SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3613, 12 June 1923, Page 16

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(Fhom Oob Own Correspondent.) Me have little to complain of in the weather we have had tor a fortnight. It has been at worst dull grey days and wet underfoot, but the rainfall tor Alay (2.3 incites) is under the average. Some ploughing is being done on light land in lea paddocks, but stubble in most places is too v\et to work. We are now just on midwinter, and the sooner land intended for either gram or green crop is turned over and exposed to the sweetening influence of Lost and sunshine the better. The weather is an excellent cultivator, and our heavy land especially requires exposure to it if "e wish to be assured ot a good crop. Dairy factories are now closed down for the season. The milk of the few cows not yet dried off is being separated and the cream sent to Invercargill. The farmers’ new company is bidding for, and very rightly getting a large share of this. if only for the sake ot healthy competition it is to be hoped that this concern will continue to prosper, and one of the ways to secure this very desirable end is to keep down the working expenses. There is a feeling amongst the suppliers that tins at the moment i s the weak spot in the scheme, so the directors will be well advised to “ca’ canny.*’

Dunedin this week is holding carnival, Ihe races, show, meetings, of different kinds, and a series of lectures on subjects of vital interest to the man on the laud. This is ah quite as it should be, but what is of more importance to us here is that it has been decreed that Invercargill is to have a carnival week of its own next year. The Southland Racing Club and the A. and 1* Association propose to combine and have races and a winter show going the same week. Ihe idea is excellent, and given a tew willing workers, there is no reason why we should net have an interesting and profitable week.

Southland at one time was noted for its ploughing matches, and the ploughmen who coinpeieu were men who could hold their own m strong competition anywhere. vVyndhum \\ allacetown. Drummond and wiiU 8 J ? USI e: ! ch ha<l a big day annually, V. 11 , e, ! tnes of twenty teams and over \Vallacetown was considered the championslup meeting and largely owing to thusiasm and energy of the genial seeretar> the late Mr T. A. Mitchell, it grew Hn i’ e °v of ,, tlj , c finest meetings of its defunct ■? eala,l . <J - X, )W the society is defunct, and there is still a 20-guinea cup donated by Donald Macdonald, of Eden’dale, and called the Mitchell Cup, which so f.ii has never been won outright Drumiast tear'a! ? 0 "' V match held niiUt ’ J T C " ,eanis co,ll Pefed, compared to somewhere about four times that at That’ fin™? n hl y T S ago ' lh tmmiond at that time held -and probably still holds —as fine a selection of high-class farm horses as can be found on the same area m any part of the Dominion, the Taieri not excepted Just take the names Lindsaj, Green Kennedy, Clark, and Macfarlane—last but not least—and these are enough to lend the hallmark of excellence Ik I exhibition of draught horses Then they had for near neighbours the Blakies and Grays on the east side and James and S roude on the west of them. Fine teams they bad, harness kept for gala days only, and the work they did was worthy of tile splendid men who did it. The Great War slopped many outdoor competitions, and ploughing matches , were amongst the’num Lev, but why can t they be revived now uhen tlie war is over and times back to normal again. Report has it that the young men have no time to practice owinoU n ha \ m r f !° <r , am ,‘o'’ and playing foot" ball, and though this may seem to some of our elder men like a fairy tale vet it is a deplorable fact. It is Tot so’ much T cause for wonder either when we find the daily papers on certain days taking up about a quarter of the space for reading matter to reports of football matches However Drummond i s going to bold another ploughing match during ihe mouth, or early in July, and this may induce Wallucetown to follow suit.

One of the very first subjects likely too he discussed in Parliament is the position of our soldier settlers. The Board of Inquiry for the Southland Land District finished their inspection in March, and forwarded thou- report through the land Board to the Minister. I his is understood to be in the meantime a confidential document but if was noted m the daily press that the members had visited 366 farms, and on the whole it seems to be taken for granted that our soldier settlers have not suffered more severely from the slump than have thousands of other struggling men who are handicapped for lack of sufficient capital. There is one thing fairly certain, and that is, Southland soldiers cannot be so badly off as the men who have settled ; n some of

the backbloeks of (he North Island. The politician who is anxious for notoriety will no doubt be able to rake up individual cases of hardship just as the same class of humbug bellowed when the Land Boards turned down applications for advances. Land Boards at that. time had a very difficult task set them, and we had several cases locally which caused a loud outcry when the Board refused to sanction or recommend certain advances. It will be quite in keeping with the usual procedure of some of our budding politicians to find them now demanding why certain men were allowed, and helped by public funds, to purchase their farms. In any case the report of the discussion on soldier settlement which is bound to take place early in the session will be read wich interest not only by the 'soldiers themselves but also by thousands of their neighbours who have helped them directly and indirectly through a very bad time. Stock sales are having poor entries at present as it _is right in the off season for store stock. Winton had an entry of under 2000 sheep on Thursday, mostly" hoggets of an indifferent class with a few pens of aged ewes. One small pen of nice ewe hoggets made 245. but the bulk of the yarding sold at from 12s to 16s. One line of 200 very good Romney cross breeding ewes guaran-teedsound-mouthed, sold at 30s 4d. but most of the other pens of ewes were difficult to sell at from 12s to 15s. There are many thousands of owes in Southland being carried over again to take another lamb off w_hicb should have been tinned. The day of reckoning for this will come, and then the W oodlands Meat Company will be o'-er supplied.