EDITORIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1202, 15 March 1895, Page 5

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Large areas of land exist along the West Coast of this slan 1 on which there ire deposits of drifting sand. Professor Lowrie, of South Australia, has recently been investigating a similar evil in that colony, and has made several experiments as to the best plants for binding purposes In the course of his report wlidi is published in an Adelaide paper, Garden and Fields he says :—The best plant I have heard of for binding drifting sand dunes is sand or lyme grass ( Eli/mus arenarius). Its stout, creeping stoloniferous root stock, the rhizomes of which, creep to great length, make it valuable for fixing loose sands, and stock will eat it fairly readily when it is young. When allowed to become rank the stems grow hard and indigestible, and more or less unfit for pasturing ; but when the sand drifts are overcome, and it is thoroughly established, a lame amount of coarse

DRIFTING SAND. 1 t

forage can be obtained from it when kept grazed. Another plant is valuable for fixing sand drifts is Marram grass or Sea-reed grass. Its habit of growth is much like the above, and I it is very easily grown either by planting out like Buffalo grass or from seed. I have understood that this plant Amraophiia arundinacea or Psamma arenaria —was of no use as a forage plant, and that no stock would eat it, except with the alternative of starvation • but I have noticed that it has been stated frequently in the colonies that cattle eat it greedily, a statement which, however, I myself accept cum grano salis.” The professor also mentions the “ Johnson grass,” which, he ) states, is exceedingly tenacious of life, and when once established, makes very fair forage. This grass, he asserts, does very well on the sand patches in the mallee land of the Colony. Horses, it appears, do not eat it readily, but other stock take to it very readily. 1

Mr McEwan, the new Government ] dairy expert, is, we it hear, creating a good impression amongst those dairymen who have met him. He is a thoroughly practical man, and has not that excess of “ cocksureness ” and almost undisguised contempt for New Zealand methods, which set so many hacks up against his predecessor, Mr Valentine. At Masterton last week Mr McEvvan delivered an address on the dairy industry, a few ot the main points of which we now condense for the benefit of our readers. With most of such as,are interested in dairying, the new expert will no doubt in course of time make personal acquaintance. Coming, as lie does, from Canada, Mr McEwen is naturally full of Canadian precedents in the industry | which prospers to such an enormous extent in the Dominion. He began by | pointing out that seven years ago the Canadians had never imagined they would have any serious competition in the dairy industry, and in spite of that competition the Dominion had increased | its dairy exports •by double, and still I found a i*eady market at full rates, i New Zealand, he considered, was specially adapted for success in the industry, her only drawback being length and ; cost of transport of her produce to the j Home market. After dealing with the t subject of Danish competition, over - which he thought New Zealand, proI vided the most economical and scien- • tide methods of production were used, j would ultimately triumph, the expert took objection to the theory of over supply. Canada, he said, had exported over six million dollars worth of cheese in 1886, and in 1893 she had doubled that amount, and got just the same value. But the best article, and that only, should be sent Home by New Zealanders, and at the minimum cost of production. He insisted upon the importance of uniformity of quality, and that dairy farmers must keep on steadily studying the latest and best methods of production, in which, of course, they would receive the earnest assistance of the Department. The cheese industry in New. Zealand, he said, was in a much better position than the butter industry; the prospeets for cheese were by far the most favourable, and more attention and if more 'attention was paid to uniformity of the product at .the various factoiies, it would be greatly improved. With regard to butter he said there was more difficulty, the principal trouble, being the temperature. On testing the buttermilk in one factory, he found that there was a loss of one pound of butter in every lOOlbs. The refrigerating machinery and cool stores enabled the factories to place the butter in the London market in the very best condi tion. All butter factories should have refrigerating machines; if they could not afford to get such a plant, they should go in for cheese. Speaking of creameries, or as they called them in Canada “ skimming stations,” he considered it was not always wise to have the joncern too large, as they did not always get the best results. He had himself seen factories in this Colony that he considered were too large. They did not have theca so large in Canada j or in Denmark, and in the latter coun I try they had applied the finest scientific methods in the world. He considered that no factory could gee the highest results unless it used freezing machinery. He considered the business plan was on a better basis in Canada tha« in New Zealand. It was in this colony of a more speculative character. A gallon of milk was an unknown quantity, some factories reckoned on 101 b others 111 bto the gallon. There must be in a co-opei'ative concern a give and take principle, and he was not in favour of paying or advancing for milk on what he called the “ pulling ” system.

THE LATES DAIRY expert’s OPINIONS.

We looked forward with special interest to what the expert would say on the very important matter of testing. He eulogised the Babcock tester, which was almost exclusively used in Canada. It was found to apply equally well for the cheese factory as for the butter factory, and by its use they were able to pay for the exact value of the milk. It was found that all cows will vary from day to day in the quality of their milk, and therefore it was best to adopt the “Composite ” system of testing by which they collect a small quantity of every supplier’s milk every day and by preserving this with bi-chromate of potash, and testing once a week, they get an exact average pf the marketable value of the milk. !

THE TESTING QUESTION.

