THE RURAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22742, 30 November 1935, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD

FARM AND STATION NEWS

By RUSTICUS.

Item* & interest to those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, With a riew to their publication in these columns, will bo welcome*. They should be addressed to Rusticus, Otago Daily Times, Ounedta.

1935-36 SHOW SEASON FORTHCOMING EVENTS Shows have been arranged for the following dates during the 1935-36 season: 1935 November 30. —Winton, December 3 and 4. —pore. December 4.—Central Otago A. and F. Association, at Omakau. December 6.—Wyndham. . December 7.—Tokomairiro Farmers Club, at Milton. _■ December 10, 11. —Southland, at In* vercargill. , v, „ December 12.—Owaka A. and P. Society, at Owaka. . December 13—Maniototo, at Ranfurly. December 14.—Otago Peninsula, at Portobello. 1936 v January 11.—Blueskin, at Waitati. January 18. —Waikouaiti. January 24. —Palmerston and Waihemo. February 11 and 12.—Otago Metropolitan, at Tahuna Park (postponed from November 26 and 27). March 7.—Upper Clutha, at Pembroke. March 11.—Lake County, at Lake Hayes, Arrowtown, , March 21.— Temuka and Geraldine, at Winchester. - ■ _ . April 13.—Mackenzie County, at Fairlie. - WOOL-SELLING SEASON ROSTER OF SALES The New Zealand Woolbuyers' Association has issued the following list of sales for the 1935-36 season. The first sale will be held in Auckland on November 26, and the last sale at Wellington on April 5. 1935

New Zealand Wool Sale* The wool situation, as reflected by the first New Zealand sales, in Auckland this week, seems to suggest that market equilibrium has been reached and that the benefit of steady prices may now be enjoyed by growers and the community in general in this Dominion. A healthy wool market with a level of prices reasonably payable to the grower must mean a large measure of prosperity to New Zealand *s a whole. Prices for fine wools and fine crossbreds have retained all their recent strength, and even coarser descriptions have met with an. encouraging inquiry. Even if materially higher rates than current values cannot be expected at the moment, there is nothing in the position just now to’suggest the possibility of any serious setback to prices. Competition has undoubtedly extended, and medium to coarse crossbreds are coming into demand. This may not mean as much to Otago as it does to some North Island districts, but it indicates a well distributed market strength which is always to be welcomed. With rates as they are at present there is every prospect of a rapid clearance of this season s clip. London Auctions The London wool sales continue with active competition and a firmer trend in prices. There has been an advance on the opening rates, especially for crossbreds. This is particularly encouraging for New Zealand growers. • Top prices for wool at the close of the end-of-year London sales in the past seven years compare with the latest quotations as follows: — Crossbred

The table shows that, except- for the 1933 year, wool is selling at the highest prices since 1929. The current improvement in the market dates from March of this year, although there was a slight setback at the September sales. Brighter conditions are now being experienced. m the woollen manufacturing trade, resulting in a strong, general demand. The market appears to have recovered from the September weakness, which was due to the unsettled state of political affairs. New Fabrics Reports of still more new fabrics are coming to hand. The. latest- reports are from Canada and Japan. In Canada experiments by research workers have resulted in the production of cloth from spruce wood. The cloth has a grain and texture similar to leather, and has the durability of leather. It is expected that the new spruce wood fabric will be used for many commercial purposes, although not for clothing, and may not affect the market for wool. It is also stated that the discovery will enhance the value of Canadian forests. In Japan there have been extensive experiments with a view to finding a fabric which will compete with wool, and, although no details of new discoveries have been published, there are grounds for believing that some of the experiments have been encouraging. Professor Atsuki Kateumoto, of the Imperial Japanese University, anticipates that in six months the Japanese public will be able to buy artificial wool clothing at one-third the price of natural wool. The strong demand from Japan for woo l does not support a probable prospect of an artificial fibre displacing real wool, however. t Pest Control Spraying for the control of potatoblight and other kindred crop troubles may be desirable. As a rule, satisfactory results are obtained from such spraying only when it serves a» a preventive instead of as a cure. Spraying may be of considerable value in checking the spread of blight which has gained a footing, but its greatest service comes from preventing the footing being obtained. If the spraying is faulty in respect either to preparation or application, the result is likely to be either ineffective control of the trouble or damage to the crop itself. Maize and Millet To provide green feed in summer maize and millet may be expected to. give good results in the warmer districts when »own in December. As a rule they respond profitably to a dressing of superphosphate, etc., applied at the rate of lewfc to 2ewt an acre, and, except in the case of highly fertile soils, it is likely to be also profitable to supplement the superphosphate with a nitrogenous fertiliser.

