THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20323, 3 February 1928, Page 4

THE RURAL WORLD.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

By Rustictts.

FORTHCOMING WOOL SALES. February 3, 4.—Timaru. February 8, 9. —Christchurch. February 16. 17.—Wellington. February 20, 21. —Auckland. February 23, 24—Wanganui. February 27, 28. —Napier. March 2. —Invercargill. March 7. —Dunedin. March 12.—Christchurch. March 15, 16. —Auckland. March 19.—Wanganui. March 22.—Napier. March 26.—Wellington. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “Dairyman” (Mataura Island). — (1) There are now only about five weeks to go before summer time ceases. On March 6 New Zealand will revert to standard time for the winter and spring mouths. Another Act will have to be placed on the Statute Book before next November if summer time is to be reintroduced then. The present measure merely puts summer time on probation. (2) It is quite true that a number of sports bodies in the cities have found summer time to be a mixed blessing. Christchurch cricketers in particular found that the extended hours of play—till 7.30 p.m.—were too much of a good thing. They set an earlier hour, and most other centres followed suit. “J. H. D.” (Lauder).—A letter to the instructor in agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Rattray street. Dunedin, is quite sufficient. (2) I have been unable to learn of any New Zealand agents for the paper you mention. It can be had on application to the publishers, no doubt. Their address is the G. L. Foster Company, Nashville, Tennessee (U.S.A.),

Shoddy Manures. A question I heard raised this week hy a North Otago farmer was, “ Why are these fertiliser and phosphate companies allowed to flood us with shoddy manures, jus't reeking with parasites? Why cannot the Government compel the merchants to sell us what we want, the good stuff. instead of the rubbish we get? ” This is spoon feeding, surely. Must the farmer take the inferior article? Can he not refuse to have dealings with firms that do not supply his requirements as stated? The remedy is in the farmer’s hands. The real thing is to be had anywhere at a price. If he practises the false economy of preferring the cheaper stuff to the dearer, but genuine article, he can scarcely expect the Government to step in and save him from his folly.

Fat-lamb Judging. An innovation at the Waikouaitl A. and P. Association’s Show on Saturday last which would not be out of place in the schedule of any show in New Zealand was the fat lamb judging competition, which supplanted the usual sheep weight-guessing. Mr Alexander Reid sponsored the competition, and was indefatigable in his efforts to interest farmers, pointing out how great was the need for growers to learn how to draft their own lambs without the assistance of a buyer. There is a lot to be said in favour of this idea . . Although sheep weight-guessing competitions can always be relied upon to supply a few pounds to the society’s coffers, there is little educational value in them in comparison with Mr Reid’s innovation. Entrants are asked not only to select the best lambs, but also to indicate any inferior or secondgrade stuff in the pen. The element of luck is entirely eliminated. It is to be hoped that other societies will find room for this competition in next year s catalogues.

New Zealand Butter in Australia. According to the Melbourne Argus the steamer Manuka, on arrival in Melbourne •on her last trip from the Dominion, discharged 1500 boxes of butter, and this was the first New Zealand butter to reach Melbourne this season. About 2000 boxes had been received in Sydney from New Zealand, and it was reported that a fair quantity of our butter had already found its way to South Australia. Butter merchants in Melbourne had stated that orders had been placed in New Zealand for 10,000 boxes of butter, to be delivered in Australia in January and February. The shipment had been noted with interest by those engaged in the butter trade, because of the discussion which had taken place recently about the increase in the tariff on butter to 6d per lb. The Argus stated that the New Zealand Government had refused to forego its right to six months’ notice before an amendment of the-recip-rocal trade treaty was made. This refusal it is stated, led to a reduction of the export bounty on butter from 4d to 3d per lb, in an effort to discourage heavy importations. At present New Zealand butter can be landed in Australia for about 2jd per lb. As sales in the Dominion are always based on the price ruling in London, the unsatisfactory position of the London market gives strength to the opinion that New Zealand will be in a position to supply butter to_ Australia at cheaper ~ rates than usual this season. Dairy farmers in Australia contend that farmers in New Zealand have nothing to gain by the shipment of butter to Australia; as any profits that may be made by such transactions accrue to large retail merchants and to speculators in Australia. Opinion in the trade has been that the imports of New Zealand butter will be heavy this season, as the increased tariff will not operate until the middle of June, and speculators will take the opportunity of acquiring stocks in view of a possibility of a firmer market in Australia after that time.

