LIVE STOCK & THE FARM

Southland Times, Issue 19224, 14 May 1921, Page 7

LIVE STOCK & THE FARM

N.Z. SHORTHORNS.

American View of* Outlook.

(By

“Harvester.”)

Messrs E. W. Evans and A. M. Miller, the - two. South African visitors who recently toured Australia and New Zealand with a I view to studying the cattle-raising industry, I and purchasing some stud animals, stated in the course of an interview with the New Zealand Farmer:—“We have seen fine Hereford stud herds, and. are taking from New Zealand and Australia a number of animals of this breed. What we have missed most in New Zealand is the Scotstype Shorthorn. Whatever New Zealand may think, this is an age of specialisation; whether it is milk or beef or wool or mutton, the wi rid want the best, and the general utility animal—where facilities tor the handling of the aforesaid products are available—has become a back number. Wool-classing is a concrete science, the best is known and demanded. The world wants top quality beef, and the man is not born who can foist a fat general utility carcase for a true ( beefer with cuts of prime in the right place, on the Smithfield buyer. New Zealand should be capable of reaching the high water mark in quality and condition where beef animals are concerned, and nothing should satisfy a people possessing this country’s magnificent pasturage but the best. In almost every part of New Zealand we have heard from farmers that the Shorthorn as a range animal does not maintain its reputation. We understand that there are one or two herds of Scots-topped Shorthorn?, and we hope to see them before we leave but apart from these isolated introductions we do not consider that New Zealand has given the Shorthorn a fair trial. We do not think that the type of Shorthorn we Have seen in the North and South Islands was ever intended for range purposes. The herds seem to have developed from old Bates types, but the Bates type for range beef production and all it implies —hardiness capacity to forage, growth under reasonably hard conditions—is outclassed by the modern Scots type. South Africa in parts is no more favourable to beef production than areas we have seen in New Zealand, has succeeded in maintaining the high traditions of the breed in favourable localities, and what South Africa has done New Zealand can do. We are convinced that a careful study of the records would encourage Shorthorn breeders in the Dominion to make a bid for high quality stud herds, but it would mean the jettisoning of the type at present in the country.” The Metropolitan Farm, Werribee, Victoria, where the sewage of Melbourne is utilised, for irrigation purposes, is evidently a well-managed concern. The total area is 12,556 acres, of which nearly 7000 are irrigated, and at the present time carry 5782 head of cattle, besides calves, 5120 sheep, and 334 horses. The profit on the farm trading account for last year was £41,061, and after charge cost of sewage purification and interest on capital, a net profit of £5661 is shown.

