LIVE STOCK AND THE FARM

Southland Times, Issue 18810, 1 May 1920, Page 7

LIVE STOCK AND THE FARM

The London Daily Telegraph Bradford correspondent commenting on the wool profits, says:-—“ Nobody will deny that spinners’ margins have been the best ever known but the general public should know that a gunner to-day needs five times more profit ihat. before the. war if his net returns are to equal those of 1913. The gross paper profits indicate anything but the true .state of affairs, and so long as spinners have pledged themselves to give every assistance to an impartial and honest inquiry the whole subject can be left until a true and well-balanced statement is made public. Anyone conversant with the facts, and who has a practical knowledge of the trade, knows what wool is costing to-day compared with pre-war times. The fart that to-day upwards of S'Od per lb. has to be paid for greasy combing wool, which before the war was obtainable at from 15d to 18d, and that manufacturing costs have advanced in like proportion, shows that business has to he done on a very different financial basis. In 1014 commission combers charged 2d per lb for converting merino wool into tops. To-day’s price is 7id per lb.—practically 27/5 per cent, increase—and corespomling advances have taken place in every succeeding operation, right to the finished fabric. The general public forget that the highest charges have to be encountered after the cloth leaves the manufacturer.” Another authority in Bradford explains that “at the meeting of the Wool Council m ' July a scheme for the production of stand- ; ard wool goods was brought, forward, which ! recommended that they should be made un- _ 1 dcr compulsory powers to be obtained from Parliament. The representatives of worsted | spinners objected to this recommendation ; in favour of compulsory [rowers. As an ■ alternative they suggested that the scheme should be worked under a voluntary system | and offered to see that the necessary worsted ! yarn was forthcoming. But, with the as - ' sistance of a few employers, the Socialists i carried a resolution insisting on compulsory | [rowers, because they hoped this would he. 1 a step towards realisation of their dream 1 of nationalised woollen and worsted trades. The compulsory clause was retained, the majority in il.s favour being composed main- ' !y of Socialists. The standard clothing ! scheme thereupon went forward to the board, and nothing has been done. Had the voluntary scheme proposed by the wor.icd spinners been accepted the production of standard clothing and wool goods would have proceeded at once, and they would ere now have been on the market. That there are no such cheap wool goods available for the poorer section of the community, the Socialists are themselves to blame. ; Admitting that certain classes of fine wools :>r. London auctions have advanced by more than 100 per cent, the Bradford correspon- , dent of the Yorkshire Post considers that l Mr Mackinder should have known that the ! lower grades have been badly neglected ; they I are even a drug on the market, and some ! of i-hem arc nearly down to fixed issue price. 1 Therefore, to apply the 100 per cent, increase to the whole of the wool was to make an error of judgment which must weigh heavily with those who have been inclined to ac- ■ ccpt Mr Mackinder us an authority on mali tors connected with the wool trade. Now I that this £60.000.000 kite has gone with the : 0.200 per cent, excess of profit on the spinners' own figures, and the attempt to fix responsibility on employers for failure of the last standard clothing proposals Mr Mackinder is be refit of what so far have been his three principal weapons in the fight for nationalisation of the woollen and worsted industries. Had this purchase of Austra- | lasian wool terminated with the signing n: j the armistice all the profit would now be going to the [rockets of the wool growers and merchants, as the profit on British wool is going into the pockets of the farmers and