CALF CLUBS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 284, 20 August 1918, Page 8

CALF CLUBS

i i'he calf club, a' quickly growing in- , ...itution in America, has for its basic i purpose the interesting of boys and girls ; in a better and more prosperous farm- ! ing. Several hundreds of these calf clubs ! were started last year, Missouri and ll- ' linois leading with about seventy-five ; clubs each, ■ fhe purpose of these clubs ! and their method of organisation was ; explained by Jlr. Trosper in an address ' delivered before the South Dakota Dairvj men 9 Association. He indicates that the . first and foremost purpose is to interest ■ the boys, and through them their par- ; ents. .He frowns upon the organisation of these clubs for purely selfish pur- ; poses. The calf club movement obvious- ! ly 16 a good ono when intelligently con- . ductod. It has caused many an Ameri- : can boy to become interested in better ; cattle and better methods of feeding. It ; has raised his respect for farming and iKis helped to lceep liira on the farm.

The depredations of quail ou newlyBorfn grass seed were the subject of a resolution received by the provincial executive of the Formers'. Union from the IVaikato sub-provincial executive. The provincial executive was requested to communicate wifli the Acclimatisation Society and the Minister of Internal Affairs requesting action to have quail declared unprotected, so that the birds could be shot at any time. A member of the executive stated that if farmers would scatter a little mustard seed among the grass seed when it was being Bown there would be no trouble with the quail.

g A peculiar epidemic seems to liavo broken, out amongst draught horses on some of tho farms in tho King Country. On one farm inlnnd from Te Kuiti three fine horses died ono after tho other, and others are ill. At first the svmptoms seemed to point to influenza, and treatment i was given accordingly, but when experienced men were called in they seemed- quite at a loss to understand the nature tho disease. In that particular locality nothing similar has ever occurred before, and this makes it all tho morn difficult to find a solution for ft trouble which may cause serious loss to horseownera.

A census taken 011 March 11, 10IS, shows that over 1,600,000 acres of permanent grass in England and Wales'bad been broken up by that date, and it is estimated that a total addition of not less than 2,500,000 acres to the-tillage acre of England and Wales (as comnnred ■with 1016) has now been made. If, as may bo anticipated from the recent forecasts of the Boards of Agriculture for Scotland (300,000) and Ireland (1.500,000) tho corresponding addition to the tillage area in those two countries will approximate to 1.800,000 acres, the total for the, -United Kingdom will bo well over 4,000,000 acres. Returns indicate that tho total acreage in the United Kingdom under ■wheat, barley, and orits in 1018 ivill ba the highest ever recorded in the history of British agriculture. The acreage under potatoes will' be the greatest (llEce '1872,