In the March number of the Chicago Breeders’ Gazette appears an article from the pen of an lowa farmer-banker on the depressed market conditions for farm products throughout the States. His views have a very general application, and for that reason are worth republishing. The writer (Mr W. H. Brenton) claims that during 1919 the greatest speculation in the history of the nation took place. It was not on the Board of trade; it was not in the oilfields of the south. It took place on the fertile farms of the cornbelt, and also in the surrounding States. This speculation was little less than a gambling scheme, promoted by speculators, and not alone by them, as farmers were a principal party to the transaction. Nearly everyone knows that when one person makes an enormous sura of money another is thrown for a loss. It was common during 1919 to hear farmers telling of the great amount that they cleared on land that they had sold. Men bought this land; now they are trying hard to pay for it. Not all of the farm land was transferred during this period cf speculation, but all of the land-owners advanced the price of their farms, in their minds, at least. Prices are now trying to come back to normal. This land also declines in value, and consequently farm products take a drop. Farmers who owned their land are not badly off financially, but speculative farmers are going to have a hard life in paying their big debt on small incomes. This situation is not norm’ll. If all war periods are studied it will be seen that prices inflate during unsettled periods and, as national affairs become settled, the financial condition receives a great shock. During the recent war we went through a period of high prices. Farmers made large amounts on their land. They felt prosperous, and consequently increased their land values to correspond with their incoipes. We can expect no other reaction after a world-wide conflict. Hard times are ahead; they will not be the first that this country has gone through. Men have speculated before, and lost. During periods of inflated prices men go money-mad. It seems to grow on bushes, but we must come back to our landing places. We must live as we lived before. We are used, for a time, to high prices and extravagance; then the bottom gives way, and we find ourselves working for what we spend. Let us take a look at the last few years, and analyse what we have been doing. We gave to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Young Men’s Christian Association, and many war organisations, and on the top of this we bought huge amounts of Liberty Bonds. We did not notice the loss of the money much. Our incomes seemed to be large enough to take care of our expenditures, and still we made out large income-tax leports. Our farms never paid so much in their history. Look over the prices that we received for grain and live stock? Not long before the war we would have patted ourselves on the back if our cattle had brought 10 dollars per cwt. Would we look at this price for the last few years? We would not. Twenty dollar tops were common; we thought nothing of them. The farmer for the past few years has had a prosperous time. Great was his enjoyment, while it lasted. He had money; he went wild, and spent it. 1 do not wish to convey the idea that the farmer alone has been prosperous; men in many other lines of business have made huge profits. I refer mostly to farmers because I am writing about them, and my interests are mostly among them. Did we lay away money during our prosperity, for fear of hard times and a money shortage? We made money. Why didn’t we put it in the bank, when there was so much of it to put away? This may be said to be a thing that never happens. People never eave money on high prices, but they do eave it on low prices, when wages are low and working hours are long. The human race, as a whole, does not think of saving money when it is plentiful,J but it saves it when it is forced to see that it is scarce and hard to obtain. If the war had continued prices would undoubtedly have gone much higher. Each week strikes were started for higher wages, and less work. The people of this country have not practised thrift for the past few years, nor have they set themselves hard at work, but rather than this they have been spending lavishly the money which they earned easily. We are approaching hard times. We like to think at least that our financial system is so strong that we cannot have a panic. The present situation is quite panicky, but we have so far been strong enough to ward it off. Let us hope that we shall continue to be and stay as far away from panics as possible. Prices and conditions are just coming back to the place where we left them. Farmers should not gain the impression that they alone are losing money, due to reduction in, prices. Merchants are losing. Farmers have been

more prosperous than any other class of people. At present merchants are trying to pay heavy, debt on fast-fallng price?, and they have not been speculating either. Everyone is noticing the great demand for money, and the enormous lack of it. Many people are of opinion that bankers are tightening up on money so that it will draw a higher rate of interest. This is not true. Farmers are the heaviest borrowers in the cornbelt, and in other farming districts. The banks have not forced the borrowers to sell on a declining market. It seems to I me that the bankers have been most lenient with them in extending their notes. Many renters, w’ho a rew -ninths ago were considered to be in a strong financial condition, are now on the verge of bankruptcy. They invested everything, thinking that prices would continue high. Prices dropped, and the renter is left in a critical condition. Next comes the man who bought highpriced land, paid a small amount down, and has no other resources. This second class is not so small in number. The man who expects to pay interest on a 2500 dollar mortgage and make the land earn him a firing at the same time is badly fooled, There undoubtedly are men who can do it by using the whole family for work, but it will be the work instead of the land that pays the interest. Undoubtedly our prosperity is over for a few years, at least. We have spent much money on worthless projects. lhey say that it takes fools and their money to keep the world going, and we certainly have been furnishing both. The money is spent, and much of the debt is yet to be paid, but it is too late to make amends. Our faults are all too plain after the damage is complete. What is the next move It has been recommended that farmers should grow 7 smaller crops under low prices. This is the wrong thing to do. The prosperity of the country will only be regained by hard work, and much of it. I may cite as an instance where France came out of a difficult financial situation after the 1871 war. What will we do? The farmer has a task, and the world depends upon him for a living. If he does his work well the nation will again be .upon a firm foundation. Low prices are hard to realise. Men hate to think of being ruined by the drop; they are looking for every possible loophole of escape. We shall soon be accustomed to low prices, and then the present delicate situation will be relieved by the movement of crops. Until that time comes our only loophole is work and production. I am not trying to run down farmers, for it is upon them that this nation depends, and they deserve all the credit that is due them. They have paved this nation’s way to success. They are without a doubt the balance wheel and stabilising power of the nation. They will rise to the occasion. I want to see this nation come through this delicate situation safely, and in order to do so we must all work, and not altogether for pay, but with a determination to win, and again get back on our feet. The sooner we forget about wages and shorter hours the quicker will the credit of the business world be reestablished on a normal footing. This is not meant in the spirit of criticism. It has been jvritten so that we may see ourselves as we are, and this situation as it really is, and then apply the remedy of toil and thrift. “Money ia saved*onlj/ when it is scarce, a’hd ro' when it ’ entiful.”

