SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 14

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.) The summer of 1922-23 will surely stand out as one of the most variable in weather conditions which we have experienced, and also as a season of phenomenal growth. Everywhere, all over the province, at present there is an amount of grass quite above what is common at this period of the year, and grain crops, though not early, are heavy. Turnips and rape are also showing exceptional growth, and there is far more than the average amount of clover hay stacked for winter use. So that we are not only assured of an abundance of feed for summer and autumn, but also for the winter. T'he one possible drawback to this very encouraging outloo-k is that some farmers cannot see an extra good paddock of grass without rushing to buy stock to consume it. And this may lead to a certain amount of speculation. There is some evidence of this at the moment of writing in store cattle, the bigger sorts of which have advanced considerably in price during the past monlh without anything to justify the improvement except the abundance of feed. Specu lators in this class of stock should keep in mind that, according to all authorities on the subject, there is no reason to expect any material advance in prices for our beef in the Home market, so that the demand for at least a year to come will be solely limited to local consumption. The fescue harvest is over and ryegrass is now being cut. The prospects for both are good. For fescue it is reported that Is is being offered, and as the stores are practically clear of last season’s ryegrass there is likely to be a good payable price offering for the new seed when it comes on the market. Out-of-the-way corners in the province have been frequently referred to in this column, and there is no question but a more general knowledge of them by our farmers and merchants would he fo-r the general good. How many Western District farmers have ever visited \\ aikuwa, Fortrose, and Slope Point? Very few, and it would certainly be a surprise to them to find in these districts some of the finest grass and clover padtlooks to be seen in Southland. They are on the coast, and Slope Point is the most southerly point in the South Island. There are no frosts to speak of, so that stock can be kept in condition on grass until well on to midwinter. Then the residents of Slope Point claim that they have spring from a month to six weeks earlier than the average of Southland. The distance from markets and bad roads are great drawbacks, but against these they have cheap land, low rates a short winter, and an early spring. Under the direction of the Southland A. and P. Association stock demonstrations are becoming very popular. They give our young farmers an opportunity of having the strong and weak points of individual animals shown by men thoroughly qualified to speak on the different breeds. Two of these de-

monstrations are to be held within a month from date of writing—one at Mr Weir’s, Edondale, of Ayrshires and Friesians, and the other at Mr Anderson’s farm at Kauana of milking Shorthorns and Border Leicester sheep. The names of the gentlemen who are to demonstrate have not yet been pub lished, but no doubt they will be chosen, not only for their practical knowledge of the breeds, but also for their known ability to impart that knowledge to the visitors. Of late years we have had very few prosecutions for failing to comply with the Noxious Weeds Act, though last year in the north farmers were prosecuted and fined for not cutting thistles. If the dictum of the immortal'Mr Bumble that “the law is a hass” ever applied to any Act on our Statute Book it is to this one when put in force to compel graziers to cut thistles. You cannot make good farmers by Act of Parliament but it has been conclusively proved that cutting thistles induces them to spread, and also if they are left alone, as they have been in many out-of-the-way places, net under the eye of the inspector, that they will die out or at least dwindle down into a few odd weedy plants, even where a few years ago they were a regular inaccessible forest. Apart, however, from this very im portant fact, it has never been proved that thistle down blown by the wind will germinate. Indeed the arguments are all against it, and a far more likely way of spreading the pest is through the seed being eaten by birds and stock and deposited on their camping ground. In any cate, the law starts at the .wrong end, and started 30 years too late, ag the farmer ought to have been protected from impure seeds. This, of course, is just one of several other undesirable legacies /we have inherited from our pioneers. A.s a noxious weed in cropping land, the thistle is comparatively easy .to deal with beside yarr. Cultivation will kill thistles, but it seems to spread yarr. Then, even with heavy thistles, you can get a crop of turnips, but thick yart smothers everything but grass.