NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 7

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

,The decision of the Arbitration Court not To .make an -award in the The Canterbury case of tihe Canterbury Farm Farm Labourers' dispute labourer*' will be hai2ed with satisTTnion Dispute, faction by the farming community generally. It emj phasises- tho contention of shrewd practical I men that the industry should be withdrawn i from the scope of the Arbitration Act. , Not umnatur-illy farmers ha.ye been looking ■ forward with a good deal oPanxiety to tho j decision of the court, as many were afraid I that, however conscientious the membeirs of j tho court might be, there was a danger that from lack bf familiarity with the cobI dit ion - of country life they might not fully realise the imi>cssibility of binding down those engaged in the agricultural industry to fixed rules and conditions. But tihe^ ccurt lias proved equal to the occasion, ami the president ihas once again justified the confkte.ico reposed in him by a-11 fair- . minded men. Not sinca the Arbitration. Ccurt has been called' into existence has it had before it a case in which an award, if given, would 1 have had such far-reaching importance. An award in the case of th« Canterbury Farm Labourers' Union would 1 have been gradually- extended to other paits of tihe Dominion, with results that j would have been disastrous, not alone to ' employers and the workers, but to tthc community generally. A decision of the >' judgment published ekewhere will show ckarly that unless tho court was prepared to assist in throttling the primary producer \ no other couir-se- was open to it but to 1 decline to interfere in th» manner desired' by the so-called representatives of farm j labourers. It ie pointed out in the deci1 sion t.hat if an- award -was made it would require a small army of inspectors to en1 force it, and thus an additional burden ! would have beon i noosed on the shoulders ! of the' already heavily-burdened farmer. j Having regard to the magnitude of the. interests involved', the court considered that before it f-hould interfere it mmt be made clear that there wore substantial grievances or abuses whiqh it could redress effectually, and that the benefits it could confer would 1 more than compensate for any mischief j that might resulb from such interference. Applying this test, the conclusion was forced upon th© court that the Farm Labourers' Union had failed to establish the existence of any substantial grievance 01 abuse. Isolated cases in which em- , ! ploycrs were sweating thoj* employed by ! them were to be expected, when it is conI sidered that 7000 farmers and 16,000 faxm labourers wore directly affected, but in ' view of the class of labour that frequently offers itself in the country districts, it is satisfactory to find: that co few instances of the exploitation of Jabour were un- ! earthed. The court found it quite out of j , the question to apply the methods of' a j ! factory tc the operations of a farm, and j ' altogether impracticable to fix any definite 1 hours for the daily work of a general farm hand, except by a complete dislocation of the present system of carrying on farming I operations. The •workers' representative on the Arbi- | tration Court has taken, 1 Farm strong objection to th« 1 j Labourer*' action of his two colleagues . n»ges. i n defining to make an I award in the Canterbury farm labourers' dispute, and the union's representative wiio conducted tihe case be-

fore the court has also expressed his disgust. There was bound to be dissatisfaction, but no one -who is familiar ■with ■ $}a& , N conditions would car& to say, aftex perusing the judgment,, that! the decision was not warranted by the circumstances. Even oh© Wellington Trades and Labour Council has admitted that there has been a very substantial advance during tiie past few years in the wages of workers ou the farm. In its manifesto .replying .to 3he Attoxneygener&l it is shown that while the average increase of wages of workers in 11 industries governed by awards ..in the Dominion, lus been -19.7 per cent., the average increase of wages of farm hands; including reapers, mowers, threshers, and shepherds, as well as the^ ordinary farm labourers — who, as the court observes, are not affectei? by the cost of living, since they are "found b/ their employers — was 29.0 pec cent* although tihey had no awards of the court