It is not the farmers who work the hardest at manual labour, although they work with all their energies, who are the most successful. There may be none exempt from labour, but it is not equally well applied and directed. If we take two men of about equal physical development, the one who excels and accomplishes the more is the one who uses his brainpower the more. It is this brain-power that the farmer should cultivate to the utmost. The time has now come that the highest intelligence and the most careful training are demanded from those who succeed on the land. We may not underrate the practical knowledge that has served so well, and we cannot over rate the importance of the scientific study of farming—the one is needful to the other, and science is futile if it fails to assure tn practice greater efficiency and better results on the farm. The young iAan who is going on the land may well consider the. great principles and influence that' he will come in contact with, and that he should understand them if he intends to succeed. The dependence of the farmer on arts and sciences is actually greater than that of men engaged in other occupations; his range of work is wider than that oi me manufacturer. There can be no comparison in that, but the manufacturer brings science to his aid, an<| the farmer, we may sincerely hope, will realise in greater and still greater degree the power of science in advancement of agriculture, and with the appreciation of the influence of science, the young farmer who will add to his knowledge by reading and thinking out the problems of (he soil will not only secure greater results, but he will add greater interest to his own life and occupation. It is not, perhaps, difficult to understand why farm book-keeping . has been neglected in the past. Our farmers have been more of the type of the pioneer than that of the plain soil tiller, and apart from the distaste for accounts and writing of the man of the open air, his monetary affairs have been generally flourishing. These conditions are changing, there is the greater competition of modern times, with this comes the greater necessity to make a better use of the land. The increasing cost of all operations of the farm, the value of the land and the stock, the pressure of taxation, a'l tend to bring the farm and the factory into the same lines. The man on the land to-day, if he is io be successful, must have accurate records of his work. The merchant and the manufacturer keep their records; how then is it that there is no farm ledger? Public attention was directed some time ago, by articles in the French and English press, to.so-called new processes of growing wheat, which were stated to lead to considerable increases in crop. Certain papers referred to the matter as a revolution in farming. The English Ministry of Agriculture communicated on the subject, with the French Ministry of Agriculture, which Department was kind enough to supply a memorandum on the question, of which the following is a summary. Thfcse processes consist in steeping the seed in solutions of chemical manures (potassium titrate, sulphate of ammonia, or ammonium phosphate, etc.). These operations arc said to lead to a better growth of vegetation and high yields of com and straw with the minimum expenditure on manures. Some times the authors of the processes recommend steeping in a solution of a single salt (3 per cent, potassium nitrate for 12 hours —the Larbonne process), sometimes in a solution of which the composition is kept secret, as in the Pion-Gaud process. The Carlos Rossi process consists in steeping the seed in a mixture of artificial fertilisers. The steeping processes are all based on the attractive but inaccurate theory that an economic method of using artificial fertilisers is to place them at the disposal of the embryo in a soluble or assimilable form. Experiments have shown that the results obtained are due to physical causes or experimental conditions. The steeping of seed in a nutrient liquid results in a stimulation of germination, but from this point of view’ steeping seeds in pure water is sufficient and preferable. As far back as 1886, Dr Worley, of Munich, came to the following conclusions:— (1) The steeping of seeds in solutions of manures does not give any better result than steeping in pure water. (2) It is not the manurial solution which is responsible, but the physical facts of

