GLEANINGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8362, 24 February 1913, Page 2

GLEANINGS

The cry for farm workers and domestic workers is incessant (says the “ Southland Times”) and in the Westera district it provides a subject winch allcftvs farmers to do a heartfelt grumble. There can be no mistaking the fact that farmers and farmers wives aro being subjected to a lot or drudgery on tins account, and in most instances, too, high wages are being offered without avail- Tne position is becoming acute, and. herein Lies a problem which requires solving without delay. The direct loss to the community through condemnation of cattle and pigs ior tuberculosis last year amounted to £53,460,’ according to the figures supplied by the Stock Department m its annual report, which adds: It every factory and creamery in the country pasteurised its by-products, the total annual cost involved by the process would be a mere detail in comparison with these figures. We are doing all we can to keep the disease under control under existing conditions: but, if only as a business .proposition, it ought to be got better in hand, and this unnecessary and avoidable annual loss reduced to the lowest possible minimum.” A well-established pasture is a priceless asset oh a farm, but heavy stocking for a lengthened period will rob that pasture for all time, or, at any rate, until it is ploughed and re-sown, of its proper income-bearing capacity. It depreciates the value of land, gives a bad name to the class -of country, and, if the farmer wants to sell his property, he suffers in price the consequence of his own folly. It is quite easy, as many will agreo ; for a settler, by injudicious overstocking, to reduce’ his carrying capacity in a very few years from two to one sheep per acre. The selling of Dutch cheese for ‘Cheshire, says an Jinglish paper, is 'vexing the producer of the latter. It is understood that the agreement to brand Dutch cheese with the country of its origin has been out, but the retailer, when the cheese is cut up, can easily sell the foreign article tor the home produce. It is stated that an enormous area of potatoes is being cultivated in the Lower Waikato this year, and according to latest reports the crops nave come through the recent bad weather well, and have so far the Irish blight. The general absence of blight is attributed largely: to the fact that autumn-grown seed has been used almost exclusively by growers, who state that plots planted with other seed have been badly ! affected with blight.. The average yield of the early crops which have been lifted has been only fair, but the high prices ruling amply repaid growers, some : of, the first dispatches of the season realising up .to £35 per ton, whilst £3O and £2B per ton ruled some weeks after digging commenced.’ Mr William Perry, of Masterton, is about to dispatch one of his stud Lincoln rams to Mr William Riddell, iunr., of Willamette Valley, Oregon, United States. Two or three years ago Mr Perry sent a ram to Mr Riddell, and it is satisfactory to find that the buyer was so pleased with his purchase that he as repeating the order. * In the present case, the ram is to be taken over, together with a Romney from Mr Short s Pai;orangi floek, by Mr D. Evans, who has boon head shepherd for Mr H. D. Vavasour, of Marlborough, for sometime. The proposal to substitute pounds weight for bales in wool calculations has fiad a.'good deal;bf discussion in. various channels since* it was first advocatod in these columns, and it would seem that in the wool trade it is next to impossible to break down old customs. The method of calculation in bales is at best a rough-and-ready way, as the weight of a bale varies so much. It was officially calculated some time ago that the bales this year were turning out on an average some 121 b lighter than last year,. frOm which it would appear that to persist in calculating in bales is really disguising the shortage, If a bale was a standard of unvarying weight with all clips and in all years the system would be perfect; but such big variations call for some more accurate mode of calculation. - The opponents to the reform of calculating in pounds state-that the mind would not grasp the totals if given in pounds, but this is clearly a far-fetched statement. It is argued, too, that the wool each year varies in, regard to the amount of yolk contained in the wool, and that in a dry season the bales would contain more wool and less yolk. —■•" Sydney Mail.”