LOCAL A AND P. NEWS

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 9

LOCAL A AND P. NEWS

The Wyndham Farmer learns that the quantity of milk received this season at the various co-operative dairy factories is proving, so far, very much in excess of that of any previous year. At Edendale and Seaward Downs Dairy Factories, which materially benefited by the influx of farmers on Edendale Settlement, the milk supply, as was expected, has gone up by leaps and bounds ; while at Mataura Island, Wyndham, and Tuturau the returns have also been beyond anticipations. The back-end**-cheese outputs have all recently been disposed of at very satisfactory prices. A farmer of long standing in the North Otago district informs the Oamaru Mail that the art of good stacking is being lost — in North Otago, at anyrate. He thinks, from personal observation, that much of the grain i already in stack this year might as well j still be in the stook — better, in fact. As it is, the grain sheaves are thrown together, in the majority of cases, so that the rain - gets into the stack, and the grain is more or less damaged according to the degree of ' carelessness shown in stacking. {

Tvtr Robert Stewart, bee-farmer, of Crookston, has a poor yield this season, owing to the cold summer. Three and a-half tons of honey is the return (says the Tapanui Courier), as against 10 tons last season. Bees evidentfy thrive best in a warm, acnial season. At the monthly weeting of the Tokore airiro Farmers' Club, Mr J. Grey (president) in the chair, class stewards for the winter show, to be held on Juno 9, were appointed as follows : —Dairy produce. — Messrs W. Moore. M. Henderson, J. Inghs ; Fat stock— Messrs J. M'Leod, E. Martin, R. Ferguson ; Roots — Messrs T. Scott, J. Norrie, P. Porter; Grain— Messrs W. Thornton, J. France. It was decided that the inspection of field turnips take pla^e not later than the last week in May. The Cromwell Argus reports that the Tarras settlers have planted marram on tho travelling dunes that threatened to smother their farm?. Th& marram is growing well, and in a year or two the sand dunes will be a green field. The Cromwell Borough Council should have attended to the planting of marrajn in the heaps at the back of the town. It would have been much more effective than scrub barriers and much less expensive. The Tarras plantations arc fenced in to keep stock off the youngplants. Competition by the other colonies (says the Southland News) renders it necessary that trappers should exercise care in treating rabbits for export. The entrails should be completely removed, but the liver and kidneys should not— this is necessary in the Home trade. Mr Pasco, the well-known buyer, believes that in a short time all rabbits will have to be bled. If bleeding is once tried and the trapper sees the result, there is no doubt he will realise the benefit derived, and also that there te no clotted blood loft in the carcase, which has a cleanly, saleable appearance. Flies will not attack rabbits got up in this way as quickly as those treated in the old method. Harvesting- in the Ida Valley, Lauder, and Ophir districts i< now practically oi er, although a £'3w late-soivii crors aie still sUndinj.

A farrivr ha* put the pertinent qr.est'.cn (says the North Otago Tunes) whether the large yields of grain that have been mentioned* in the Oamaru press are expected to be accepted as indicative of the crops as a whole, because he knows of a good many that do not range higher than half the qvjantity of the big yields chronicled. He Eayd that exceptional yields have been selected, and the impression is left that all the crops have exceeded the first estimate by from 50 to 100 per cent. That the crops do exceed' the first estimate is not denied, but it is only in exceptional cases that phenomeral yields have been obtained.

The ICelso correspondent of the Mataura Ei-sign writes: — Harvesting is in full swing here. Some farmers, when the weather is suitable, are threshing out of the stook. Yields co far seam to be fairly good and samples very good. Sheep are changing hands every day, and with tho exception of eld ewes prices are well maintained. The turnip crop right throughout the district is a good' one, and farmers will have a superabundance of winter feed.

In the course of remarks made at Oamaru on the subject of New Zealand' butter, Mr John Holmes pointed out that '' Ncwcastle-cn-Tyne has been used to buying its butter put up in casks, and has no use for it in any other shape. Why should we not cater for their diatom? Goodness only knows; but the fact remains that we don't. Conservative Newcastle sticks to its casks and we to our boxes, and the result is that Newcastle loses our butter and we their trade ! "

A good yield of wheat and oats (says the Southland Times) is reported from Branxholm. - It was principally brought about by ploughing down fully 2in of snow on the 4th August of last year by competitors at the Southland champion ploughing match on that date. There was great difference' of opinion on the date of last year's match as to the wisdom of ploughing in the snow, which, unfortunately for the successful holding of the match, lay on the grouad for nearly a week, and the match was postponed for one day in the hope that the snow would melt. However, tho day after the match ■was to come oft" 2VL* Blakie. tho owner of the field, kindly agreed to allow the ground to be ploughed, and, with the exception, of a very few

ploughman, all agreed to compete. Mr lilakie, having since threshed the crop, has supplied the information that the oats thicshed 50 bushels and the wheat by z per acre. When it is considered that this crop is out of lea ground, oven adverse critics will agree that the snow did no harm. . ',