Meat Export Season The first schedule of export prices this season for lambs on hooks at freezing works in the Auckland Province came into operation recently. The rates are as follows: —Thirty-six pounds and under, 8d per lb; 371 b to 421 b, 7Jd; over 423 b and seconds, 7d. Prices are about Id per lb above those ruling at the same time last year. Owing to adverse weather, the season this year is some weeks later than usual. In recent weeks few supplies of lambs have been available, and exporters have bed difficulty in securing their requirements. For exceptionally early lambs, prices about 9Jd per lb were paid, and subsequently buyers worked to an unofficial schedule of B£d per lb for prime lambs and 8d for seconds. The lateness of the season and the higher spot market in London account for the advance in schedule prices over last year. Minor changes have been made in the schedule of prices for pigs on hooks at works. The latest rates are:—Sixty pounds to 80lb, s|d per lb; 811 b to 1001 b, sid; 1011 b to 1601 b, sd; 1611 b to 1801 b, 4|d; 1811 b to 2001 b, 3d; over 2001 b and choppers, 2|d; second grade, id less, unr exportable, less Id for porkers and baconers.

Few lambs are yet available in North Auckland, but increasing numbers are being killed at . the Auckland and South Auckland works. All works should be exceptionally busy with lambs until Christmas. The pig-killing season is now in

full swing, and a few “ chiller ” cattle are being killed. Sheep will not be available in any number until January. The Butter Market When Australian and New Zealand butter in London reached anything from 122 s to 127 s per cwt, according to grade, Samuel Page and Son, Ltd., wrote, London, October 17:—-“ There is now a pause in the demand. This is not surprising, as although the multiple shopkeepers, having large bought before the full rise had taken place, have kept tne ‘ counter ’ prices down, other retailers are forced either to sell at a loss or to raise their prices. Butter at Is 2d and Is 3d per lb to the housewife will be very different from the level that has ruled for many a day, and consequently consumptive demand is bound to fall on. Newspapers are already drawing attention to the fact that margarine manufacturere stand to benefit by the high price of butter, ‘as the dearer butter becomes the greater the demand tor margarine/ Whether this pause in tne demand will be sufficient to upset the market is an open question, but it seems reasonable to assume that the upward movement has reached its limits and that somewhat lower prices may be expected in the near future."

Empire Bacon Requirements A well-known Smithfield expert who handles large quantities of pork from New Zealand has drawn an interesting comparison between this commodity and that from Australia. He states that the latter is coming to Smithfield in greater quantities, and his experience is that the texture of both the meat and the fat is different from that of New Zealand pork, and very similar to Irish. As a rule there is a greater proportion of fat and because of this it is much more suitable for a dry cure than for tank curing. Australian frozen pork, he says, is in much better condition on arrival than the New Zealand product, as is borne out by the survey claims paid by the insurance companies. He criticises the tendency in New Zealand to gather up larger parcels, with the result that spme of the legs, as borne out by the freezing works’ certificate, are too old on their arrival at Smithfield. It may give some little satisfaction to New Zealand senders, however, to learn that Australian pork has not escaped criticism, for he points out that the general cut and trim of Australian pork, more particularly the legs, could be greatly improved, and made more suitable for the Scotch trade. In many cases, the legs are cut too long; if they were cut well up to the aitch boue, a better price might be obtained by the sender. Chou Moellier The continued popularity of chou moellier, and in some districts an increased popularity, is well justified. This popularity is due partly to the marked resistance of chou moellier to club-root, from which, however, it is not completely immune, and partly to its good feeding value and to its ease of feeding to sheep with the minimum of waste in situations where the wet conditions would tend to beget undue waste in feeding root crops in situ. Chou moellier calls for high fertility, such as is required for success with cabbages. If such fertility is not present naturally, it may he provided by suitable use of farm manure such as old stack-bottoms and animal excreta, together with artificial fertiliser in which superphosphate may well be prominent. Sowings in December provide winter feeding. A suitable sowing is Ijlb to 21b an acre in drills 2ft to 2Jft apart.

