A COLUMN FOR FARMERS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 19

A COLUMN FOR FARMERS

BETTER ORGANISED FRUIT GROWERS. ROOT CROPS FOR WINTER. MORE PORK AND BACON. Although co-operation is largely practised in the dairy industry in New Zealand, both in the manufacturing' of our butter and cheesy and in its shipment and marketing, we have still a great deal to learn, and the further application of the co-operative principle is needed in other branches of farming. In saying this I do not mean that we should have all our wool, mutton and fruit handled by co-operative concerns. In many cases private enterprise can, and does handle our primary produce equally as efficiently as the co-opesative, but we lack definite co-operatfon betweeji different sections of the community. A good illustration of this can be found in the organisation of the American fruitgrowers, from which growers in the Dominion can take many lessons. It is recognised in America that the problem of marketing involves the co-operation of town and country. Fruitgrowers organise into their groups and then work iri close conjunction with chambers of commerce, putting their problems and their difficulties before the people of the towns. In this way they have built up bonds of sympathy which react in their favour, and are able to enlist support in their campaigns to make their residents eat American fruit. Organisation on similar lines, not only in the fruit industry, but also in other branches of primary production would be all to the good in New Zealand. At the present time we see everywhere conflicting interests, with the town and the country at variance. In reality each is interdependent, and a better knowledge each other's problems is needed. The industrial conference, if it has done nothing else, has shown the wide disparity of opinion between town and country, and if it succeeds in bringing the one nearer the other it will have justified itself. Growing Root Crops. t Although there has been a tendency, during recent seasons, for farmers to neglect root crops in favour of ensilage and hay, there is no doubt that roots ] have their place in the farm programme, and form a most valuable stand-by. Seasonal vagaries more greatly affect root crops than they do ensilage or bay, this being one of the reasons why they have lost favour. The keeping qualities of mangolds and turnips are well known, and therein lies their greatest value. They can be gathered before the winter, kept in store and judicionaly fed put $o.

increase the yield in those months when the pastures are at their lowest ebb. Turnips do surprisingly well on stony ground, and in the Wairarapa excellent crops can often be seen by the roadside in paddocks where it is difficult to tell which are the turnips and which the stones. Special ploughs are needed of course for dealing with this country, but many farmers with paddocks they now regard as practically useless owing to .their stony nature, could grow turnips successfully. Dairy farmers should never feed turnips to the cows in the paddocks. The turnips should be pulled and allowed to wilt for some time, and they should.be fed soon after milking so that no objectionable flavours will be present in the milk. Used properly, turnips will give no trouble at the factory, and the writer knows dozens of farmers who have used them for years without their milk ever being affected. • Pork and Bacon. The North Island is. very much better, organised for pig production than the South, which accounts for its proportion of the New Zealand total production of pork and bacon. This is partly because more attention has been given in the North to marketing, and also because better pigs are bred here than in the South. That is not to say that North Island pigs are by any means perfect, for they lack uniformity, as recent remarks by Professor Riddet, of Massey College, show. He strongly advised farmers to select one or two breeds and stick to them, rather than have the multiplicity of breeds that exist in England to-day, and which give constant trouble. The success of the Danes was almost entirely attributable, he said to their selection of a single breed. This question of breeds was having consideration in the work at the college, and it was intended to carry out investigations for the purpose of deciding which crosses would give the best results in the Dominion. Recent experiments have shown that the feeding of grain is necessary for the economical production of porkers and baconers, and one of the things which pig producers will have to do in the future is to use larger quantities of maize and barley. Owing to the development of co-operative marketing in the Waikato, the pig-producing movement is growing steadily, and as- time goes on, and we standardise our grades and improve our breeding and feeding methods, there is going to be a very handsome return to fanners f.om this bjp-product of the dairy farm.

Mora Water Heeded. This is perhaps hardly an opportune time to talk of the need of water on the farm, because during the next few months many fanners will have considerably more of it than they require. It is a matter which needs urgent attention in many districts, however, and especially in Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, where the provision for the watering of daii7 stock ii generaUy inadg-

quate. Experiments in other countries with cows which were under test have clearly shown that unless they had access to large quantities of water, they could not keep up the milk supply. Water should be placed within the easiest possible reach. If cows have to go far, they will not take sufficient, and the milk flow will go down. The offseason, which will so soon be upon us, is the time to remedy these defects, and see that there is water in every paddock.