DAIRYING TAKES IT OUT OF THE LAND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7379, 4 February 1902, Page 2

DAIRYING TAKES IT OUT OF THE LAND.

Unless farmers, said Mr Cock, do what is necessary in the way of break-ing-up and replacing, the holdings go down in value. The Crown Dairy Company has not less than a thousand cows of its own in milk. It makes it an absolute condition that farmers who are sharing profitsi ts with it must every year plough and cultivate. a certain proportion of land they occupy, and raise a sufficienc amount of winter feed for the dry cows.

BULLS.

A matter in regard to which Government supervision is required is the sale of bulls at auction. When a man finds a bull to be of no value he puts it into the saleyards. The animal is bought by some farmer, who has the same experience as the previous owner. He also sells him by auction, and so the thing goes on, and great loss is occasioned. I reckon (says Mr Cock) that the district loses from 5 to 10 per cent per annum through incompetent bulls.

COWS.

Of late (Mr Cock holds) more has been done in the way of improving the breed of cows. Still, the cows milked are, generally speaking, a very mixed lot. One farmer in the district is now negotiating with an American stud company for the purchase of some Ayrshire bulls and heifers, to arrive in time for next season. Of course, there are some farmers who pay particular attention to the selection of cows. They have tests made, and weed out those cows whose milk is not of good quality. Many farmers, on the other hand, pay no attention to the matter, and keep cows which are large eaters and yield milk of poor quality. It would not be a difficult thing for them to keep only cows which are both moderate eaters and givers of rich milk.

SOUTHERN CROPS.

Very doubtful reports come from North Canterbury concerning the state of the grain and root crops. The northwesterly weather has shaken out the oats, withered up the wheat, potatoes, turnips, rape, etc., and farmers are beginning to despair of obtaining any return for their year's labour. Of the oats, what the birds have left, the northwest gales have shaken* out. In Otago reports are better.

PESTS, FEATHERED AND CREEPING.

Southern farmers are suffering from a plague of small birds and caterpillars. In spite of the small birds being so plentiful this year, caterpillars are destroying whole crops of barley in tbe Leeston district, North Canterbury. Since tbe last meeting of the Waitaki County Council (Oamaru) no less than 80,028 small birds' eggs have been received and paid for by tbe Council, the amount being £59 18s lOd. Here is an item from the North Otago Times : — A farmer informs us that a paddock of six acres of his crop, nearly fit for the reaper, was so ravaged by small birds that he had to hastily out it for chaff. The birds " settled down on it in thousands,'' and would not have left a pickle for the threshing mill had it been left to be cut for grain.

'Continued on fourth page.)

( Continued from page 2. ) PRESERVATION OF FRUIT. In The Times' account of the Royal Horticultural Society's November display, it was reported that the Society's Knightian medal had been awarded to Mr J. E. Austin, of Kingston-on-Thames, for an extensive show of bottled fruit. As the conditions of alternate dearth and repletion are apparently the same in England as they aro, at all events this season, in New Zealand, we cannot do better than reproduce The Times' account, just opining that the process should be of extra merit to earn so great a distinction from the Jupiter of the Press. This remarkable display was an object lesson in fruit preservation which should not be lost sight of either by the fruit grower oc the consumer. It is well known that great quantities of English fruit have to be thrown -away almost every season because it cannot be got upon the market, and because, up to a recent date, no efficient method has existed for preserving it for future use. At the same time, the British housekeeper has had to purchase inferior fruit bottled abroad. Mr Austin claims to have hit upon a plan by which British-grown fruit can be bottled and preserved whole in good condition for a number of years, and, judging from the examples shown yesterday, he has achieved considerable success, for fruit was exhibited which had been bottled for fifteen months, and exposed to various temperatures, and which appeared to be in excellent colour and condition. The bottles contain fruit and water only, no sugar bemgused ; but considerable trouble has been spent upon the . production of a special vacuum bottle, and this has enabled the producer to preserve the fruit effectually and rapidly ; while the particular method of bottling, it is said, retains the natural qualities of the fruit. Every kind of British fruit was shown bottled, with the exception of strawberries, the secret of preserving which in this way has not yet been discovered. It is hoped by horticulturists who take an interest in the subject that the trade will develop at Home, and that producers will be able to compete in the foreign market. Much interest was taken in the exhibit, and in the paper which Mr Austin subsequently read upon the subject, at the invitation of the Council of the Society." At present the matter appears one rather for the merchant and storekeeper and the large producer, rather than the housekeeper, in the importation of bottles, or, better, for the glass manufacturers, for the acquirement of a permit to make bottles in the colony.