ON TIE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15685, 12 August 1914, Page 12

ON TIE LAND.

•AQBICULTURAL CREDIT IN

IRELAND.

'An exhaustive report has been issued by the Department of Agriculture and Tech- .'; nical Education for Ireland on the subject of agricultural credit in Ireland. Amongst the main findings the committee states that the "mortgage indebtedness of Irish land is probably increasing at the rate of about £2,000,000 per annum gross, and about £1,000,000 net. Moneylenders have greatly increased in numbers in Ireland, and legislation has effected little diminution of tho evils connected with the system, which is largely resorted to by agriculturists, as is also, but to a lesser extent, the ruinous 'trust auction' system. Nor is it only impecunious farmers, unable to obtain credit elsowhere, who utilise these methods, an injurious amount of 'long credit' with shops is found in various districts, much of it for feeding stuffs which could with advantage bo grown by the fanner himself. The great majority of traders prefer a cash basis for their dealings. A moderate amount of shop credit is, however, a necessity in agriculture as in other spheres of industry." Tho committee has devoted special attention to the important question of short-term loans and the mortgaging of land. It holds that the tendency of a peasant proprietary to incur over-indebted-ness is a real danger from which the new tenant purchasers in Ireland should be safeguarded as far as possible, consistently with allowing them in suitable cases to obtain needed advances upon the security of the land— the only security they have to offer.

DAIRYING IN THE TRANSVAAL. Dairying in the Transvaal is evidently passing through troublous times. The Landowners' Association, in its report, points out that the import of dairy produce into the Union last year was valued at £940,000, which should not be necessary. In the Union there arc 40 creameries, estimated to produce nine million pounds of butter; there are also 26 cheese factories. The view is expressed that the dairy instructors are too few in number. The committee is also of the opinion that, although the industry has been severely handicapped by the drought, East Coast fever, and the fear of tuberculosis, it has progressed considerably. It is added:— "The results achieved must, however, be considered disappointing, and show the .necessity for a far greater measure of cooperation amongst farmers and for greater attention to the question of improving herds by judicious introduction of goodclass stock of both sexes, and careful selection and weeding out of unprofitable animals, before the country can gain its proper position as a large exporter of dairy produce. The Government has done, and is doing, a great deal to assist the industry. - Railway extensions during the past few years have brought large areas of suitable dairying country within reach of markets. Co-operative societies have received special financial consideration, but, according to the .report for 1913 of the board of the Land and Agricultural Bank, the administration of these societies leaves much to be desired. They owed the bank £299,273 as at December 31, 1913, of which amount the Transvaal Province alone owed about £240,000. The question of the success of white settlers owning comparatively a small amount of capital is also one which may be made to depend very largely on the dairy industry, but the. initiation and administration of such schemes cannot, generally speaking, bo carrie dout privately."

ROTHAMSTED EXPERIMENTS. The outstanding feature of the Rotham*ted Experiment Station's (England) field "work last season was the extraordinarily large crop of barley from an area that had been continuously eown to barley for 61 years. Several of the plots yielded over 60 bushels of- grain and 30cwt of straw, or 70001b of total produce per acre, a result which has had no parallel for nearly 60 years. The season was. of course, favourable for barley, but another circumstance which appears to have contributed to the high yield is the fact that the field was fallowed in 1912 for the first time in 60 years and thoroughly cleaned from weeds, The official report states that it is difficult to account for this result on present view? as to the effect of fallowing. Something more seems to be involved than the accumulation of nitrate over the winter. Laboratory work would, in fact, appear to indicate that growing crops have an effect on bacterial decompositions in the soil, this effect not being exerted during a fallow period. D I

RECORD BUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION

h The world's record production of butterfat for twelvemonths has again been . beaten, this time by an American Guernsey. According to the report of her performance, published in Hoard's Dairyman, ; she gave in 365' days 19,639.501b milk, : which contained 1,059.591b butter-fat. The ; : previous world's record—l,osß.34lb for the--1.365 days—was produced by Bamiostino Bel'.o de Kol, an American Holstein. The . world's 'champion, May Rilma, put up her jperformance under the supervision of. the I American Guernsey Cattle Club, while it was officially supervised by representatives aof the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experi- ; ment station, and was checked by numer- . ous similar institutions in other States and ; by representatives of tho dairy division of the United States Department of Agriculture. May Rilma is kept in a box stall, is milked three times a day— a.m., 12 noon, and 8 p.m.— is fed 181b daily of the following mixture; 2501b bran, 1001b gluten, cotton-seed meal, 501b oatmeal, 501b hominy, as well as 31b beetpulp,. and 31b molasses; while she had alfalfa hay, clover hay, and .ensilage all she requires. Towards the latter end of the period she was fed 161b of carrots daily. An American Guernsey cow established a world's record in 1905," producing in 365 days 857.151b of fat. In 1907 her record was broken by an American Holstein, Colantha 4th's Johanna, winch gave in the 365 days 998.261b of fat. This record was exceeded, however, in 1911. by that of another American Holstein, Pontiak Cloth Title de Kol 11., which produced 1017.31b of fat in the 365 days. The following year came Bamiostino Belle de Kol's sensational record, which has been lowered by the barest margin by a little Guernsey. As to the coFt of the food required to produce the new record, nothing is yet available.

SHORTHORN HISTORY. I An English writer direct? attention to the i background of romance, which attaches to the- historical bull Hubback, an animal who occupies such an important niche in, the history of Shorthorn cattle, lie was I wived in 1777, awl his breeder was John j Hunter, at one time farmer, but later a' bricklayer in Hurworth. Ho sold off all I his cows except one, and, as he had no ! pasture, the cow was allowed to graze in the lanes of the, town. To a Darlington market the cow, along with her bull calf, ■was one day driven, and there they were sold to a Mr. Bassnett, a timber merchant, who resold the calf to a blacksmith at Hornby, ('no miles from Darlington. In 1783, when six year old, the bull which had picked up its living in the lanes u. Hurworth was in the hands of. Mr. Pawcctt, Houghton Hull. Mr. Fawcett sent his calves for sale to Darlington, and their quality attracted the attention of Charles Colling. At the not very ruinous price of eight guineas—just the 90th part of his. descendant in Aberdeenshire last autumn— bull, afterwards to be known as HubbaeK, passed into the possession of Charles Colling. So great a bull did this become .that Thomas Bates expressed the opinion that, wliero Hubback blood was a wautwxr a Shorthorn had no real merit and no wen went to the length of saying that wv -kock ought to have been in "any he'd DOCK of Shorthorns ' which had not Jlubback blood in his veins.