The Country-Woman's Corner

Otago Witness, Issue 3987, 12 August 1930, Page 13

The Country-Woman's Corner

By

Jean

(Special for the Otago Witness.)

THE FOLK WHO LIFT THE MORTGAGE.

Have we grown too prosaic to take pleasure in slogans? During the war time, carnivals and parades were m keeping with the military character that coloured all our ideas, but with the coming of peace we care less for display and more for solid comfort. In last week’s article we reviewed the reports of the displays and shows devoted entirely to “ Little Brother Pig- ’ There were verbal pictures of white-clad attendants conducting snow-white cham pions through lines of millionaire farm■ng people, pens of prize-winners shaded with palms and ferns and hot-house flowers, but “ Taking Care of Charley ” on a cold morning or snowy day, and doing all the necessary “ chores,” is not so easy as might appear, nor do the icturns pay for all the work and food. Nevertheless, “ the game’s the game, howe’er the luck may go,” and work which may be a loss in one season is often a gain in the next. Speaking of slogans, the one we have to adopt at present is “ Economy.” Every class and department is accusing the other of extravagance and objecting to taxation of any kind. JThe cry everywhere is, “ Let someone else pay.” Let us cut out all expenses and go back to old-fashioned clothes, plain fare, and the farm horse and spring-cart. But with so many girls trained in dressmaking it is no trouble to make over last season’s frocks and coats, and food specialists tell us that it is better economy to have a variety of food and save doctor’s bills. So we are forced to admit that smarr clothes produced with no expense ny clever fingers and daintily served ami well-planned meals are not luxuries, bui necessities. In reply to the injunction that the farmer should sell his car and motor truck and use the railway for transport for himself, his family, and goods we are told that without motor transport many farmers could not carrv on. Can we expect the farmer’s wife who takes her small family to town in the car to agree to give up this convenient method of conveyance by which babies and parcels can be stowed away in comfort and safety to the old style where she had to walk miles to the nearest siding and make another walk with weary and tired children from the railway station to the shopping area, then have" the long drag on the return journey, with the prospect of neglecting important business through fear of missing the train ? Electric light and power may cost money, and it may be years before the farm returns will yield a surplus, but we shall be better fitted for what the future may bring when in place of having to milk a herd of cows by hand we can put the work through with pleasure and despatch with an up-to-date milking plant, and instead of blundering around with a lantern we can do our work within a welll.'ghted farmyard. The leaving of lanterns in stables and sheds has often been the cause of serious fires, so th e instalment of electric light in farm buildings is a safe and secure investment. To cut out the agencies that are advantageous to health and comfort would be more than patriotic, to adopt the words a farmer used when his neighbours disposed of their separators because, though very good machines, they had been “ Made in Germany.” But we can buckle to and endeavour to raise mor e stock, grow more crops, fruit and vegetables, produce more butter and eggs, and in short “ make two blades of grass grow where one grew before.” It will be found that the energy expended in doing something useful and profitable is more satisfactory than mere amusement, as the fallowing dialogue will show:— “ You people certainly do manage to get a lot of fun out of farming,” observed Dorothy. “We live just as far out from town as you do, but nothing could be more different from our way of living than yours.”

“ Well, if we depended on tennis, golf, and bridge for our fun, we would be just like you. As we like hayfields, strawberry patches, and pine groves better—with tobogganing in winter, we continue to be different.” This need not be taken as an argument that there should be no fun or good times. It is to the credit of football, hockey, and tennis players that they put the same energy into their farm work as they do into their sport. Indeed, the relaxation makes the round of “ chores " more agreeable. Soon chicken farming will be in full swing. The feathered folk, the hens, ducks, geese, and turkeys are often very expensive subjects for those who are farming for profit, but will all repay us handsomely for care and forethought on their behalf. Buildings and plots of feed should be prepared for them. Then the business aspect of poultry farming needs particular attention. Our Christ” mas season, coming in the middle of summer, does not give the same chance to the poultry keeper to dispose of his birds as is the case in the Old Country and America, where the season’s flock is well primed for the market after harvest. To make up for this disadvantage, Australian poultry raisers are going in

for raising capons, and this practice might be followed with advantage in New Zealand. If there was a surplus for the local consumption, an overseas market might be established. Statistics show that duck raising is not so popular as it used to be. Here is a money-making scheme that any farm boy or girl may take up. Moreover, there is nothing so picturesque as the young bird life of the farm, particularly the ducks and geese swimming in the ponds and creeks. THE COUNTRY GIRL’S CONCERNS An American writer has declared that the love for the Old Country has been fostered by English writers who have always loved the rural tradition and whose characters for the most part are country people of all classes, bound together by the love of country life and sport. Even in stories dealing with the days of chivalry, wlieh farming was not looked upon as a genteel occupation. the neglect of the duties of anyone living in the country is condemned by our great writers. Questioned by her landlord as to the prowess of her son as a hunter, Dame Glendinning answered sadly, “ Alack, my lord, and my croft would be better filled if I could answer your reverence that he is not. Practised archer! Marry, holy sir, I would he would prac tise something else!” Those “ muckle Scotchmen ” who read through " all Sir Walter ” once a year can give endless examples of farmin" scenes from the “Wizard’s” work. Ho condemns the neglect of the laird no less than that of the crofter. “No cornfields or inclosed pasture grounds on the side of the lake showed that provident attention to comfort and subsistence which usually appeared near the houses of the greater or even lesser barons. There > were no cottages, with their patches of infields, and their crofts and gardens surrounded by rows of massive sycamores—no church with its simple tower in the valley, no herds of sheep on the hills, no cattle on the lower ground, nothing which intimated the prosecution of the arts of peace and of industry.”

