shoulder. These measurements a.re almost identical witn those made by the best English beast in 1891. He was bred in Tasmania, and stands 17 hands. His age is seven years. The present • owner, Mr M. J. Flynn, paid £207 for stnA jiaa Obviously

hie value is as a show animal. Hβ was a great attraction this year at the Sydney show. COMMUNITY ORGANISATION. The Colac (V.) Herd-testing Association has made a distinct departure in co-operative methods in Australia. The system is known as community organisation, which has proved successful in America. The main object is to promote the breeding and improvement of highgrade cattle. The members aleo assist each other to improve their position in buying and selling. Members agree to use nothing but pure-breds as studs. It will be seen in Tegard to the procuring of foundation stock the idea is of distinct advantage. More especially would this toe the case in new dietricts, or districts "where stock husbandry has only been played with in the past. It will be understood that to a district where the breeders were Joyal the system j would be of tremendous advantage, since I by raising the type of stock it would become noted. The fillip to land values would bo most marked, and the increase to individual incomes a factor. ]n most parte of Australia the farmers work so independently of each other as to be almost offensive by their secretiveness. Other business people do not do that. If it is an advantage to pool anything they do it. ® The producers have not yet learnt the ABC of co-operation. In it is held a condition of success unparalleled in the history of the rural world, and the eooner the men on the land set out to achieve that the bettpr. They are the chief losers by the policy of isolation and want of communal association. PRO.MOTI NG SETTLEMENT. Most of those who fault-find with the owners of large areas of land employ as n chief argument that more room should Im found for people. It is a fact that the owner can count his possessions by the tens of thousands of acres, is that on thote spaces hundreds of families might be comfortably located, serving the double purpose of multiplying production. That is the point which all land owners should keep in mind, for the demand for living areas in these parts nvjet be greater than ever when the war is over. Resumption, from a sentimental point of view, is an interference with the rights of the subject. Hut the interference cannot always be avoided. Clearly what the owner of broad acres should do if he wants to retain the fee simple is to establish tenant farmers on fair terme. A Mr YV. H. Bruce, of Adelaide, has adopted this idea, and he is doing this with a fixed purpose to establish a pig industry. Though his '1000 acres cannot ba considered a very princely area, under intense tillage it will be recognised that it will bo capable of supporting a great number of families. He intends limiting the block? to 100 acres, and he has fixed average priecH for all the fodder the tenants will grow. He will find the bags, but the farmers will have to find the labour, the manure, and the seed, lie proposes to begin with 2000 pigs as a* starting base, and increase as circumstances justify. The scheme ought to succeed. FIXING PRICES FOR WHEAT. ' The "farmers, almost to a man, have taken kindly to the prjee fixation of wheat. Those who objected to the principle swallowed it when they understood the prices to be paid. They also have the advantage of the pool, for no matter what the quality of their grain, they get as much as the neighbour with the picked crop. Already the Federal Government have cold the best part of the 1..i00.000 tons available for export, which will go to the British a.nd the Allies, at. it is expected, about G/ a bushel. That retained for home consumption will pan out at 1/0 per bushel. So that they arc all in clover—guaranteed prices and nc risks. To boot they dodge the middle man, and the matter of transportation quite disappears from their shoulders On top of all this couies the good news that, as the rceult rains at the moat important part of the year their outlook for the next crop is ex ceodingly good. It is not the wheat mcr who are making the song, but the dairy men, about fixing prices. The dairytner would, not havo minded had they no! been afllicled during the season with a sad drought. There is no doubt the} have been badly treated, but they can not Absolve themselves from the charge that they sadly neglected the art o! fodder conservation. Their prospect: for the coming season are brighter though they cannot hope for full herds until next spring. Jlany of them in the Tweed district have sold out their herds and arc going in for fruit growing and general fanning. Still the great hulk of the dairymen are fighting their bad luck with hope. MOST IMPORTANT MISSION. Most important work has been dele gated to a ltoyal Commission in New South Wales to find out what is the matter with agriculture. Or, in othev