GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1105, 19 April 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

' At the annual meeting of the Hastings branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year-.—Chairman, Mr. Thomas Talbot; vice-chairman, Mr. G. N. Horn; secretary, Mr. .T. A. Fraser; auditor, Mr.- Eustace Lane; committee, Messrs.'A. Masters, Eustace Lane, J. H. Taylor, W. Webb, .T. Boatson, S. .Chambers;' C. Stubbs, A. Spcevs, and A. Msl- - delegate 'to Provincial Conference,' Jlr.T. Talbot. - ■■' "• .'■■■■ The weather in South Canterbury continues dry, and feed is so scarce that sHeep are being sacrificed at prices unheaTd of for years (says an exchange). Numbers of old ewes. Which in an ordinary year would be fattened and sold to the butchers, are this year being sold as low as ls.Gd. each, tho sheep being killed and converted into manure. The dry )teather, it is said, will-have a bad effect on the price of wool next spring, as quality will be'lacking; and it is also predicted that ewes will be cheap next spring. ' : , The Hastings branch of the Farmers' Union has decided to forward the following- remit to the Provincial.Conference: — "(a) That all applicants for Crown lands who aro landless and qualified by the law to ballot for land be passed for the ballot without any other test than the declaration; (b)- that the Advances to Settlers Act be so amended as to enable any. landless person eligible for the ballot ;to take lip : land having an undeveloped value; (c) that, tho Government be urged to restore to the Statute-book that Liberal legislation recently" repealed which empowers the purchase of land by the State at tho price indicated by the value produced." - Some specimens of grubs attacking tussocks in the Mackenzie Country, found by tho Minister for Agriculture three or four miles south of Qmar'ama, were submitted to the Biologist." The latter identified the specimens as the larval and pupal forms of Agrotis ypsilon, one of the i\ew Zealand native moths. This moth is commonly found on all the tussock-clad lands of the South Island, and of late years has caused considerable loss in tho drier regions. There appears to be no practical means of dealing with the insect over extended areas-—"Journal of the Department of Agriculture."