SOUTHERN FARMING NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 539, 21 June 1909, Page 10

SOUTHERN FARMING NOTES.

PIGS AND CROPS.' A recent arrival from Scotland is making a specialty in tho Waimate district of pig. roaring-... on modern lines (sajßoiir special Christchurch correspondent). He has a herd of 100 pigs, and a fine Devon weaner was sold to a Taranaki farmer for £6,65. last week. i ~•'■' '.'■'■'.'■■ An average yield of fourteen tons of potatoes per acre is reported from the Malvern district. This is a strong contrast with the experience of growers in the Ashburton County. This season a number of tho crops in tho Ashburton district (says the " Ashburton Mail") aro so badly affected the blight that they are not worth digging,'and it has been found that the tubers bo attacked decay very quickly when ciposcd'to tho open air. The prevalence of disease in potatoes, turnips, and rapo during tho past three years _in this country leads ono to think that the ;diseases must bo' now widely inoculated into tho soil. Ono farmer said that ho had subjected a.plot of ground to a good, dressing of lime, oiH that tho iuraips and -roots I

which ho obtained from this land were not affected with any disease, the roots being clean and well-grown. Given fine weather this week, (says the " Ashburton Guardian") the threshing in tho Ashburton County will have been practically completed. A number of the machines havo tallies ranging considerably over 100,000 bushels, and, when ono takes into consideration .the fact that.there aro close on fifty threshing mills-in tho county, somo idea can bo gained of the importance of tho Ashburton County for grain-producing, apart from tho largo quantities of wool, mutton, and lamb that aro annually exported by tho fanners and .merchants. It is estimated that tho total production of grain for tho county is 3,500,000 bushels. The wliolo of this is not available for export.. Neither has tho wholo of tho crops boon yet actually threshed,'as largo quantities aro annually reserved for chaff and other purposes. '