THE FARM

Patea Mail, Volume XLVIII, 22 May 1925, Page 3

THE FARM

FARMING NOTES Pork aud its various products constitute one of the most valuable of America’s exports. Groat Britain is America’s largest customer. Black barley is a most profitable crop for winter grazing, and is particularly suited to heavy river flats, where it grows luxuriantly and stands up to grazing. Of the .200,000,000 acres of land cultivated in India, over 50,000,000 acres are irriagted. Eggs in France cannot bo sold as “fresh” if they have been in cold storage. The interchange of ideas and sound conclusions drawn from experience is one of the principal aids to progress in the dairying industry. The amount of water thirsty sheep will consume was noted by a Southland farmer. Nine of his sheep drank four tins totalling 12 gallons, an average of one and a half gallons each. The sheep at the time had not tasted water since the last rain fell in the district, some three weeks previously.

Loudon imports annually £1,800,000 worth of eggs. Denmark, the size of the province of Canterbury, .reccHcs £520,000 each year for her eggs on tho Loudon market.

It is recalled that Mr Clement "Wiagge, the famous weather ologist, who has been dead those several years, made the following forecast for New Zealand: “1n’1025 matters will begin to improve, and continue improving during 1020, and good seasons will prevail from 1027 to 1930, inclusive.”

Most people will agree with us (says the “Lyttelton Times”) that tho decline of agriculture ought to be checked in New Zealand as in Britain, and they will also agree with us, we think, in the conclusion that the industry must, to a very great extent, work out its own salvation. External and artificial aids may help a young industry to gain strength, or an old one to tide over a difficult period, but they cannot be permanently relied upon to keep alive an old industry that has lost its economic basis.

Evidence of how sheep will retain their bloom in a dry season, so long as they can get plenty of water, was given at a farmers' meeting in Southland. One farmer had a line of wethers in two paddocks. One lot could obtain water from a trough at a windmill, while the others could not obtain water in their paddocks. He considered that .there was 5/- difference in the value of two lots, and the wethers that were securing water had more bloom in their wool.