Fertilisers and Stock Diseases. Has the use of greater quantities and varieties of fertilisers had anything to do with the recent alarming increases in stock and plant diseases? This was a question put to Mr R. B. Tcnnent this week at Bortons. His answer was that top-dressing could not be held responsible. There were only two manures which were dangerous in this respect—crushed hone and the sheep droppings taken from trucks, etc. The use of the latter with brassicas very often resulted in the appearance of c/üb-root. But fertilisers generally could not be condemned as disease carriers, on account of these two.

English Royal Show.

Late reports from Great Britain state that the Royal Agricultural Society of England has not had a very successful year. This season’s Royal Show, for which there is no permanent site, resulted in a loss of £II,OOO (roughly). This following on a debit last year of about £IO,OOO and another of £6OOO in 1926, does not augur very well for the society’s future. True, the available reserves are in the vicinity of £IOO,OOO, but losses cannot lie survived indefinitely. This state of affairs can bo taken as a fair indication of (ho unsatisfactory conditions ruling at present in rnral Great Britain.

Another Shearing Record. A well-known Otago. runholder in town for the wool sale this. week claims to have had two men in his shed this season whose performances with the shears eclipsed either of the two instanced in these columns this week—the per day total in those cases being 205 per • day for three days, and 237 for four days respectively. This pair, Gippsland veterans, put through an average of 485 per day between them for five days and a-half, at the end of which period one was compelled to go to bed with influenza. It would appear that fishermen are not alone in their keenness to go one bettor than the next fellow.

Costly Top Dressing. When the effect ‘of. superphosphate in respect of grass content of pastures iva« being discussed at a demonstration at Bortons this week, Mr R. B. Tennent was asked whether nitrogen were not more useful in this connection. “Yes,” said the speaker. “it undoubtedly is, but my contention is that nitrogen at £l7 10s per ton is far too expensive for farmers to use.” One of the features of the topdressing experiment at Bortons was the startling preponderance of succulent red ?]«Ter in the pastures,

Stems of laterest to those engaged in agricultural and pastoral with a view to their publication in these columns, will be Shey should be addressed to “itußticus,” Otago Daily Times, Dunedin.

Southland’s Royal Show. A correspondent from Southland writes in respect of the reference to Invercargill as a site for a Royal Show, published in these columns on Tuesday as follows; “ Does it not occur to * Rusticus ’ that if the Royal Show executive will not consider Southland breeders before the rich and influential people of Cantcr'nirv and Manawatu, just once every few years, tho southern breeders will forget to consider tho executive? And then what will happen? Southland is always in the money at Addington, but hor studmasters are getting a bit fed up.”—My correspondent appears to have missed the point stressed on Tuesday. Before the Royal Society can afford to consider seriously other sites, it must establish its show in the centres originally adopted. It is a question ot ” Safety First.” The executive in its proposed restriction is considering the future of the show first of all, and not any special “ rich and influential ” coterie in - either Manawatu or Canterbury. No doubt Southland dislikes having her hopes dashed to the ground, but everything takes time.

An Injudicious Murmuring. A North Otago farmer, whose road line hedge has been affected by road construction operations recently undertaken by the Public Works Department has reason to regret that he injudiciously complained that excavations made by tho department had atlected his hedge to a degree demanding compensation. It appears that the road work concerned entailed tho cutting away of a bank as far back as the farm boundary, and in on€ place a few feet further, necessitating the breaking of the hedgeline. Naturally tho landowner murmured. His murmurs increased to indignant complaints until the department was moved to bring in surveyors to assess the farm’s actual loss. The survey completed, the now thoroughly crestfallen complainant could have bitten off his own tongue. The new survey showed that he had for vears enjoyed possession of Government laud for nothing. The error found to exist in the original survey varied from one or two feet in some places to as much as 40ft in others. “ Unless thy speech bo belter than silence, bo silent.”

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH.

