THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21265, 20 February 1931, Page 4

THE RURAL WORLD.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

Holding Wool Back. According to information received by the Yorkshire Observer from a_ reliable quarter, the English wool which was catalogued in London last December, but was all withdrawn, is likely to be “ off the market ” for a considerable time. It is understood that arrangements have been made with a keen and also a wealthy supporter of the co-operative societies which had the wool in the sale whereby he will finance the holding of this raw material for another 18 months. If this account of what has happened be correct, it provides an interesting indication of what some wool owners consider the outlook to be for domestic, and, incidentally, crossbred wools. The reported arrangement provides for carrying the wool as far ahead as the middle of 1932, by which time it is hoped the market will have recovered sufficiently to justify the prolonged storage. The alternative is not pleasant to contemplate. Everyone has reason ardently) to hope that conditions in the trade generally will be conspicuously improved by the expiration of the period mentioned. The farmers are entitled to a fair price for their wool, and no one can be surprised at their belief that the present is not the time to secure the best financial return for their graded-clips. Cheese Exports. Exports of cheese last month were 12,520 tons, a decrease of 349 tons compared with January, 1930. Practically the whole of the cheese last month went to the United Kingdom, 100 per cent, on consignment as against 73 per cent, consigned and 27 sold f.o.b. in January,-1929. Exports for the six months ended January were 4030 tons more than for the corresponding period of last season, as is shown in the following table:— 1930-31 1929-30 Tons. Tons. London .. • • • • •• 3 |’fi77 West coast, U.K. .. 6,264 3,677 Australia .... .. 1 ij? Vancouver .... .. ® i;! Other countries .. .. Total tons .. .. 42,414 38.384 World Wool Production. A United States official statement puts the world wool production, exclusive of Russia and China, at 3,197,000,0001 b in 1929, a decrease of 1 per cent, compared with the record clip of 1928. Wool production 'increased from 2,566,000,0001 bin 1923 to '3,236,000,0001b in 1928. The five countries of the Southern Hemisphere i.e., Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay, and the Union of South Africa, furnish in the neighbourhood of threefifths of the world wool production, exclusive of Russia and China. Better Days Ahead. It is not surprising that wool growers are highly dissatisfied with prices being realised by current clips, but similar unfortunate experiences belong to the past, and they have always been followed by renewed prosperity (says the Yorkshire Observer). There is every reason to believe that history will repeat itself. The low price of the raw material is going to be the most potent influence in repopularising wool commodities, and eventually bring about greater machinery activity and employment. The position in the merino section of the trade is a good indication of the trend of events. Butter Exports. Exports of butter from the Dominion last month totalled 13,427 tons, as against 12,743 tons in January, 1930, an increase of 684 tons. With the exception of 163 tons the whole of the butter exported last month went to the United Kingdom, Canadian shipments were only 46 tons, as against 3277 tons to Vancouver and Halifax in January last year. Of the butter shipped last month to Britain, the position at time of shipment was that 83 per cent, was consigned and 17 per cent, sold f.0.b., compared with 03 per cent, consigned and 7 per cent, sold f.o.b. in January, 1930. Exports of butter for the six months of the season to January 31 totalled 49,094 tons, as against 49,947 tons, for the same period of the 1929-30 season, a decrease of 853 tons. The exports in .detail compare as follow:

The figures show that Britain has taken practically the whole tonnage of butter that last year went to Canada. Increased exports to Britain are 13,085 .tons, compared with a decrease of 13,966 tons in the shipments to Canada.

A New Plough. Messrs Reid and Gray, Ltd., Burnside, have designed a new plough to sell at about 30 per cent, lower than their Standard plough, of which there arc about some 26,000 sold in New Zealand. A demonstration of the new implement was given on Wednesday at Mr R. Sim’s farm at St. Clair.

The hew plough is constructed entirely of steel, .with cast steel legs, beam is> extra high for clearance in trashy ground. The plough is entirely automatic, and a light pull on a cord causes the self 1 it to raise the plough completely’ out of the ground at headland as the plough lifts the three ivheels automatically, enabling the plough to turn in very short headland. The width of furrow can be quickly altered as desired. The plough did good work on hilly ground in an old pasture field, and turned the furrow well against the land. The whole demonstration was a complete success. The four-furrow plough was hauled by a Caterpillar tractor, kindly lent by Messrs A. S. Paterson and Co., and visitors present who had never seen this tractor at work were astonished at the ease with which it was operated.

