NEWS FROM CLUBS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23692, 27 December 1938, Page 2

NEWS FROM CLUBS

In connection with club scholarships tenable at Lincoln College, applications have now been received and are at present being considered by the Selection Committee. The number of applications received from Southland Clubs was good and the type of applicant left little to be desired, as there were several applicants with very fine records. The position in Otago was rather disappointing, and it is doubtful if any scholarships will be awarded to club members from this district. It is hoped that an early announcement will be possible in connection with the successful members. :,.;/:,

Although most clubs will be in recess during the next few years there are many matters which club presidents, secret?.: les and members could give attention to. First of all there is the matter of punctuality at meetings. This concerns everyone. If a meeting is called for, say 8 o'clock, everyone should endeavour to be there then and have the meeting started on time. Many a meeting due to start at 8 o'clock does not commence until 8.30 p.m. or for some time when it is considered that everyone will be present. Everyone likes a yarn before a meeting starts, but why should this delay the start of a meeting. Anyone who wants a yarn with his friends should make a point of coming early or staying for a while after the meeting has closed. It is not difficult to be'punctual. lis no harder to get to a meeting five minutes before it is due to start than it is to get there 10 minutes after it should have started. . Some people say that a few minutes do not matter and that at any rate they were too busy to get there on time. This may be correct in some cases, but it should.be remembered that the busiest people, that is, those to whom time is of most value, are the most punctual. Another side of the question is the impression gained by visitors. _ A visitor is invited for a certain time, arrives at that time, and then finds that the meeting will not start till later. One has to remember that many of the visitors to clubs have long distances to travel after meetings and that half an hour's delay in starting a meetireg means that he will either get home that much later or that if he is a lecturer he will possibly shorten his talk.

So, club members, please give this question of punctuality some serious consideration and be punctual at all meetings next season.

The following is the second of a series of articles on weeds by Mr b. H. Saxby, of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture: As was mentioned in the last article a weed to be of consequence must be responsible for financial loss to the farmer. In this article it is intended to discuss the manner in which plants are responsible for financial loss. First of all there is the group of poisonous plants which have a varying effect on livestock. Plants such as hemlock and tutu fall into this group. The main group of weed plants is, however, that which competes with and sometimes replaces the sown plants, whether they are pasture plants, root crops or cereal crops. Such plants are, respectively. Californian thistle, fat hen. and cornbind. Yet again certain plants become dominant, depending pn the method of farming adopted, for example, oxeye daisy and ragwort are ossentally plants of dairying country. Soil conditions and climate also play a very marked effect on the distribution of weeds. Inkweed belongs to this group, as it is quite common in parts of the North Island yet is practically unknown in Otago. Plants such as tarweed, daisy and toad rush owe their presence largely to wet and acid soil conditions. , Many weeds, especially in pastures, gain entrance not as the result of their competition with the sown plants, but as the result of the sown plants dying out and leaving bare spaces for the weeds to fill in. Barley grass, goosegrass and Horehound are examples of this type of weed. These plants seldom gain entrance into a well-grazed and dense sward. The manner in which the different weeds compete with the sown plants is also of interest. This point will be dealt with in next week's notes.

BRITISH LAMB MARKET NEW ZEALAND'S TOP PRICE HIGHER THAN SCOTTISH IMPORTERS' ARGUMENT STRENGTHENED (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov. 17. New Zealand lamb —and to a lesser degree Australian lamb—has been receiving a good deal of unlooked for publicity in England and Scotland this year. A few months ago, English and Scottish farmers were loudly protesting that increased imports of New Zealand and Australian lamb were responsible for their receiving prices much below' those ruling last year for their produce. (The fall has been from 2d to 3d per lb.) This allegation was promptly scotched by the Minister of Agriculture (Mr W. S. Morrison) declaring in the House of Commons that imports of mutton and lamb from the dominions were, in fact, lower this year than last. Now, after the position has existed for the past six to eight weeks, the "Meat Trades Journal" has drawn attention to the fact that New Zealand and Australian lamb is selling at a higher price than the best Scottish lamb, and the tip-top English lamb. This position, rather than weakening the case for the dominions, strengthens their argument in refuting the complaints of the Home farmers that lamb from overseas is destroying their price. New Zealand lamb, at 73d per lb, is actually id per lb higher than last year, while Scottish hill lamb is selling to-day for 7d per b, and Scottish paddock lamb for 7Jd per lb. SMITHFIELD FIGUES Comparative figures at Smithfield reveal another interesting point. For the week ended November 6 last year, the proportion of imported lamb on the hooks to that of Home killed was 71.4 per cent.; for the week ending November 13 it was 72.5 per cent. This year, for the week ended November 5, imported lamb on the market totalled only 60.4 per cent.; for the week ended November 12 it was 62.2 per cent. Thus, instead of the quantity of imported lamb increasing, it has actually decreased by 10 tier cent., while the Home killed lamb has risen by that figure. The higher price of New Zealand lamb, coinciding with the lower value of Home killed, is a tribute not only to the fine quality of the meat, but also to the excellent marketing methods and propaganda of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Board under the direction of the British representative. Mr R. S. Forsyth. While the Home farmer bewails the lower price paid for his produce, the fact remains that he himself is largely responsible for the decline. Marketing methods in England and Scotland can hardly be described as unimpeachable. Farmers have a habit of withholding their lambs from the market until they consider the price is suitable, or until such time as weather or other conditions make it imperative to part with them. Then they are often offered en bloc to the buyer. PARLIAMENTARY COMMENT

