FARMING AND COMMERCIAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 3, 3 December 1931, Page 9

FARMING AND COMMERCIAL

ADDINGTON MARKET. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH. Dec. 2. At the Addington market average entries ■were forward to-day, the market generally showing an easing tendency. Store sheep had a lighter entry and included several drafts of station wethers and a draft from the Chathams. Most of the ewes and lambs forward were from South Canterbury and North Otago. On account of the serious feed position in those districts the market generally was down by a shilling per head. Store sheep: Medium ewes and lambs 6s 9d to 9s, ordinary ewes and lambs 5a to 6s 6d, backward ewes and lambs to 4s, medium 4 and 5-tooth wethers 8s to 10s 4d, ordinary 2-tooth wethers to 6s 6d, good 2tooth halfbred ewes (dry) to 12s 6d. Fat lambs: 2500 were penned, it being the first'sale since the freezing works opened. Values ranged from s|d to s£d per lb, extra prime fat lambs to 19s 4d, prime 16s to 18s, medium 13s 9d to 15s 9d, light 12s 6d to 13s 6d.

Fat sheep: 3800 were penned and there was quite a free sale, exporters operating for lighter wethers to some extent and 481 b wethers were making to per lb and ewes to Prime heavy wethers 18s to 193 lOd, medium weight prime 15s 9d to 17s 9d, ordinary 13s 6d to 15s 6d, light 10s 6d to 13s, prime heavy ewes 13s 9d to 15s Id, medium weight prime 11s 9d to 13s 6d, ordinary 10s to 11s 6d, light 8s 6d to 9s 9d. . „ Fat cattle: 322 were penned, practically all from within tho province. A hard sale with good steer beef firm at last week’s rates and cows easier. Best beef made to 25s per lOOlbs, good 22s to 245, ordinary down to 15s; extra prime heavy steers to £l2 2s 6d, prime heavy £9 to £ll ss, medium weight prime £7 10s to £9, ordinary £4 15s to £6 10s, light to £4 103, extra prime heifers to £9 17s 6d, prime £6 10s to £9, ordinary £4 5s to £6 ss, Kght to £3 15s, extra prime cows to £8 17s 6d, prime £5 10s to £8 10s, ordinnry £3 15s to £5, light £2 to £3 10s.

Fat pigs: An over supply of heavy pigs and a slacker market; choppers £2 10s to £4 Is, baconers £2 to £2 4s 6d, heavy baconers £2 7s 6d to £2 10s, average price per lb 3d to 41d; porkers 28s 6d to 32s 6d, heavy porkers to 37s 6d, average price per lb sid to 6£d.

JOHNSONVILLE SALE. There was no change in sheep prices, but cattle values were easier at Johnsonville sale yesterday. Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd., and Abraham and Williams, Ltd., offered an average yarding of all classes of stock except wethers, which were in short supply. In sympathy with tho reduced export limits for beef, cattle showed a further declinein values, prime heavyweight bullocks being down 10s per head. Lighter sorts and unfinished bullocks were easier to the extent of 10s to 15s per head. Wethers were in short supply and met with a good sale. Ewes were slightly easier, while prime lambs were firm, light and unfinished lambs being on a par with last week’s rates. Cattle: Prime heavy bullocks, £lO, £0 17s 6d, £9 15s, £9 12s 6d, £9 10s, £9 ss; medium bullocks, £8 10s, £8 7s 6d, £8 ss. £8 2s 6d, £B. £7 15s, £7 10s: light and unfinished bullocks, £7,. £6

10s, £6, £5; cows and heifers, £6, £5 12s 6d, £5 ss, £5, £4 15s, £4 10s; venlers, 28s, 235; calves, 10s, 7s. Sheep: Prime heavy wethers and maiden ewes, 14s lOd, 14s 6d, 14s 2d, 13s 6d; medium wethers, 12s 9d, 12s 6d, 12s; prime heavy ewes, 9s 4d, 9s 3d, 9s, 8s lid, 8s Bd, 8s 2d; medium ewes, 7s 6d, 7s 3d, 7s; light and unfinished ewes, 6s 6d, 6s; heavy hoggets, 11s 2d, 11s; light hoggets, 9s; heavy spring lambs, 14s Id, 14s, 13s 7d, 13s sd, 13s 2d, 12s lid to 12s; spring lambs, 11s 4d, 11s Id, 11s, 10s 9d, 10s 3d; light spring lambs, 9s Bd, 9s 6d, 9s, 8s 9d.