Noxious Weeds and Control.’ A correspondent, ' “ Parmer,” writes as follows on the subject' of noxious weeds and their , control;—“One hears d lot at present about ragwort and the efforts made .to.destroy it by spraying. It seems strange that so much fuss should be made about-this plant when almost every farmer knows that where a few sheep are grazed the plant never gets a chance to flower and seed. In fact, sheep will graze it close to the surface of the ground and thrive on it. What is of far more 'consequence is how to cheek and destroy the imported blackberry and St. John’s wort and the native manuka and piri piri, which are smothering hundreds of/ acres of good land in the Dominion. Fortunately, blackberry areas are comparatively small in Otago, but St. John’s wort is rapidly covering acres of tussock and bush-cleared land and, unfortunately, unlike ragwort, it is not food for any domestic animal. Of course, we know that cultivation will kill any weed, but the rapid growth of St. John’s wort is usually to bo seen on hillsides where cultivation would be difficult. The native manuka has also covered hundreds of acres which not so many years ago were growing silver tussock and good native pasture. The land adjacent to Waitati and Hindon are examples. I have been told that in the latter district the seed was spread in the first place by the miners who travelled to and from the Dunstan diggings, carrying manuka firewood to boil their billies. In regard to piri piri or bidi-bidi, there are several different species. The small hill variety, although injurious to wool, is not nearly so harmful either to wool or to the land as the larger, stronger-growing plant, which flourishes in many of our bushcleared districts. Many experiments have been tried, but as far as I can gather the only really succcessful plan to cope with the strong biddy is to graze the land for several years with cattle only. The rougher the grass is permitted to grow the sooner will the weed be choked.

By Etjsticus.

Items of interest to those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, with a view to their publication in these columns, will be welcomed. They should be addressed to “Rusti cus,” Otago Daily Times, Dunedin.

Gorse and broom, of course, come under our Noxious Weeds Act, and although I have always had a good deal of sympathy for Government officials in their efforts to clear the country of rabbits and weeds I never could understand why the farmer was singled out to clear his land, while adjacent to our towns and cities there is sufficient gorse and broom to keep our unemployed busy for months.”

CHEWING’S FESCUE. GERMINATION AND VITALITY. ENGLISH EXPERT’S INVESTIGATIONS. Chewing’s fescue seed is a produce of importance in Southland. An average area of 6000 to 10,000 acres is threshed annually, and in the last 10 years the total value has ranged, with the exception of one year, from £60,000 to £128,000. Last year the return was £109,677 from 9808 acres, and in 1929, £107,458 from 9506 acres. The approximate return,; therefore, is about £ll an acre, not _a bad figure in view of the fact that it is not a crop that requires soil preparation and seeding. _ _ # However, it is generally known that there is often much dissatisfaction in England and elsewhere with the fescue seed grown in New Zealand, for the reason that many shipments fail to maintain their germination for any length or time after arrival. The failure to do this has been attributed to various causes, and although most of them have have been examined, nothing very reliable seems to have been discovered. In some years the trouble is more widespread than in others, and as it is occuring again this season with seed of last year’s harvest, Messrs Sutton and Sons, of .Reading, England, who use a good deal of this seed, decided they would personally investigate the matter on the spot to see if their 120 years experience of seed production in Europe could suggest anything definite which might be the cause. Consequently they sent Mr W. P. Giles, A.H., R.H.S., one of their leading seed-growing experts, to New Zealand to study this question, and to investigate other matters relating to seed production in the Dominion. ' Mr Giles left Southland a few days ago. While there he made an exhaustive study of the subject, and compared every operation of the Southland farmers with those adopted in Europe with other seed crops. As a result, he was. easily able to see what was lacking m the’Eew Zealand methods—methods which . buttons always adopt in England to ensure ' the highest vitality in seeds. So . much impressed were the growers, who are, or course, anxious to see the overseas sales increase; that they willingly' agreed to treat some seed bn the lines Mr Giles suggested, and the produde will be sent to Reading for the vitality to" be tested. If the method recommended of treating tbe seed crops of Chewing’s fescue proves to have the same beneficial affect on the vitality of the seed as it does on other seeds grown in England (and there seems no reason why it should not), it will be made public, and growers will be recommended to adopt the practice, especially for seed intended to be sent overseas. Then New Zealand will stand a chance or regaining- its good name for Chewings fescue,' and there should be a great increase in the quantity exported, which would be to the benefit of the Dominion. The growers should be indebted to Messrs Sutton for their enterprise in sending out one of their leading experts to investigate a matter of such importance to them.

