NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 10

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The question of the cost of road as against rail transport is at jyesent a matter of concern to county councillors. It is with us as in Great Britain apparently. Consignments of goods which formerly were railed are now not infrequently sent by road, and in the latter event with a good saving on the cost of shifting the merchandise. The chances of a properly organised motor transport service cutting into the ratepayers’ rail service are not a few, if railway charges are not soon reduced. That is one point of view—the general taxpayer’s viewpoint. There is, however, the question from the rural

Road v. Rail Transport.

resident’s point of view. Cheap road transport is all very well, but how about the extra damage to the highways, which they will have to repair and pay for. In the ease of the rail we all, the' writer supposes,

pay for the maintenance of the permanent way. whereas the damage to roads as the result of increasing motor traffic has to be met by county councillors from rates extracted from rural taxpayers. It is like . drawing teeth without gas —no sense in it. There is no cloaking the fact that the roads are knocked about a lot. Do the users of heavy vehicles pay charges commensurate with the damage they cause the highways? Or to put the question another way, are railway charges on a plane which will command all the near-at-hand business » offering? The Master Butchers’ Association, Dunedin, convinced that quality,

Quality Counts.

whether in beef, mutton, or lamb, is “the” thing in their trade which warrants their existence, have decided to offer a special prize of £3 3s to the owner of the animal in the fat cattle section at the Otago A. and P. Winter Show, which the judge considers most worthy of the champion ticket. This prize is to be allotted with due appreciation of the quality, weight and general merit of the animal selected irrespective of age or sex. This, the writer holds, is on right lines, and a knock-out blow to the theory enunciated by the ancients that the champion prize must necessarily follow the winner in the aged class. It is passing strange that in the sheep classes the Society for years has recognised that quality *in mutton and lambs depended largely on an animal’s breed, age, and feeding, and awarded “specials” accordingly, but in ,the cattle classes evidenced but little interest in what is known as “baby” beef. Presumably the tales of the roast beef of old Kngland were witch like in the telling. We must keep an eye on the export demand, which in the future will depend more than ever on quality rather than bullocks from four years old and upwards. The Queensland Government is likely to reap as it has sown (says the Pastoral Review), but as it has been experimenting only with public money the outcome will probably not trouble Ministers except in so far as it is likely to affect voles. Buying in on top of the cattle market, elbowing graziers out right and left and taking possession of their country, the State Government built up a great chain of cattle stations right from the Gulf country to the south. Some of the cattle were bought on the basis of £7 to £B. All the State meat shops were to be supplied, and the private butchers to be given a very rough passage. Then the bottom fell out of the cattle market. In State stations the Government bird £1,644,872 invested on 30tli June last. Oattle in the books represented nearly a million. In the books at 30th June they stood at £4 16s 9d. What they are v/orth to-day it is impossible to say, but cows are being sold in the west at under £1 per head. The Queensland National Pastoral Co., Ltd., which has a very fine herd of cattle, gives a good lead by reducing the value of its cattle, including the stud, from £4 17s 6d to £3 9s Id. If the State does that when the account is issued at the end of the financial year it will have to do as this company has done, and will write off over £200,000. So much for State enterprise as applied to so precarious a business as cattle raising. If the succession of good seasons is broken the disaster to the finance of the State enterprises will be something to remember. Scarcely one of the numerous enterprises has been a success. I t the State meat shops the practice is now the same as in the sawmill business —the State follows the private shop in reducing prices. Many private butchers are cutting the State shops clean out of trade. Two things required to permit of the rapid expansion of the rural industries are reduced costs of production and increased acre returns (says Agrestic in the Weekly Times). The men on the land are realising more and more that they are face to face with a big problem, and that one way of solving it is to employ appliances which will enable the manual labour to be reduced to the lowest possible minimum. This fact has also been impressed upon the manufacturers of agricultural implements and machinery, who, it must be acknowledged, are putting forth every effort to meet adequately the needs of the time. One of the latest productions is a device for stooking hay, the use of which, it is stated, enables the hay crop to be cut and stooked by only two men. Since the beginning of the present century each year has witnessed the introduction of some interesting and valuable labour-saving equipment. The reduction in the amount, of labour entailed by harvesting has been remarkable. The hook or sickle was followed by the scythe. Then came the selfdelivery reaper, and finally the self-binding harvester. Now it is predicted that, within a year or two. the self-stooking binder will be general, at least in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Then only two men will be required for the harvesting of the hay crop. The attachment is reported to have been used for some time in America, and, prior to the war, it had been subjected to repeated tests there. The device, which is attached to the binder, handles the hay as fast as it is cut and bound. 'ldle number of sheaves contained in the stook varies according to the size of the sheaves discharged by tha

Stale Cattle Stations.

A Mechanical Stooker.

binder. Ordinarily, the stook consist® of eight to ten sheaves. Immediately before the stooker automatically discharges its load, a band of binder twine is passed round the upper part of the stook, so as to enable it to resist windy or adverse weather conditions. The stooker is attached to the binder, and as the sheaves are tied and discharged by the binder an automatic fork conveys them to stook-setter and as the fork moves backwards and forwards it conveys the sheaves alternately to the right and left positions on the setter, which, being wider at the rear than at the front, provides for the .stability of tne stook when discharged. When the setter tilts to discharge it® load, two tines spread the butts of the sheaves in order to give the stook a substantial base. The increased draft arising from the attachment is claimed to be very slight, and materially assists in counteracting any side draft op.used by the binder grain platform. AGRICOLA.