Farming Facts and Fancies

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 60, 7 May 1940, Page 3

Farming Facts and Fancies

Gisborne grass seed crops are reported to be turning out very well, though dressing losses are likely to be slightly greater than last year because of heavier bottom growth. The rain which interrupted the harvesting has not had any affect on the colour of the seed, for there has been sufficient wind on each occasion to dry out the crops quickly. ☆ ☆ ☆ The highest tested cow in the Otago and Southland Herd Testing Association gave 666 lbs butterfat for 270 days’ milking. ☆ ☆ ☆ There is a wide-spread belief in Britain that outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease since the war have been caused by German aeroplanes dropping germs of the disease. The Ministry of Agriculture say there is no foundation for the belief. ☆ ☆ ☆ Owing to war enlistments, there is a definite stortage of shearers in the Gisborne district, and the chairman of the Primary Produce Council urges farmers to put learners on to crutching operations as an introduction to shearing. ☆ ☆ * Great Britain’s imports of bacon from Holland and Denmark in 1938 were 25,000 tons and 169,000 tons respectively. For butter the corresponding figures were 36,000 tons and 118,000 tons. ☆ ☆ ☆ The British cattle subsidy since September, 1934, has amounted in all to over, £20,750,000 of which more than £15,500,000 was in respect of home fed cattle and £5,250,000 on imported cattle. * * * Prominent under the pulpit at a harvest thanksgiving service in a Christchurch Methodist church was a

bunch of grass with a card stating: The Humble Grass —God’s greatest material gift to man in Canterbury. * ☆ ☆ At Burnside sale on April Ist a farmer was told that a sheep had fallen from a high ramp and crashed through the roof of his car parked below. Thinking it an attempt to make an April fool of him he at first paid no attention, but on visiting his car found a sheep firmly trapped inside.

On March 31, 1939, there were 2,812,000 cattle in New South Wales. Of these 1,069,000 were cows in reg-

j istered dairies. From 1926 to 1935 j there had been some increase in dairyI ing cattle, but in the last four years | the number has decleased substanI tially—by 105,000. Mainly in the inI land districts, the number of registered J dairies of the State decreased from I 22,740 in 1936 to 20,960 in 1939. ☆ * * I A useful bath for the treatment of sore teats is made by mixing in a wide-mouth bottle or jar 1 oz of boracic acid, 2ozs of glycerine and 120 ozs of water. This is brought to the teats, which are allowed to soak in it for several minutes and then to drain diy without wiping. The glycerine forms a protective film if not wiped off with a towel, and by keeping ; the parts soft helps them to heal more ! quickly. _ -i “Point Blank,” the Farmers’ Union I organ, gives the point blank warning: | “New Zealand has been made by the J industry, thrift and enterprise mainly of its farmers, but the rest of the country felt that this is going on for ever and that as the farmer has provided the community with a high standard of living for a hundred years it will keep on doing so. This country must realise that the farmer has been called upon to provide the rest of the community with a standard of living that cannot be justified.” ☆ ☆ * The Poverty Bay F. U. Executive, discussing the problem of burning manuka, want the Dept, of Agriculture to experiment with flamethrowers. * ■Cr ☆ Warwickshire finds great difficulty in finding efficient tractor drivers, and is opening a school to teach field tactics, transport methods, science, maintenance, and implement setting. ☆ * * The world has nearly twice as much wheat as in 1914, and world granaries are described as “overflowing.” But there is plenty of hunger in the world for all that.