Speaking directly to the suppliers Mr Me Ewan advocated the greatest care in * the selection of cows, also in the care of the milk after it was taken from the cows, and the necessity for the use of a combined serater and cooler. In the selection of the cows the best test must eventually be the scales, and the use of the milk tester. It was impossible to get a good milker and and beef maker together. They must have a cow that the better they, fed her, the more she would respond with an increased supply and improved quality of milk. After emphasising what he had said of the composite system of testing by the Babcock, which he declared to be the fairest means, between the suppliers and factories, be said it was of the utmost importance that factory managers should be thoroughly competent to make the tests and added that it was, he believed, the intention of the Department to establish dairy schools during the winter, to which all factory managers would be invited, and where they would be educated in all matters appertaining to testing and the most improved methods of scientific dairy work. Asked for his opinion as to the best winter feed for milk supply, Mr McEwansaid that in Canada the suppliers were prohibited from feeding their cows on turnips and rape ou account of these crops giving a flavour to the product. They: found that the mangels and green fodder, oats, peas—especially if mixed with maize—preserved in silos, constituted the best feed and by careful tnanagement, so he alleged, they had found they could get more milk in the winter than they could in the summer. Altogether the address was of a very interesting chaiacter and similar; addresses eannob fail to be of great value to all engaged in the dairy industry, We have taken our resume of Mr McEwan’s remarks from an excellent report .which appeared in the Wairarapa Daily Times.

I* Pressed to the principal Chambers of Commerce in Australia, Mr -Fred Hooper, secretary of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, draws the attention of colonial wool growers to the numerous complaints which, he states, have been made on several occasions by wool merchants, wool combers, and manufacturers, respecting the damage and loss caused by the presence of tar in Australasian wools. Mr Hooper says. “I am desired to draw your special attention to the matter*/with a view to steps being taken to remedy the evil complained of. The tar remains in the wool througout the process of combing, and therefore reduces the value of the wool considerably. The growers have no doubt good reasons for using tar, but from the fact that American* Spanish, and South American wools are entirely free from the defect, it may reasonably be supposed that tar is not indispensable, and that a substitute could be found which will answer the purpose equally well, whether it be marking the sheep or treatment.of sores. Whatever is used, however, should Be a substance that can be entirely removed by washing. It is desirable that theattention of the growers be called to theseriousness of the matter, and* that they be urged to avoid the use of tar altogether, or if that be impracticable, touse it as spai'ingly as possible. I am also requested to mention that in some cases the staple of the wool is found to have been clipped twice The short bits thus caused became knotty during combing, and besides causing extra waste seriously detract from the value of the wool. Greater care in shearing appears to be all that is necessary to prevent this fault. In the hope that your Chamber will bring both these matters prominently before the growers and impress upon them the necessity, in their own interests as well as in ours, of remedying the evils complained of.—l am, etc., etc.

TAB IN COLONIAL WOOL.

Wonders will never cease. In the humdrum age in which we live, when all-, superior people unite in denouncing the Government of, New Zea- —— ary thing that is rash and venturesome and unsound, we have the great Conservative organ of Victoria, the Argus, actually advocating the extension to Victoria of the principle on which our Advances to .Settlers Act was established. Unless the price of money, say the Arr/us, is cheapened to the farmers of n: lCtoria V the , Industry must collapse. In plain terms, the colony has at last discovered that the only hope ouW^f^h B ' l^ 011 li<3S in increasin S' the output of .the soil, and at the same time maintains that unless the . State steps Uld q£ tU© the

AID TO FARMERS.

only hope is vain. According to the Argus then, the only alternative to State aid, after the manner of the Loans to Settlers Act of New Zealand, is universal bankruptcy, repudiation of the national debt, disappearance from the map as a free and prosperous nation. It is not wonderful that the Age should be on that side. The Age is in name a Liberal journal, and the Age has maintained a tolerable appearance of Liberalism for years, without approaching too near to the reality from the advertiser’s point of view. Still the Age might have been expected sooner or later to boom the principle of using the credit of the State to save the producing interest. But for the Argus to do that, and do it better than the Age-^- the Argus has never, let it be understood, taken to half measures —is a thing to marvel at. When we have done marvelling, we can realise the enormity of the change that has come ov3r the Conservative dream. The world is evidently coming round to the opinion of the Government of New Zealand, that the safety of the individual financially requires, for the sake of the State, the -assistance of the public credit. The Times the other day opposed this principle with the remarkably feeble argument —and that in a half-hearted way only —that the low prices of produce might in a short time prove disastrous to public investment. But if they ever do that they must inevitably ruin everybody, by first proving disastrous to the private investment which requires a margin in its favour larger by at least two per cent.. The essence Of the problem is that the private, alias the individualistic, channels having failed, there is nothing left but the credit of the State. And when the majority of States are on the same footing, the majority of the world, it is clear, will not be allowed to starve to please the economists who write to order without knowing it, i.e., who write to please the interested portion of the public which moves the unthinking majority. The Melbourne Argus having got a clear view of the true principle has, to its eternal honour, spoken out its views clearly. It is clear that we are on the threshold of as great a change in the drift of Australian politics as we have been through in New Zealand. •