TOP-DRESSING EXPERIMENTS. THE BORTON’S DEMONSTRATION,

REVISED COMPARATIVE FIGURES

It cannot be questioned that, of all the benefits conferred upon agriculture by scientific research, the most important is that which has followed the introduction and use of artificial fertilisers on pastures. Top-dressing has been advocated on every hand by departmental experts and farmers’ leaders for several years, but this was not sufficient to convince the mass of farmers that the expenditure entailed would be returned over and over again. Only definite and practical results of experiments carried out in their own midst—not on experimental farms, but on farmers’ holdings—can be expected to carry weight sufficient to induce him to adopt the new system of pasture management. , „ The experimental plot at Strathmore, Bortons, demonstrated upon on Wednesday by Mr R. B. Tennent, is typical of the twoscore other co-operative field trials at present occupying the attention of the Fields Division. It is proposed that tabulated results along the lines ot those given below shall be available in respect of every plot, thus setting forth plainly and simply the results of one ot the most comprehensive experimental schemes yet attempted in Otago. Two typographical errors in the table as published in yesterday’s issue make it necessary to reproduce it. The revised figures are as follows: Weights per acre harvested: —

Tons. cwt. qrs. Super 2 4 Basic slag and lime .. Basic slag * Super and lime .... - " Bime “ 'I ' Control (no manure)

The value of the hay per acre from the different manures (estimating good meadow hay at £5 per ton) was as follows: — Basic slag and lime *3 0 0 Basic slag n 0 Super .. . “ 0 " Super and lime .50 n Lime 7 ,5 „ Control (no manure) .. .. £ u 0 After allowing for the cost of manure the profit or loss per acre as compared with an unmanured plot was as follows:

•Basic slag and lime •Basic slag .. +Super .. ... ■ • tSuper and lime .. •Lime

£0 5 6 0 1 3 8 1 6 7 6 0 0 1 9

* Indicate loss, f Indicates profit

The volume of the. hay harvested from the basic slag and lime plots was erroneously stated at 5s 6d per acre instead of £3. Another error in the profit and loss figures made the loss per acre on the limed strips £1 9s, instead of Is 9d. These latter figures might lead farmers to turn from an article the use of which resulted in a loss of almost 30s. But even the corrected figures do not constitute an advertisement for lime or basic slag. Neither showed up nearly as well as superphosphate, but the succeeding seasons will tell which is the most reliable manure from all aspects. An important factor to be taken into consideration in any study of the above comparisons is that the experiment. is solely concerned with the 10 weeks period during which the plot was closed to stock. Lime and slag, therefore, may not have had time to do their bit in improving the pasture. However, once they commence to act their residual effect may exceed that of superphosphate. It is considerations such as these that cannot be definitely decided until the scheme has been completed.

TARIFF AND SUBSIDY

TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA. BUTTER AND PORK EXPORTS. AN AUSTRALIAN ALLEGATION. “ New Zealand dairymen were not benefiting by exports to Australia, but only the' speculator.” This statement, made recently at Murwillumbah (New South Wales) by the Federal Treasurer, Dr Earle Pago, is a very serious one, if true. People in the trade say that it is not true (says the Evening Post). One firm of dairy produce merchants states that it has supplied the New Zealand Department of Industries and Commerce with data proving that, over a series of shipments to Australia, the New Zealand dairymen have directly and materially benefited, and that the firm’s charges have not been more than an entirely reasonable percentage on turnover. Both last winter and during the current season the Australian market has proved at times important to New Zealand factories, enabling them to earn 2d to Id petlb more than the London market could at the same time give them. For the current export season beginning last August and including allotments to the end of February Australia is taking 73,100 boxes of New Zealand butter as compared with 30,430 boxes in the correspon .ing period of last season. This is the more-than-doubled trade which Dr Page is describing as being beneficial only to speculators, and which the Commonwealth Parliament’s new 6d duty proposes to extinguish. So anxious is a section of Australian dairymen to operate this new duty before its normal statutory time (June 15) that a Minister will probably be sent from .'ustralia to New Zealand to negotiate for its earlier opera-

