RIVERLEA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 6

RIVERLEA.

(From- Our <)wn Correspondent.)

trip. ,"

34oitday,. 17% May, broke a beautiful ckar^calm morning,' with a sharp frost whiteninjg the ground,.and with the pro- . wises of a perfect day. The local farm<wr* wereout;,; ; niost- of them well ahead «f ■old Sbf^iuTthe Riverlea.cows were somewhat /surprised at the unusual I^e at'which they, were bailed up tor the morning's milking.'.....The reason was that their owners were off to Mounial»aki 'to vi^it'th© State Farm, but Peggy,. Roany and Co. knew nought of at, and,only*"-felt aggrieved at being 3oi!ked by lantern lignt. '£he party were to • leave by one of. ihe Taranaki Motor. Transport lorries for Ertham, starting from the Riverlea toll-gate at 7.15 a.m., and the store at f J3O a.m., but the. lorry driver, gettmg an early start,-gave some ot us a bad scare by appearing on the scene veil ahead of the time he was expect«d. He, said he thought he'd get there in plenty of time., and it certainly made ■the later oites bustle some when they «aw tix«s comifig. . The writer still had three cowk vto milk when he passed, and thca get ready and have his breakfast: ■ .-• •■■ .!- l.

Punctually to the minute the lorry left this toll-gate with the of far-outers, and ran along, picking up three more before it reached the store. At the store, half-a-dozen were waiting, and others were arriving from both Upper and LoWer Mangawhero roads, and also* along the Eltham road. Just on \hti point of starting the last straggler .icame running up the road like a/Mara--: "t&on' ra^&er when he sees tke winning tape a few yards ahead; 7.35 a.m. saw as off and the: rest were picked up jatong'the Eltham road till we'd 34 on Isoara. "Running on now without a stop. •re got to Eltham at 8.30 and the secretary of the local* Farmers' Union iffanch went off to get the tickets whilst the others went for a stroll, and ■to order, tea for the party when we got iback in'the evening. At Eltham a few aaord joined us,- and after the usual unexciting trip by rail, the party, numlering' now thirty-seven all told, a*xived (it Moumahaki Station. As more lad come than were expected, only one tLrag had come down from the farm to aaeet usi: Thirty-two got into it, Heaven, only-knows how, and the remaining five of us set off to walk till the drag «honld come back for us. However, we'd not got far when a friendly old "farmer came galloping down a paddock smd showed us a short- cut across his farm," as a result-of which we cut off •about half a mile and met the returning drag only a few chains below the farm boundary. The first thing on arrival was a very good luncheon, to waieh the party did full justice, and ■$b.en we set off under the guidance of the manager, Mr Lonsdale, to explore $be farm. First, we passed along and saw a field which had been sown down ia various grasses on the 13th of March, and had Jbeen grazing 60 hoggets for the last fortnight. This grass was grown on land in which three inches of clover had. been turned under for manuring purposes. Thence we passed along to the fine 15-acre lucerne field, and this received ats.full share of attention, as also did the two fine stacks cut off the field this year. .

Through the swede crop (a fine even crop, this) we passed along and inspected the mangold and carrot crops, and ihe fine Ayrshire cows came in for a great deal of admiration. A considerable time was spent looking at the pigs, -and here there was shown considerable difference of opinion as to the merits «t the different strains of the great Beiishire breed,'some preferring, like a?x Lonsdale a tonger-nosed' type than the original and general i «hort-nosed Berkshire, and oi-iW plumping for the latter Variety. See<L were next inspected, "SOIa liere several of the party gave orders for larger or smaller quantities of different varieties. ■Sfter this several more lucerne fields were visited, including one which had "been ploughed under in the spring, but which was now again growing a"' great deal of the plant, the roots having senr «ut fresh shoots after they were turned over.

A very considerable time was passed in admiring and inspecting the fine lot «f young Ayrshire heifers coming in. These were of different ageSj and some very fine little beasts there were amongst them. Having seen the heifers, we made our Tray gradually back to the housp, and there again partook of a very welcome tea.. We were all feeling pretty "dry." for it had been very warm, and we'd done a good deal of tramping about, and the tea disappeared by the gallon. At the conclusion of, the tea, Mr W. A. O'Neill, chairman of the Riverlea branch of the NiZ.F.U., in a few wellchosen words, expressed the thanks and appreciation of the party for the kindness and courtesy meted out to us. and expressed the opinion that what we'd Been that day would make us all try .harder to improve our own places, and endeavor to bring them into something of the same shape as the Moumahaki State Farm.

Mr Lonsdale, on behalf of himself ond Ins staff, suitably responded, and stated that he hoped to see the party come Again m future years. A few minutes later we boarded the drag and also a waggonette, and went off again to the station to catch ou>train. Prior -to departing three hearty cheers were given for the manager and staff. _ Arrived at the station, we had to wait some time owing to tho train ■being half-an-hour behind time, but eventually we got away and reached Eltham a quarter of an hour late. Off at a rush to Berndstdn's, where tea I»ad been ordered (we all did justice to the provender), and at 7.15 p.m our chariot puffed out of Thorpe's garage and, travelling easy, we landed home Again about B.3o—tired, but well satisii i. • we'd had a Soo^ outing,, and all hoping at some future time to undertake another.