CURRENT TOPICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19975, 9 July 1930, Page 16

CURRENT TOPICS.

TOUBINO N.Z. FARMERS. The Queensland papers are devoting a good deal of space to the trip and the opinions of the New Zealand farmers who recently concluded the tour of that State. , Tlie famous Darling Downs appeared to. have impressed the visitors. In an interview with the "Toowomba Chronicle" Mr A. Baxter, a Canterbury I fanner, said that if he were a younger man Canterbury would not be his place of residence. It would be the Darling Downs. Thirty-four years ago, he said, he read about tie Downs and was sorely tempted to go over. It was only a tossup -that decided him to stay in New Zealand. "If, instead of reading about the Downs, I had had a trip like this and had seen it for myself there would have been no question of tossing up. I should have plumped for the Downs." The best test was the comparative ease with which results seemed to be got from the Downs soil. For example, it was not necessary to work the ground with such thoroughness as they had to employ in New Zealand to secure results. The soil was more generous and more easily provoked into yielding. "If you got a batch of young Canterbury men working the Downs as they worked their own holdings you would not recognise the place. Things are too easy for you here." Another evidence of prodigality, that impressed Mr Baxter was' that commercial fertilisers were superfluous. Probably they would have to be used later on, but at present they would cause too rank a growth. The obvioup quickness of the growth of young crops on the Downs impressed him. However, Mr Baxter, who was the centre of a small group of farmers in the train, said he spoke for all of them when he said that, until he reached the Downs, they were with Australia. They had seen nothing like the Downs country in New South Wales, and the apparent barrenness of the granite belt had made their hearts nijilr about Queensland . . . They had grave doubts whether the rest _of Queensland would show them anything half so amazing aa what they had seen between Warwick and Toowomba.

Mr F.Pawson, the railway representative, and an experienced ex-pastoralist, said they were "flabbergasted" at the richness of the Downs, and wanted to know if it was a typical season. They felt there mußt be a "catch" in it somewhere. The astonishing thing was that the growth they saw was winter growth. , Captain 0. P. McGregor, a retired soldier and'a dairyman from Westland, said the first thing that struck him about the Downs was the amazingly low priceof land generally, and dairying land in particular. For such dairying land as they had seen they would pay from £IOO. to £l3O an acre in New Zealand) assuming that such land could laity ; J*>? general fanmngon second grade Downs land, worth-from £8 to £lO an acre, one might easily pay £3O an acre in New Zealand. 1 Why the . Downs were not more closely settled the speaker could not understand.

"SLAP DASH" HOMESTEADS. The visitors were frank to the Verge of rudeness in the opinions they expressed about the type of farmhouses to be seen in the country. One tying the Australian had to learn was to take a greater pride in the farming homesteads. All . the visitors seemed impressed. by the shabby slap dash and generally inferior homesteads with which Downs land farmers seem content. The .impression gathered by the tourists was that the land was looked upon as a source of getting .money Merely ahi.rnot as a place in which to make themselves comfortable beyond the amenities of living. One speaker said that houses, seemed to have been stuck up anyhow and gave the impression that farlnera intended retiring to the big cities later on. In New Zealand farmers made their permanent home on their farms, and introduced electricity, the telephone, and other conveniences. THEPIO RETURNS.

The interim stock-returns reveal that the number of pigs in New Zealand as at January 31st, 1930, showed a reduction on the preceding year, the figures being 483,820, as against 556,732. Auckland land district claims 152,678 and North Auckland 75,731, the province therefore accounting for no fewer than 228,409 of the total, not far short of frnlf, Canterbury's contribution was 43,161, and 'Ofcago's ~18,104. HERD-TESTING RESUIiTS.

.. The benefits of herd-testing and culling require time to materialise, and the absence of-quick results has retarded tie movement in many districts. But there is plenty of evidence now available 'of the outstanding value of the practice. There is no doubt that it has been the main factor in enabling the dairy farmer who has adopted it to withstand. the pressure created by the low prices. Seven herds tested by the New Zealand Co-operative Herdtesting Association this year yielded an. average ,of over 4001b of butterfat per. cow, and four groups in the Association gave an average yield of ever 3001b of butter-fat per cow. The leading' group this season was Ngarua, near Te Aroha. The 1113 cows tested in this group gave an average production of 318.421b of butter-fat per cow. The Ngarua group secured the leading position last season, when the 984 cows tested yielded average of 304.741b of butter-fat per cow. Manawaru was the leading group for 1926-27 and 192728, the best year being 1926-27, when "1581 cows in the group averaged 317.83 lb of butter-fat. During the season just ended the Association tested 90,861 cows, which yielded an average of 262.721b of butter-fat per cow in 260 days. In view of the fact that the average yield of ' butter-fat for the whole Dominion soma years ago was :only 1711b per cow these figures qeed ho stressing.. The difference of 901b a cow on the 90,861 tested represents, at ,the low price of Is a lb, an ; average increase per head of On the leading group; of IJI3 cowdf which gave an average production' of 3181b, - the difference per head on this old general average would be £7 % per head. On an average herd of 50' or 60 , .cows it. can be readily estimated : what this means in. a time of low . pri«aL