SCIENCE FOR FARMERS. EXPERIMENTS AT ROTHAMSTEAD. It is good for the farmer to see the experimental work that is going on at the country’s premier research station at Rothamstead (writes the London Times agricultural correspondent) ana to gain an inkling of the fundamental problems that are being tackled in the laboratory. It is good, too, for research workers to keep in personal contact with practical farmers for whose benefit their experiments are intended. . Rothamstead does not stand aloot from the farmer. It could never have achieved its fame if the founders had not guided the course of experiment on practical lines. The tradition is carried on admirably by Sir John Russell, the present director. A glance at the pages of the visitors book in the entrance hall shows that through the summer farmers have come in parties and individually to see what is going on, as well as visitors from Moscow, Honolulu, and the ends of the earth who are concerned with the progress of particular lines of agricultural research. Indeed, the constant stream of inquiring visitors must be a serious handicap, to the Rothamstead scientists in their work. A CLASSIC FIELD.

Corn growing, manuring, and the problems of arable land are still the main line of experiment on the station’s farm. Broadbalk, the classic field which has grown wheat continuously since 1839, continues to demonstrate that tho heavy loam soil typical of this part of Hertfordshire will grow a crop of wheat almost indefinitely without manure of any kind. It is a thin crop on this plot, /with light heads, and the webds are all too numerous, but it is a crop. Alongside are the plots that have received various mixtures of fertilisers year after year. The effects of the accumulation of ill-balanced fertility are particularly well marked in a wet season like this when any good crop has been laid flat all to easily by the torrential rains. In view of the present tendency, in England to retain long-term grass leys on arable ground, following the Scottish fashion, it would be valuable to have another set of field experiments to show the minimum outlay on fertilisers that is necesasry to maintain fertility in this extended rotation. Rothamstead is, very opportunely, directing attention to the possibilities of the forage crops that must become increasingly important in the development of arable stock farming in the dry Eastern Counties, where long leys are not considered practicable. STRAW AND FERTILISERS. On Great Hoos a trial is being conducted to test the merits of ploughing in ordinary farmyard dung against manure made synthetically from straw on which fertilisers have been spread in proportions equivalent to the chemical analysis of dung. From the state of the wheat crop on this ground it is evident that the use of fresh straw plus artificials has on effect very different from those of the other two treatments. In farming practice nitrogen has a way of disappearing in one season, though the influence of mineral fertilisers lasts longer. By using a layer of straw in addition to a fertiliser mixture the action of the nitrogen is slowed down in the first year and benefit remains for another season. What happens apparently is that the straw supplies the myriads of micro-organisms in the soil with energy to absitrb a proportion of the available nitrogen and hold it for the next year. From this experiment it seems that the farmer whose ground is short of humus and who has no farmyard manure to spare might nrofitably try the fertiliser plus straw treatment to retain the full value of fertilisers.

Another field is given up to a comparison of methods of cultivation. Ploughing and harrowing in the ordinary way, as preparation for a corn crop, are being compared with the effects of the rotary cultivator and the pulveriser. The last two implements are designed to break up the soil and make a fine tilth in one operation when weather conditions are right, but at Rothamstead it is evident that complete disintegration of the soil is not wholly desirable, as it leads to caking of the surface. LABORATORY WORK.

A short time in the laboratories suffices to assure the farmer that Rohamstead is attending to many problems of practical significance. Dr Thornton’s work on the inoculation of lucerne and the preparation of a culture for seeding land which lacks the bacteria that lucerne needs has already proved its value. Last year’s crop returns showed that the area under lucerne had increased by about 4000 acres from the 1929 figures, and so far this year some 8000 cultures have been sold. Lucerne lias long been established in East Anglia, and the chief need for inoculation has been in the Midlands and western half of the kingdom. This is the kind of research work that farmers appreciate. Another useful line of research is being undertaken to combat the devastating damage that gall midges do to the osier beds in Somerset and elsewhere. The midges lodge on the osiers, causing them to ' branch and fork, which ruins their value for basket making. It has now been discovered that hybrid varieties can be produced which are immune from this trouble.

Useful work of real practical value have been done at Rothamsted and the other research centres. Without them we should know nothing of the profits that can be earned from judicious investment in fertilisers, to mention one instance. But it is- disappointing that the results of research and experiment filter through so slowly into the course of every-day farming. This is a problem that has so far defeated the Ministry of Agriculture and the county councils who are concerned with agricultural education.

