GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 857, 1 July 1910, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

It is reported that attempts to commence a wool-sorting class at Waitara have been unsuccessful. As Urenui has a school of' twenty-five pupils for a start, Waitara should have been able to find people ready to grasp the chance of learning how to class the golden fleece.

"Some time ago," says tho Feilding correspondent of a Palmerstou North paper, "Chamber of Commerce delegates waited on tho A. and'P. Association and suggested the holding of an exhibition in Feilding. . The association appointed a sub-committee to consider the matter, and it is understood that tho committco will recommend the holding of the exhibition at Easter, 1912." Presumably, as tho Agricultural Association has interested itself in tho matter, tho exhibition will adequately provide for the rural industries. The I'eiFaing district should bo able to make a very good show of agricultural exhibits, and the town is central enough to receive support from other farming communities. large numbers of hoggets are being taken into the Ngamatapouri district (according to a correspondent of the "Wauganui Heraid") to stock the bush burns. The same contributor also states that n very fine line of purebred Polled .Angus cows has been purchased by a Ngamatapouri farmer.

Grass grub and caterpillars arc reported to bo destroying a lot of winter feed in the upper Waitotara district. :As a result of the abnormally damp and mild late summer and autumn months (writes the Ngamatapouri correspondent of tho "Wanganui .Chronicle") the farmers of this district have bad to contend with what is now "believed to be '.'facial eczema," a.disease.which attacked the sheep's head and face and resulted, iii many cases, in the death of the sheep affected. Ignorance as to the identity of the disease, no doubt, was responsible for the loss of.some.of pur affected sheep, as we were treating for-"nasal bot." In the Department's, new "Journal," tho Minister for Agriculture says:— "In New Zealand there'are-many problems relating to agriculture to be solved, such as tho restoration and conservation of tho grasses and edible plants of tho pastoral lands of the central regions of tho South Island, the development of wide ftreas of the interior, of the North Island, and the ." utilisation of land situated on the western coast of (lie South' Island. These lands have not been made full use of for pastoral or agricultural pursuits on account of tho difficulties that they present. It is the intention of the Department to undertako investigations in the direction of tho elucidation of these special conditions."

Since he was appointed overseer of the State farm at Wereroa, Mr. ,T. Drysdalo has carried on valuable experiments with dairy stock. An'cxchange states: In December ISOli tho dairy herd on the farm consisted of 200 cows, 117 being milked during that month. 13y 1008 fifthly of these were culled out, as they did not give a return for the grass they weru eating. They were replaced with eleven cows, five of which were purchased locally at an averago cost of „tl2 15s. per head. Tho unmlxsr of cows milked in December, 1907, was 07, and in that month they yielded ]9021?j. more than tho. return from lti« 117 imps in December, 1903. We understand the returns aro still improving, pome ot the cows producing worth of miis., .is rtgninnt less than .M which some of the secags gs.rc.''

Evidently sotnc of the southern /armors and the auctioneers are not agreeing well respecting commission rates. At a meeting of the 'Waimatc branch oi thu Farmers' Union on Saturday a communication was received the Temuka branch curpriuH \ (umjlutlon complaining of the high charges fixed by the auctioneers for selling stock. After consideration it was resolved to endorse the action of the' Temuka lirnucli, holding that f> per cent, on single animals was too much and that tho present charge of 2. per cent, on one or more aiiimals was sufficient,