GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1137, 26 May 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

At the last meeting of the Taranaki Education Board, Mr. B. M.'K. Morison, instructor in agriculture, reported that ho bad visited 27 schools since March 22, and on tho whole satisfactory work was bein" done. Some of the. schools were not up to the renrk. Oaonui again stood "right out on its own as by far and away the best." Mr. Wright (grader at Patea) and sir. ■Grant (dairy instructor at Hawera) vill iiulgo the butter and the cheeso respectively at the Now Plymouth winter show. The New Zealand Sheep Breeders' .AsEocintion (South Island) has ckcidcd to publish aununl returns in the fleet look of all Corriedole' and half-bred flocks, established between long-wool and merino breeds. The owners of such flocks must bo members of the association and must pay a fee of £1 for entry of their flocks. Respecting the recent iloods, the Waimarania correspondent of the "Hnwko's Bay Herald" eays that many of the settlers will bo heavy losers on account of the damage to fences by slips occurring on faces. In some casej considerable numbers' of sheep and cattlo have been drowned, but the flood water was so great that tho carcasses have in most cases' been washed completely away, and it will be some time before the exact losses will be known. Had the same amount of water fallen on the Hastings plainH in tho Bamn fiuie it is cerfaiu that a disaster far mnre serious I Ran the flood' of 1897 would have been chronicled.

The next conference of the various Fruitgrowers' -Associations throughout the Dominion will be held in Ifotueka in October. The chairman of the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association is of opinion (reports an exchange) that federation of the associations, which was discussed at Hastings last year, will shortly be accomplished. The wool-classing class at Bideford has decided to try an experiment (says the "Age") with basic flag on a piece of land kindly given by Jlr. J. 11. Percy, of Tividale. Some ten acres are to be experimented with, five acres to be treated and five acres to bo left in its natural stale. The test is to bo made for two years, to discover the quantity and quality of wool and mutton turned off. It was observed in New South Wales last week that a slight outbreak of blight in potato crops wa.s killed by frost.