to protect their interests. This completely bears' out tflie iondusion that tihe fewnt labourers- are not, as a master of fact, exposed to any such disabilities as-, ;onstituta an overwhelming argument in favour of theii claims for redress. Mr Thorne, the' union's advocate, admitted that lie effeetr of granting the demands made would mean. the throwing 1 out of cultivation of a certain amount of land, but this he thought nothing' of. If Mi Thorne and otJiers made a closer study of the question they would . realise that throwing land out of cultiva- ; tion is a very serious matter indeed, and" j its effect would be serious on city indus- ' tries. In thie connection a short extract, j from 9 Home paper may serve to point at < moral : "It costs at least £6 an acre yearly, to keep plough land in cultivation, thi> bulk of the money going for the necessary agricultural labour, and for the cost of labour in connection with ij&plemeiitsy horses, .harness, manures, timber,, feeding* stuffs, seeds, transports, etc., etc. 'Nbwi *j in 1907 there were 6,129,070 acres more permanent, pasture in Great Britain thaairi in 1866, when the first official figures wer« published. Multiplying this by £6 vro find that a sum of £36,774,420 annually is > lost? to the nation (mostly wages). Las* year 'we had a - bumper year, in the ship/

tnrilding line-, when one and a-haK Million* Of gross register, tonnage 1 were-- turned out. If we place the Value of this at £12 a ton, {it certainly is not more), then the total _ tonnage comes to £18,000,000. .Assuming .it. is to be all 'labour' (which is not the oaee), we even then logo annually - £18,774,4-20 .(mostly wages) -as cojnpaned' \ritb bne agricultural" figures mentioned." -shipping tirade is one of the largest British industries, but is in importance a mere flea-bite compared, to agriculture. So in 'our "Dominion t3ie- agricultural and 1 pas-. toral industry is ten times more va/lua-ble Shan all other industries lumped together, and anything tending to throw land out^ of cultivation vtxmld affect &very other in-y Cuetry 4n the land. * It is 'difficult' to keep pace with the inteTesting experiment which fertiliser cure bemg carried out by from the Air. txained scientists throughout the world, and still more so to predate their true value as Xcgaa ds ihe conditions under which agncul- ' trral and pastoral operations are carried on in the Dominion as .compared with the conditions where the experiments are condu^ed. Pa-rticulars were recently giren Of the experiments in progress for obtaining nitrogen from the. air. We now learn that the Society of German Chemists, at its general meeting at Zena, recently bestow«d its highest honours, the Liebig gold - medaL on Herr O. Schbenherr, the inventor of an improved r-athod for the oxidation of, the nitrogen of air. To find a substitute for # ~ -*al saltpetre as a fetihser bj obtaining, ' the aid of electricity, the nitrogen contained in tihe atmosphere is a' problem which has already been solved h* T?~ofessor Francke, of the firm of Silaaifens and Haiske/of Berlin. Subsequently Mr Birkeland succeeded by a similar pro- • dcs "in obtaining a considerable amount of Jiifcrogen from the air. - The Schoenherr paxrses as now •used: means a gr^at impro.ament. Its principal point is that the 1 air is driven with great velocity through a pip©, in which a long-etretched voltaic Arc is burning. The azotic gas formed in. the neat of this arc is then cooled and purified before being transformed into saltpetre. Enormous quantities of electricity are "required in this process," and for the ' immediate future- water power will be resorted to as the cheapest way of obtaining these. At~ any rate, it may now be confidently asserted that a competitor with the natural saltpetre is in the field, and that by the application of the oHemjjcal and electric industries agriculture is sufficiently guarded- againet losing its present invaluable fertiliser after tiie saltpetre deposits of Chili have "become , exhausted. JSew -Zealand, with its great possibilities in the *ay of water power, -may yet become the t home of a great fertiliser-producing industry. iFrom an article published iv another column it would appear Weed that experiments- conducted Extermination, by Professor Bolleg, of ; -* North Dakota Experimental Station, have shown thet it is possible to . oope with weeds by spraying, and that even .he Canadian thistle nuisance can be kept in obeck by I&is mea-ns. Up to- the twesent farmers and ia-nd^yners m the tJombiion have been let off lightly by the Agricultural department, but as the noxious weeds continue, to flourish and spread, • the time is not far distant when more drastic methods will have to be adopted. In this connection th,e report of the Deputy Com- ' missioners of Agriculture for Sasketchewan. <on weed extermination is instructive as ■showing methods' which, have been found x..