FARM TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1715, 11 January 1905, Page 69

FARM TOPICS.

During last winter an odd ewe was sold at Addington Yards for 12s 6d. She afterwards had twin lambs, and these were sold at Addington the other day at 20s each, and the ewe at 24s 6d; total. £3 4s 6d.

, A speaker at a meeting of the Ashburton Farmers’ Union stated that he knew of drovers who guaranteed a 5 per cent, increase in a mob of sheep f given the job of driving it. Stragglers from stations en route supplied the increase.

Writing on the subject of the rise in the price of wool, an exchange says: ‘Though we exported 140 million pounds of wool to the 30th December last, as against 160 millions to 30th September, 1903, the return in money uas year is greater by nearly £350,000; and it is clear that our wool producers will divide somewhere approaching one million sterling more than they did as the result of last year’s export.” “Is the bob fly ever to he exterminated?” I asked a local agriculturist (says a correspondent of the “ Wairarapa Daily Times”). “Certainly,” he said, “and we owe it to the starling. That bird is the best that has ever been introduced to New Zealand. They destroy all germs of hot fly in horse' manure before it matures. Not only this —the starling never interferes with the crops, but they rid the sheep of ticks and the pigs of lice- The more they multiply the better for the farmers.”

As a result of the recent thunderstorm, Mr Adam Waugh found on his farm, at Kimbolton, the bodies of three sheep which bad evidently been killed by lightning. The maize and oat crops in the Bay of Plenty district have suffered considerably from a succession of heavy westerly winds and cold weather. Some farmers who-had their maize well up have had to re-sow. The directors of the Webei-Wai'one Iteiry Company have just received a very flattering grade note for their last shipment of 36 packages of butter. The report is as follows: —Flavour, 45; body, moisture, texture, 2311 colour, 10; salting, 10; finish, 5; making a total of 931 points. The previous highest points awarded the factory was 921, which was understood to be a record for this part of the district, and-the shareholders are to be congratulated on such excellent results being obtained. At Messrs Dalgety and Co.’s stock sale at Porirua Mr de Lisle gave an exhibition of the de Lisle Luttrell Patent Painless Branding Composition for cattle. The process appears -to be a very simple one. The ordinary fire-brand

for cattle with a file run over the sur- I faoe is used. The hair is clipped off j the surface of the hide before the brand is put on, the brand being then dipped in the composition and applied to the clipped surface. The beast does not appear to suffer in the very least, and it is understood that the brand is lasting, and does not injure the hide in the smallest degree. All those present at the trial seemed to he quite satisfied that it was a complete success in every way, and no doubt before long it- will be extensively used in the district, as is being done in other parts of the North' Island, also in the Argentine and Australia. The cost, including labour, ’ does not exceed Id per head. I As illustrating the effects of the' re- i cent rise in wool, the following figures are interesting:—An Ashburton farmer last year sold his clip of 180 bales for £IBBO net, while this year a smaller clip of 148 bales sold for £2004 net. •Notwithstanding the backward sea- j son, the output of butter from the j Wanganui district promises to consid- i erably exceed last year’s returns. For ! instance, the grading works at Pat-ea have sent away 500 more boxes of blitter than at this date last year.