PRODUCE MARKETS.

CHRISTCHURCH, August 8. Ine feature of the grain and produce market during the past few days has been the sharp decline in potato values, which ■'are lower now than at any other corresponding period for some years. Potatoes wei-e fairly firm early this week at £5 2s 6d, f.0.b., s.i., for August-September delivery. The quotation to-day is £4 12s 6d, and for prompt £4 10s to £4 12s 6d. The cause of the sudden drop in prices is that weak holders are quitting. The Waipiata took 3264 sacks from Lyttelton for Auckland yesterday. There are a few inquiries coming to hand from outside ports. Auckland merchants report that they are obtaining all their requirements in regular weekly insta'ments, and there are no indications of values in the northern city rising. The oats market is fairly quiet. A Gartons are quoted at 3s 9d to 3s 10s, f.0.b., s.i., and B Gartons at 3s 8d to 3s 9d. Local B Gartons are still worth 4s, and A’s 4s Id. Chaff for prompt delivery has been sold at £7 and £7 2s 6d, f.0.b., s.i., equivalent to £5 7s 6d to £5 10s a ton on trucks. The few lines of onions which are still offering can command up to £4 a ton, according to quality. There is still a little business being done in next season’s wheat at 5s 5d to 5s 6d, on trucks, for Tuscan, according to stations. Fowl wheat is a little firmer, and is quoted at 6s Id to 6s 2d, fo.b., s.e.

BRITISH CATTLE EXPORT.

ORDER FOR FOUR HUNDRED SHORTHORN. BIGGEST SHIPMENT. OF BREED YET. RUSSIA A KEEN BUYER. The steady expansion in the pedigree export trade is likely to receive a great fillip within the next few weeks (says an English exchange). Buyers from many parts of the world have latelyvisited this country in search of choice stock, and a bigger attendance of foreign breeders and their representatives is expected at the Royal Show than for some years past. Negotiations are now on foot with a view to the consignment of the biggest shipment of Shorthorn cattle that has occurred in the history of the breed -not even excepting the palmy days of the South American trade, when the Shorthorn was the animal with the “ golden hoof.” On the present occasion it is Russia that is taking an interest in the breed, and it is understood that the quan-

titles spoken of are 300 bulls and 100 females, so that the amount of capital involved will run into many thousands of pounds. It is the question of payment with winch negotiations are at present concerned. The needs of the Soviet Republic however, are understood to be so urgent that the question may soon resolve itself into a matter of detail. Assurances have been given that the payment will be in cash, and it is probable that a considerable credit will be lodged before the purchases are made in an English bank, with a v *ew to the frequently-adopted method of shipping against document—that is to say, the bank makes the payment in cash on the production of the permits certificates and bills of lading relating to the shipment.

MEAT PRODUCERS’ BOARD.

SMITHFIELD PRICES. The New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board has received the following cable from its London office, dated August 8. advising that the following are the approximate average prices realised for the week, based on actual transactions of wholesale quantities of the descriptions of meat mentioned, and are for representstiye parcels of the goods offering during the week, being for business done on the basis of delivered to Smithfield Market and/or ex London stores: — (Prices for the two previous weeks are also shown).

Lamb: Market continues firm for first quality, but second quality rather difficult to sell’ Mutton Market: Wethers steady at better prices. Ewes dull. very little business doing. N.Z. Beef: Good demand, especially for hindquarters. N.Z. Porker Pigs: Small sales during the present hot weather. N.Z. Baconer Pigs: A little firmer, in sympathj with better prices of bacon.

00 W to CJ N.Z. Sheep (Canterbury be and N.I.) — •«! Crossbred Wethers and Ib. d Malden Ewes 48/56 .. 4.5 43 Selected North Island .. ,. 57/64 .. 65/72 .. 48/56 .. 43 43 4J 43 42 43 4* 4 3 4R 57/64 .. 43 43 43 Ewes .. .. 65/72 .. 48/64 .. 43 33 43 33 43 3 65/72 .. 23 23 25 N.Z. Lambs— Canterbury ., 36/under 9 9 9 37/42 .. 83 sj 43/50 .. 8? 83 S 3 °8 Second Quality .. Other South Island Aver. 33 73 73 73 brands 36/under 83 83 S3 37/42 .. 83 S3 S3 Selected North Island 43/50 .. 83 82 83 brands, including Downs 36/under 9 9 9 37/42 .. 85 83 83 Second Quality .. 43/50 . . 83 82 88 Aver. 31 72 73 72 Other North Island Brands— First Quality 36/under 83 S3 83 37/42 .. 85 83 RS Second Quality ,. Aver. 31 73 73 73 Australian Lamb— Victorian, first quality 36/under 72 7_1 7 37/42 .. 73 7 Argentine Lamb— First quality .. 36/under GS 63 6S 37/42 .. 6£ 63 63 N.Z. Beet— Ox fores .. 33 33 35 Ox hinds .. 53 52 53 Cow fores Cow hinds — — Argentine Chilled Beef — Ox fores .. .. 43 43 45 Ox hinds .. 8§ 8§ 83 Australian Frozen BeefOx crops, over 1001b .. 33 3i 33 Ox hinds over 1601b .. 53 5 a 52 N.Z. Frozen Pork— Porkers, 60/1001b .. 73 r* 7 Porkers, 101/1201b .. 73 61 6J Baconers, 121/1801b .. 63 6i 61 Frozen Veal .. .. —