FARMING NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 294, 9 November 1934, Page 5

FARMING NOTES.

RURAL RAKINGS. At a meeting of the directors of the Levin Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd., on Wednesday, it was decided to advance 7id per pound for butterfat supplied during the month of October. Eor the corresponding period last year the pay-out was 9Jd per lb. The reputation which the New Zea-land-bred Merino sheep has earned is shown by a recent repeat order from Mr A. W. Carter, of Hawaii, for 51 stud ewes and rams. Mr Carter, for the past 25 years, has, a.t intervals, secured consignments of both Merino rams and ewes from the strain originated by Mr C. Goulter, of Hawkesbury, Blenheim, 50 years ago. This consignment is bound for rocky mountainous country on one of the smaller islands of the Sandwich Group. Mr Carter’s ranch, though situated in the tropics, is peculiarly well suited to sheep raising as it is 8000 feet above sea-level.

The new maize crop being put in at present in the Gisborne district is ex ! pected to be a little less in area than last year, but about the average when taken over a large number of seasons. The area this year is expected to be about 2500 acres, or 300 acres short of last season’s total. It is a large increase, however, on the total of three years ago, when only about 1800 acres were put down in maize. That was the time when South African importa tions threatened to swamp the New Zealand grower, but since then the comparative shortage of South African maize and the higher exchange rate have had the effect of keeping out importations.