tion—and perhaps to open up the whole question of Customs “ reciprocity ” between Australia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand trade is willing and able to rebut the accustation that the 73,100 boxes of butter sent this season and the 30,450 boxes last season are to the benefit of speculators and not of dairymen If Dr Page had stated that speculators on the Australian side had benefited by importations of butter from New Zealand, that would have been another matter. But he is reported as. saying unequivocally—and the report has not been recalled—that Nek Zealand dairymen “do not benefit.” . “ In giving information to the Depart ment of Industries and Commerce as to the facts of the case,” said a Wellington merchant yesterday, “we wish to remove some of the misrepresentation that arises when those subjects are discussed in political quarters—misrepresentation that hinders a fair presentation of the issue.” Side by side with the campaign which Australian dairying interests, are conducting against New Zealand dairy produce is a movement to increase the duty on bacon and pork. If the pig raisers succeed as well as the dairy producers have done, the increase will make the duty prohibitive.

A similar charge of misrepresentation arises out of the pork duty publicity as out of Dr Page's speech. For instance, the press campaigners in Sydney quote, in justification of their case, tho New Zea land, subsidy on exported pork; but the New Zealand trade at once points out that this subsidy applies to pork exported to Britain and Europe and not to pork exported to Australia. >( “ The New Zealand subsidy on pork,’ said a member of the trade, " does not a fleet pork sent to Australia, and does not help the New Zealand pork exporter to compote in the Australian market.” Any effect that it would have on the Australian trade would appear, in fact, to be quite in tho other direction, by tending to divert New Zealand exports from the Australian to the British and European markets. In tho trade it is thought that the New Zealand Government, in drafting tho terms of the subsidy, was probably at pains, not to step on Australian toes or to afford any ground for a grievance which the Australian press has nevertheless caught hold of, groundless though it be. Australia has no more right to object to a New Zealand Government subsidy on pork sent to Britain and Europe than I>cw Zealand has to object to the butter export bonus provided by Australia s “ Paterson Plan ” on butter sent to the Old Country. It looks as though interested parties in Australia are determined to raise as many points of tariff advantage as possible piioi to the Ministerial mission’s departure to New Zealand to discuss the situation arising out of the prohibitive butter duty. Neither in the case of the dairy produce duties nor the proposed pork and bacon duties can there be any doubt as to the country aimed at. In both lines, New Zealand is the only considerable exporter to Australia. Of Australia’s imports bacon and ham, 375,0001 b, Now Zealand is credited with 352,0001 b; and of Australia s pork imports, 733,0001 b, almost the whole came from Now Zealand. . ~, . - , The crux of the situation, which is mainly political, is that the Commonwealth Government, facing a general election, does not know how to reconcile rural voters to the high protection received by urban secondary industries unless rural primary industries receive some sops also.