«essary elsewhere to compel indoleiit farmers to' keep theLr foldings free from weeds. The province has been fli-rided into 61 districts, each of which can o» oofered by am inspector, the number ${ the latter appointed last year being $L Inspection was begun in some disSfriote in the last week of May, in order Ut co^.e with tho early growing stinkweed, Jvyrf the general work was not commenced tttttil a few weeks later. As showing the invested in inspectors, it may be Stater that they insisted on portions of several fields under crop being ploughed «!own hy the owners because of the abundance of stinkweed and hare's ear mustard in them; but in most cases of badlydefected places tho farmer was permitted to harvest hia crop on condition that he burned the straw and screenings without jwnv^Hng them from the land after thrashing. Such farmers were usually warned that the fields in question should be summer fallowed, or that such other steps Should be taken as would alleviate tho objectionable condition. Eight prosecutions were instituted, and' convictions Secured ' for neglect to comply with the ; provisions of the. Ordinance, and tihe -chief inspector expresses the belief tihat good -would if more of -the inspectors Ln.Jiisted on -prompt and bettei attention bo ing given to the destruction of weeds. The disposal of screenings by elevator operators ijx a, manner that would oompJy with the ; requirements of the law (has been a mat- ; ter of difficulty where the elevator is j Worked b^ gasoline engine, ai there is "no ! tfeady means of consuming weed infested •areenir.gs. As there i« « large amount of food value in fche screenings, the destruction of them is not an economical SBttOthod of disposing of thia product ; but, on the other hand, chare ie a. certain clement of danger connected with feeding ihetm. to live stock. 1% Is estimated that a plant of ragwort allowed to flower freely in Interesting a newly- cleared district ixferimftnt. may. under favourable conditions, succeed in estab- ] lishlng 500 offspring in a season beddes being iteolf perennial. Some idea of the loss caused by weed* may be gathered from Sihe interesting experiment of testing the influence of weeds and hoeing on crop yield parried out; bt University College, Readjtng, at the College farm, Sh infield. A quarter of on aore of Globe mangels was sown on 25th April, 1907. After the plante were sot out, the plot waa divided into five Qqttai pails, each one-twentietb of an acre. (1> One lot was timply lefb to combat with the weeds, file total yield on this plot being 15J tons an- acre. (2) The eeoond plot vrae kept clean bj hand-we*ding, no hoeing beiajr don* aftet setting out the plants. Tbfc yielded at the rate of 40 tons an acre. (3) A third, which was kept clean bj repeated hoefngo, yielded pT«/arica!!y the a»me weight of roots (39i ion* an aore) as •No* 2. (4) When only two boetoge w-aro resorted to. the yield was 37| tons an aord, j fttui (5} When only ono© hoed the weight , vt mangels grown amounted lo 33£ tons Qe<g «ore. Tio difference between fche

weight of mangels gitown on- the plot that J was kept clean and that where no ,weediog'toqi place amounted to 60 per- cent. _. of-% the:- crop. The difference between hoerajf'once and hoeing twice amounts to four tons an 'aofe. The results obtained by -the ■v application of different nitrogenous ma.huresf'on jhangels are also" interesting. The* manures used were calcium "cyanamide, nitrate of soda, nitrate of lime, and sulphate of ammonia. The manure^ iatr the rate of liewt to the acre) were applied "just -after the young; plan.ts were 6et out. The leaves of the -plants were greatly damaged" by the- oyanamide, and at. -first -4ook~ed as if they would not recover. " ILater T^fn,"^ however, tlhey pushed' forward, and ' ten excellent orop of .