Farming Facts and Fancies

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 67, 31 May 1940, Page 2

Farming Facts and Fancies

Owlrest Alice, a Jersey cow at the New York State Experimental Station, now in her twelfth year, has not only mothered ten calves but has also produced 90,200 lbs of milk testing 5.66% butterfat. * ☆ * Meat rationing in Britain is on the basis of 1/10 per head per week. * * * The lamps are not hot; there is no heat to warn away incautious insects, and only a few seconds’ exposure to the uitra-violet radiation is needed to produce a fatal bum. * ☆ * Experiments conducted by the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, on b(jef cattle crossing, showed that the Shorthorn-Angus cross produced the highest average daily gain and the highest proportion of top-grade carcases. ☆ ☆ ☆ Resigning from the Hastings Council of Primary Production, Mr. J. B. Campbell, the Hawkes’ Bay Farmers’ Union delegate, said that until the Government put into effect ample labour to enable farmers to make the best possible use of the land, it seemed to him a waste of time to attend Council meetings merely to discuss problems and difficulties farmers were up against. * * * A record number of 300,000 Southwest African karakul pelts were sold in London lately at an average price

between 19/- and 20/-, the chief buyers being France and the United States. * * * One and one-quarter cents is the cost of each of the many millions of trees planted by the U. S. Forest Service during 1938. The average tree cost the Service about two-fifths of a cent to produce and another four-fifths of a cent to plant. * ☆ * Good feed and plenty of it will improve any animal. But that is not sufficient. The sheep breeder at all times must consider the necessity of purchasing only the best of sires, and use only the type that will give the greatest fleece yield, provided the animals are properly nourished. <r ☆ ☆ Although it has been frequently stated that 50% of normal supplies of imported meat are available for consumption by the public, it cannot be assumed, says the British Ministry of Food, that the other 50% is being immediately consumed by the fighting forces, as has been often asserted. * * ☆ English farmers have been converted to the guaranteed price system as a permanent policy. The Essex branch of the National Farmers’ is demanding from the Government that the present remunerative prices and guaranteed market be continued after the war. ☆ * * “The creation of rural housing centres would make possible a social life that would go far towards removing one of the greatest objections to residence in the country from the farm worker’s point of view especially from the viewpoint of his wife.”—J. H. Furniss. * * ☆ The Romney Marsh is becoming increasingly popular in the northern part of the South Island. One firm has already this season shipped 178 Romney Marsh rams to eleven different breeders in the Pelorous Sounds.