COUNTRY NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7027, 15 January 1910, Page 8

COUNTRY NOTES

IBy Our Travelling Reporter.) Tho protracted *pell "f dry weather has wrought havoc with pastures in the Wyira.ra.pa district. Paddocks that a ■diort time back were green and rich with stock-feed are now parched and burnt, and present the appearance oi stubblefields. There is a grave danger of Ijush and grasis fires, and some instances farmers in tho Lower \ alley, where the drought is becoming mten.-e, have ploughed furrows around theirslacks as a precaution against possible accidents. Rape and turnip crops are wilting, and some ca.ses are reported of the latter crops having taken the blight. The supplies of milk to.the factories have fallen off considerably, but Wie slackening is not altogether duo to tlie draught, but to a great, extent to the fact that the season, commenced a couple of months earlier than usual, _ and a reduction in the quantities coming torward is only a natural sequence. Dairy farmers, however, have very little to complain of. For them tho season has been a most prosperous ono m every respect. Not-only does the output from the factories constitute a record, but good prices have obtained for all dairy products, and in consequence their milk cheques are larger by many pounds than amy obtained in the past. If dairy farmers are satisfied in every way with the season's work, ■sheepfarmera are far from being so. Ihe good prices realised by their wool clips heartened and encouraged them. But a concatenaitio.n of circumstances - circumstances over which farmers have no control—has arisen and threatens to mar what promised to be a season remarkable in every way for its prosperity. Tho low prices, comparatively speaking, offered bv buyers for sheep and lambs suitable for freezing were accepted by farmers as a matter of course, and so to increase .their incomes, and to compensate as a set-off againist the low prices obtaining, many farmers increased their flocks by buying store sheep and fattening them—a line of action rendered permissible bv virtue of an abundance of feed. But 'the freezing companies had hardly commenced operations for the year 'before the works became glutted and buyers held off. Then, came the spe.ll of drv .weather, which destroyed the pasture" and now threatens the root crops, rendering it all the more necessary for farmers to get rid of their flocks as "expeditiously as possible. On top of all this, by wav of adding: the last straw, comes the news of the threatened strike of butchers. If the threat is carried into effect, in which case all freezing companies will of necessity suspend operations, there is not a sheepfarmer in the country but will in some way feel the effects of it—a great many considerably. As to the merits of the case very few farmers are bothering their. heads. The result of questioning goes to show that opinions are divided as to wheb. side is to blame —the employers or the union'. But/on one point all are unanimous; that it matters not which side gets the better of, the dispute, it is the man on the land who will hare to pay. If the employers decide to concede the butchers 25s per hundred, they will make the concession good by paying less for sheep. On the other hand, if the freezing companies remain firm, the employees, judging by their present tor-e, will strike, and farmers will be left with large flocks on their hands at a lime when they are least capable of feeding them. Looking a,t it from every, viewpoint, the path of the sheep-farmer and dealer is beset with obstacles, and what promised to be a prosperous year in every way—an early spring, good harvest prospects, a high price for wool, and, up to the time the drought :set in, an abundance of pasture—is threatened.. by a series of' circumstances to be productive of hardships and loss to a class of settlers deserving a better fate.