NORTE ISLAND RURAL LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 17

NORTE ISLAND RURAL LETTER.

By John Spbns

FEED NOTES AND NOTES SUG GESTIVE.

I think I m&y affirm with perfect confidence that the North Island all over never had suoh a prodigality of grass. Hawke's Bay seaboard and the East Coast generally has heen comparatively immune from rain. Sheepmen, and probably oattlemen, in these parts maybe on the whole prefer a moderately dry season, as their stock doe.s better and fattens up more readily. From Wanganui upwards to Hawera the whole country is a vast hay paddock. Bullocks and cows are revelling in pasture to their knee*. Sheep in very many cases have too much long much 6 o that their general health tone is perhaps rather under than over par. The hearts of dairy farmers have, been rejoiced by the abundant midsummer growth of.grass all along the western seaboard. As far as I can gather, the cows have not quite pulled up the test standard. Cows are sensitive to weather conditions. Probably, now that a warmer spell has set in, the flow of milk and the butter-fat test will be favourably affeoted thereby.

Feed is marvellously plentiful right through the great hinterla.nd from Rangitikei on and up and away into the v»aikato. I have the report of one run manager, who says he has not had such pasturage for many a year, I regret to say that shearers have had a very trying time, and the season so far has been a comparatively poor one in the matter of good cheques. The wool season is the shearers' harvest. Hundred'? of women and little ones are dependent on the tallies from blades and machines. One must not forget that il has also been a very anxious time to flockmastcrs. Haymaking and hay-saving is now very general all over. The process is being set about by the most up-to-date and expeditious meteds. The old time usages of fcedding and turning and carefully raking into rows and then building into cockiS has given place to a I<jss laborious .system. Unless tho crop is exceptionally heavy, it is merely allowed to lie in the swath for a few days.' Then it is horse-raked into ridges and operated upon by a scoop With two horses, and probably swung on to the stack by block and tackle arrangement, with a minimum of fork labour.

In quite a number of instances the first sowings of mangolds were a failure. The survivals of those and of the second seeding arc now doing well, cj;d all things h'ing equal a fair or average orop may be looked forward to. Weeds have given a lot of extra work owing to the cool and showery weather. I am rather afraid that the autumnal feed maize will be poor in lota of instances. Some seed failed to sprout, and what did germinate was greatly retarded in growth bv the comparative cold, and on top of all the docks and general weeds set to work to smother the legitimate seedlings. In part* of the coitn-try it has been rather a trying time to thofe who giow rye grass seed. A few days after Christmas various localities were visited by a ripping wind gale, followed bv thunder at:d intermittent downpours of rain. In writing to a neighbour of mine, one rye gra.s seed farmer reports an estmated loss by the shaking out of the reed of quite £309. His later oat croo hid also suffered severely from being dashed about by the wind and beaten down by the rain. To-day I had a look at the crops of a man who invariably delav.s his .sowing of seed fio as to allow of the harvesting not being done till well after the Now Year. I never saw his oat orop looking better. It has just shot, and is standing firm and strong at the height of five feet all over the paddock. The comparatively cool and low temperature of the season has certainly greatly favoured this particular oereal. . . , Orchardists not onlv antiopnte a late, but a rather poor apple crop. It is understood that the season has been mimical to the spread and development of the codlin moth t>est. My anticipations as to the damage" done to apple*? bv hail stones has been verified. Plums are in some districts quite a month late in riiKMiing. One large grower of table and wine grapes says that the crop in his cool or uriheatcd vineries will bo four weeks later in ripening this Within the last week or so, when the wind practically ceased, beekeepers began to have some hopes of a honey harvest, a though some apriarists had mentally written ott thoir usual profits; but a recurrence of the westerlies sent their barometer of anticipation away down onoo again. I am told .that the flow of nectar—i.e.. Natures crude article-which the bees convert into honey by some dual stomachic occult process, almost ceases up hero when the wind blows from a certain quarter During two days o calm warmth a neighbour beekeeoer told me that his workers had simply done wonders in hours of reposeful sunshine My friend says that to him the, bee food supnly is o„0 of those perplexing problems which baffles bis understanding and outwits his keenest observations. Ho is pursuing a line of research somewhat original and probe-blv uniciue. He has all but arrived at the conclusion that atmospheric pressure., or the comparative absence thereof—a low or a. high barometer—has more to do with the flow of nectar than has r o<-mer!y entered into the calculations

