NOTES BY THE WAY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 March 1923, Page 3

NOTES BY THE WAY.

The white spot on a Jersey, when it appears, generally comes on; tiie rump, said an onlooker at the Otakeho show, noticing a few beasts so marked.

.It is also good to see that Otakeho, like some other centres, is 'catering.for children's classes. The young people should be given':an interest in the live stock of the farm. It will be*a powerful lever in keeping them on the land, and will act as a valuable educational factor. I

When talking of the!perfect points of a cow, Mr. Ranford said that it was Considered the tail should reach to the Hock. It was not a vitad point, however, but might have to be used to decide between two animals, although he had never seen a case where this point j would be necessary to decide.

-Artichokes are beiijg grown at Stratford Demonstration Farm as food for pigs. Talking of the crop the other. day, Mr. Deem said that it was very valuable. The pigs should be turned in to root up the tubers, leaving only sufficient for the coming year. Thel pigs relished them very much. While I they would eat the tubers the tops) 'could be fed to cattle or added to thei •ensilage stack.

7 Going over the pastures on the Stratford Demonstration Farm one was interested to see.the remains of a bush tramway, mute evidence of the times when the country was in heavy bushj which was being cut out by the sawmill:";-'.'.

. .Talking Of noxious weeds the other day, a farmer said he advised that the -plants should be cut and then the

grouridi heavily top-dressed with slag, TThis will bring the grass away, and il will be found that stock will be attracted arid .will eat; it down,*, at the same time nibbling ;away, at the shoots .weeds.. 7'The Otakeho Farmers' Union are on distinctly-right lines in their cattle show, working, as the judge said in his commendatory, remarks; , towards a steady improvement Ih-^the class of cattle, on their valuable lands.so as to secure the best results. It is good to see that other-centres such as Auroa and Manaia .are"working to tlie same end. Any striving after this result is good for the individual, the district, And the industry. A few examples of the heart-break-ing setbacks experienced by the men on the land are to be seen in the Edievale district at; the. present time (observes the Mataura Ensign). Splendid crops of oats and other grain have been ■beaten down by rain3and wind, andin one «.ase an .excellent paddock alongside the main road has practically been rendered valueless cnying to the onslaught of the elements.

An indication of the rapid increase of pedigree dairy cattle on" the Hauraki Plains, and the ever-increasing desire to. improve the herds there, was given by Mr W-.,J> Byrne during a lecture on! herd, testing at Mangateparu (near M6rrinsville# Mr Byrne said that at the first Hauraki Plains show,-held two year* ago,: there were 40 pedigree cattle on exhibition and nearly four times the number of grades and indiffehtly bred animals, while at this year's show,.held only a few, weeks ago, there were_ about. 80 pedigrees and; a corresponding decrease in grades .and others'.

A visitor to the district and to Dawson Falls Mountain House last week- '. stt&ss&'.^.:.ys. YWY Walters, who some 3years, ago; was a farmer in the StratVford 3distriet^; Mr. Walters is now

Tsettled near; Te Aroha _ and has a large 7 share-milking holding there. He'; said Tiri; :cpnyein»tioii: with 7a Star 3 reporter 3 tbat^f t% seasbn hadTbeen wonderfully; 7good, to the fanners iA the TWaikato, ; and- that; prospects were very good. His V-^t>mpanyare in the dried milk business, is^id he i says there is still a very strong ."■Remand-. Up till now most of their output, has cone to England and the Con-, • ;*tinent. but latterly there has been a

strong demand from America, and an order for some hundreds of tons has been received from San Francisco at the price they had quoted, which is x£s more than had been offered. It will he;of.interest to know that the cost of pianufacture. during the war went tip to over the price at which it is now sold at a good profit. 3

Mr T7Buxton,; organiser of the Farm- ' ers' Union,; was called on- at the con- •1 ference-at Wanganui on Saturday for' information regarding the unsatisfac-tory-state'.jpf'.; the finances. He said that in making his rounds he found that in some districts members were as many \as four ond five years in arrears with 3iheir subscriptions, and it was very dif- . ficult to getorclers on the dairy factories. Some' said they had never been personally approached for subscriptions ■''; although they knew they blight to pay iip. -7 ;He felt that the Y.very difficult j question was that of. the Dairy Farm- {' «rs': Union." He'bad found in- the j "Feilding distnct that men who belonged to it asked how many more organisatipiis tney i^l ere wanted to join. He did .not think-that the remedy lay in suing -those who did hot pay up. Othe" cures should be tried first. He could not suggest a- better scheme of organisation . than had been ; adopted by the Do- j minion executive.

; A Home produce- paper reports that out of 465 samples of "imported butter examined by the Government- chemist, during the last year, at the Government lahoratory, eight contained more than 61 per cent, of water, and: two were adulterated with vegetable fat. All the samples oi* cheese analysed, 121 in number, were satisfactory.

! A Westport correspondent, after a visit to Mr. J. Horfack's Jersey farm, Karamea, became enthusiastic about a Jersey heifer, * which has never had a ■calf and is in full milk. She was first noticed, he says, to be mothering a calf, which is about six months old and was reared on the bucket. The cilf was removed to another paddock, but the heifer immediately took possession of another calf. She was removed from the calves and' dried off. A few weeks later she was brought out, and as soon as she, came in contact with the calves came into milk again, and is now being milked with the herd. This is another indication of the milking propensities of a well-bred Jersey. The dam of this heifer gave 52.691b of fat in the month, and her granddam gave 72.201b of fat per month on her first calf. The sire also has good backing. His dam has eight tested daughters, and his sire has 18 tested daughters.