merchants. One wonders what would have happened had the Government Department continued to distribute wool and tops at fixed prices whilst British wool was free, and selling, as it undoubtedly would have • sold, on a substantially higher basis than j Australian wool? Is it conceivable that the Australian and Now Zealand Governments would have agreed to any such proceeding? If that had been done, nnmi- | facturered goods would still have fetched the highest [trices possible in the open raar- ! ket, whether sold on home or export account. The Australasian Governments reserved to themselves the right to take half the profit made on wool sold for private trade in excess of what was paid for wool used for military contract.'. Does not this reserve to the Australasian Governments the rigid to interfere if convinced that their interests we.re hieing sacrificed for the benefit of those engaged in the various processes of manufacture for private trade? 1 think all business men must answer in the affirmative, whatever those agitating for nationalisation may say. Thai, being so, rasott to public auctions for the purirose of ascertaining the true market value of the raw material was inevitable, and we were fortunate that there were no complaints from wool growers about the distribution of 456,000 bides of wool at fixed prices for other than military purposes.” A large cattle deal was completed recently. A draft of 204 head of fat and forward Hereford bullocks and. heifers from Mr Geo. Pinckney’s Gle.nrary run. Upper Walkaia, being sold to Hr iVter Anderson, of inchclutlia. The draft, consisted of 252 five, six, and seven-year-old bullocks, 31 fat and foiwani heifeis (mostly three and four-year-olds), the balance of 11 hieing made up of fat cows. The mob when mustered made a very fine showing, and all were, bred and fattened on the tussock on Glengary station. The bulk of the draft were the progeny of Holmes’s Wiiimahaka Hereford. The monetary value of the final exceeded £5,506. The cry for phosphate manures is becoming increasingly insistent throughout the country. The lack of these fertilisers for pastures and crops is causing serious alarm ami loss in many districts, and last week the Prime Minister marie a statement cm the subject, for which he desires the fullest publicity'. “1 have been communicating with the Australian Government for some time past,” ho said, “but I have not yet been able to persuade it to allow the export of superphosphates to New Zc land. I sent another telegram only a, few days ago. It may be necessary to get more equipment for dealing with rock' phosphates in this country, but that is not certain.. There is a big factory at Auckland not yet completed, at which it is expected one hundred thousand tons a yea- will be treated. On this I can express no opinion. My own feeling is that there ought to be separate plants in the principal provincial districts, near to ports at which rock phosphate can be handled. As indicating that tire Auckland company, the Auckland Farmers’ Fertiliser Company, are making ready for dealing with rock phosphates, I received a telegram from them the other day, in which they asked me whether the Government would be supplying them with cargoes of rock phosphides, or whether they would have to make their own arrangements. Until the Nauru purchase is completed it is almost impossible for me to give a definite reply to the inquiry. The company which is the owner of the deposits ami works at Nauru owns no ships, but I have been informed that they have six chartered vessels, and I am not sure whether we take over these chartered vessels or not. All the negotiations for the purchase of the company’s assets are in the hands of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and I have no doubt he will bring the business to a conclusion as soon as possible. I have been led to believe that the purchase will be completed about the beginning of July.” It is not particularly reassuring to learn that all the arrangements for the completion

