TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2803, 4 December 1907, Page 7

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"Blackburn" writes: "I thank you for | the information given last October re early and «late feed for com.. We have a very dry season, and our oat crop, sown on the lea, is very slow in coming away; but I will write you again in the autumn to let you know how we have fared. We have come dairy herds here that have given a. test- of 4 per cent, butter-fat. Later, again, they have come down to 3.6, and later still to 2.6. This ie from the , same cowe in the same paddocks, and they I have a little more feed now than they had [at the first test. Can you give me any reason I for this? I was always under the impres- ! sion, that the police would prosecute a I person selling milk under 3 per cent, butter-fat test. I thought it was always considered that milk under 3 per cent, was watered." — Answer: In reference to your oat 6 hanging fire, it might be advisable to try a dressing of lewfc per acre of nitrate of soda broad-easted on the braird. It would more than repay itself. Without more definite particulars of the herds you mention it is hard to say why th© testß should have com© down with a. run from 4 per cent, to 3.6 and 2.6. There are several reasons which might be given. The three tests you have given cover at least six weeke, probably counting back from October 30. This would land you into winter feeding, about the end of September, for the 4 per cent test. Some of the winter feeding may still have influenced the test a fortnight later, say October 15. By this time the cattle would be depending altogether on the earn young grass, in which there is no substance, with the result that the test goes back to 2.6; or if the cattle b*ve been on grass all the time, if your experience i« similar to ours, the flush of milk has come all of a heap in the last fortnight, and fent down the test with a run ; if that is bo it will soon improve. Or your cows may have been newly calved and nor feed to speak of for them. A spare bayetack in unexpected seasons like the present one is a valuable institution, and your country cannot be beaten for that. There is no law bearing on the creamery supply— it would be superfluous. You are paid by the quantity of butter-fat. Town supply of milk is quite a different matter. To Agricola: Sir, — I have been reading your last " Notes on Rural Topics," and. understand, I am no way narrow-minded on these subjects that I am going to complain about. These subjects are so many that I was at one time inclined to serve them up separately. As it involves so much writing, I will condense- as much as I can. I am an old colonial pioneer quite as much as you are, and I have travelled both islands, which I do not think you have, otherwise you, and some like you, would be more reasonable toward your farm servant*. In one of your notes you speak very much on the advantages, compared with the Home labourer, those m New Zealand receive. You are rii?hfc in a sense. You say nothing about the comfort of any of these classo.". I know some farmers who give to their men everything

to be desired. Possibly you are one; but they are very few among the great majority. The writer has been a servant, also an employer, and was a- farmer until two year* ago. I am now too old, as I am somewhere verging on 70 years. Now tell me why you will not cease stirring up strife. I remember very well a correspondent telling you that you held a brief foi someono else. That Ido not think, as all men who have an interest in anything ara apt to magnify imaginary losses. Too 1 make statements to the farmers which will . not bear the light of day. You tell them in so many words that the Government will ruin them. God save us! Tell me what Government in the world has done so much for its producers. People are enever satisfied. Croakers, say people, will not' produce the cereal that is required. You say the present legislation tends to cripple the farmer. I say no. The farmer gets very little for his, or has got very little for his share in extreme rises in cereals. Tell me who receivod the enormous profit in grain sold earlier in the season T True, the farmer did not, but merchants and combines did. And you prate about th© injustice done to farmers, by the Government. The bulk of the wheat here was sold for 3s or a little over. I have bought here, when oats had risen a 'little in th© market, a first-class sample at 8s per bag: and that is little enough to pay. Well do I know who gets more than their fair share. It is not the farmer. You say the market is ruled by supply and demand* This would appear at first to be correct, but when you come to analyse it it is' rotten, and will not stand sifting. What about these unnatural and artificial rises in foodstuffs? I have no tloubt you have read Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." This lets in some light on these and other things. _ With labour it is very different. There is no getting away from over-supply or shortage. 1/ .would like this agricultural bureau established in Rome. It would be of untold benefit to farmers. To put i£ shortly, farmers are cheated. If farmers had reliable accounts or news, the same as trusts, combines, and' merchants have, they would be in as ,good .a position as those who live on them. I will conclude by saying I read your notes, and consider, on aericultural information, they are> the be3t that ran be written, and they come from the hand of a thoroughly practical man. Large holdings should 'be, cut up. It will give the small man a better chance, and they are the majority. Farm labourers' accommodation in this country is a disgrace to civilisation. I was thinking one time of publishing a letter such' as this. There is too much work attached to reply to correspondents; therefore _ 1 was not inclined. Should yon # feel inclined to answer any part of this letter, pray do not unless you answer the whole.— I am, etc.. * Chablks Goodaix. Matai, Southland. I would be sorry to stir up strife at any time if the occasion did not seriously demand it. But strife is not the right word to use. The farmers in this country are not going to abandon their birthright without a struggle, and when they realise what increased wages will mean for them their eye* will be opened. There will be something aporoaching civil war here before long if the Government persists much longer in acceding to the demands of one das*. I sec the working man in New Zealand magnified by a dependent Govern* ment into an ill-used saint, and the agricultural labourer, without taking any of the risk or supplying any of the capital, ! demanding the lion's share of the profit! of the farm, with every prospect of getting it. and that in accordance with the existing law of the land. I see ihe Labout unions compelling tbe Government to pass class legislation inimical to the welfare of the Dominion. I see the farmers of this country, who produce- seventeen-twentieths of the total export, and to that extent run the country, dictated to by Labour agitators—for that is practically what it means. — carpet-baggers, who should be hounded out of the country for treason. I see thi» country hampered and clogged by this in cubusiwhich i« about to throw its tentacl« round us to such an extent that its progresi

will be arrested and settlement abandoned. I see our agricultural professors declaring that there is more outcome in Victorian land for the farmer at the present time than there is in New Zealand land. What is the result likely to be when labour is clearer than it is now? And yet you ask me to bottle up and not stir up strife. I do not, as you suggest, hold a brief for ajiyone, but I have my all, such as is, invested in land in "God's Own Country," and do not want to be forced to cleat out of it by legislation unfair in its incidence. Your opinion and mine on the attitude of the Government to the producer of the Dominion will never agree; but we can agree to differ. I am pleased to have your appreciation of my rural notes? in so far as they refer to practical work. — Agbicola. AGRICOLA.