GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1197, 4 August 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

An important barrier to the beginner 111 fruit production is the long wait for returns until fruiting. A grower in the tioslord district (New Soutir- AVnles) .is overcoming this difficulty by growing daffodils between the rows of trees. Tho varioties planted arc Princess, Major, and Sir Watfcin. . Eeports from Western Canada prophesy a 2011,000,000 bushel wheat crop this year fc?s' s ."Bradstreet's"). Canadian Pacific Uinnipepf bulletin says:—"Not in 20 years have. crop, .conditions been so uniformly favourable." Reports from 200 points ?ay damage-from all causes is less than half of 1 per cent. Central Saskatchewan reports every steam-plough outfit contraelw! ahead for next year t .with scores of new outfits coming -into tlic'idistrict. Saskatchewan acreage next'year : will increase 10 per cent, over this year. Winnipeg Warehouse Cotmmssio'n estimated 200,000-cars wilH-be to move-this |-years grain crops out of Canada West. One of the most interesting of late saels was that, of a,,fflW oju.tll.o Mnin South lioad-j towards iMauaati? (says' er.' Originally the farm was of 313 acres, and since being cut up it is now carrying four families, which is another instance of tho rapid tendency towards close settlement in Taranaki. The four prices averaged ,£fii 15s. pm- acre. One patch of 50 acres, with noising oa it but a live fence and no subdivisions, changed hands at .£6O per acre. ' • This is one of tho finest pieces of grass land in iarauaki, and the absence of all improvement allows us to get a correct view of the value which buyers and seller placed upon the actual soil. It is reckoned that the 50 acres will carry .10 cows, and of the 50 acres probably five will be' broken up each year for cultivation. An epidemic of influenza has broken out again this winter among tho horses at Shellharbour, says tho "Sydney Herald." Nearly every farm has been visited, and many valuable animals lost. In onb case six horses were; suffering at once. It seems to affect tho animals the same as human beings, and is very "catching." Some of the settlers in the back parts of the province are complaining of the shortago of labour at present (says the. laranaki "News"). Efficient b«slif«Hcvs are difficult to obtain, and moro difficult to keep. The Waingawa freezing works have closed down for a fow weeks, to enable them to be overhauled. The following stock was put through the works during thf) season:—Sheep, 73,200; lambs, 40,172; cattle, 793; pigs, 135. Settlers in tho Maslerton district intend devoting themselves more largely this season to the' breeding of draught horses than in provious. years (says an exchange). The demand for draught stock for export has depleted the district of a great many of the most serviceable horses. A farmer within easy distance of Mew Plymouth has kept a, tally of the sheepworryinjr_ dogs that he anil his men have shot. Lip to date they number sixtythree. Only two -were registered, and the owners were traced and compelled to pay for the damage done. There is a growing dsraand for gnats in Nortnern Taranaki at the. present time, especially thoss having an Angora strain. As much as three guineas has bec-n paid, though the average price is much lower. The goats are found very' us?fill in keeping down weeds and blackberry.

In answer to a question put him after on address in Jlasterton, Mr. Rait, veterinary surgeon, stated that the Koyal Commission which had recently sat'in England _ had discovered that bnvine tuborcubsis was communicative to humanboings, particularly to the young.

"Tho labour difficulty is killing this country,' said the owner of a slieop run to a Tarnnnki f'Xfiws" representative recently. "I know of ahyiaittftiin't of sliejpfarmers who are only half working their places becauso of tho inability to sot good men at reasonable wages. 'Take in.v own case- I could very easily put oil twelve men from now to"the burning season, but 'once bitten, twim shy,' Last year I had a. good patch of country felled ready for the burn, clearing, and grassing. T knew some chaps 'who lyid just finished a road contract, f saw thorn oud told them' I rould'give thenl work for a few months. They replied that they know T must have labour, and their terms were 2s. an hour , mid found! Rut. f was not having any, ami, .after a.Jot of l>oth"r, got a cpiiplo of nienwhoin I paid Is. lid. an hoiir without keep. 'arid, between the three of us, working Ion? .hours, wo got, through the job. But I don't waiit fo repeat the experience. Tho trouble is the working men of this country aro too well off, ami don't know what, i> a fnir-tliin.T. There must come a time when they will alter their tune and be amenable to reason." ....'.■ :"'\j In travelling about the .country it is' noticeable lhal grass pnddock? arc very bire of feed, says the Cambridge correspondent of tho Auckland "Ilcrnld," but most, farmers hiivn a large norlinn of tlto b-iy saved Inst season still in resnn». For ycsirs pr.st Wniknto farmers have wintered on turnips more stock than ihpy fed on grass in summer, Iml. 011 account of the root crop fnilnre Inst. . season the district is under-stocked, and store stock arc very scarce.