WOOL PROFITS

Clover Sickness

BY “HARVESTER.’'

, of the Nauru purchase remain in the hands i of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. ] This gentleman cannot understand the uri gency of our needs,’ and in any case Ls not ■ habitually given to hurrying. But Mi | Massey has thought of this, and holds out some hope of supplies being available before j the tardy methods of the Colonial Office j have run their full course. “I think,” he said in conclusion, “it will be quite possible I to get phosphates from Nauru before the j purchase is complete, but until we are sure i that we have plant to deal with the rock this may not be desirable. I arranged with the managing director of the company that if any phosphates were required, even if the purchase scheme fell through, we could have all that we needed. But in the meantime our capacity for dealing with rock phosphate is very limited.” All this is rather cold comfort for the waiting farmers, i but the Prime Minister evidently is doing everything possible to satisfy their requirements. A large-sized dairy herd was sold in Taranaki the other day at an average price of £3B sa. This should give dairymen some idea of the effect the various milki powder factories to come into operation, next year are having on the price of dairy cows. It may well be considered reasonable with prices such as the above already quoted, dairy cows will reach £SO per head in the spring, as was earlier predicted. A party of Southlanders, Messrs Alex S. Holms, of Waimahaka Estate, A. F. Blatch, To Anau, J. Carmichael, Waimahaka, and James Ring, Tuatapere, attended the recent sales of Hereford cattle in the North Island. Mr Moore’s stud at Wanganui brought the highest prices, a yearling bull by the. imported sire, Manscl Jack Tar, selling for 1000 guineas. Mr Holms bought a young bull by this sire and another by the imported bull, Rufus, at vers' high figures also. In addition he bought several of the highest priced females. At Mr Short’s sale at Feilding, prices were not so high, although a record was made for a cow, 405 guineas being paid by Mr Short’s son for the animal in question. Both Mr King, who already has a small stud, and Mr Blatch, were extensive buyers and got some very fair stock at reasonable prices. The Southlanders report that the Manawatu and Taranaki districts are having a wonderful autumn and dairy cows are milking almost as well (in April) as in the spring of the year. There is in fact a great surplus of winter feed, oki inhabitants having no recollection of such a season. This is assisting considerably to maintain the high prices going in those districts for dairying country. Farms in good districts in the Manawatu, from forty to one hundred acres range in value from £l4O to £IBO an acre, and appear to be still rising. At least £2OOO in cash has now to be paid down however to get possession of a fifty acre farm.

Mr A. Amos, of the School of Agriculture, Cambridge, writes in the Auckland Star: ‘'Experiments were made at Rot-ham.sted, when clover was planted in 1854 and grown year by year from the same plot until IS74—all grown without any very serious failure—and during that period it was only necessary to resow on five occasions. If the explanation of clover sickness was that clover left bciiind in the soil some noxious, substance, surely in those 21 years that particular patch of clover would have been so full of the material that it would have been impossible for it to continue growing? It is believed that there were two diseases which were responsible for clover failure. One was caused by the eel-worm, which lived in the stems and roots of the plant, and the other was caused by a fungus disease. Take the eel-worm disease first That was a disease which attacked the plant, very slowly. The diseased plant becomes covered with spots, which gradually spread; and while in the autumn it might lie extftmiely difficuit to find these spots, in the spring and summer, as the disease spread, they became more evident. The main point alxiut the disease was that it spread slowly hut mnorseiy. The eel worms, when they completed their lives, produced a 1 arm, number of eggs, and those eggs were responsible for keeping (he disease going over a number of years, until clover was replanted on the same land. lied clover (both ordinary ami cow grossi were both .susceptible, as were .Swedish clover and kidney vc-tcb and crimson clover, but sainfoin and trefoil, white clover, and lucerne were other plants which under no circumstances took the disease. The other disease is stem-rot. That disease was caused by a fungus, which was quite different from eel-worm. It is similar in character to the potato disease, and was caused by mildew. Thus disease look (he plant quickly and suddenly, and the plants died down rapidly under the attack, the foliage changed colour, and in some cases they could actually see the disease growing on the plant as a while mildew. The stem-rot disease did not spread in quite the same way as the eel-worm disease. It spread rapidly, only it did not attack every plant as it went from one centre. The cause of the plants being killed we? plainly the noxious black bodies, or fruits, on the roots and stems, and also the method by which the disease was carried on from one year to (be next, or for several years. This fungus produced a large number cf spores or seeds, which were shot up into the air and distributed on any clover plants that happened to be in the neighbourhood. In this case no cloverlike plant was immune to the disease, and, therefore, for the present it is recommended not to have clover 100 frequently on land which had once fallen with this clover rot —eight, ten or twelve years’ interval must be allowed if the disease had occurred badly.” Despite the high prices going for pedigree Friesian cattle, there are still many bargains to be picked up by keen buyers, as it. is reported that a young North Island breeder bought for £SO a cow which promises to make a thousand pounds of butter fat in a year. Talking about records of this kind, there is no doubt that the Fries ian breed is easily the heaviest producing breed of the animal kingdom. In New Zealand itself, some hundreds of this breed have given over 600 lbs of fat in a year, and as the average production of the New Zealand dairy' cow is only 150 lb? a year, it is easy to see why this breed has become so popular. Some half dozen cows of this breed here are already known to be capable, if forced, of making the four Figure record, Le, 1000 pounds of butlerfat a year. As at present prices this would mean £llO a year as the single return, from one cow, fewer cows of this high-producing breed can be kept and a much greater return obtained, and still leave ample space to run store stock. The drudgery attached to dairying is mainly caused through dairymen milking too many inferior cows. Certain American breeders have been discussing polled characteristics of cattle. One authority, Mr E. N. Wentworth, stated that “polled animals, having one polled parent, do not differ in shape of head or in sours from those having two polled parents.” This statement has provoked D. B. Tideman to record that he has questioned many breeders of polled cattle who are close students, and he believe they disagree with this statement. He had never seen a female of Polled Shorthorn breeding with scurs. He had seen a few Shorthorns with loose horns, but Polled Shorthorn females were either polled or homed. With bulb, however, it was different. A bull could be judged only when mature. Scurs often developed late on a bull, and they may be so light that they could be picked off with a finger nail. A person must look closely ,

