HORSE IN FAVOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 69, 19 September 1932, Page 6

HORSE IN FAVOUR

CANADIAN FAEMEES

WHEAT GROWERS' PLIGHT

With tho fall iri wheat prices tho horse has come into favour again in Canada, replacing the tractor, and tho manufacturers of farm implements are also feeling the effects of the" depression. These facts were noted by Mr., B. F. Healy; M.P. for Wairau, who returned by the Monowai yesterday from a tour of Canada and the "United States.

He said that the wheat farmers were suffering severely from both low prices and bad seasons. It was estimated that 90 per cent, of the farmers of Saskatchewan had been receiving assistance from the State in the last two years. The Alberta growers seemed-to have fared a little better. • There' was ono area of about 1,500,000 acres which had been abandoned by wheat farmers and had gone back to its natural state. The farmers who Tvere holding on were finding, it cheaper to use horses than tractors, and' sometimes qne went for miles without seeing a tractor at work. Clydesdales were popular, but Mr. Healy said that he admired greatly a breed called Peircheron, which was of Belgian origin. It was lighter in the bone, but otherwise "nearly is. heavy as the Clydesdale and "a great doer." Tractors wore, used for driving threshing plants; but'otherwise the horse seemed to be favoured." Horses were also used extensively by the railway companies in their auxiliary delivery services. During his > stay .in Alberta, Mr. Healy was escorted over a vast area by Mr. L. A. Bamson, a Marlboroughrborn boy who has charge of one of the Government experimental stations^ At Calgary, "which is the electorate. of the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. B." B. Bennett,, Mr. Healy met. Mr... D. A. Sturroch,. who. was formerly school inspector for the Marlborough district, and who;has joined his two sons, who are farming in the district, while in Strathmpre, Alberta, Mr." Healy visited the dairy .farm which supplies milk and cream to the railways and-hotels of the Canadian Pacific Railway. . This farm, which was a model in every respect, carried a herd of 138 ■ Holstein cows. The stud cows were "milked four, times a day. and the others three times a day. One cow, according to the Government figures, had given 29,3711b of milk and 1206.71b of butter-fat in a year> while, another had yielded 29,2021b of milk and 1007.11b of butter-fat A two; year-old had given 16,0281b of milk and 663.7511/ of butterfat. The other cows in the herd were not very far;behind. The cows, as well as being grazed, were hand fed in, bails. The farm, however, was about 5000 acres, which yras much bigger than the dairy farms in NewZealand. Generally speakii'ig^ New Zealand had nothing to learn'from Canada as far as farming was concerned. ' • ,': ; THE BAlL^i^S. > ' In travelling, 'through ; Canada and America, one was .struck ■ by the tremendous part the. railways; had played in. th,e . development of the cpuntri.es> and it made ■ one convinced ; that 'the completion of the : New Zealand system was long1 overdue, y i/y; 1 :; Iv: - _ Mr. Healy inspected, a' huge irrigation scheme which was being carried out by the C.P.E.' at a cost of 2.00,000,000 dollars. It was proposed to irrigate between^ five .and six: million acres: of land "by utilising the waters of the Bpw Biver. J.A fifty-mile channel was'being dug to divert: the -river,, and the c*uttings in spme places resemble the ■ railway ; cuttings' in New Zealand. In Begina, Mr. Healy visited , the Fair,, which in New; Zealand, would be called, a show,.and was very'impressed' with the quality, of"Jhe.'exhibits, cspe'eially the bjack ,andwh|je cattle. iTK.ere was also a 'wonderful'exhibit of shorthorns, bred from Scottish stock, and the Jerseys, were of: excellent class. Bed and black polls were popular, but Here-" fords were mostly confined :.tb'; the ranches. An interesting exhibit was a number of shorthorns from the Prince of Whales's ranch; The pigs »; showed that the Canadians were fully alive ..to the advantages of selective breeding, and tho pigs alone , were well ' worth going to .see. ' '

Mr. Healy also visited the famous wheat pit at Winnipeg, the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police, and several bfr the big - State tural farms and colleges,, which were doing wonderful wprk in furthering the progress of Canadian farming. '