Australian Meat Export Control

Inter-tillage and Thinning Inter-tillage of growing crops sown in rows wide enough apart to allow of it is, as a rule, highly desirable at_ this season. Often in December such intertillage should be accomplished by thinning of crops sown in October or November. Generally the thinning may be made easier by prior hoeing along the rows. The weeding associated with such early thinning usually destroys great numbers of weed seedlings. In thinning mangels the soil should be drawn away from the seedlings rather than to them. If at thinning time mangels are pale and seem to be faring unsatisfactorily, they are likely to respond profitably to a top-dress-ing of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia sprinkled along the rows, at the rate of about lewt an acre in such a way that the fertiliser is not deposited on the seedlings. Butter Blending Helpful Mr Plunkett, chairman of the Austra lian Dairy Produce Export Board, reports that the blending of Australian butter in Britain was helpful and not harmful, because blenders paid top prices and they provided a market for a type of butter which otherwise would not exist. In the interests of safeguarding the reputation of choicest grades, the prohibiting of the sale of butter after long storage bearing the “Kangaroo” stamp might be well considered. Serious endeavours should be made to standardise Australian butter in colour, appearance, texture, salting, and flavouring. Speculation in Butter Samuel Page and Sons, Ltd.. London, in a letter to Dalgety and Co. dated October 17, remark:—“The greatly increased selling prices (at that date) will haye been very welcome to the producers in Australia and New Zealand, although there may be some little heart-burning on the part of factories who sold f.o.b. ■ It is understood that the Matakana, just arrived, carries a fair amount of New Zealand which was sold at a parity of 85s 4d per cwt, c.i.f., and upwards. These purchases, of course (unless they have been sold and sold again, as is not unlikely) show the speculator a very handsome profit. But the sales have a detrimental* effect upon the present quict market, as they enable the purchasers to undercut current prices. For example, the nominal value of this arrival is 13 < 6 per cwt for finest grade, while the PJ rce J we have referred to are freely offered at many shillings less.”

In trade circles it is feared that the plans of the Federal Government for the control of meat exports will lead to unwieldy and harmful official supervision of the meat-producing industry. It is .acknowledged that in theory the appointment of an export control board may be a step in the right direction, but the experience of other industries controlled by boards set up by Acts of Parliament has not been altogether satisfactory and a meat board acting with the authority of law might easily hamper enterprise and be restrictive rather than beneficial to trade in the long run. The control of export commodities by statutory boards i» the new policy, however, and the fear that a meat board will hamper enterprise is not shared by those in parliamentary authority, who point out that the board will be so' constituted as to represent all sections of the meat-producing and export industry, and will act in the best interests of the industry as a whole.