imbibition which facilitate germination, and, in consequence, growth. (3) A large number of solutions of manures used, and notably the 1 per cent, solution of potassium nitrate, have a harmful effect. (4) It is not true that the very small quantity of salts with which the seed is impregnated furnish the embryo with nutrients useful for its rapid development. The embryo obtains its nourishment solely from the organic reserves of the cotyledons and the endosperm. (5) In steeping, the fertilising salts must be in very small quantities; otherwise they would affect germination injuriously. M. Andre, Professor at the French National Agricultural Institute, studied the effect of certain salts on germination but not on the crop; he showed that the results obtained were contradictory, and concluded (1) that most seeds are killed byeven a very weak acid solution, (2) that many saline solutions are favourable to germination if thoir strength does not exceed 0.2 per cent, to 0.4 per cent., (3) that manures, although very useful when the embryo has started to grow, may be harmful if the solution is too highly concentrated. In support of these conclusions, M. Andre cites the phenomenon very frequently observed by farmers at the time of applying manures, that in the absence of rain, or/if the mixing of manures with the soil is badly carried out, it may hap pen that seeds falling into a too highly saline environment are killed.

What amounts to a new science, whose object is to increase the fertility of British acres, is being undertaken at Rothamsted, near Harpenden, the oldest and moat scientific agricultural establishment in the world. The new branch of science is a department of “Soil Physics.” It has already been discovered by workers at Rothamsted and elsewhere that those bene, ficent bacteria which make soil fertile are much more numerous and active in the autumn. This fact, it is held, is directly concerned with the substitution of the tractor for the horse-drawn plough. The earlier and quicker land is ploughed the greater its fertility. A demonstration with an English-made tractor was given before a number of farmers, to illustrate the necessity of tractors if more is to be produced per acre. The tractor works three or four times as quickly as the horse, and can take rapid advantage of suitable weather. On the Rothamsted farm all the ploughing was done before Christmas, and the time thus left for extra spring cultivation—previously altogether omitted—immensely improves the crops. For example, the particular 10-acre field being reploughed by the tractor and a three-fur-rowed plough at the demonstration could be completely finished off in two days, and only one man be employed. The experience there is that even at present wages an acre can be more cheaply ploughed with the help of the tractor than at pre-war wages with horses. Referring to a statement which had been made casting doubt? upon the accuracy of the experts' diagnosis of the disease affecting the fruit trees in the Auckland province. Dr Tillyard said that anyone who talked in that way should be “sent to where you send your queer people.” The New Zealand variety of fire-blight, he stated, appeared to be distinct from the parent, the American variety, in one single direction only, and this difference was a very important one. In all otfrer respects it was absolutely the same in the virulence of its attack. It appeared to be, if-any thing, more violent than the American form. Anyone who had listened as he had to the very convincing explanation given by Dr Cockayne, and the plant bacteriologist, Mr Watera, could no longer have any uncertainty as to the proved fact that a very virulent form of fire-blight was actually present in New Zealand. Mr W. D. Lysnar, M.P., is continuing the rigorous campaign against the “trusts” and “combines.” A big gathering of fanners he addressed at Gisborne at the end of last week adopted the following motion: “That, in the opinion of this meeting, the Government should take immediate and effective steps to stop" absolutely the trust and big combines from directly or indirectly buying or controlling any freezing works in the* dominion or from operating in any way on our produce; and, in particular, to stop Armour’s and Vesty’s, and the latter’s organisations, from operating in New Zealand in any manner however, in connection with the freezing industry.” The motion is somewhat incoherent in its emphasis, but its meaning is obvious enough, and if Mr Lysnar gets his way the trusts and combines will receive very short shrift in this country.

