AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 13 April 1912, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

GREAT PLOUGHING RECORD. The world's record for ploughing was recently broken in a demonstration at Purdue University, Indiana, in which a gang-plough, having fifty ploughs, and drawn By throe traction engines, turne<l over a stubblo field at tho rat* of on acre every 44 minutes. Thir, mammoth plough cuts a strip nearly 60 foot wide, und turns over 7 acroi for ovorv mil© ,it travels. Each of the fifty ploughs is independent of the others, rising and falling a& easily and naturally as a wooden chip ou the surface of rough water, i*o Chat the service of the machine is not confined to ground absolutely level. What such a plough can accomplish when started out on an open, fairly level prairie is remarkable. Allowing for no delays, it will turn over 7 acres for every mile travelled, 14 acres every hour,, and working 12 hours per day, six days per week, it will plough 1000 acres. Working two shifts of men and ploughing all night, as is now often •done, the acreage turned over in a, week would bo just .doubled. Fifty year* ago a farmer, with his team of oxen, had to toil from dawn to sunset to break an acre of land, walking ten nulos to the acre. Here is a chance for the man who would bring under tillage » vast extent of land where no ground is wasted under hedges. A Sandon farmer has secured a yield of 110 bushels of oats per acre on hi* farm. He put in his crop late, and only finished threshing last week. A Maefcerlon farmer states that twice as much ensilage was being made by farmers in that district than was pro viously the case, ensilage being recognised ac a valuable fodder for tho winter season. . The Feilding Star titles that tJw. farmer* in the Waiata district' are pluming themselves upon the excellent crops they have secured this the oats yielding up to 82 and 84 bushels per acre. Mr. Duncan M'Lean, of ' Alakirikiri South, m the Wanganui district, has jusfc obtained from ,a 62-acre paddock of Federal wheat a return of 65 bushels to the acre. A 40-acre crop of crested dogstaiJ , yielded 4541b of dressed seed to the acre. The Stratford Dairy Company held a big general meeting to consider the advisability of adding cheesemaking to the business. It was decided to take no action at present. A consideration that weighed a good deal with the sharehold" ers wae the possibility of developments in the casein business giving a splendid market for skim-milk. Mr. Guddio, Director of Dairy Produce, is to attend a combined meeting of the- Ngaire, Cardiff, and Lowgarth dairy factory directors on Wednesday next, to give them the benefit of his advice on the whey-butter question. Several threshing mills in Ashburton pulled in last week owing to the shortage of sacks, and the Guardian states that others will hftve to cease work from the same cause this' week. ' Hop-picking in the Waimeas ie nearly finished, but there are still several gardens* In the vicinity of Foxhill yet untouched. Although, the crops have been comparatively light the enhanced price has more than compensated for the deficiency in the crop. It is reported (says the Nelson Colonist} , that a grower near Wakefield has received Is Sd a, 1b for his hops— a record price co far this* season.' The world's, record, was made at the Roseworthy (South Australia) ' Agricultural egg-laying competition by six white Leghorns from the Redfern. Poultry Farm, Caulfield (Victoria), with a score of 1589, this eclipsing the Burnley record of 1566 by Ma 1 . K. W. Pope's pen by 23. The second place was taken by Mrs. Uren (Kapunda), with 1319. In the South-East competition the highest result was that of Moutz Bros. (Katanga* doo), with 1464. At the Mataura Dairy Factory, on Good Friday, the pay-out to suppliers for butter-fat amounted to £2240 for 38,4061b at Is 2d, against £1848 for 32,3641b at lOd for the same month of last year. A yield of 113 bushels per acre was obtained from a paddock of Danish oats thrashed on a 'arm at Upper Riccartoa (Canterbury) a few days ago. Between Longbush and Dacre, in Southland, only one crop of potatoes, and that a small one, is to be seen. Farmers have not been encouraged to go in for potato-growing owing to the low price ruling for tubers during the past few years, and it looks as if the anticipations made by the News some eight weeks ago that potatoes will be scarce in this province, is likely to be verified. Mr. David Hudson, of Warepa, Gabriel's Gully, who is ninety-Mire* years of age, is a fine type j of the pioneers who came to tho colonies from Scotland more, than half a century ago. He turned out to the harvest field one day recently and stooked five acres of oftts. Farmers at the base of the hills in the Aehburton district are already crynig out for rain (cay« tho Guavdian), and it would seem that the present dry spell is not proving an unmixed good", but teed has hardened considerably during the last couple of weeku, and lambs hayo been putting or. condition, vary quickly. There is every piospect of the Fair-field Freezing Workrt being k«pi> iairly busy for. come time to come, farmers having boon induced by the improvement in tho prices offered by export buyers to «ell more freely. > A strike occurred at Ross and Kt'Clintock's threshing . mill when working in the "Wainiate district (Canterbury) oce day this week. The men. demanded Ls 3d per hour while threshing poor crops, and piece-work rat* on tho good crops. Mr. Lightfoot, tho labour a^ont, enme down from Timaru with a view of settling the dispute, but negotiations were broken off by the men. Mr. Lightfoot has reported the matter to headquarters in Wellington, and tho Waimate Advocate state."! that proceedings will probably bo taken against the men for a breach of the Act hi striking. Mr. F. Blandish, of Ashburton, has this year found that both half aJid threequart erbrod tShroptfhires have given <h« beet retinue of any sheep. .A batch of lambs, only of" iiret and second cross *wcfi by Shropshire vtaus, averaged 4511js weight, and gave 51b of inside fat per head. Speaking at the opening of the Motueka Valley Horticultural Society '» annual show a few days ago, Mr. J. 8. Rutherford stated that ov<?r four toms of grass seed had been sent out of tho Taupowera district tiiw (season, the price ranging from ls to ls 3d per lb. Ho remarked thai the grass grown in the Valley (Dnuthonia Nilos*.) had k'on found very suitable for tho pumice lands of the north, and ho thought if settlors saved tho "seed ttom the jirajs which Srew ail ovor tho hillu and in the \vuiocks around Tapawera, they would Slid it t profitable investment.