words, Avhy the rural industries do not make greater progress. It may be that the commission will not be able to probe the multitude of questions which affect the men on the lixnd, but if they only lay a few bare they will do the industry service. The commission is composed of members of Parliament, all ol them with farming experience. They arc to keep in mind the movement towards intense culture, and to the subdivision of the large estates. Tliis, of i course, involves irrigation, and the practice of close tillage. They will take special care to inquire into .the tions surrounding the share farmer and the tenant to see if better arrangemente can be made for the development of the land under their control, including the [question of improvements and tie rights of tenants to these. The matter of financing share farmers in the cases oi reliable men will be looked into in the i hope that there will be am extension of (agriculture in districts where the land is now mostly need for the grazing of cattle and sheep. It is proposed, too,

to investigate the fodder question, and ■ to ascertain how it is that there is solittle conservation in this respect in a country which one year is flushed with a superabundance of feed, and the next suffering huge losses of stock through a drought. The commission has a great change. It will be interesting to watch ■what use it makes of it. PRODUCERS ORGANISING. Dissatisfied with their treatment by the various Governments interfering -with the butter trade, the dairymen are again being organised for political and industrial purposes. It is really the outcome of necessity. No one can cay that t'r-c dairymen have been treated fairly. While prices ran high in the other markets of the world the local rates were kept down by regulation to a rate, they contend, far beyond what should have been the case. There would have been no objection to the price-fixing business but for the persistent drought which has more or less existed in many districts for the past two years until quite recently. Fanners, as a rule, are too slow in asserting their political rights. This aepect can only be successfully carried cut by cohering in public effort. The farmers sliould be welded together as closely aB arc the industrial unions. They can how see their mistake. Long ago they should have been an entity in politics, but they preferred to trust the other , follow, and they can now see where they are landed. After the war there will be many difficult problems to settle, and if the producers are not ac one man in the matter, they will be the sufferers, while the other classes will score heavily against them. A BIG DEAL IN MEAT. The Queensland Government has just completed the purchase of the whole of' the output of the various meat works of the State for the seaoon. It is expected that the number of cattle to be dealt with will be 300,000. The bulk of this will he exported to Europe to the Allied troops, though not any will go to. England as it has been represented to. the £tatc Government that the Imperial authorities otherwise has sufficiently arvamicu lor the Home purposes. The acquirement of a whole season's output of meat, following upon the acquirement or the Federal Government of the whole of the wheat crop, seems to forecast a continuation of this line of policy even after the war is over. It is contended that this will be in the interests of the producers, aitj the consumers as it will settle the Beef Trust acting against those interests. But it is certain that when the war is over there will be a great controversy as to whether such a syfctora should become a settled one There .arc, of course, strong arguments for .and against. There are those who point out that as a result of one of these big deals thc-rc will be some blundering which will end in big losses, and that the (iovprnnients so interfering will be hit hard and the loss recoiling on the people there will be a clamour to leave cuch tilings to private enterprise. ELEPHANT GRASS. Tests in the cultivation of elephant grass have proved successful, and th* ■merits of the fodder are attracting the attention of dairymen. It is quite a misnomer to call it a grass, aa it is really a. tiill" plant. It is a South African native, and is largely grown in Rhodesia, especially in the loamy stretches. But it seems to adapt itself to almost anj soil. It grows to a height of 6ft'or 7ft, producing 12 or 13 tons of fodder per acre off the first cutting, but off the second three months later . rt ■ yields nearly 20 tops. Analysis showe. it to be of a higher value as a fodder than maize,'which "is saying a gobd'deal. It can be propagated in three ways—seed, rooted slips, and cuttings. When planting the seeds or slips are planted three feet apart, and the rowe cix feet. The young plants stool out very quickly. The Rhodesians claim that it resists, both frost and drought more readily than any other fodder crop they grow. It also answers freely to irrigation.