Remarkable progress has been made with the breeding of sheep in the French colony of Algeria. Since 1913 over 5,000,000 head of sheep have been added to the Algerian flocks, which is very remarkable. This is very useful to France, as sheep breeding has seriously declined there.

Farming is the occupation of sixtyfive per cent, of the people of Poland, so children are welcomed. Last year the population of that country was increased by more than 500,000, the increase in Great Briain in the same period being 250,000. i

/ WELLINGTON STOCK EXCHANGE,

YESTERDAY’S BUSINESS AND PRICES. '' On the Wellington Stock Exchange yesterday there was a fair demand, with a tendency for prices to ease. Government securities were in moderate demand. The 4J per cent, stocks and bonds, 1939 and 1938, were 10s lower at £96. New Zealand Breweries bonds wore 9d higher at 21s 3d. Bank shares were easier. Bank of Australasia were in demand at £8 18s, or 6s 6d below the previous bid of about ten days ago. Commercial Bank of Australia were up 3d at 15s 9d. Bank of New South Wales dropped 5s at £25. Bank of New Zealand were wanted at 47s Id, with sales reported at 47s 3d-'and 47s 6d. Goldsbrough, Mort and Co, were down 3d at 21s 6d. New Zealand Insurance, at 40s, and South British Insurance, at 53s 9d, were unchanged. Wellington Woollen, preference, were wanted at £4 9s. Westport Coal were in good demand at 245, but sellers held for 25s 9d. New Zealand Breweries were wanted at 28s 6d cum dividend, with no sellers. Tooth and Co. were firm at 19s, with a sale reported at 19s 6d. British Tobacco were wanted at 245, and Burns, Philp and Co. were firm at 30s Gd. Electrolytic Zinc, preference, were up 3d at 18s 3d. YESTERDAY’S QUOTATIONS. Buying and selling quotations at the morning call on the Wellmgtori Stock Exchange yesterday wero as follow: — Buyers. Seilers. N.Z. GOVT. LOANS— £ s. d. £s. d.

FOREIGN EXCHANGES. LONDON, Dec. 1. The following rates on foreign exchanges are current to-day, as compared with par : Dec. 1. Par.

GOLD AND SILVER. LONDON, Doc. 1. Gold. —£6 5s per fine ounce, as compared with £5 17s lid on Monday, £5 16s 6d on Saturday, £5 15s on Friday, and £5 14s 2d on Thursday. Silver. —Cash, 19.1 cl per oz.; forward, 19d. QUALITY IN BREEDS. IMPORTANCE OF TESTING. The agricultural organiser for Devon, Mr C. D. Ross, sums up the merits of milk recorded as follows in tho Western Morning News:— The importance of weeding out the low yielders is emphasised by the following facts. A Cow giving 400 gallons in the year is a dead loss; a cow giving 500 gallons is just a passenger, as there is no profit; whereas a cow giving over 600 gallons, if properly managed, gives a profit, and the profit increases as the yield exceeds the figure. Only by recording can a cow be fed properly, because in tho feeding of a cow it is not a question of keeping the cow alive and she will give milk, but feeding a cow to keep her alive, and also feed her with raw material in the shape of food to produce the milk, while a cow giving one gallon only requires a fifth of the requirements of raw materials that the five-gallon cow requires. If systematic weeding out and feeding according to yield bo taken together and carried out efficiently, a farmer will soon increase his average income. A practical illustration may be quoted of a heard of 24 South Devon cows which averaged 631 gallons the first year it was recorded, and 710 the second, an increase of 121 gallons per cow, which meant an additional income of £6 per cow, and £144 for the herd. The sales of officially-recorded cattle during the last few years have shown there is a demand far in excess of the supply, and as a result good prioes have been obtained. Farmers are realising that it costs the same amount to keep a bad cow as it does a good one, and therefore they are attempting to get hold of, the best blood from the milking point of view. By feeding cows on the right lines it is possible to get from them their maximum amount of milk, and therefore' the next point is to try and improve the strain. This can only be done by rearing one’s own heifer calves from the best milkers and got bv a good pedigree milking strain of bull. By recording, one can pick out the cows whose calves should prove to be of the

right type, but even if the farmer does not rear his own lie will find that his heifer calves from officially-recorded dams will fetch higher prices than will those which have no records behind them.

WOOL IN BLANKETS.

AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS’ DECISION.

