THE RURAL WORLD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8053, 6 March 1912, Page 2

THE RURAL WORLD

HAWKE’S BAY SHOW

RECORD ENTRIES IN FRUIT. PEES 3 ASSOCIATION. HASTINGS, March 5. The Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society's eleventh autumn show opens to-morrow with record entries. The display of fruit m the largeet seen in the Dominion. Apples are a strong feature, the judge (Mr u. A. Hay, of Auckland) stating that the winning exhibit is the beet he has ever seen. The weather promises to be fane. VARIATION OF TEST According to an investigation described in a report of the Durnham University Philosophical Society, the difference m butter-fat content of morning and evening milk is entirely due to the variation in the hours of milking. On the average, if a herd be milked twelve minutes earlier in the morning and twelve minutes later in the evening, ,the milk, will be richer in fat by 0.1 per cent in the morning, and correspondingly poorer in the evening Where cows were milked at 6 a.m. and at 3.30 p.m., the evening milk was rioher by 1.09 per cent., but where there was juSt twelve hours between the milkings, tho cows being milked at 6 a-m. and 6 the morning milk was richer by 0.18 per cent.

CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE FABBEB'S FEDERATION WHEAT One of the most successful of the varieties of Australian wheats that have been experimented with m the North Island is that known as Federation, which was developed by tlhe teteJVilliam Farrer. Prom the small originaßjbareels that Have been used in co-operative experiments sufficient seed stocks have been 6aved to enable farmers this, year to ww areas of from ten to sixty acres, so that after the present threshing operations are finished . there will be a fairly large quantity of seed available for general distribution, but whether the wheat will suit the climatic conditions and soil of New Zealand as well as it does in Australia, where its use has already increased the average returns by three bushels per acre, remains to be seen. In the wheait growing districts, Federation is the principal wheat grown, and to such an extent has it been employed that the harvest face of nature has been changed from golden to brown. No longer can the poets m such districts write about the golden harvest tint. When Federation is ripe it imparts the brown or bronze colour of its ears to the landscape. Such a transformation is probably unique in the history of wheat-growing. A striking instance of the change effected was furnished last autumn. The Government required some colour photographs of the "golden" harvest to be sent to Great Britain as part of a scheme for advertisinff the fruitfulness of New South Wales. When Qie pictures of the growing crops were thrown on the ecreen to test them, it was found that the harvest fields, owing to the presence of Federation, were no longer golden, but brown. It was therefore decided not to send that particular plate, for it was thought that the British farmers to a golden narvest might conclude that a picture showing a brown colour was simply another of the extraordinary etories of colonial farmin*:, told in another way. AN INSTRUCTIVE EXHIBIT

FODDER PLANTS FOB THE-DAIRY FARM.

At the Manatn Show a stand that attracted much appreciative attention was that which held the tural Departments exhibit from Aloumahaki Experimental Farm. luxe display had evidently been selected with a view to showing dairy farmers the different crops, it is most advantageous for them to grow, and also things they should avoid. There were, amongst many other crops, a range of grasses ot many varieties, silver beet, seakale beet, Euda kale, buckwheat, the famed soya bean and field bean. The lost narded had on its roots the nitrogen nodules, showing how the plant (fathers nitrogen from the air through its leaves, and stores it in the roots. The field bean is a most useful plant for feeding to dairy cattle. Beyond all these in attracting attention were undoubtedly the two forage plants: the ohou moullier and the lucerne. The former, one of the cabbage tribe, shows remarkable growth. In six weeks it had attained to a height of three feet. At Mouimahaki they have cropped 30J tons to the acre. The lucerne, however, heats ©very thing in quick growth. In ten days after cutting there was a growth of nearly two feet. Six weeks eaw a growth of about, four feet. There was shown a third growth in the one season. Eleven and a half tons to the acre is the farm's tally. In addition to these, there were on show oats six feet high with a weight of 80 bushels to the acre and vegetables showing in nine weeks a growth to a great size, Mr Lonsdale, who came up to take charge of the exhibit, was most courteous and painstaking with anyone who wished information. In conversation with _ a Hawora “Star” representative he said that ho laid great stress on cultivation. Indeed he attributed more of the success to careful cultivation than to any other feature of the farm work. If formers would realise this and follow it out, there was no reason why they should not have the same results.