to see them. He had never seen a mature bull with one horned parent that did not show a scur, except one in a show ring, but he developed a light one later. A tiny | flake, Mr Thieman stated, is as bad as j a large loose horn or scur. To which Mr I Wentworth replied: “It would indeed be | fortunate for the Polled Shorthorn interests 1 if this were right.. It is to be expected i that cows would have lighter scurs than bulls, because the secondary sex characters in the horns always result in a lighter horn for the female than the male, and there is probably the same difference existent with regard to the scur. Both Polled Shorthorn females with light scurs do exist, as I have seen two such animals. As to whether they inherited hornlessness from both parents or one I have no data. A further discrepancy that I have known with regard to the correspondent’s theory is that I have seen bulls that proved themselves to be impure with reference to the polled condition—that is, they had inherited it from one parent only—that had good clean heads without a trace of scur. Yet my ! instances have been extremely exceptional, j and the experience, of the correspondent may i represent the normal procedure. If the lat- f ter be true, it is worth much to know that . the bull with sours is going to transmit horns regularly, while the one without them is probably pure. Before admitting such a principle, however, I should require broad evidence from a number of breeders, in which they would submit the names, regis- j try number and description of the bulls ■ with regard to the horned or hornless con- i dition of each calf they had sired. It would j then be possible to determine exactly what j the situation is. Until that time any j speculation as to the relation between ex- j ternal appearance and purity of poiledness I is only as good as the evidence on which it is based, and to date the amount of evidence worthy of scientific acceptance is small. Yet it is possible for any widely acquainted reliable breeder to collect this information ; possibly it should he done by j the association, to give it the stamp of authority. Even then, one could not be sure that every man would have told the whole truth. It is so easy to tell partial truths when one wishes to support a certain idea.” Mr James Ryan, of Bireswater, Otautau. who recently returned from a visit to the North Lsland, was greatly struck with the general air of prosperity amongst the farming community there. A very prosperous season was being experienced in the dairying districts particularly, and the strides being made in this branch of farming were tremendous. Dairy cows, although at the end of the season were in keen demand at prices ranging up to £35. Money was very plentiful and dealing in land is very prevalent.

