NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3992, 16 September 1930, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Crude Oil Tractor. At Quambatook recently, says the Victorian Weekly Time?, nearly 200 people witnessed a demonstration of the new McDonald Imperial “ Super-Diesel ” crude oil tractor, which pulled an eightfurrow Shearer skim plough with ease in the working gear of 3 m.p.h. Later the plough was let in to approximately four inches, and adjusted to give maximum width cut. This load was also pulled with ease at 3 m.p.h., and later was pulled at 4 m.p.h. without any sign of overloading. A fuel consumption test revealed that the tractor ploughed one acre in 35 minutes, and the fuel used for doing this work, as well as idling for a period of approximately five minutes, was slightly less than seven pints. The fuel, landed at Quambatook, cost B]d a gallon, so the cost to plough an acre was approximately 7d, which included freight from Melbourne to Quambatook. Afterwards the tractor was belted to a lOin centrifugal pump, and gave a very satisfactory pumping demonstration, thusshowing the further advantage of a crude oil tractor.

Sheep. When sheep values are low we have a poor- opinion of the sheep as a moneymaker. and can perhaps sympathise with the scribe who penned the following lines: —“Sheep are the product of intense breeding, and are grown in New Zealand to keep the grazier and the buyer crazy. They differ very much in quality and breeding, and the man who can guess nearest the value of a sheep is called a sheepman by the public, a fool by the grazier, and a poor business man by his creditors. The price of sheep is determined at Addington. Burnside, Westfield, and Stortford Lodge, and goes up when you have sold, and down when you have bought. An agent working for a e country stock and station firm was sent to one centre to watch the sheep market, and after a few days’ deliberation wired his firm to this effect: —‘Some think they will go down, and some think they will go up. I do too. Whatever you do will be wrong. Act at once.’ Sheep are born in the spring, mortgaged in the winter, and die in the autumn. You can and you can’t. You will and you won’t. Be damned if you do and be damned if you don’t.”

Mangolds. The mangold crop is an expensive one to grow, because it needs much the same treatment as do market garden crops, in that the land must be kept well cultivated and free from weeds, well fertilised, and the plants must be widely and evenly spaced in the rows. Once the potato crop is planted attention should be given to the sowing of mangold seed, and the resulting crop is worth all the trouble, as the roots are invaluable in earlv spring; at the present time, for instance, when the grass is making but slow headway. The seed is sown with a drill in rows about 30 inches apart, using from six to ten pounds of seed per acre. After germination the rows are carefully thinned, out by hand, and from then onwards the land is constantly cultivated and the weeds destroyed. The crop is a heavy feeder, and should be well manured, say, with 20 tons of farmyard manure per acre before ploughing, and then 2cwt to 3cwt superphosphate and lewt to licwt sulphate of ammonia. Enormous yields of mangolds can be obtained in "suitable locations, and they make an excellent feed for dairy cows and early lambing ewes. In the late autumn the roots are lifted, trimmed, and stacked in clamps and protected with straw and soil so that they will mature properly before feeding. If the roots are fed before being ripened there will be trouble. The roots should, after being lifted, lie for a time on the surface to wilt properly before feeding them to live stock, and if compelled to feed too early it is safer to slice the roots and feed small quantities in admixture with chaff or other similar foodstuffs.

Farm Land Values. The Public Trustee (Mr J. W. Macdonald), in his annual report to Parlia-

ment, touches upon several matters affecting farm values. One aspect will appeal particularly at the present time. Mr Macdonald says:—“ There is widespread evidence that in many eases the remuneration received by the farmer does not represent an adequate return for his labour and for the capital he has invested, after he has paid his fixed charges—rent, interest, rates, etc. —-and with the recent fall in produce prices this difficulty has necessarily become considerably accentuated. The downward tendency in prices of products is caused by world economic conditions which, in the long run. should bring about a more or less stable level. In the final analysis, however, the value of land can be reckoned only in relation to what it will produce, and with the decline in the prices of primary products it is, it seems, inevitable that land prices in this Dominion must also fall. There can be no doubt that during the war, and for many years after, for many causes the prices of land was ‘ hoisted up to insane figures, ami hundreds of sanguine purchasers induced to buy more land than they should and mortgage themselves up to the eyes in the process.’ Since then there has been the cruel but necessary process of deflating land values. We see all around cases where the prices paid for farming lands in the boom years were too high to bear the economic test of a valuation based on the returns from the land concerned. In this, I think, lies the main reason for the inadequate return to the farmer where such is the ease. He has paid too much for his land, or the rental for which he is liable has been based on a valuation not in proportion to the true economic value of his holding. It is worthy of note that the executive of an organisation relating to farming interests has recently set up a committee to consider the question of land valuation in the Dominion, and this committee has now presented a report recommending certain amendments in the present system. It has suggested that in order to prescribe a uniform method of assessing land values a conference of Government land valuers be summoned by the Valuer-general, and, moreover, that similar conference’s be convened in the future at least every five years. Ihe committee recommends that the basis to be adopted in assessing values should be, in the main, the average productive value or carrying capacity of land under average capable management over a period of ten years. In the report a further important suggestion was made—viz., that the local authorities in various districts be asked to nominate a local resident, preferably a farmer, to act with the Government valuer in the assessment of land values. AGRICOLA.