THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 5

THE WEEK

COST OF LIMING • A Mid-Canterbury farmer has sent in his accounts for sowing lewt of super and half a ton of lime on 100 acres of his property, a job which he has just completed. The total charge amount to £1 10s 2d an acre. The property is alongside the railway, but the super was carted by road, as it was less than a truck lot. The costs were as follows:

SCHOOLS FOR FARMERS

Winter farm schools have been a feature of the expansion work of the Department of Agriculture for many years, but the courses organised for Blenheim from July 20 to 22, and for Timaru from August 3 to August 5 introduce a new feature in that leading figures in agricultural science in New Zealand will be present in addition to the regular staffs of the department. Among the prominent men who will take part are Mr E. Bruce Levy, whose work at the Grasslands Division at Palmerston North in the breeding of improved strains of grasses and clovers has earned him world-wide repute; Mr J. B. E. Duncan, wool supervisor to the department, whose advisory service is being increasingly used by farmers; Mr J. H. Claridge, who is in charge of seed certification; Mr A. C. Poole, assistant director of the Botany Division, who has had wide experience of the use of New Zealand seeds in Great Britain and of the British market for New Zealand seeds; Dr. J. Filmer, director of Animal Research; Mr J. W. Calder, acting director of Lincoln College; and Mr M. A. Black, of the Agronomy Division. Both courses will include field inspections of farms as well as lectures, and have been given most encouraging support by farmers.

STAPLES AND NAILS

The current nail shortage in New Zealand will soon be overcome and an increasing supply of staples will be available. Information to'that effect has been received by Federated Farmers from the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr A. H. Nordmeyer). New Zealand has been particularly fortunate in procuring nearly her full requirements of nail wire for this year, said the Minister, and shipments were arriving regularly. It was anticipated that good supplies of nails of all sizes would be available in a few weeks when factory production beean to overtake demand. Staple wire was also coming forward in reasonably good supply, and while it was not likely that all supply difficulties would disappear in the near future, the situation was expected to ease considerably.

HERD AVERAGES £2B

High prices for dairy stock are not confined to Canterbury. A clearing sale at Koiterangi on the West Coast last month saw prices quite as high as those realised in Canterbury recently for good dairy cows. The dairy herd was that of Mr M. A. Paterson, of Koiterangi, and the 77 head offered averaged just under £2B. Prices ranged from £l6 10s to £44 10s. For 11 heifer calves, £l5 a head was paid. The herd was of good quality cows, mainly Jersey cross, and the buyers were local men.

SPEEDIER CARGO HANDLING

A North Canterbury pastoralist, signing himself “Agricola,” submits the following suggestion for overcoming hold-ups on the New Zealand wharves:— Trouble on the wharves could be overcome at once by the adoption of standard containers for all produce leaving New Zealand and all goods coming in, he writes. If has been done before, and could be adopted for at least 90 per cent, of the goods shipped out of and into this country. I am most interested in meat. It would be possible to pack meat at the works into standardised containers of. say, 10 tons each, load the containers on to railway trucks at the works, and load them from the trucks on to the ships, and thus overcome the present system of each man of a gang of about 40 men giving each individual carcase a light pat to send it down the chutes. The whole 10 tons would be moved in one lift of a crane. The design of the containers, which might be of stainless steel and made collapsible for transport back to New Zealand, is a problem for mechanical engineers, and a simple one. The freezing of the 10 tons of meat in bulk is a problem for refrigeration engineers, and also a simple one. It would probably not be necessary to make the containers collapsible, as large quantities of imports could be packed into them in England after the goods were assembled by the forwarding houses that already exist. The imports could similarly be distributed through forwarding agents in New Zealand. The system might need standardised holds in ships, and might need the pro Vision of specialised gantrys and cranes at freezing works, on the wharves and elsewhere, but it would do away with the bulk of the handling that is at present necessary on the wharves. Some descriptions of goods, heavy machinery for instance, coula not be packed in the standard containers. but at least 90 per cent, of goods into and out of New Zealand could be handled in this way. If this suggestion sounds impossible, it is no more impossible than the theory expounded many years ago that meat could be frozen in New Zealand and taken to England by sea. It would need no more organisation than the first shipment by the Dunedin in 1882, and no more prejudice would have to be overcome. The cost of the scheme might seem high, but the Meat Board has £25,000,000 lying idle, and could well spend some of it in experimenting with standard containers. In any case, the cost would not be more than the cost to the country each year of incidents similar to that involving the Mountpark.

IRRIGATION AND WATER LEVELS

Mr R. D'. Robinson (Ashburton) writes: —I beg to thank Mr Collins for his reply to my inquiry re effects of levels in irrigation on the Seadown area. I notice that he says that the levels at Kyle’s pit were influenced by an overflowing water-race. This could in my mind so easily have been prevented that it looks to me that someone was more interested in upsetting the value of this trial than in getting a true estimate of the effects of irrigation. It is pleasing to note that the drains worked so well where they were kept clean.

The 2102 sheep on the Lincoln College farm this vear gave a gross return of 16,4171 b of "wool valued at £1933, and averaged 8.911 b a head, excluding lambs, and 7.811 b including lambs. The 2490 sheep on the Ashley Dene farm gave a gross return of 21.3441 b of wool valued at £2638, and averaged 9.351 b a head excluding lambs, and 8.571 b including lambs.

Five tons super at £10 Is £ s. d. .' 50 5 0 Railage, at 6s 8d .. 1 13 4 Cartage, at 9s 9d .. 2 8 4 Total .. 54 7 1 Fifty tons lime at 12s Railage .. 30 0 0 .. 12 18 4 Hire 800 bags, at 4d .. 13 6 8 Hire railway tarpaulins .. 0 18 4 Railage empty bags .. 1 10 1 Total .. 68 13 4 Cartage (ex shed) super .. 117 Cartage (ex rail) lime at 3/8 9 3 4 Sowing 100 acres at 3/8 .. 18 6 8 Total .. 28 11 7 Grand total .. . . 151 12 1