Grass Seed Growing That there are possibilities of building a permanent export trade in certified ryegrass seed is accepted generally in official and commercial quarters, and the following figures support this contention. For eight months, May to December, 1933, the export of perennial ryegrass from New Zealand was as follows: —Certified, 2008 cwt value £2710; uncertified, 13,978 cwt, value £16,150; other ryegrass, 18,595ewt, value £21.889. It is apparent that our overseas customers have purchased our uncertified seed because, no doubt, there was no certified seed available at the price offering, but a certain class of uncertified seed may become an obstacle to the building up of a permanent trade in certified seed. In regard to small-seed production, New Zealand has in Otago and Southland a veritable inheritance. Practically every important common species of grass and clover can be grown successfully for seed. One may point to the revenue from the export of brown-top and fescue seed, and merchants must be commended m fostering the production of these seeds and m finding overseas markets for them without national assistance. There is still ample scope for expansion, and much of the seed now imported could be grown here. In 1933 3201 cwt of timothy was imported, whereas it can be grown successfully in Southland. A fair trade in the seed of this species was enjoyed by southern growers up till 1905, but it rapidly fell away through shipping lines containing ragwort seed. TOKOMAIRIRO FARMERS’ CLUB The following is the list of judges for the Tokomairiro Farmers’ Club’s show at Milton next Saturday:—-Cattle: Crossbred, Ayrshire, and Jersey, Mr N. Moore (Tapanui); Shorthorns, Mr R. Shennan (Otokia). and Mr D. D. M‘Lean (Omakau) junior judge; draughthorses, Messrs J Logan (Otamo) and R. Tisdall (Middlemarch); light horses and competitions, Mr George Kain (Orari); sheep, Messrs D. J. Ross (Karitigi) and John Miller (Maungatua); fat sheep and lambs, Mr T Lynch (Alexandra); dogs, Mr Peter Watt (Warepa); dairy produce, Mr D. Cunningham (Government grader, Dunedin); home industries, Mrs J. N. T. Grant (Cromwell).

