FARM TOPICS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12805, 28 May 1910, Page 1

FARM TOPICS.

_^_- I The ravages of turnip blight provided the Temuka branch of the Farmers' Union with a topic for discussion at its last meeting. Air. Rolleston stated that the blight was so bad that turnips ' could hardly be grown successfully in *_>outz_ Canterbury-. Nothing appeared , to be done by tho Government officers ! to enable farmers to combat the bliglvt. Mr. Twcntyman said that ho had asked, for assistance, but little good had been done, aud he had given up growing turnips. Mr Smart said that although at one time- the blight was very bad in the Waitohi district there was nono this year. He thought that the blight, like other pests, Mould die out. Air. W. Stewart advocated agricultural lectures to farmers, and praised tha work done by some of the school teachers in instructing children in agricultural subjects. He instanced the Winchester school, and said that in such eases tho Government should give the teacher every possiblo encouragement and assistance in carrying out his work. The French Government distributed last year £84,000 as prizes at horso shows and otherwise in fostering tho horse industry. The encouragement given horse-breeders in France takes the form of cash, and nther prizes offered for stallions and breeding stock at shows, and bounties to the owners of approved stallions standing tor service at moderate fees. In addition to this the Government maintains 3500 well-bred stallions of its own, which last yoar were bred to 150,935 mares. The approved staHibiis on which bounty was paid served 92,482 mares, making a total of 243,416 mares bred in France iv one season under Government supervision. France is more advanced than any nation in Europe m oucouragement extended to horsebreeders. In old days, says Dr Lyon Playfatr in liis lectures on the Hearing and Fowling of Cattlo, "it was a barbae ons custom to render bacon lich'cat© by whipping pigs to daath." The whipping did what exercise before deatli does for the flesh of more active animals. A hunted hare makes notoriously tender eating. Before cattle aro killed iv Rome it is, or was, usual to drive them fast round the city; the pace was maintained by the goads of mounted drivers, who keep the steers going. When the run is over, the cattle are driven to the slaughter-house. The tenderness thus acquired- by tho meat is described as "an artificial stato of decay." New Brunswick -Canada) formerly exported her potatoes to tho United States, from which she has now boon shut out by tho tariff. Ontario becamo her next customer, but last summer Ontario's own crop sufficed for her needs and Nevr Brunswick had to look elsewhere with the. consequence that she lias established herself firmly in Cuba. She now sends them six times as many potatoes as the whole of tho British West Indies. Last year 400,000 bushels were sold in Cuba from tho United States, whereas this year, since New Brunswick has entered into competition, scarcely a barrel has come, from the United States. The members from New Brunswick spoke very much in favour of this development, one stating that his province could produce three or four times as many potatoes as at present, and he believed they would find a market. Another said, in justification of tho step taken by the Government, that the Cuban steamers had proved a great boon to New Brunswick farmers.