of apiariehs. , . Twelve months or eo ago I reported that the Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile. Atronev Company had imported several m£fcor cars for the use of certain of their auctioneer., and stock agents. On first W authority I have now to record the entire Sot the venture and that another batch of automobiles has b»en landed to work under the some house flag. In a former letter! told you .bouttkc storm end into which the \VVn-6-anul Froer.in<r Con-many had run. The fnHUI wind-m«*r, Mr 0. L. Duiwn. haj Kn returned m a director at the head of the poll. At hat he has succeeded after iL or more years' endeavours. Just now the company ha* oast out anchors on a. ee shore A local wriW has ehown prettv clearly and conclusively that the appointment of an expert manager is the first duty of the new directorate. are the days of caoable experts and of intense competition. Just now \\e-)tn"-ton's two freezing- companies are railing the pick of the *tock from around Wamranui, and even Waitara has fiheep •nd lambs and bullocks brought by tram

from the southern environs of Wanganui. The freezing and export of meat is an industry in which the highest amount of brain power and export experience should find an opening. Wo are going to have powerful rivals in various parts of the world. Some folks seem to think that the ordinary successful farmer is quite equal to running a freezing works. He may so do if lie is a person of gommanding ability and intelligence. My humble opinion is that the time has arrived when our leading farmers will have to consider the question and- advisability- of offering inducements to clever youngsters to qualify themselves for the position of managers of freezing companies. The manager of a freezing company should not only have counting house experience, but he should undergo some training in London. He ought to have .some comprehensive grasp of business in all its details, of the trend of European trade and politics, of the flood and flow of the wages of the working classes, and the prosperity or otherwise of the Homo middle class. The wages problem of the Old Country largely governs the demand for chilled products. The first duty of farmers is to think of their sons in relation to this industry. I might also have included the butter and cheese industry.

Again, there is a correlative question which farmers will have to face sooner or later, and that is the advisability of certain" of their sons qualifying themselves for the position of parliamentary representatives. Some people conjure up the probogle. My opinion is that the time is fast approaching when our ideas will be entirely upset as to what constitutes an allround farmers' representative in Parliament. Tho man who has given the best of his year 3, in a limited and circumscribed sphere, to build up a. personal fortune, and then at tho tail end of his mental life comes forward as being a suitable candidate to represent the farming interests, is not, in my estimation, tho ideal person for the House of Parliament. I don't say you want a man of high learning, but you certainly want a man of wide knowledge —far wider knowledge than is acquired at a Road Board or County Council table. Hitherto Parliament has been largely a game of party deck cards and the dexterous maniuplation thereof. That will rooner or later have to come to an end, and conscience and conviction, and truth and rightushered in to take the place of bombast ushered in to take the place of bombats and jugglery. Judging by then- utterances, how very few of our parliamentary representatives have a grasp of the sweep of human history, or of the logical and inevitable trend of the issues involved in the measures they are passing into law, or havo been pledged to pass into law. It may be open to debate whether tho man who can build up a private business or fortune is the best, man to guide tho legislation of a country. John Ballance lived and died a poor man. Harry Atkinson also lived and died a poor man. I could nam" others, but let those two stand as conclusive. Back-blocksmen with felled bush were beginning to get a bit a.nxious over the continued sunless and showery weather. If tho weather holds dry for a fortnight, good burns may possibly bo had. but if the rain returns, and the weather does not clear up till the days become shorter, it will be farewell to bush-burn turnip crops. Tho roads a.nd tracks in the bush have been very sloppy and slushy. You would scarcely credit what bush settlers in these newer parts have io enduro and suffer through want of decent access to their holdings. Ten, 15, yes, and even 20 years, and no proper road to get in and out to his section may well sour a man., be his enthusiasm ever so much when he first took up bush country. I understand that a cool million was voted for roads, etc., throughout tho Dominion. When a candidate for Parliament was asked up here the other day how much of that vote was actually spent, he replied, that, to the best of his knowledge—after a lot of time to search out the information —not quite a quarter of the sum had been spent on the object for which it was devoted. There 's another phase of this question which has of late come very forcibly home to all of us who live in the North Island, and that is. when vou look over the votes or appropriations for the yenr for roads, bridges, and railways, and thou turn up the accounts at the close of the financial year, you find that in everv instance the amount actually exnomlcd has bwn very far below the actual annronriation. In other words, the work specified and promised has not been done. Starlings are flocking and feeding in tho paddocks by hundreds. Where those birds obtain in any considerable number, T think that tho caterpillar pest need not he a source of anxiety.