(Conducted by Winnower.)

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VX, Issue 7101, 25 January 1901, Page 4

(Conducted by Winnower.)

NOTES. i Wednesday's rain will do a great deal 3 of good to the grass, and was not * sufficiently heavy to do any serious c damage to the crops. * There is a great scarcity of fruit ' in tho district this seaspn, the . i storms of early spring playing havoc i with all kinds of fruit trees. Usually we have an over-abundance of gooseberries, but the trees have become affected by pests, and the yield is small. j Bots are again becoming troublesome . Mr J. Coxhead, formerly of Otakeho, has purchased a farm near Sentry Hill, where he is taking up his residence.

The horsebreeders in this quarter who brought Clydesdale mares from the South Island are not meeting with the best of good fortune with the high priced animals. Mr F. A. Bremer's Salisbury Belle, by Lord Salisbury from Queen Isabella, has been in a bad way since foaling. Another well-bred Clydesdale mare of Mr Bremer's lost its foal a week or so ago. The bad luck attached to owning high-class mares seems to be going the rounds of horseowners in the district.

The factories where butter-making is superseded by cheese-making during the summer months are regretting thenaction this season, seeing the satisfactory price butter is selling at.

Selling the season's output at a stated price at the commencement of the season gives factories " a bird in the hand," but this season consignors are having the best of the deal for their pluck in taking their chance in the market. I hear that one factory has consigned its output every season until the current one, when the season's produce was sold ! The loss to those of the factories that sold outright will be large, assuming, of course, that the bottom will not drop out of the market before the season ends.

Cocksfoot cutting has progressed favourably during the past; week, the fine weather being just what was wanted for reaping.' The area under crop, however, is small compared with former years. Yorkshire fog appears in large quantities in the old cocksfoot paddocks, until it is almost a matter of speculation as to which there is t*he most of— fog or cocksfoot.

Mr John Finlay, Hawera, who recently returned from a trip to South Canterbury, where some years ago he was farming, tells me the country around Timaru is looking well, and that oats have been extensively grown. Vetches, however, appear thickly in some of the crops. The Timaru Farmers' Co operative he Bpeaks of as being a concern doing an immense business, and, during the snort time he was in Timaru, was fulfilling an order for a big shipment of oats for South Africa. Traction engines are almost as numerous on the roads as bikes around Hawera. Speaking of bikes, Mr Finlay said that he stood for five minutes at the corner of a street in Christchurch and counted 63 bicyclists pass.

The Blenheim people talk o£ sending a supply of milk daily to Wellington by steamer.

Settlers who came to Taranaki during recent years have little knowledge of how the dairying industry under the factory system fared in its early stages. I was looking over some contributions of mine on farm and dairy matters that appeared some fourteen years ago, and from these I make the following brief extracts :— " The Otakeho Dairy Company held their general meeting on Ist June. The balance-sheet showed a deficit of £15 13s lid on the season's operations." "The Opunake Dairy Factory Company held a meeting, and the loss on the season's working was shown at JE37O 175." "The Manaia Dairy Factory suffered a loss of «£35 13s 6d on the year." And so I could go on quoting the early struggles of our factories. It will thus be seen that the industry did not start off with a flourish of trumpets, and it was only the grit and determination on the part of some of the early settlers that has brought the industry into the prominence it has achieved.

Mr F. A. Bremer, Okaiawa, adopted a, somewhat novel way of getting his hay into stack tlm year. The stuff was carted in sledges drawn by bullocks. An incline platform, built near the stack, allowed the bullocks to draw the hay up without the trouble of forking. 'When the stack got too high, a derrick was used to life the loads, no less than seventy loads, averaging half a ton each, being taken up in two hours and twenty minutes.

During a trip round the Eltham district the other day, I noticed that everywhere the pasture was excellent. A good deal of hay has been saved, whilst root crops occupy an extensive area in the aggregate. From Eltham towards Lake Rotokare one sees some fine grazing country that has been brought under grass within recent years.

A M&ngatoki settler informs me that docks are spreading in his district, and complains that some settlers pull the plants up and throw them on the road. He asks that the practice should be stopped.

Heavy bush fires have been burning in ibe back country during the past week. On Sunday the smoke was very dense, and clean burns should have resulted. The showers of the past few days have put an end to the suaoka for a time.

Dairying is still going strong, and last Bcason's record outputs are to bo badly beaten by this season's figures. The southern part of Taranaki is particularly well supplied with factories and creameries, and I was surprised during my peregrinations lately to find so many. Find them? One can't lose them, for no sooner was»l out of sight of otic when another came into view.

There was a large entry of stock at Messrs Nolan, Tonka, and Co.'s Hawera stock sale on Thursday, principally young cattle coming forward. Prices were good, and the collapse of the stock market that the pessimists predicted "must come after the New Year" seems a good way off.

At the Egmont Farmers' Union sale at Okaiawa, a " record " was put up, every pen of cattle being sold at the hammer. In these times of high prices, the reserves are very often not reached.

A nice even line of healthy calves that had been fed on calf meal were sold at Messrs Nolan, Tonks, and Co.'s Hawora sale on Thursday, bringing 35s each. The price may seem high, but a wellknown settler remarked that ho doubted whether the extra amount) of cash entailed by proper feeding was compensated for by the price received.

la the early-cut cocksfoot crops threshing started this week, but I have not heard of how the crops are yielding.

A cocksfoot dealer remarked to me a short time ago that attention should be directed to the way samples of seed are brought in for sale, pointing out how frequently it happened that samples were of much superior quality to the bulk of the seed supplied, adding that much trouble and disappointment to the settler might be averted if the sample was a faithful representation of the whole.