A number of fanners in the Taranaki district have been experimenting this year with various fodder plants, and last month an officer of the. Department of Agriculture visited the district for the purpose-of reporting upon the results obtained from Japanese millet. “The first place I visited was Mr F. G. Smith’s, at Tarurutangi,” the officer said in commenting upon his inspection. “He has eight acres under Japanese millet, sown rhe first week in November. He started feeding off about the middle of January, when the crop was about 12 inches high. Forty-five cows were turned on, but for the first week were allowed to remain only half an hour each day. This time was extended to three-quarters of an hour the second week, after which and up to the rime of my visit on March Kith, the cows bad the run of the paddock for three or four hour? each day, and (.here is still good feed on the ground. The cows appear to relish the millet, and arc continuing to do ?o well on it that Mr Smith has not yet started to feed out the soft turnip crop, but more slock will now be put on to finish off and enable the ground to be ploughed for sowing down with grass. The amount of seed sown per acre was 151b. This would appear to be too light, as the crop was on the thin side. A further 10!b of seed per acre would have been advantageous, and Mr Smith says that ;u future, he would not sow less than 301b per .acre," The officer who visited the farms of Mr Herbert Sampson, at Beil Block, and Mr D. Knuckcy, at W altera, where he found equally good results upon a somewhat smaller scale being obtained. Mr Sampson sowed 51 acres for ensilage, and estimates he has approximately 00 tons green weight of material. Hr Knuekey sowed 31 acres in the proportion of 151b millet seed to one bushed of grass, and claims to have 32 ton? of green material. In connection with these experiments it has to be remembered that millet is a warm climate plant, and would not be likely i to do well even in the North Island in a cold season. Seed of all kinds seems likely to become dearer, and high prices are ruling to the producers. Cow-grass i.s net ling growers in the Marlborough district, 2/0 to 2/8 per lb. 1 A cablegram was received recently implying that the Imperial control of butter produce, as at present, was to be continued. | 'When this question was first raised some months ago, the Prime Minister made enquiries from the Imperial authorities as to their wishes in the marler. In reply, the British Government enquired on what ten;:?, the New Zealand producers would lie prepared to sell. As the New Zealand producers wish to have a free market, and r.s the cablegram was not definite in some par--1 licit Lire fa admit of a direct answer be/ig I given, Mr Massey made further e'nqiuri-'s iby cable. No conclusive reply has yet been | received. The New Zealand Government | has not ypt had advice as to whether the i British Government intends to continue, the commandeer or not. Mr Massey has expressed his personal opinion that the control of butter may be continued, but that he does not think there will be any control in respect of cheese. At a conference the other day between dairymen and the Premier, the former adhered to their previous decision of a free market. Clydesdale breeders must bn jubilant at the high .prices which have recently been in evidence tit various dispersal .salts, and the payment of £1,020 for a two year-old colt at Mr .1. Bong’s dispersal sale is an easy record for a horse bred in the Dominion. Owing to the falling-off in breeding during the past few years, there is now a distinct shortage of good horses in ihe country and on this score alone prices must continue to mount, up. There is also the disposition of private owners to cut up large estates, end the great increase in land values, both of which will iniiuenee greatly the amount of cultivation undertaken. This will effect the horse-breeding industry very favourably. An inter-?!ate congress of consumers and co-operative societies at; Sydney had the object of organising and developing a cooperative system throughout the Commonwealth. with a view to cutting out excessive unregulated competition and waste in production and distribution, and securing the highest standard of efficiency by co-opera-tive purchase and disposal. It will thus secure profit-sharing between masters and workmen, and cut out any attempt to exploit the public. The conference decided to form a co-operative union embracing the whole Commonwealth, and to proceed with propaganda work. Southlamiers who have been visiting the North Island consider that there is reason to believe that the future outlook for a market in the North Island for South-land-bred stud stock is a very favourable one. In addition to the. old-established flocks here, many other? have been formed of later years with the use of the most fashionable North Island strains. It is now possible for Southland flock masters to resell North Island sheep and stock bred in the South but mostly of North Island blood and this fact Ls recognised by breeders there, so that it is quite possible a demand will be in evidence for stock in the near future. In fact one prominent breeder stated to a Southiander that he had every intention of attending Mr W. D. Hunt’s sale next year to see the effect breeding sheep from North Island blood had had, and if it came up to his expectations he would be a purchaser. He fully recognised that Southland-bred sheep were endowed with wonderful constitutions.