NOTES BY THE WAY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21811, 17 June 1936, Page 6

NOTES BY THE WAY

ROYAL SHOW LOCATION it was scarcely to be expected ,nat the proposal made at the meeting of the committee of the Canter- * bury A. and P. Association to re- £ strict the Royal Show to one centre * in each island would meet with the ! approval of other associations. It is true that both Christchurch and Pal- ] merston North are much better sit- i uated geographically for a Royal j than any other centre, and also have ■ immeasurably better provision for housing stock, but it is a question : if these should be the sole considerations in fixing the locations. South- | land and Hawke’s Bay Associations have held very successful .Royals, 1 particularly from the viewpoint of attendance and the representation of breeds of stock general in their particular districts. The object of the Royal is educative, and it might be claimed that the shows at the smaller centres are fulfilling this object when they attract big attendances of farmers and heavy entries of the particular classes of stock cultivated in the district. But if the dominating object of the shows is to invest the awards with the mark of New' Zealand supremacy, and therefore give a value to breeders much further afield than the Dominion itself. shows in isolated centres would be almost valueless. Experience has already shown that sheep championships at Auckland, for. instance, are worthless, measured from this viewpoint. Only a few of the breeds are seen there, and these are shown by very few of the principal breeders. Although the breeder who travels far afield should be considered, the value' of any awards he might secure is negligible, except that for a brief period they might impress overseas buyers unaware of the conditions in which they were secured. It is true that in the wool breeds of sheep neither the Southland nor the Hawke’s Bay' shows compares with the Christchurch Royal, nor does the show at Palmerston North for that matter, but Southland stages as good a dairy display as any other centre, an excellent showing of the lamb breeds of sheep, and quite the best representation of all the shows of draught horses. On the other hand, Hawke’s Bay stands out for the excellence of the beef cattle breeds. The various • show’s that have been held indicate that the centres mentioned are quite capable of conducting most successful Royals—Auckland should lie definitely ruled out-—and these associations would have good reason to object if the restriction proposals were given effect to. WEST COAST DAIRYING Any advancement in dairy production'on the West Coast was scarcely to be expected during the depression

period, in spite of the economical feed raising costs across the range, j Discussing the probability of an in- j crease as a result of the present j price. movement, a coast dairyman told‘“Straggler” yesterday that there were evidences of it having a beneficial effect on the output—if not this season, as soon as herds could be increased. He said that a good deal of stumping and clearing of milled land had been going on in the Murchison district. A factory of considerable capacity was available, and dairying, if the present prices were maintained, would be found more attractive than any other class of farming. On the other hand, the opening of the Lewis Pass road would greatly facilitate the movement of store cattle from North Canterbury to the fattening lands of the northern part of the West Coast, and their return when fat by a much shorter road and rail journey than is now possible. The road journey, of course, would be much longer than to the railhead at Inangahua, but for the purposes of illustration it would be no longer and not as trying on stock as the distance from South Westland to Ross. The township itself was growing rapidly, as a result of the establishment of several dredges and other classes of gold mining in the district. A number m neat bungalows had sprung up within the last six months or so, and in common with other parts of the Coast there appeared to be very little unemployment. DRAUGHT STALLIONS Farmers’ organisations in various parts of the province have been discussing the question of securing the services of Clydesdale stallions for use in their respective districts. One of the difficulties is that sufficient mares cannot be guaranteed to fully monopolise a stallion within the ordinary radius of travelling. The alternative is to take the horse about in a “float.” This proposal, again, has raised a doubt as to whether this method of transport affects the prepotency of the horse. Reference was mad'e on this page last year to this method, and one authority who had given the matter some investigation was quoted as definitely expressing the opinion that float travelling did have a harmful effect. There had been complaints of certain horses proving themselves very poor foalgetters, and the suggestion was made that the lack of exercise aria the unnatural conditions associated with lorry transport contributed to this. The authority on the occasion quoted said that he could not say definitely that this was a cause of poor prepotency, but it was very easy to imagine that such was the case. A horse required the exercise entailed in walking from one farm to another, and stoch things as a nibble of grass on the roadside or the sight of other Horses, in the fields catered to those yural Instincts from which it was 2*“W««We to assume that the best fjswts could be secured. In pre- « dozen horses trav--55a practfetny the same districts, some «f them had to travel big jynd* to mi their grooms’ books 8 gy* WMS not much talk then of ,* n view of the revival m draught horse breeding it seems . one stallion in E£2S*, should have SEJMS' 1 *° ensure a