The Farmer’s Page.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XV, Issue 4091, 17 November 1911, Page 6

The Farmer’s Page.

REJECTED COWS. A PLEA FOR BRANDING. Discussing the question of whether rejected dairy cows should be brand- j ed, a southern paper remarks: —“A 1 good sort of an animal makes its appearance in the saleyards, and the ' owner has the effrontery to.state that the animal is a fisrt-class milker, and if he had sufficient feed he would not j part with her, and so on, and on the strength of these recommendations ( the dairyman gives a moderately high . (price for the cow, only to find when ( he gets home that he has been deceived, and that the animal is not ‘ worth for his purpose one-quarter of what he gave for her. It may be said that he has only himself to 1 thank, but the question is: Should the buyer'be placed in that position? ‘ Ls it not desirable that rejected ( cows should be branded in some way, so that everyone would recognise them at once, and buy them for what they really are —viz., grazing cattle? ( A brand would only affect the dairy value, the grazier’s competition being ( still available at store prices. The number of rejects will increase as testing and weeding-out becomes general, and pi- gress will be delayed by having to test the same animal time after time. If they have the appearance of being decent milkers they will make their appearance at intervals in the saleyard, and one buyer after another will be put to needless expense.” SHEEP RETURNS. ’ MORE FAVOURABLE FIGURES. The second interim return presented to Parliament by the Department of Agriculture shows that the figures quoted iu a former return over-esti-mated the decrease in the number of sheep to a very large extent. It was previously stated that the total had shewn a falling-off of about 500,000 during the year. It is reassuring to find from the detailed returns now available that the reported shortage has been reduced by nearly half the number that was first mentioned, especially when it is borne in mind that there was an exceptionally large number of sheep put through the freezing works last year in comparison with the 1910 season, because of the fears that were held regarding a shortage of feed following the dry summer and autumn. This resulted in between 500,000 and 600,000 mote sheep being sent out of the country than in the previous year. The totals for the Dominion are 23,396,126. Of these 12,814,353 are ir the North Island and 11,181,773 in the South Island. Both islands showed a decrease, that in the North being 103,309, while the South showed a falling away of 170,185, making a total decrease for the Dominion ;t 273,494. NOTES FROM ALL SOLRCES. AY HAT OUR EXCHANGES SAY. Thirty-seven entries have been received for the Stratford A. and P. Association’s butter-fat competition. The fleece of a Romney ewe belonging to Air H. Akers, of Linton, weighed 35lbs, and some of the Strands measured 45 inches. The Jersey breed is making great ] headway in the Waikato. A few years ago it was scarcely known; now the Jersey classes are among the most numerous and popular at thshows in that district. A great quantity of the butter output that has been bought bv buyers from England is being sent Home without salt, and, it is alleged, says the Alanawatu Standard, there is a j strong probability that much of it will not be placed on the market un- i der the companies’ own brands, but i will be used by “fakers” to make up 1 brands of their own. Part of it, of course, is going to be used for the Continental trade. 6a ■ r quality cows made up to £ls I at a recent sale in the Shannon <1 is- j triet. ) Messrs Murphy Bros., of South ’ tlerston, have purchased a Hol-steiri-Freisian bull from Mr \\. L Lovelock, of Palmerston North, the price being 40 guineas. Air A. L. O Neale, of the same township, has also purchased one. The Waikato Co-operative Bacon Company (Hamilton,) arc paying 4f<! per lb net weight for bacon pigs. At Knupokonui the simply of milk up to the end of October was about per cent, short of tt received up to the rorresponding period of last year. A stork breeder of wide experience told a reporter that he bus hit upon a it-rviceahle expedient to banisn lung-worm I tom bis flock It is simply keeping a few cattle in the pa 1dock with his sheep. Since he has been doing this lung-worm has given him no trouble, whereas before the annual mortality from that cause was very heavy. He would advise others

TALKS ON TOPICAL SUBJECTS.

NOTES FROM ALL QUARTERS.

to try the same experiment. An up-to-date cheese factory has been erected at Bainesse by Mr K. AlcDonald, of Tiakitahuna. Considerable alterations to the Taihape factory have been effected by the local dairy company this season. A new boiler, a pasteurising plant and cream vats have been installed.

An additional vat (350 gallons), has teen installed at the Greytown dairy factorv.

A few years ago the average product per cow in Denmark was 30001 b. The average production now stands at 60001 b. How was it done? Quite

simple. The Danish farmers listened to the teachers, to the dairy experts, to the men who were studying these things. Acting upon the advice of the teachers, they formed cow-testing associations, they found out what each cow in the herd was doing, and the cow that was not paying her way, or barely. Only the profitable cow was of any use to the Danish dairyman, and lie made it his business to find out which were profitable. After a while he aimed at the most profitable, or at least the more ambitious dairymen did. And in a few years the average production has doubled. In the northern part of India sheep are put to a use unthought of in New Zealand. The mountain paths among the foothills of the Himalayas are so precipitous that the sheep, more surefooted than larger beasts, are preferred as burden-carriers. The load for each sheep is from 161 b to 201 b. The sheep are driven from village to village with tiie wool still growing, and in each town the farmer shears as much wool as he can sell there and loads the sheep with the grain fie receive; in exchange. After his flock has Jieen sheared he turns it homeward, eacli sheep having or. its back a small bag containing the purchased grain. The area under crop in Otago and Southland is said to be exceptionally large this season. Southland farmers, with whom wheat-growing is a fairly recent innovation, have put fully as large an area in wheat as they did last year, and there is understood to be a very large increase in the area under oats in that province, a great deal of new ground having been put under cultivation. In consequence of this there has been a very heavy demand for seed oats throughout the winter.

The black-leg restrictions have not yet been removed in Taranaki. An inspector was recently to be seen busy inoculating a line of some six hundred calves prior to their transference to pastures new in the \Yaikato, to which Land of Promise many Taranaki cattle are now wending their way.

At a meeting of horse breeders at Hastings to consider the question of the proposed Clydesdale stud hook, Air Alitchell (late of Studholme, hut now a resident of Alelbourne) stated that, for the past two years, there was a feeling through Australia that the New Zealand bred horses were too light. Quite 100 Shire horses imported from England had been sold recently up to 400 guineas each, which money would have gone to New Zealand it the horses of this country had been suitable. He considered the present stud-book in the Dominion ' Sufficient to assist Australian buyers in the purchase of pedigree horses. Air Dunlop (manager for Air Ernest Short, of Feilding), said that draught horse pedigrees were very much faked in New Zealand, which would have serious results if allowed to continue. A bundle of 50 head of asparagus from a farm in Belmont, was brought into Geelong (Victoria) and turned the scale at 18flh. At present high prices are being realised for this vegetable, and several district farmers are cultivating it for the Alelbourne markets, and receiving good returns. One farmer in the Drysdalo district, under contract to sell to a carrying j firm in the city at £lB 10s per ton, has a bed of asparagus. He averages three tons per week, and as the crop will keep at that average for twelve weeks, ho will receive over £1350. New Zealanders should not imagine that land in Argentina can be got for next to nothing. They could probably get it just about as cheap in New Zealand in some parts of tho North Island as they can over there. The land that is selling in Argentina at shillings per acre is away out the back of beyond that again, and not the sort of country nor the sort of life that a young New Zealander would like to take on. Station life in New Zealand is not a patch on it for roughness. Land closer in is fairly dear. Land some distance away from Buenos Ayres is worth from £9 to £ll per acre, according to the class and quality.