Yarning Notes

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 3142, 16 February 1900, Page 7

Yarning Notes

CBy Kdotxcus.] It sometimes, a. matter of wonder how wheat growing in can be made to pay, more especially when tbe price of wheat has come down to the low level- reached last year. According to Mr Walter Suttor, a large wheat grower^ in itfew'iSbuth ' Wales, it ie a matter of the greatest' ease to get oat of the difficulty— wheat -growing in Australia at present simply does not pay Mr Suttor who farms about 8000, acres, finds his average for the last three years to be six bushels per aore ; but, making every allowance and calling the general average 10 bushels per aero, he still calculates that the balance is on the wrong side of the ledger. He gives the following as the cost of production in New South Wales at present:— Ploughing, sowing, harrowing twice, and rolling, 7s per acre; seed wheat, one bushel per acre, 3s j stripping, cleaning and bagging, 6s ; bags, la 9d . carting to railway four miles, Is 3d railway freight and selling commission 43 2d ; making a total of £1 3a 2d. The present price of prime milling wheat in Sydney, say 10 bushels at 2s* 6d, amounts to £1 5b less - expenses, £1 3a 2d; net return, Is lOd per acre. Mr Sattor assumes the land to be valued on a freehold basis of £2 10s per acre, and interest on the same at 5 per cent, would be 2s 6d per acre, which leaves the wheat grover with a 1obb : of 8d per acre. According to these figures then, the wheat crop fn New South Wales is, at the present time and prices, being actually produced at a loss. The practice of selling cattle by weight is Blowly but eurely obtaining a strong footing both in Great Britain and in America. At one time it was considered evidence of want of ability on the part of both buyer and seller to resort to the weighing machine when selling cattle. Those in the trade maintained that the eye of an expert was a much more reliable means of lellin&; tbe actual value of an animal than any mere mechanical weighing, and that even when the live weight was ascertained it could be at the best but a poor means of ascertaining the actual value of an animal. Now all this is changed and it is now an accepted fact that once the live weight is known it is quite possible by using the tables of proportion worked out by Mr M'Jannet and others to ascertain the caroase weight to within a very few pounds. Indeed Mr M'Jannet, who is an enthusiast in the matter and whose name will ever be remembered in connection with the furtherance of this movement in Britain, baa on different occasions publicly demonstrated the superiority of the weighing system over that of guesswork. We all know that old time customs die hard, but allowing for that, this new system has so much to recommend it that it is strange that it has not been universally adopted long ere (his. We are content to sell beef by guess, but we sell oats, which are not worth, I suppose, one quarter as much per lb, with all the exactness the best of Avery's machines can give us. As has often been pointed out in connection with this matter two factors must always come into consideration in the buying and selling of cattle viz., the weight of the animal and the quality of the beef. Under the old system of selling the buyer had to make allowances under both these heads and naturally when both had to be taken into account an error of judgment was very liable to be made. Under the system of Belling by weight the quality i alone has to be considered and the process of buying becomes so much the easier and more satisfactory. 1 Experiments made at Woburn have again proved the value of gorse for feeding purposes and the ease with which it may be grown on poor land. At Woburn on a piece of ground of vt-ry poor quality, barley and gorse were drilled side by side. The barley failed, as it had often done before; but the gorse "thrived (and everyone knows that gorße can thrive when it takes a notion to) and yielded 11 tons to the acre. This was crushed and fed to sheep with such excellent results that a butcher asked to pick out the best seven carcases from two pens of sheep, one fed on roots and the other on gorse, selected no fewer than six of the latter. Many years ago, I believe that the experiment of crushing the hedge clippings for sheep feed was tried by some of our local farmers, but, where grass and roots can be so easily grown, it was considered that the game wm not worth the candle, and so the

The crushing and bruising is certainly the troublesome part of the business, but I believe t%t>away ih+Se northern part's of A,u6^ancTp ( roVince where gbrae growing ; for - sheep <> has become the recognised system of farming the poor lands there, ie has been found that the gorse can be fed as it grows wii'iout going to the trouble of cutting and bruising it. On Mr Williams' property at Kerikeri, consisting only of very moderate second class land, gorse is Very extensively grown for sheep feed, and it has been found that land which previously would only carry a sheep to every tbree or four acres, can now feed from four to six to the acre. The land after being cultivated as for turnips ia sown with gorse in drills six feet apart, crushed bones at the rate of half cwt. per acre being used with advantage. Before the gorse plants get too strong sheep are turned in and quickly nibble the tender shoots. They are then chaDged to another field to give the one first fed off time to shoot again. By judiciously shifting the sheep as required they are able to keep the gorse plants down and prevent the growth getting too strong. The greatest difficulty Mr Williams' finds is in regard to feeding the sheep in winter, as gorse is found to send out very few shoots during that season. In the absence of other winter food, the large number of sheep which can be depastured duriog the rest of the year has to be greatly reduced at the beginning of winter. To obviate this Mr Williams' last year sowed a part of his farm broadcast with gorse. This he intended leaving untouched until winter when he would cat it and then after putting it through rollers or chaff cutters use it for winter feed. These Auckland experiments Mill be looked forward to with much interest, for it is jußfc possible that we may yet see what has hitherto been classed aB a noxious weed used for bringing the many bare hillsides, of which there are so many in New Zealand, into profitable cultivation •