„ roots was obtained', * amounting to 35 tons an acre. Nitrate of lime did very well indeed,^Jthe v orop yielded being at the rate of 37 'tons an acre. This was closely followed by nitrate of soda, which yielded 35i tons an acre. An acre of ground: on the farm carried a crop of maize. Two kinds of seed were used— viz., giant Caragua and white "horse tooth. The seed, which was drilled on the last day of May, was placed 3in deep, in rows 24m apart. An application of 10 loads of dung and 3cwt of superphosphate was made to the acre; lewt of nitrate of soda was also applied as a top-dressing. "I he yield of creen fodder per acre amounted to 45 tons 18£cwt in the case of the former, ' and 49 tons 2icwt in the oase of the .latter. REPLIES TO CORRESPONDENTS. : " Farmer " writes asking for an opinion about sowing down gras3. He ie quite aware of the fact that most authorities ad- . vocate sowing it down by itself, especially after turnips, but as- a rule farmers are too keen to get at the grass, and in consequence the young 'clover is eaten and trampled out, until in a year or two there is hardly anything left but the ryegrass and such like. "Farmer" says h© has generally- sown down with oate, and he finds he gets a better strike of clover that way, besides getting a good crop, and in years like the past two or three, with good prioes, it takes a lot of grazing to make up the difference befween- sowing down gra>s by itself and sowing with crop. He asks what would be a suitable manure to put in with the crop at the time of sowing down, one that would not make the crop too heavy, but would benefit the grass most. He thinks it would be the means of putting money into the farmers' pockets. " Farmer " has been advised that guano and bones or superphosphates and bones would be a good mixture-. ' "If the land is thoroughly clean and 1 free from weeds sowing down without a gra-m crop is advisable. If the land is in good i order and the' grass seed is sown just before the grain shows above the ground it is quits an profitable from all points of view. It is always advisablo to sow an early variety of oats or wheat when sowing down grasses. I would suggest as a manure bones and superphosphate with the crop, and heavy rolling after harvest; then a light topdressing in June or July the following sea- ' son with 2cwt kainit or 3cwt of basic slag I (Thomas's phosphate). " Subscriber " writes : — Having- been growing turnips for the last three seaeons, ! I find that they don't kteep any length of ! time during ' winter. The first two seaeons I I had them sown towards the end of ! November, and I thought that they might i have been aown too early, and possibly that was the cause of their not standing the frost. I therefore did not sow them last summer until after Chrietmae, and the result was more disappointing than ever, as they all decayed into pulp early in the beginning of the winter. They always come up well and grow to a fair size, but when winter set in. the leaves withered and dropped off, and the turnip rotted into pulp or got spongy. I have tried three different sorts. The first year I had Devonshire greystonc, the following season green and purple top Scotch, and this seaeon Aberdeen green and purple top, and they were an utter failure as far as their , keeping qualities were concerned. I should I feel greatly obliged you if you could giv« me an idea of the probable cause of | their going bad. The ground I grow them ! y;i is dry. and the soil looks to be good. i "Subscriber's" experience is. unfortunately, that of many farmers, and, strange i as it may appear, tho soft or early- varieties of turnips &eem during the last two or three ! masons to be affected more in the direction ' complained of than swedes. As far as I am aware it is an entirely new experience I for farmers in the Dominion. The variety I of the soft turnip I would advise planting I is the Imperial green top, or if the dis- ! trict is not affected by blight, Tait's Best of all Swede.* "A. S." writes:— l live near a sawmill, where they burn wood for fuel in, the engine ! exclusively. A large heap of aches from j tliis source has accumulated, as well as i from the burning of shavings, etc. It is, of .' course, out in the open air. and the a&hes ! have been wetted, but are still friable and j would run through a drill. Is there enough I manurial value left In them to trouble with? I should i<ay that for land in need of polash the wood ashes referred to would undoubtedly be very valuable, and would ussist nearly all pasture lands in the Dominion. Of course, a plentiful dressing would be necessary.