FARMING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3101, 9 January 1922, Page 7

FARMING.

The following estimates of the areas under wheat aqd oate in the Dominion for the current season have been issued by the Government Statistician, the figures being based on the usual card census: —

Wheat —North Island, 9000 acres; South Island, 354,000 acres; total, 305,000 acres.

Oats —North Island, 64,000 acres; South Island, 406,000 acres; total, 470,000 acres. The corresponding totals for the previous season (1920-21) were 222,843 acres of wheat and 574,729 acres of oats.

In the current season’s wheat sowings the areas under the different varieties are given as follow: —Tuscan or longberry, 212,850 acres; Hunter’s (various), 86,411 acres; Velvet or Pearl, 38,321 acres. The varieties comprising the balance of the total wheat acreage are unspecified.

SKIMMIN.GS

Denmark’s dairy exports are large in proportion to total production, because of the small industrial population and the further fact that a large quantity of marganine is consumed in that country. Denmark’s total exports of butter in 1914 were slightly over 200,000,0001b. Denmark is a negligible factor in the manufacture of cheese, only a comparatively small quantity being manufactured. Notwithstanding the uncertainty as to prices of mutton and wool the Suffolk sheep sales at Ipswich (Eng.) were a great success. The leading pen of 10 ewes from a consignment of 247 ewes were sold for £3l each, and the second pen made £25 each. The top price, however, was £32 each, which was paid for a pen of 10 ewes from a Norfolk consignment. The highest price for a ram lamb was 200 guineas, which Mr Adeane, the well-known breeder of Suffolks, paid/' The winner of the first prize in the ram competition sold for 165 guineas. Fodder crops include all those crops which are grown for their leaves and stems for fodder purposes, that is, to provide green or dried food for stock. The plants of the Brassica genus—cabbage, rape, and kale —might be considered as fodder crops, but they are so closely allied to the turnip crops botanically, and their cultivation is so similar to the root crops and followed by so precisely similar results, that although cultivated for their leaves', it is more convenient to class 1 them with the root or fallow crops, as they are also grown to clean and enrich the land for tnc crops to follow. The Guernsey has always been regarded as a rich butter cow. One animal in the herd of Lord Weardale, in England, at her last milkings before calving yielded 9 per cent, butter fat in the afternoon and 7.2 per cent, in the morning, an average of 8.1 per cent, for the day. Previously she had' had averages of 7.2 and 7.7 per cent, butter fat. Several have figures as good. Mrs Cunninghame’s Francis Honoria having given milk in the evening with a butter-fat content of 9.3 per cent, and 7.1 per cent/in the morning, an average for the twenty-four hours of 8.2 -per cent. Still another fawn and white, Flaw Hatch Blossom of Les Grantes, gave 10 per cent. at. an evening milking. The value of a good sire cannot be too highly estimated in breeding dairy cattle. “Hoard’s Dairyman’’ says the daughters of King Segis Alcarta Prilly, the supreme Friesian sire owned by the Bridgeford Friesian Company of Patterson, are showing excellent* results in the production of line. Bessie Veemau Alcartra Prilly, a senior two-year-old, has given over 16,0001b of milk in seven months, and is still giving over 801b a day; Louie Alcartra Prilly, a junior two-year-old, has 18,0001b to her credit at the end of eight months. Both these heifers will, say this journal, without doubt reach the 24,0001b mark or even more. Their sire is evidently not only a show bull but a most excellent breeder.

The introduction of 100 head of Friesians from South Africa to England has aroused much discussion. The British breeder is terribly conservative, and seems to think that no country has. any right to stud stock business except his own. He growled when New Zealand and Australian Corriedales were consigned to South America, and he is up in arms because Canada is shipping live cattle for slaughter to England, and he now wants to prevent South African Friesians from landing in Groat Britain. Surely John Bull should see that this is a selfish policy. For generations stud stock of various breeds have been brought from British herds and flocks, and it only seems fair and right 'jtlhat the Old Country should admit healthy animals when occasions arise such as those quoted above.