The latest comment upon the present position was made in the House of Commons this week during a debate on agriculture. Mr G. Lambert, the National Liberal member for South Molton, speaking of Dominion competition, declared that New Zealand and Australia, while they were good customers were really ruining the British sheep farmer. He added that if British farmers became prejudiced against the Empire, it would not be a good thing. Mr Morrison, the Minister of Agriculture, replied by saying that supplies of mutton and lamb from foreign countries were regulated to 65 per cent, of the quantities imported in the Ottawa standard year. Discussions had been going on with regard to the supplies from Australia and New Zealand, and it was expected that imports from these dominions during 1938 would not exceed 5,500,000 cwt., which was about the same as in 1937, when prices werp on the whole very good. It was possible that this figure would not be reached. In October imports were 174,000 cwt. less than in October, 1937, and for the first 10 months of the year the whole imports of frozen mutton and lamb had been some 110.000 cwt. less than in the corresponding period of 1937. One reason for the fall in Home prices, Mr Morrison continued, was the heavy marketing. The prices of wool, pelts, and other by-products had fallen considerably, and this had tended to depress the price of fat sheep as apart from the price of mutton. It looked as if the decline in values had been checked. To the extent of this decline was due to temporary factors such as the drought, it should correct itself, and where it was due to a temporary recession, as the economic policy of the Government developed such things should put themselves right. When there were countries striving to be self-sufficient and to manufacture fabrics out of milk, and a large consumer of wool like Japan engaged in a costly war, the price of wool was bound to be affected. The depression in America, which, it was hoped, was coming to an end. was another factor. It all went to show how important from the point of view of the general sheep producer in Britain was the policy of economic appeasement which the Government were trying to carry out. CHANGE OF ATTITUDE Another interesting comment upon the position of the British lamb market, more particularly because it suggests a change of attitude towards New Zealand and Australian imports, was made by the North British Agriculturists after the conference on the sheep situation, held in Edinburgh under the auspices of the National Farmers* Union and the Chamber of Agriculture of Scotland. "The more level-headed men associated with the sheep trade realise the impossibility of restricted imports meeting the situation which faces them," the writer stated. Commenting upon the possibility of war. he also declared that, taking a wide view of the world situation, a sharp restriction of Dominion exports "is obviously out of the question." He added: "The Government were completely out in their earlier conception that the sheep crisis could be met by a restriction of imports. It is consequently up to them to think out some way of meeting the crisis." A subsidy payment for sheep and mutton, on the lines of the fat cattle supply, was mentioned. WATCH ARGENTINE!

While New Zealand and Australia have had much attention directed to their exports, the British farmer is also being invited to regard the rapid improvement in the quality of Argen-

tine lamb. After a recent lamb test at Frigorifico La Blanca (judged, incidentally, by a New Zealander, Dr McMeekin, who is studying under Dr John Hammond at Cambridge), it was reported by The Times that " experts expressed satisfaction at the advance which Argentina breeders are making towards the production of lamb which will bear comparison with the New Zealand product. "The Hampshire Down and Southdown were the breeds of rams mostly used to produce the lambs in the test, but lambs of the Southdown cross won all the prizes when the carcasses were on the hooks. The first prize carcasses were of the Southdown and

Romney cross, fatted on rye. " It is evidently a matter of concern in Argentina that New Zealand, with only half the sheep stock possessed by Argentina, supplies three times as many lambs to the British market and commands a better price." The Times added. Sheep breeders in the United Kingdom will do well to watch the quality of the lamb they are putting on the market. It is clear that the competition they have to meet will attain even higher standards of quality. At Home we have to maintain the quality of our product and also take a leaf out of our competitor's book by advertising the merits of Home-killed meat." CROSSBRED WOOLS MARKET CONDITIONS " INTERESTING " POSITION (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Nov, 28. Discussing the coming wool sales in New Zealand, the Yorkshire Post says that it is doubtful whether, in recent years, the crossbred marketing season has opened amid more interesting conditions than prevail at the moment. Although statistics show that aggregate wool stocks in the United Kingdom are above average for this lime of the year, the position of crossbred wool is exactly the reverse. Merino wool is in more generous, supply, consumption of which has recently been below normal, while consumption of crossbred wools has been brisk. , , , This 'state of affairs has been developing gradually in the last few vears, it is stated, so that conditions in some directions may be described as acute. ' During the past year the trade has seen a succession of abnormal phases of demand, both m England and on the Continent, with the result that reserves have been depleted considerably. The demand for Jubilee and Coronation decorations, an improved call 'for crossbred tops and yarns for Germany, a substantial export of crossbred tops to China prior to the Sino-Japanese war, a sudden extension in Russia s call for crossbred wool, and a more general European interest in such wool for purposes of uniform cloths—all in addition to a healthy, normal home trade—are phases sufficient to demonstrate the more complete clearance of crossbred wools and their products in the past year of two. . As a result, consuming demand is nearer to current production of the raw material than at any previous stage of recent years. So finely balanced are immediate available supplies of raw material that crossj bred topmakers who may be invited to sell forward at less money for delivery early next year are very chary of such procedure. Whatever the more remote future may have in store, the immediate outlook for the New Zealand season foreshadows a strong opening to the sales, if only on account of pressure of urgent demand, the writer continues. Subsequent prospects are more difficult to assess, and there are students of trends who advance certain theories on the ground that the general margin of difference between merino and crossbred wool values is more narrow than usual. It is to be hoped that urgent needs may not cause the New Zealand market to open on what might be termed a false basis.