SCIENCE AND BREEDING. THE LAWS OF INHERITANCE. A PROFITABLE STUDY. Up till now we have simply followed traditional methods of based on the principle that like begets like,'with a constant tendency to variation. Even the best of the individual studmasters have slavishly followed that method, although some have shown much more instinct for selection and mating than others. How much further we may go along these lines it is difficult to forecast, but probably the limit is not very far off. The scientists, however, are coming to our aid with their researches into the laws of inheritance, of which we have . comparatively little exact knowledge. The greatest, improvement achieved so far has been by mass selection within .the inbred flocks. The scientists now tell us that further advancement will probably, lie in initial selection within the inbred families to secure parents which are genetically pure (that is homozygous) with regard to particular desirable qualities of characteristics, this initial selection being followed by subsequent crossing of related families of the same homozygous type. Before the genetically pure individuals of the desired type cam be selected with certainty by any studmaster, the scientists will first have to determine the extent of environment variation so as to ascertain the factors which are purely hereditary, for every sheepman who has studied his flock knows that environment—of which feed and climate are essentially a part—also modifies both the quality and quantity of the wool growth. With this information available, the breeder will be able to determine which of his animals are genetically pure and which,_ in consequence, can be relied upon invariably to transmit their characteristics to then; progeny. The importance of ensuring that the parents are pure regarding desirable characteristics has been well illustrated in the discoveries regarding colour in wool, It has been proved, for .instance, that the production of white or black wool is due to the presence of inherited factors—that is, the colours black and white, of which white is the dominant. For a blackwoolled sheep to appear in the flock it is necessary for the animal to be pure for the black factor. On the other hand, a sheep carrying white wool may be .either pure for the. white factor or may carry also, a latent factor for black. , In consequence, if but one genetically impure white ram or ewe, carrying the factor for black, be introduced into a pure white flock, it would be possible by selection within that flock to produce, a pure black flock from it. These are very interesting facts that show how thoroughly the experts are carrying on their research work, and they must have an important bearing on breeding principles in future. The subject, of course, is one that is inclined to become too deep for the ordinary sheepman to follow in detail; still, its general principles are simple enough, and when they are firmly established and acknowledged we shall be on the high road to the opening of a new era in breeding. IMPRESSING THE WOOL BUYER FACTORS TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION. For best results, wool should be placed before the buyers in such a way as to ensure the greatest amount of competition. It should be so baled as to give the buyers an opportunity of assessing the true value, and in such a way as to create a feeling of confidence. It is a common remark that “ Competition is the life of trade,” and this certainly applies to the sale of wool, because all wool buyers do not require the same type or quality of wool. For instance, some manufacturers buy fleece wool only, whilst others readily purchase and specialise in “ pieces,” _ “ bellies,” ‘• locks,” etc., according to their requirements for their factory or order. Thus it is clear that in order to get the maximum competition the different sorts must be baled separately.

All wool is bought on what is known as clean, scoured value, although it ■.is sold at a price per lb in the grease. The buyer, however, has to estimate how much foreign matter in the shape of grease, sand, dust, vegetable matter in the form of burr and seeds, etc., the wool contains before he can arrive at the true scoured value. When examining wool for sale, the buyer first selects the type and quality he wants, then proceeds to estimate the percentage of actual clean wool he will get from the lot if bought. On his ability to estimate accurately the percentage of clean wool largely depends the success of the buyer. It stands to reason that when a buyer has selected the wool he requires, where heavy and light conditioned fleeces' are bundled together, it is only with great difficulty that he can estimate the yield that this lot will give when scoured; hence he is almost sure to err on the safe side, which, of course, will be at the grower’s expense. Whereas, if the wool is packed evenly, he will not only have his work made easier, but he will have infinitely more confidence in the wool he is dealing with, and it is certain that other buyers will likewise be impressed. This leads to healthy competition in the auction sales, and the careful grower reaps his rewards.

1930-31 1929-30 Tons. Tons. London 42,331 32,241 West Coast U.K. .. 4,606 1,611 Vancouver •1,343 - 2,527 Halifax and Montreal 57 12,839 Honolulu 177 201 Other countries 286 442 Panama 294 86 Total tons .. .. 49,094 49,947