AYRSHIRE CATTLE DISPLAY AT TAIERI SHOW AN ENTHUSIASTIC JUDGE Mr J, F. Bisset (Wangaloa), who judged the Ayrshire section at the Taien Agricultural Society’s show at Outram last Saturday, is a great enthusiast for the breed. During the week he expressed to the writer a keen appreciation of the excellent showing of the breed made at Outram. It seemed to him that the Ayrshire type of dairy breed which once enjoyed so wide a vogue on the Taieri was coming back into its own. A very marked improvement was apparent both in quality and numbers of the stock paraded. The increasing popularity of the grand old Scotch cow was probably due to the fact that the Taieri iannfiis realised the wisdom of producing tne aiilk which gave the best curd for making cheese, and was in keenest demand by the factory managers. With consistent importation of bulls from Scotland and America, the old type of cow had gone, and to-day they had a hardy, docile, big open-framed cow, with a good vessel, and teats that could be milked with the full hand. ' 1 , Although the Ayrshire was not counted among the heavy breeds of dairy cattle, it must be admitted that as far as production was concerned, she was equal to any of thfijn, and could produce at a lower cost. The Ayrshire was a good doer, easy to keffp in condition, and a smalj eater. The farmer was able to carry more dairy cows, and produce a larger quantity of milk, with a good average test. The natural habitat of the Ayrshire was Cunningham, or the upper of the three divisions of Ayrshire—Garrick, Kyle and Cunningham—occupying that part of the country which lies north of the River Irvine. Records of the early history of the breed fix the date of the beginning of improvement from 1750 to 1780. Before that time the native progenitors of the Ayrshire were small, inferior. irregularly shaped animals, with short, crumpled horns and of a black or black, and white or brown colour, but hardy, and suited to the humidity and inferiority of the district in which they were placed. The deep rings at the base of the horns indicated the hardships they annually endured. The descriptions of this early condition of the breed appear tp indicate its relationship to the Bos longifrons, said to be the only domesticated bovine animal before and up to the Roman conquest. The Ayrshire of the present day, however, is very different, the change having been brought about by crossing with other breeds, by subsequent careful selection, and better feeding and management, in addition to the natural tendency which soil and climate -admittedly have in developing and maintaining certain qualities and characteristics. The breeds definitely mentioned in history as having been imported and used in crossing with the native cattle are the Teeswater, or early Shorthorn, and the Alderney (probably more correctly termed the Jersey, as cattle were sent to Scotland, according to Colonel le Couteur, by two successive Governors of Jersey). Probably, ip more recent tijnes, West Highland crosses have been taken into the breed. The improvement in the milking qualities was no doubt due to the cross with the cattle introduced. To it also may in some measure be safely attributed the distinct tendency among Ayrshires to become lighter in colour than those of a generation or more ago. The improved Ayrshire of the early part of last century is thus described in probably the oldest record: “Their colours vary' from dark brown to different shades of red, and some are approaching a cream colour. The head and horns are fine, some strong near the head and wide apart, the eye bright but mild. They have a fine neck, with little dewlap, are round and straight in the barrel and free from disposition to rise in the backbone, light in the upper part of the shoulder, flat and wide in the loin and space between the hips, with a capacious udder extending well, both forward and behind, and broad, held well up to the body, with teats standing much apart and not of great length, having good-sized mi|k veins, the tail long and light, the skin soft, having fine woolly hair, the legs short with fine bone and firm joints. They yield a large return in proportion to the food they require; they easily fatten their calves. Their produce of milk varies from 1000 gallons in one year, when in their best condition, down to 700 or 800 gallons when not at their best, each 28 to 30 gallons making 241 bof cheese. Their usual yield of butter is to 3J to 4 gallons of milk, according to the feed they get. They will do well on pastures that could not support heavier cattle. A breed of dairy cows that will weigh from 900 to 1100 or 1200 pounds are thought the most preferable.” The improved Ayrshire was taken to Garrick, the division of the county south of the river Dooue in 1790, and the first herd was established in Wigtownshire in 1802. They were introduced to Dumfriesshire towards the end of the eighteenth century. The poet Burns—then at Rllisland, near Dumfries, where he kept a dairy and made cheese —refers in a letter dated 1788 to a heifer presented to him by Dunlop of Dunlop, which he designated “ the finest quey in Ayrshire.” Some modern members _ of the breed, when reared under conditions of soil and climate suitable for beef production, fall away from the true Ayrshire characteristics, assume strong bones, heavy and fleshy forequarters and chest, and also decline in milking powers, but changes such as these are usually dependent upon local surroundings. The best preventive _ot the tendency to coarseness through high feeding is to arrange that the heifers shall calve at two years of age; the milking powers then- become better developed, and the tendency to produce flesh is checked. The Ayrshire is unquestionably the most important, and the most typical example of a milking cow in the British Isles. She shares with the Kerry the credit of being able to yield a greater retiftn of dairy produce on poor land and inferior food than any other cow. Great stress is placed on the shape of the udder, which should be long, wide, and deep, but not pendulous and fleshy, and should be firmly attached to the body. The vessel should extend well up behind and far forward, quarters even, sole nearly level, and mammary veins large, long, and tortuous, branching and entering large orifices. The wellbred Ayrshire excels in udder development, and no other breed can compare in that important essential. Although she is such a good forager, the Ayrshire takes kindly to care and attention, and no cow will yield a greater return for labour bestowed on her.

Nor. 26—Auckland. Dec. 12—Christchurch. Dec. 2—Napier. Dec. 16—Tlmaru. Dee. 7—Wellington. ■ Dec. 20—Dunedin. 1936 Jan. 6—Wellington. War. 3 —Christchurch. Jan. 11— Napier. Mar. 6—Invercargill, Jan. 16—Wanganui. Mar. 11—Dunedin. Jan. 21 —Auckland. Mar. 16—Wellington. Jan. 27 —Christchurch. Mar. 20— Napier. Jan, SI—Invercargill. Mar. 24—Auckland. Feb. 5—Dunedin. Mar. ,27—Wanganui. Feb, 10—Tlmaru. . Mar. 31—Christchurch. Feb. 15—Wellington. Apr. 4—Dunedin. Feb. 20—Napier. Apr. 5—Wellington. ' Feb, 24—Wanganui.

Merino. Fine. Med. Coarse. 1928 .. .. 26 214 18 17 1929 .. .. 18 15* 14 13} 1930 .. .. 12J 84 74 64 1931 .. .. 12 74 6 51 1932 .... 12 7 54 5 1933 .. .. 184 114 84 74 1934 ,. .. 104 8 64 5l 1935 ,. .. 17 10 8* n