RURAL RIDES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 9

RURAL RIDES

THE EWE FAIRS

POTATO PROSPECTS

(By H.A.M.)

Roadside feed has been exceptionally good this summer and autumn. This is being quite pronouncedly illustrated by the appearance of stock that has been travelled on the road for a few weeks. On a visit to the Cheviot district the other day the writer passed a mob of just on 350 head of store cattle from Marlborough, and in the many years he has seen this traffic he has rarely seen a line at the end of their journey in better store condition. The cattle were secured from various sources, and comprised all breeds and ages, and very little feed would be required to finish many of them off for the fat market. The younger cattle included some good coloured sorts and drafted up in the sale pens according to colour the heifers generally are in keen demand at . Addington. The amount of work on the highway at the moment —there probably being 1500 men working at various public works projects—might have been expected to disturb travelling stock and reduce their condition correspondingly, but the long stretches of. good feeding this season on the "long paddock" have apparently has offset this disability. Sheep are naturally more affected by these traffic disturbances. Had it not been for the good growing season it is certain that the heavy road works and the increasing motor traffic would have ended in them arriving in Canterbury in very poor condition. The Ewe Fairs In spite of the bad winter in some of the North Canterbury high country there is a general belief that entries at the ewe fairs this season will be heavy. There is an undoubted reduction in the crop <jf two-tooths, but older sheep are likely to be forward in heavier numbers. The cause of this is that private buying before the fairs, which.has been a feature of every autumn, has been practically negligible this year. The general instability of affairs, on top of the declining wool market and the lower value of export lamb, but mostly the first-named cause, depressed speculation in ewes to the disappearing point, and sheep which otherwise would have gone straight to dealers for use further south will now be offered at the fairs. This deduction would appear to be borne out by the heavy entries advertised at the Amberley fair. In the mid-week more than 35,000 were advertised • for disposal, and late entries and non-advertised lots will probably add appreciably to this number, so that a total of 40,000 may be forward. In the last two years the number ranged up to 31,000. As against the probability of larger entries is the prospect of the farmers who were previously supplied by private purchasers having to buy at the fairs. The competition, therefore, should not suffer. Introduction of Sub. Clover There is a general impression that subterranean clover has been introduced to New Zealand within the last few years—lo years at the most. This is very far from a fact. Just when, and how, it was introduced is not known, but it was here between 40 and 50 years ago. When on a subterranean clover field at Te Pirita a few

years ago the writer was pointed out what was apparently an old stack bottom, where the surface was a white mat of sub. clover flowers. The present occupier had been in possession for more than 20 years, and the thick plot was there when he took possession Any information he could gain was that it had been there many years before that. The plot was a cause of him pinning his faith to the plant, and to-day there is only a small proportion of the farm not in the Plant. At Cheviot the Rt. Hon. G. W, Forbes, M P told the writer that when he arrived at Cheviot 43 years ago, after the subdivision of the estate, there were plants of sub. clover to be seen in the block he took up, principally in a field which he subsequently used as a horse paddock. For this purpose the paddock was kept grazed fairly bare in the summer and autumn, and the plant apparently had not much chance of spreading. That it existed so long ago, however, shows that some of the, oia timers must have introduced it mixed with other seed or by some other means. ~ , Subterranean clover was well Known in South Australia more than 50 years ago and as there was a heavy Importation of merino sheep by the early station owners from that btate n is more than probable that the seed was introduced in the fleeces of the sheep. That this means of seeding is not unusual is demonstrated by the fact that there are stands on the Rakaia river flats on which no planting had ever take., place, but which are carrying a good sole of clover. Seed had obviously been carried in the fleeces from the stands where the sheep had been almost continuously grazed. Why the plant never made any headway In the early days was possibly becauso it was not recognised that the clover, being an annual, required leave to rested, which it did not get. The grazing in the first flowering season lulled it out. Where it has persisted is apparently due to some of the flowers continuously escaping. Experience when the plant commenced to come under notice some years ago bears out this claim. An Oxford experimenter crazed it through its first flowering season, and the clover disappeared to an extent that he disgustedly ploughed the field up and sowed it to wheat. Apparently some of the seed germinated during-this process, as when the wheat was taken off there was a good stand of clover left. The Potato Crops Further information about the pro-' 1 gross of blight in the potato crops indicates that it is widespread, though not seriously so far, over the province. Some crops the writer has seen during the week have blackened off, but inspection has shown that so far the roots show little sign of infection. Occasionally the tubers are the first to be affected, the spores from the leaves being washed down by the rain to them. Where there is an absence of ra' i, but'warm, muggy conditions, the top growth is the first to tell the story. Many crops appear to be touched, whilst others have gone black—the work of a few days. The rapidity of the infection, indeed, has been most marked in some districts. Reports from South Canterbury are to the effect that many crops there have been affected, but in any early digging that has been done so far the tubers have not been damaged. However, with the tops gone the yield has naturally to be affected. The amount of visible damage has suggested to some South Canterbury growers that the yield may be affected by up to 25 per cent. However, the crop had promised to be a heavy one. In Mid-Canterbury crops are touched, as far as can be judged, over a wide extent, but to a less degree and there are many pronounced cases in North Canterbury. A colder, turn in the weather—or at all events a release from the muggy conditions prevailing—would arrest any pronounced loss.