NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3475, 19 October 1920, Page 8

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

It is difficult to see how prices of wool can ' be maintained unless some-

Wool thing unforeseen happens. Viewpoints. One cannot get away from facts. Admitting that the present demand for cloth is good, and that it continues, and Fashion decrees that cloth from 40 wools and under are to be the •'thing" in the near future, as has been urged in some quarters, what happens ? Merely a quick unloading of high-priced goods made out of high-price wool, and the manufacturers are presumably to cut their losses and wade into crossbred wool. All that will be achieved is the consumption of a very pimilar weight of lower quality wools but in no way affecting the accumulated 'pile of wool in the world to-day. One section would have a good spin at the cost of the breeder of line wools. The draw of wool" is merely from a different part of the pile. It must not be forgotten that the spindles of the world are going as hard as labour at the moment will allow. The mam things to be hoped for are the clearances of manufactured goods and a "machinery hunger" for raw wool. Lower values seem to be within "cooee." Indeed, it may be that the cheaper crossbreds Will create their own demand. If—too big an "if," I am afraid—the Imperial Government would come out as a buyer for a season or two,, or hold their accumulations and the spindles work 24 hours a day, something definite might be anticipated. Certainly the impasse would be overcome/ It is not easy to see how possible buyers will budge till they know what is going to happen in regard to the three or four million bales now on iiand. Word comes that there are growing of a coming slump in several branches ot trade in Sheffield, Nottingham., and the Midlands Many employers, owing to industrial unrest and uncertainty, have been unable to give quotations or accept contracts. At Lancashire 150,U00 looms are idle and at Sunderland 500 women and girls have been discharged from ropeworks on account of the excessive cost of production and the consequent cessation of orders. The' Berliner Tageblatt, discussing the serious condition of the German hosiery industry,' says tha£ it is looking with anxiety to Australia establishing factories for the production of woollen goods, addino- • "As the Australian Government is prepaid to spend untold millions on developing factories; there seems no doubt that within a few years Australia will have a wool industry which will put all others to the shade."

It may be questioned whether fertilisers can • ■ be profitably used on soils . which chemical analysis F S„ have shown to contain an F Rch Soils adequate supply ,of plan* foods. In theory one mignt contend that, as the soil is naturally rich, it would be waste of money to apply more plant food In practice, however, the result works'out rather differently The reason is 23 much of the plant food shown by analysis is not in an available condition. This anpies particularly to applications of phosphates of lime. The following is the result of an experiment in a grass paddock Sorted by an analyst to be rich m plan foods :-,(a) No dressing, 40571 b; (b)_ slag 4cwt, 47161 b. And the improvement in the quality of the crop was borne ouo by tlie analysis. The crop that receiver! no dressing of fertiliser contained considerab y less albuminoid substances than the dressed crop, while the mineral constituents phosphoric add and lime were infinitely higher from the slagged area. This and similar tess serve to indicate that, even on grass lands alleged to be rich in plant foods the application of phosphate of lime is attended with <r o od results. Trials on a small scale might be made, and the result noted , for future guidance. Sir Henry Rew contributes to the July number of the Edinburgh British Live Review an interesting article Stock. on "British Farm Live Stock." One might surmise that there can be-nothing new on this wellworn subject. Perhaps not, but the matter is put attractively. He points out, lor example that Bakewell's success as a cattle breeder 'was overshadowed by his achievements with sheep. He "raised a breed ol sheep unknown in any former period, and which surpassed all other breeds in thenpropensity to get fat and in paying the most money for the quantity of food consumed. The Dishley Leicesters, as they were called, were peculiarly distinguished from other longwoolled breeds by "their fine lively eyes, clean heads, straight broad, flat backs, round (barrel-like) bodies, very fine small bones, thin pelts, and inclination to make fat at an early age." Their chief value evidently lay in their early maturing properties, ' and even in these of great service fees in live stock-breedmg, it is interesting to learn that in 1786 Bakewell made IOOOgs by letting his Dishley Leicester rams; 1789 he let three for 1200 gs and seven for 2000 gs, while the remainder he let for 3000 gs to the Dishley Society. Those were the days of the Bates and Booth Shorthorn rivalries, of which Sir Henry Rew says: "Fashion concentrated on two strains of blood, and the structure, built upon a comparatively few animals, collapsed when the bad times came. For a time development was checked, but a fresh impetus was given to it by the work of Cruickshank in Scotland. In later years there has been a healthy broadening of the foundations, and the craze for fashionable strains has been replaced by a reversion to the more practical aims of the earlier breeders." The development of British live stock during the nineteenth century was fostered, says the writer, by—the agricultural show, the export trade, and the breed register. So, too, is it in the present century, aided in the general management of _ stock by the development of veterinary science.

The lowa State College, U.S.A., suppliei the following method for Tanning tanning sheepskins :—Apply Sheepskins. eight parts of common saft and one part of powdered alum to the flesh side of the pelt. After rubbing in, allow the 6kin to lie flesh side/ up on a floor for eight or nine days, and then hang up in the air for a further four or five days until dry. As soon as _ dry* work the hide with the hands, and the inner layers should crack and - peel off, leaving the soft pelt, with the wool attached. Besides preserving the skin, the alum and salt set the wool in the hide. AGRICOLA.