POULTRY FARMING

PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS. FAILURES AND CAUSES. AN INTERESTING ANALYSIS. Whereas it was a comparatively simple matter to make money out of poultry farming during the time when high egg pr ees were ruling, conditions are now reverting to what they were prior to that time, Ind it is important that beginners should possess necessary qualifications. Nearly 27 years ago poultry farming as a business, or as a means of earning a livelihood, began to get a bad name, which, incidentally, was wholly undeserved owing to a number of failures to makegood on the part of those who took lt At‘the present time something of the same kind is happening, for.those who from a variety of motives drifted into poultry ventures at the conclusion ot the Great‘War, without “a call, are, in many cases, drifting out again. This is a great pity, for several reasons, not the least of these being the fact that there is a growing tendency in some lay quarters towards a raising of the eyebrows when the fact is mentioned that one is a poultry farmer, as who should say Ah, yes: but how long will it continue. Analysing the reasons for these failures, it becomes pretty evident that they may be classed under one or other of the four following headings, viz., (1) . temperamental; (2) financial; (3) circumstantial; and (4) through ignorance—with all of which it may prove interesting to deal in turn. Somehow, our industry has always been hampered by the prevalence of the impression in certain quarters that poultry farming means more or less easy money” for those taking it up. bond mam-ias have for a number of years imagined that 100 or so hens to look after would be “just the thing to kep dear Augustus out of mischief.’ Others refuse to realise that a lad who has kicked over the traces while under supervision in an office is more likely to go wrong when placed entirely on his own with a banking account at the end of his few an nib.” But, apart from the family nuisane’e or the youngster without grit and balance (from whom, after all, nothing much could be expected), there are people in plenty utterly unsuited to the life, and where one’s heart is not in one s work, little will be accomplished—at any rate, where poultry is concerned. Many people, especially young men, are charmed with the opening phases of a new me in the country, and really do go great guns ” for the first year or so, after which the monotony of the work, the inevitable tying-down to routine, and the unpleasantness of a winter spent probably in some lonely township, begin to tell upon them, with the consequence that they either neglect their job eventually or become miserable over it. , . . . The right man is so interested in his work that it is all to him;‘he is always learning, and planning improvements and extensions to his plant and business, consequently he never has time to be bored. He is essentially a handy man, for unless he is, or can make himself so, he will be forced to employ someone else pretty trequen” • on his farm, and wc all know what hired labour means nowadays. We cannot help our temperaments, and mostly cannot alter them, so that it would be all the better for the industry and themselves if those unsuited to poultry farming kept out of it. The question of capital has always been a most difficult one to pronounce upon, and never less so than at the piesent time, when all values, are more or less m the melting pot. It is to be feared that several promising poultryites have been lost from time to time because they had reached the end of their tether, perhaps only just before their business was beginning to pay its way. We know that there are people who, from the very humblest of beginnings have built up large and extremely profitable plants, but to the majority of beginners the game means the purchase of a good deal ot stock, etc., at the start, and the necessity of having to pay rent and living expenses all the time, until returns begin to come in. out of capital. The beginner has, therefore, to face at the outset of things (unless peculiar advantages exist in his particular case), the fact that his resources must be divided into three portions, as it were, and capital set aside as follows;—(a) A sufficient sum to provide him with a dwelling and land and to install him thereon with his goods and chattels; (b) a sufficient sum wherewith the nucleus at any rate of his live and dead stock mav be purchased: (c) sufficient sum to enable him and his dependents (if any) to live for two years, at any rate. The total of these three, according to varying individual requirements, represents the amount of capital necessary for a poultryfarming venture, Reasons for failure that come under this heading can be dealt with briefly enough, and in many cases may be traced to sheer bad luck. Bad accidents may occur, due to fire or unusual weather, that could hardly have been prevented, or, again, owing, perhaps, to a landlord’s sudden death, the tenant may have to clear out suddenly and lose heavily in the pi'ocess. But there are other circumstances that may c.ause failure—especially to the inexperienced town dweller—and among them may be mentioned the purchase or rental of utterly unsuitable land • —stale, perhaps—or waterlogged all the winter. Then, agera, one may have

started, as many have done, a commercial egg farm pure and simple, and have done very well while egg prices were high, but have suffered considerably during the slump, when living and general upkeep expenses did not fall proportionately. Undoubtedly more failures can be traced to this source than to any other. People will not realise that training, and, indeed, highly-specialised training, is as necessary in this as in any other business or profession. Nowadays it is the man who can make his individuality felt in some particular line that scores the heaviest, whether that line be the production of winners in the show pens or laying competitions, the housing of thousands of layers on some startlingly original lines, or the invention of some highly fecund super fowl. • But in order to do any of these things thoroughly it is first of all necessary to know one’s job, and this, emphatically, cannot be done in spare time, by book learning, or by a pleasant fortnight spent on a poultry establishment de luxe. At least six months’ solid grind must be put in on a well-established farm of thp exact sort (or, as near as may be) that the neophyte intends to start himself, as to which this is, the point that should have been decided beforehand, after careful thought and review of the various branches, the individual’s tastes for the particular kind of work having been considered in addition to the question of returns.

So much, then, for the various reasons for failure in poultry farming ventures. W 7 e see that come might have been prevented, while others were foredoomed. Perhaps all the foregoing may leave a fiomewL.t gloomy impression upon the reader’s mind, but, if so. that is not the wish or intention of the writer, than whom few perhaps are better aware of the conditions of the poultry industry as a whole to-day. What I set out to do was partly to show that no stigma whatever should be associated with the term poultry farming because a few ignoramuses have come croppers thereat, and partly to warn the enthusiastic novice how best he may take thought unto himself before launching out with his savings upon what may at best prove an uncongenial enterprise.