NOTES BY THE WAY

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 13

NOTES BY THE WAY

The warm, summer weather has been very useful to the farmer at this time with Ins husbanding operations for the coming autumn and winter ana farmers have been maiking the best use ol the line weather. Evidence ot this nas been seen on every hand. At any time from daylight to dark, all round the country, side, have' been seen gangs of men at work, with mowers, sweeps, and other farm machinery- where there are big operations in hand and with otner forms of agricultural! implements where farming is on a small scale, i'-m----silage is said to have been made in gieater quantities than ever before and it has proved a wonderful fodder for all classes of stock. Hay has been saved in large quantities as the balance to the ration and it is a very important part. Good sweet -hay is a wonderful factor towards success with stock. And conditions have conspired to enable farmers this year to make the best. But there are still farmers who believe they can do without ensduge and who concentrate on hay with a small area, of crops. And they get wonderful results, but the tendency in all farming operations is to avoid opening ufp tiie land as far as possible so as to eliminate the noxious >veed trouble, one of the greatest handicaps the farmer has to overcome. The value of sodium chlorate as the antidote to ragwort is being more widely proved every week and its eficetive results have been widely proved. Many men aver that but for this help, many farmers were threatened with oeing forced off the land. There is no doubt at all of the problem and its effective solving is one of the greatest events of the time in the fanning industry.. it is hard to say enough of its value to the whole Dominion.

A word or warning has 'been sounded bv the authorities in regard to the infiammalbility of the material when dried, say on clothes and farmers are well advised to be careful. . The agricultural officers have shown the danger and it should be stressed. But there is another feature worth mention. It has been found that young stock will lick the clilorate from pastures treated and if they get much — .. oiing animals are very prone to be attracted by anything liice that, on grass or on any substance lying on the giound—there is danger to them. It would l>p well when treating plants in ; 1 .addocik to keep it closed' for some nays.

farmers agree that the present season, and especially the latter part, has been one of the Best for pasture growth for a long time, but curiously the milk returns have not responded. iue cause apparently is the want of rain in the early part of the spring and summer and the tendency of the grass to “holt” to seed!. Still there is no doubt the country has been looking well, a fact remarked by visitors and bv local people who have been lately to other districts. One Haw-era man who came through the Wairarapa this week said that it was looking burned and dry and that no country he saw equalled South Taranaki for greenness and luxuriance of growth. A correspondent of the Napier ’•Telegraph” has noted that in Hawke’s Bay farmers, and dairy farmers in particular, are paying much more attenion to detail in their farming economy. This strikes a note that should find a ready response from all parts of the Dominion for it has a very practical bearing on the question of successful farming and with the largely reduced revenue from , roduce is au essential on every farm. Cos to of production must he reduced' and this points to a means of helping to (bring this about. Farmers will have to pay much more attention to detail and to the economics that can be effected Ivy making the best of everything on the farm. One has often wondered if it were not possible to make use of the grass growing at the sides of the roads all over the Dominion. It amounts in the aggregate to many hundreds of acres and is often the very best pasture grass, lush and weld manured, it has been often illegally grazed arid m some parts farmers have taken d.o risk of having their steak impounded. It is impossible in these days of heavy and increasing traffic on the main loads to allow stock to pasture indiscriminately, but more use of this kind might be made on by-roads and farmers might cut the roadside in many cases and so get a considerable l addition to their material for hay and ensilage. It is worth notice that this has been done in some parts and that the result has been a considerable addition to the crop for stack or pit. In several parts near Hawera there has been a very large amount oif grass cut on by-roads. The practice might surely lie largely increased with advantage.. It is one means towards economy m farming. The results of the work in research being done at Massey College by means of the 'Special grant made by the Empire Marketing Board to combat openness in cheese will be awaited with) keen intrest by all farmers and indeed bv the whole Dominion, lor the question of that defect is vital to the future of the industry and has a very practical hearing on the revenue of the Dominion.