GENERAL FARMING NEWS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2113, 2 April 1914, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS

Shows, says M.\ J. C. N. Grigg, become the debating grounds on various points of excellence or otherwise, hence Britain has become the stud farm of ,the world, and he felt sure that NewZealand'yould be a good second in-pro-ducing higli-class stud stock, A>r it has the climate and land and men of the same bvee,4- who love the land.■■_• Every true farmer ought to have an ideal jii animals of some tort, and that idea*.in animals must be guided; first and foremost by establishing the most useful and profitable points combined with beauty of-form and a placid disposition, and by not allowing little faddy points of no intrinsic value to outweigh the utility points and £ s. d. Faddy points had been allowed to .influence judging •in several breeds, much to their disadvantage. * . The directors of the Patea Freezing Works Company have decided to rebuild the'portion of the works destroyed recently, in brick or concrete. .A curious plan of .• encouraging the breeding of pigs in the Southern btates of America, where*, the .koine- supply is ■ hot equal, to- the consumption, hasbeen etar'ced by the* Department of Agriculture. An illustrated bulletin, .entitled "Boys' Pig Clubs," has-been issued (jy tho Bureau of Animal Industry, giving advice, as to-the- breeding of the . .aniivmAs., As fav, as. possible, v'tooV. the / Bureau employs a "State agent in every Southern" &tate to . assist m organising tho clubs and-in 'helping the 'members to ' purchase well-bred animals at moderate [■prices.,; ; ' '.; '..*.'

Official statistics of Argentine exports iti 19X3 shiw that ibcqhantiby of chilled lee? was 3,913,916 quarters', ov TO,OOO more'than in 2912, lrfifle Via. 1,105,265 quarters of frozen beef were 736,000 fewer. Frozen carcasses of, sheep numbered, a>261.618, or. 080,000 ..fewer..,than in"1912, arid those dt''lambs l ;wore.''i29,030, ov 289,003 feiver, .: Wool and Mdes also fell off, -while biitter increased from 67,000 to 135,350 cases".. ' : . ■..',- -. Blackbirds .were not alwaye regarded as a nuisance , in New/Zealand, ''judging by the. 1 following paragraph from a Ghristchurch paper of March...lß64:— "Last autumn' Mr. Georges Rhodes; of I'urau, liberated a pair of line blackbirds. Soon, afterwards they took to the bush, and noth.ig further-was seen of them till a few days ago, when they returned to the neighbourhood of the house with a brood of young ones quite strong on .the wing. It is something .to know that this little success gives a hope that it' is possiblo to adapt somo of the English songsters to -our climate."

Marlborough has been ' drained .of sheep during the last few months to supply the Canterbury markets, and all store sheep, ©specially wethers, aro scarce, and command high rates. This factor will make it hard (an exchauge states) for tho now settlers at Hillersden to stock their holdings.

"Up to Saturday the Dannevirko A. and P.* Association had realised £280 over their gift auction, and tho promoters aro hopeful this sum will be increased to _£350 before the scheme is concluded;

There was a good deal of controversy, in which Mr. 1 ,, . H. Smith'took some part, somo months ago, as to tho wisdom of the* State's purchase of Eldcrsjio Estate in.Nortli Otaso. This year apparently the settlers have bad ii good time. : The "Oamaru Mail" recently had tho following paragraph from a correspondent., concerning .this, settlement: "Somo large yields aro recorded: On Elderslie No. 2 as high as 60 bushels' of wheat and 80 bushels of oats have been threshed on sections that were not applied for at the ballot and wliich,' according, to the statement of the M.P. for Waitaki, was land supposed ,to- bo only faces of bare spurs. No doubt, in dry seasons, El'derslie suffers from, drought; but it certainly compensates for this at other times." With yields such as those mentioned tho settlers ought to clear about £8 per acre, which.is a rate of profit generous ■ enough to compensate them for dry seasofis, which come, say, once in ten years.

The- Taungata estate, Ctaki Gorge, recently held by the Taungata Land and Timber Co., Ltd., has been resold to the original owners. Another block of land there, of somo 1600 acres, has also been sold to Messrs. Pegg Bros., who will take-up residence there about the end of next month.

The Tiniaru "Herald",states that a resident of Timarn, who has just returned from Southland, says that blight is.playing havoc with the- Californian thistle down, there. Ho brought up several heads of blighted thistles. They have on them a kind of brown rust which seems to act as a deadly poison to them, killing them as it does right down to tho deepest root. A Waimariuo farmer, who succeeded in producing '• a frost-proof and blightresisting spacies of potato, has (says an exchange) found that such experiments are oxtromely profltablo when they are successful. His experiments were extended over a period of five years, but it was only last season that he had a sufficient numbers of tho new tubers to warrant the public announcement of liis discovery. Tho fame of the new potatoes has spread to America sinco then, arid American buyers are purchasing the eeod at I,os. per lb.

There are tricks in all trades! An Eketahuna. sheepowner, discoursing on the subject of culling, stated that sonio owners, not in the Kketahuna district, by the way, had a great sdieme for increasing their reputation as sheep breeders. It would bo advertised that their culls wore to bt> offered at auction, says tho "Express." Fioin a fair-sized flock they would cut off a small mob that were a. fair sample of the flock, and these would bo sold as the culls. Of course the qualitv would bo prime, and it was a jjreat advertisement to have it reported that Mr. 's culls brought u price ruling for the best quality sheep in.tho yards*

c HAWKE'S BAY SHEEP TRAFFI

Phenomenal sheep traffic again characterised operations at tho Dannevirke railway station during tho month ended March 31, says tho "Dannevirke News," the total number dealt with beiiis; distinctly in keeping with the. number handled during the four preceding months o! the present season. During March this year 22,283 fat sheep and lambs have been railed from Dannevirko as compared with 12,925 for tho corresponding month last year, making the total transported from tho local station during the present season (from November 1, 1013, to March 31, 19U), 96,355, as against 52,809 for tho same period in 1912-13. Tho respective totals for the various months are as follows, tho figures in parentheses beiiiK for the season 1912-1913:—Num-ber of sheep transported during November, 7441 (4012); increase, 3429; December, 12,151 (11,318), increase, 833; January, 28,195 (17,116), increase 11,079; February, 26,285 (7438), n\ciease 18,847 j -March, 22,283 (12,92:.), increase 9358. Total for present season, 96,355, last season 52,809; increase, 43,546. These figures only refer to thesheep transported south, the figures for sheep railed Napierwards being kept at the Makotuku station. Practically speaking, as many sheep liavo been railed north as south from Dannovirko this season, so that approximately 200,000 sheep have been transferred from this district during tho current season.