It is now stated that Mr Massey’s estimate of the cost of the crude Nauru rock phosphate landed in New Zealand is somewhat below the mark. The Prime Minister stated, in reply to a question in the House of Representatives during the short session, that the rock would be landed in the dominion at £4 5s a ton, that crushing would entail a further charge of 12s Gd a ton, and that if an additional 10s a ton were added to these figures, some idea of the cost of the ground rock to the farmer would be obtained. According to a statement made by the manager of the New Zealand Fertiliser Company in Auckland, however, farmers will have to pay considerably more than the price indicated by Mr Massey for any preparation that will be of much value to them. This authority thinks the ground rock will give no adequate results unless it is scientifically treated and converted into superphosphates. This is the form in which most purchasers wish to have it. and its conversion is a fairly expensive process. Only 24 per cent, of t.he ground rock is soluble, but when it is treated it all ia available. The Prime Minister's estimate, it is said, did not take in‘o account the cost of bagging, railage, wharfage, stevedoring charges, and other incidental charges. The Nauru product is being sold at from £8 10s to £9 1 Os a ton as a superphosphate, and at considerably above the Minister’s estimate in the ground form. The massive Shorthorn bullock, bred by Mr R. W. Trotter (Kurow) and sold at last August National sale at Addington for £204 to Messrs Dixon Bros., butchers Christchurch, and subsequently disposed of by them for show purposes, has been bought by an Australian showman, Mr Hesse, for exhibition in that country. “Samson,” as he was appropriately n.-.med, has in the interim been the subject of much interest at shows throughout the South Island. The bullock has been a good “doer” and has

scaled as high as 3500 lb. It may be re membered that a competition betweer. “Samson” and another big Shorthorn, “Goliath,” bred by Mr Hazlett, of the Taieri—was won by the former by about a hundredweight. The Tnieri bullock has been shown in Australia for some time by the present purchaser of “Samson,” and it is stated that at the Sydney Royal Show he earned in drillings the extraordinary sum of £ll7O. He has sirree broken down, and the Kurow bullock has been bought by Mr Hesse to take his place, the price paid for him being £3OO. His measurements are interesting—from tip to tip (nose to end of tail) 15ft, height 6ft 2Ain, girth 10ft sjin. One of the heavy Romney sheep brought down from the North Island for last Na- | tional sale by Mr’ Tubman, and which incidentally then weighed with the fleece 3321 b, accompanies Samson in his perigrinations. They are inseparable companions, no doubt a factor in the bovine’s retention of his condition. An American authority says a cow producing 70001 b of 3.5 per cent, milk will produce the equivalent food value of two steers, and if she makes ll,000!b, she will produce more human food in a year than is found in the carcases cf three steers that have required feed and care for two years. At the end of the year what have we? On the side of the three steers, 12721 b of protein and fat, three hides, six horns, and twelve hoofs, and that is all. On the side of the cow 12941 b of protein sugar, and fat, four hoofs supporting and a hide covering a live cow ready to repeat her last year’? performance with a yearling calf that will grew’ to take its place by the mother’s side as a milk producer. The three steers died to give up their food, the cow lived and will continue to produce and reproduce. Indeed we have had cows 23 years old that have produced 21 strong calves and that are to-day yielding 401 b of milk a day that contains 4.51 b of dry edible food and in three months produce as much human xoo ?,s is found in a steer. Recently a 21-year-old Ayrshire cow completed a year's record of 11,1381 b of milk containing 3751 b fat. This is as much food as is sunplied in the careases of three two-year-old steers and a sLx.rnionths-old A builder, writing to an American paper, gives the following information relative to the cost of erecting “Australian” shearing sheejs in the United States:—The contract price for a number of 20-stand plants put up by him in various part® of Wyoming ranged from £640 to £B6O, according to location. Also he built a 16-stand plant for £9OO and one of 10-stand for £560. These are all exclusive of machinery. From New South Wales is reported a new record in milk and butter-fat production by the milking Shorthorn cow Melba XV., owned by the Darbalara Estate, Gundagai. In 273 days, under official test, she produced 18,1311 b milk, •with an average test o' 4.26 per cent., yielding 7731 b butter-fot. Melba XV. was calved September 2, 1915, and is the daughter of Melba VII., a pre vious champion.