GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1193, 31 July 1911, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

There is not half enough ensilage made in New Zealand, in the opinion of jlr. J. G. M ilson, president of the Farmers' Union. One of the great advantages of ensilage, he pointed out, is that if nor. eaten at once it will do just as well for the following year. The matter of tilt' expense was a consideration, of course, but in view of the grass grub and the blights, he thought ensilage-mating would of necessity be gone in for more and more, and it would eertainlv bo most valuable as a set oft' against the pests.

My. A. .T. Gallichan has purchased the whole of Jlr. Geo. Glover's (Wainui) herd oi Holstein-I-riesian cattle for his stud farm at Tiakitaliuna. Jlr. Gallichan has now some forty animals, Mr. Glover's herd having swelled the number by sixteen.

The recent extremely low prices for New- Zsaland lambs have forced these goods into a low class of trade, costers and cheap shops (says the Smitlifield report in the "Pastoralists* Hoview"). This does not do the trade any good, as the general public a.ro (foolishly) prejudiced against provisions which come within the reach of ivhat they snobbishly call the lower orders.

Mr. W. D. H. Rait. M.R.C.V.S., of Palmerston North, delivered a lecturo at Masterton on Saturday night before a largo gathering of farmers 011 diseases in sjocic. At tho conclusion of the address it was reported that if sufficient inducement offered classes would be established in connection with Masterton. Technical School in veterinary science-

A report from the Waikato states that pasture feed is very short 011 many farms. Turnips, also, have turned out very light, and were it not for tho stacks of hav that are now being fed out to dairy herds, matters would be even worse than they arc. As it is, the bulk of the cows are in low condition, and cannot be expected to improve until calving is over and new grass comes with the spring growth. An old Taranaki resident states that such a. mild winter as the present has never been experienced for three or four decades.

Last week's Sydney boat carried to New South Wales thirty of Mr. \V. C. Buchanan's English Leicester ram hoggets, and fifty liomney ram hoggets, bred by Messrs A. and J. Gray, Gladstone. The consignment is for Jlr. I-'. O. Dowling, of Walla Walla in the southern district.

Speaking of the blowfly pest recently, tlio New South Wales Minister for Agriculture said that he thought that the solution lay either in one or two directions—either the discovery of somo speciiic ior treating the sheep, or some means of destroying the flies. He thought (hat the pest had spread so much in Australia owing to tho destruction of rabbits. Rabbits died, and the flies bred- 011 them and in their burrows. Millions of Hies were thus propagated. One of the directions in which they would havo to work would bo to pay close attention to the destruction of all foetid matter. If this were 'got rid of, the pest would greatly diminish. The question of a specific was largely a matter for- the chemist.