Mr Walter P. Devereux, representative in Europe of the Australian Woolgrowers’ Council, reports that representatives of blanket manufacturers and representatives of the National Retail Dry Goods Association in the United States have approved of recommendations that the approximate percentage of wool contained in blankets should be stated for the benefit of retailer and consumer.

The recommendations provide : —(a) No blanket containing less than 10 per cent, wool shall carry the word “wool” in any. form; (b) blankets containing between 10 and 20 per cent, wool in the finished blanket, must be labelled

“not less than 10 per cent, wool”; (c) blankets containing between 20 and 30 per cent, must be labelled “not less than 20 per cent, wool”; (d) blankets containing upwards from 31 per cent, to be marked indicating the minimum quantity of wool in the weave; (e) blankets containing above 98 per cent, wool may be labelled “all wool.”

This action is expected to create an increasing demand for wool products. Mr Devereux has advised the British Wool Federation of the decision made in America.

44 p.c. bonds, 1939 and 1938 96 0 0 — 54 p.c. ditto. 1937 93 15 0 — 5 * p.c. ditto and Insc. Stk., 1933 54 p.c. ditto, 1937 98 5 0 99 5 98 12 0 6 44 p.c. Insc. Stk., 1939 and 1938 96 0 0 — Rural Advances. 5 p.c., 1947 — 85 10 0 DEBENTURES— Well. Racing Club .. Well. Arnal. Brick .... 65 0 0 100 10 0 N.Z. Breweries bonds 1 1 3 1 1 9 Napier Boro., 5 p.c., 1944 — 88 0 0 Petone-L. Hutt Gas, 54 p.c., 1952 — 96 10 0 BANKSAustralasia 8 18 0 9 4 0 Commercial of Aust.. ord 0 15 9 0 15 11 National N.Z New South Wales 25 0 0 4 13 6 New Zealand *2 7 1 — Ditto, long term *1 6 6 — Union of Australia ... — 7 19 0 FINANCIALGoldsbrougii, Mort 1 1 6 1 2 6 National Mortgage ... — 2 0 0 INSURANCE— National New Zealand 2 0 0 0 13 3 South British 2 13 9 — WOOLLEN— Wellington, ord Ditto, prof 4 9 0 4 6 6 COALWestport 1 4 10 1 5 9 TIMBER— Leyland-O’Brien — +1 2 0 BREWERIES— New Zealand *1 8 6 — Tooth and Co 0 19 0 — Staples and Co 1 7 0 1 8 6 MISCELLANEOUS— British Tobacco, ord. 1 4 0 +1 5 0 Burns, Philp and Co. 1 10 6 1 14 0 Colonial Sugar Dental and Medical . 0 4 6 36 15 0 Dominion Investments 1 1 6 — Electro. Zinc, pref 0 18 3 — National Electric N.Z. Drug N.Z. Paper Mills 0 17 6 0 10 2 12 b 6 Wilson’s Cement — 1 15 6 MINING— Mount Lyell *0 19 6 — Waihi 0 15 10 — Waihi Grand Junction 0 3 4 — King Solomon 0 1 5 • Okarito 0 10 0 0 10 6 Alexander 13s 6d pd.) — 0 10 0 *<Jum. dividend. +Ex dividend.

New York, del. to £1 ... 3.295 4.866 Montreal, dol. to £1 3.825 4.866 Paris, francs to £1 84.25 124.21 Brussels, bel. to £1 23.75 35.00 Geneva, francs to £1 16 15-16 ' 25.225 Amsterdam, florins to £1 8.20 12.107 Milan, lire to £1 64.125 92.46 Berlin, marks to £1 13.875 20.43 Stockholm, knr. to £1 ... 17.00 18.159 Copenhagen, knr. to £1 ... — 18.159 Oslo, knr. to £1 — 18.159 Vienna, schgs. to £1 *29 34.585 Prague, knr. to £1 *111 164.25 Hel’fors, marks to £1 *192 193.23 Madrid, pes. to £l 39.50 25.225 Lisbon, esc. to £1 109.875 4.50 Athens, drach. to £1 255 375 Bucharest, lei to £1 565 813.6 Rio de J., p, to mil. ... 4i 16.70 B. Aires, p. to peso 40 £ 47.52 M. Video, p. to peso 314 51 Calcutta, p. to rup 183-32 18 Shanghai, p. to tael 22 5-16 — H.-Kong, p. to dol. 16| — Y’hama, p. to yen 36.00 24.582 * Sellers.