AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

Speaking of their wool-sorting classes Mr W H Field, M.P., told the Wellington) Education Board that large sums of money are being lost to farmers because of the failure to get up wool properly. When wool is sent to market without any attempt at skirting or sorting the Home and) foreign buyer does not keenly compete for it, or will only take it at a low range of value, while the American buyer cannot afford to purchase it at all. This means that the speculator or local buyer comes in and purchases the wool, necessarily .veil below the value of the best wool in the parcel, and by skirting and reclaming turns it over at a profit which should go into the farmer's pocket. At the same time there is a weakness in the wool-class-ing instruction being .given. The inn structors are taking as their objective the instructing of students in all the intricacies of wool classification, whereas the great majority of* farmers only require to properly skirt and- distinguish between wools of a distinctly varying type. The result has been that some wools have come to market recently in an over-classed condition, which was a drawback. Turnip crops in the Waikato district have, during the past two weeks, been severely attacked by a new disease, which is commonly referred to as the " Wairarapa disease," having been known in that district for the past two seasons. Crops which gave promise of a heavy yield are dying off rapidly, and unless the cold snap, gives a check the whole of the turnip crop in the district, which was largely relied on for winter feeding, is likely to be wiped out. A peculiarity of the disease is that it is most severe on the healthiest-looking, The first indications are a change in the colour of the leaves, which wither away< Then the tubers rot in the ground. There has never before been such a large area 1 sown in turnips in the Waikato as this

season, newcomers from the south having seen the advantage of the crop for winter feeding. The freezing works in Canterbury are having an unusually busy killing season this year. Every killing-board is working 1 three full shifts of butchers, and all of the men are making big cheques. During the past fortnight several butchers at one of the works earned £l4 for the 11 working days> and the average cheque for the board was £l3. During last week 32,000 sheep and lambs were killed at the Belfast -works, and the total Dumber slaughtered at Belfast, Fairfield, and Pareora was 68,000.

A new sheep disease is troubling farmers in Rangitikei. The sheep affected rears on its hind legs, and then appears to try to scratch its eyes out with. it.= feet, death generally following speedily. Sheepowners ilso note that, an unusually large numbar of sheep are affected with blind-, ness this year. A monster half-ton cheese has been " built" to the order of the Otago A. and P. Society as one of the attractions for the forthcoming winter show by the Wyndham Dairy Factory. The cheese has been christened "Plunket," in honour of theGTovernor.

The much-abused sparrow found a charripion in Mr A. S. Smith at the meeting of the Mackenzie County Council on Friday. Mr Smith said that the little owls

scared all the sparrows from his (the Kimball) district, but he would be worse off without the sparows than with them. The sparrows did an incalculable amount of good in devouring the seeds of weeds, and but for them the bot-fly nuisance would become intolerable. Mr Rutherford said that if they killed the sparrows they would be overrun with caterpillars. The Transvaal Government has decided to give a first contribution of £IOO,OOO for the establishment of a Transvaal Agricultural University.

In order to excite competition amongst, small men and induce Waimate and Mackenzie Counties to support the Timaru show, Mr T. D. Burnett, Aorangi, Cave, has offered a prize of £2O in all for a counties competition, for pens of five crossbred ewe hoggets shown in the wool, which in the opinion of the judges must nearly approach the type of the beat all-round crossbred sheep for South Canterbury. Entries to be received only from farms of less than 1000 acres in either

of the four counties—Waimate, Levels. Ceraldine, and Mackenzie. No exhibitor should be able to put in more than one entry, and all the sheep should have been bred by the exhibitor, and have his registered brand and earmark. The money would be divided among the four counties, £s_ going to an exhibitor from each. He pointed out that any farmer with five hoggets oould win. The committee of the Timaru A. and P. Association accepted

the .generous offer. Some doubt was expressed as to what should constitute a crossbred, but eventually it was decided the

Sheep Committee would confer with Mr Burnett. The secretary reported that there was a profit of £ls on the recent ram and ewe fair.

The Hastings branch of the N.Z. Farmers' Union is drawing the attention o£ the Minister for Agriculture to the spread in that district of the Califomian thistle, with a request that something should be done to check it.

