NOTES BY THE WAY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21907, 7 October 1936, Page 15

NOTES BY THE WAY

LAMBING PERCENTAGES

It the reports of the New Zealand lambing this season are reasonably correct, it would seem feat the crop wul about constitute a record. In me Poverty Bay district, sheep farmers are complaining of the number of twins, as the first drafts for the works will be reduced as a consequence. One farmer there reof getting a number away by the first shipment of the season he expects that it will be January or February before the 1000 lambs are ready for the works. The farmer’s experience is not dissimiliar from that of '“any others, although there are cases of the opposite. One farmer reports as low as 60 per cent of lambs.

The estimated number of lambs (not tailed) in the Dominion in 1935 was 15,373,642, or 300,000 fewer than the * previous year, the total then being the biggest on record. The average for both islands in the last five years is as follows: North South Total Island Island Lambs 1931 .. 86.49 87.13 12,284,161 1932 .. 89.16 88.42 15,156,151 1933 .. 91.23 88.14 15,457,302 1934 .. 88.70 89.88 15,680,393 1935 .. 83.68 89.45 15,373,642

Only in one of the above years did the number tailed differ much from the estimate. This was In 1931, when the number tailed fell short of the estimate by a little more than 300,000.

POTATO MANURING

Some weeks ago an article appeared in this column concerning potato manuring, in which it was mentioned that the applications recommended were the rule in a number of other countries. Since then a copy of the October issue of fee “Commonwealth Agriculturist” has come to hand, and an article appears in it advising similar manurial treatment. A European authority says that the experiments on the subject on which the recommendations are based, carried out by the Victorian Department of Agriculture, are the most comprehensive, informative and complete carried out in any part of the world. Some of the tests have been running for 10 years, hence the evidence which emerges may be accepted with the utmost confidence. The experiments covered in the article particularise the different

potato growing districts of the State, and the table attached shows that super and ammonia in combination give the most profitable returns In all the districts named. In the 10 experiments two show the results of the application of (six parts of super and one of ammonia) at 100 and 73 per cent, increase over no manure; in six others the three and one mixture shows an advance of from 35 to 113 per cent. In one experiment extending over nine years the no manure potatoes averaged 2 tons 18cwt to the acre, and with three and one application of the fertilisers named 6 tons 4cwt. In one 10 year trial super and potash (six and one), converted a 4$ ton yield to 8 tons Bcwt, or 97 per cent.. The average return of the whole of unmanured plots in the experiment was something less than 4 tons, of the treated near 7 tons. The experiments showed that where two and three cultivations were given as against one the returns ' were progressively better—24 and 43 per cent, respectively. Where 3cwt of superphosphates an acre were used the green manurial plots showed an increased growth of 35 per cent, over the bare fallow; where 4cwt of super and ammonia (3 and 1 mixture) was the fertilising medium the increase was 48 per cent. •

The wide variation in the class of soil over which Canterbury potatoes are grown make a standard recommendation difficult, but it would seem that in widely general conditions, super and ammonia are the best manures. It is claimed as far as potash is concered that heavy applications are suitable for the stronger soils. Light dressings in such conditions have little effect on the crop. The argument applies with other fertilisers in many cases—the dressings are too light on heavy land.

CATTLE TRANSPORT

The high price of beef in the Auckland province is allowing costlier methods of transport to be adopted, and the use of motor lorries for conveying cattle* from fee East coast to the railhead at Taneatua, near Whakatane, is becoming general. The lorry cost runs into 25s a head, but as good cattle in the Auckland market are making £ll or £l2, a margin is left—when the limited market in Poverty Bay is considered for the big number of cattle produced. The route over the hills to the Bay of Plenty is similar to the Whar-anui-Pamassus road in its unsuitability for fat cattle travelling, but great numbers of store cattle and sheep are travelled over both routes every year. A paragraph in a northern paper the other day stated that 4000 stores were on their way from the Coast to fee Waikato. There was also a heavy movement of store cattle from the Wellington province to the Waikato for fattening. From this it would seem that the “go-slow” in dairy breeding in the Waikato in the last few years has provided an excess of feed, or that dairymen are reducing their herds, or, at all events, not increasing them. The surprise at Addington market each season is the outstanding quah ity of fat cattle travelled from the southern end of Westland. At a recent sale, the market was “topped by a mob that had travelled considerably more than 100 miles to the railhead at Ross. In this case, however, the cattle were allowed to browse along the roadside at their own gait, and instead of losing condition they actually improved. The most placid beast would lose condition in a month’s travel on the South Island East coast road.

SHOW DATES

1936 October 20 and 21 -Marlborough, at 22—Hawke’s i Bay. October 22 —Ellesmere, at Leeston. October 30— Amberley. ''vtobrr 30 and 31 —Timaru. November 4. 5, and 6—Manawatu, at Palmerston North. November S —Ashburton. November 6—Northern, at Rangiora. November 11. 12. and 13—Royal, at Christchurch. November 17-Waimate. Novembar 19—Duvauchelle. November 20 and 21—Nelson. November 21— Courtenay, at Kirwee November 24—Banks Peninsula, at

Little. River. . November 24 and 25—North Otago, at

Oamaru. November 26 and 27—Clutha (Jubilee).

at Balclutha. December 1 and 2 —Gore. December 8 and 9—Southland, at In-

vercargill, December 11 and 12—Otago, at Dunedin