A very Large quantity of milk has been rejected at the various factories in the Okaiawa district of Taranaki during the season, and it would be interesting (says the Daily News corespondent) to know the total amount. The loss to individual suppliers has been a severe one, and one settler who has been supplying since the first factory was built at Waiokuira informs me that he has had more milk rejected this season than in all the other seasons put together. He attributes this, not to the weather conditions, but to the raising of the grading points. He arrived at this conclusion because he had had sweet

milk rejected. Upon being interviewed by this settler the manager at the factory admitted that it had a bad smell, and this smell developed in the manufacture of the cheese. Asked if he would reject this milk if he were making butter, the manager replied in the negative. It is not often that one hoars of a landlord leasing land at half-a-crown an aor© per annum, and then taking out a sub-lease from his tenant, at 30s per acre. is stated to be the condition of things in at loast one Native reserve in Tara-

naki. The land is a good block of 2000 acres, and was leased on behalf of the Native owners through the Public Trustee at 2s 6d per acre. The lessee has sublet the greater part of it at 30s per aorfe, land amongst his sub-tenants is one of the original Native owners, who is _ thus putting 27s 6d per acre per annum in another man's pocket for the use of his own land. Hoofs of horses need proper care and strict attention paid to them daily by the groom, says Professr Sergeant, in the Modern Veterinary Adviser. The shod hoof is prevented from conning into direct contact with the ground, from which it obtains its moisture, and, as a consequence, the hoof tends to become hard and contracted. In order to counteract this tendency to become dry, it is a custom to rpack the sol© of the foot with moiet clay. ind sometimes with cow dung, although

the latter practice is to be condemned owing to its filthiness. The shoes should be removed every three to four weeks, and the hoofs shortened'. • Horses standing in a stall not kept well cleaned out are apt to contract "thrush," especially in the hind feet. Consequently the foot should be washed at least once' daily, as this will remove all dirt and grit, and supply a certain amount of moisture to the foot. It is customary to apply some greasy substance to the wall of the hoof, preferably hot oil, after shoeing. This tends to prevent evaporation, and consequent dryness of the horn. The movement (states the British Breeders' Gazette) which seeks to dehorn cattle is gaining popularity. Significant progress has been made during the past 10 years in establishing polled types of horned cattle. Polled Durhams, polled Herefords, and polled Jerseys represent the mast notable achievements in this line of breeding. Beginning with "sports" or naturally hornless animals, the polled character has been fixed in these three types to an extent which insures its reproduction in an overwhelming majority of matings:-> Polled blood has become so potent that, although obtained through "sports" front breeds with horns, its polling efficiency is thoroughly dependable, even in cases where the elimination of horns is met with stubborn inherent opposition. A strong and growing demand for polled types of horned breeds is expressing itself in the operations of farmers, feeders, and breeders in America. Those who take the purelypractical view of horns, considering them useless a,nd 'expensive physically to remove, welcome the hornless types as satisfactory substitutes. Polled bulls have been put to words in many horned herds, and hornless females of the same breeding are aiding them in fixing the polled character. Victorian visitors to the Sydney Royal show expressed surprise (says the Weekly Times) at not seeing better types of British breed's of sheep. The Northern State has purchased some of the best Liincolns, Leicester's, Shropshires and Southdowns bred in Victoria and Tasmania, or imported p froir England, yet her stud masters cannot hold their own against us in the show ring. There seems to be a climatic reason for this. It is well known that in Queensland the merino tends to become coarse in carcase and dry r in fleece. Local graziers have to frequently purchase the finer Tasmanian to rectify the tendency. To a lesser degree the same applies in parts of New South Wales, but, with its closer fleece, the merino is not so liable to deteriorate as the British breeds. The latter have open fleeces, which readily admit sun and dust. The effect is to coarsen both fleece and carcase. The probabilities are. except in picked cool distriots, that New South Wales will never be a rival of ours in the show ring with these sheep. Mr Petersen, in Taranaki, has gained some note with a Jersey cow, which yielded 4.91 b of butter per day on a five weeks' tost. This works out at 34.31 b a week, and 171.51 bin the five weeks. The average test of the cow's milk was 6.5. She was bred by Mr Cornwall. Heather, a well-known show cow, was another of the small milkers which yielded remarkably well. Fifty pounds of milk, of a 6.8 test, -was a one day performance of hers. That equalled 3.41 b of butter-fat a day, and 23.8 a week.

A writer in. an oversea exchange, in noting the popularity of the Lincoln, states tha.t a sum of IOOOgs has thrice been paid for a Lincoln ram, and 1450 gs once. One English breeder last season realised over 860 gs per hi-ad for 50 rams, a figure which, the writer says, has not been approached by any other breed in England.- *

Thirty cheese factories in the Dominion are now pasteurising their whey, and very many more are expected to follow suit next season. Last season there was not a single factory in the country which was doing this, and the credit of owning the first cheese factory to pasteurise whey belongs to the Kaikoura Dairy Company over in Marlborough. The council of the Clydesdale Horse Societv has decided to invest £IOOO in Canadian securities as a small acknowledgment of their indebtedness to the way in which the people there have patronised the Clydesdale breed. Out of a total of 1349 animals exported last year, Canada took no fewer than 1149.