AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13638, 4 July 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

The auestion of whether farmers should keep accounts is often discussed, and we have given some consideration to the subject* Although some say that the farmbankbook is his best guide, some form of book-keeping must necessarily aid him in-his work. It is certain,' however, that if he brings the valuation of stock and land into his balance-sheet he may easily' mislead himself as to his position. The Royal Agricultural Society lately gave a handsome prize (£6O) for the best managed farm in Lincolnshire (the show was held in Lincoln last year), and the first prise was awarded to Mr Evens, ■who is known all over the world as a breeder of Lincoln Reds, a breed of Shorthorn which have proved themselves great milkers. Mr Evens' farm was" on all hands declared "to be the best in the district- - • Amongst the things the judges had-to -consider was the question of accounts-- Mr Evens kept regular books, and on an average of ten years the expenditure, per acre was: rent, 30s; rates, Sa; labour, 28s 6d; cakes and artweial manures, 345. 6d; tradesmen's bills, 10s; sundries, including stock bought, 14s. : There has'.been some talk of the necessity f°r culling the' stud sheep flocks of Canterbury. This is being taken in hand in the North. Island. At a special meeting o£ the Romney Marsh Sheep Breeders' Association, to be held after the third! annual meeting of the Manawatu Winter Show, the following motions of Mr D.---P." Buchanan will be considered: —1. " That owners of registeded flocks shall not • add more than 85 per cent, of any one gear's crop of ewe lambs.to their stud breeding • flocks, and they shall not, in disposing of the 15 per cent, culfe, give such a certificate of breeding as shall entitles them to be entered in the flock book., Should this rule be infringed, the flock shall -be liable to be disqualified, and expunged from the flock book. 2.' " That owners 'of registered flocks shall not indude in their , breeding returns, more than 95. per cent, of the ewes used the previous season. Any relaxation of this rule, inquired for special selections or importations, can be obtained by submitting same ,to inspection." 3. " That all registered ewes be inspected, reported upon and approved, before transfers are recorded in the Flock Book, and that the cost of such. inspection be borne by the! purchaser.'' V ■ In 'a paper read. at one of the conferences of the Farmers' and Settlers' Association of New Soutu Wales, it was

Stated that over 20,000 sheep had been fed for 10£ 'weeks on ensilage, at a cost of a little over a shilling per head for the whole period, including cost of making tha silage, distribution, and supervision. The value of these sheep ■was put., down, roughly :—BOOO first-class .breeding ewes afc 15s each, £6000; and •2000 rams at £4 each, £8000; a total of £14,000. It is not supposed that the --whole of. these 10,000 valuable sheep ."would have died had there been no artificial fodder at hand, but as the losses of stock in the district were very heavy at that time, it may be presumed mat a> . portion of the mob would have succumbed. Yet the cost of keeping the sheep in good condition was only a little over a penny per head per week. ? - THE FALL IX WOOL. Mr J. Davidson, Putaruru, writes: fit seems remarkably strange to me when any of the commercial magnates* are speaking on the fall in the price of wool that .■they always keep clear of the right cause —over production—and attribute' it to something else. The plain fact is that the supply exceeds the demand. There are more sheep in every country in the ■world, with the exception of Germany, and perhaps Australia, than there has ever been before- Another thing at/ the present time—two sheep will now clip as much -wool as three did ten years ago. .Of course,, the financial crisis in America •ha® had a slight effect on the price of "wool, ■ to the extent of perhaps a penny a pound, no more. Take America, North and South both combined, they produce more wool than they require. No, sir, 1 know a little about this subject as I have been interested in wool and sheep for: the last 30 years. In 1906 I had several conversations with a number of fanners, and remonstrated with them on the. price they were paying for both sheep and land, as there were bad t-'mes coming; but they knew better, wool and sheep would, never be low in price again, i hey will know- better w>». Without a war breaks oat "between some of the big Towers, wool will gradually get lower iq .pnce for tbd next four or live years. Even" if a drought were to overtake Australia, it would take that number of years before it would have any marked effect on the markets of the world, as Australia dominates the world in the wool trade." UNBURNT LIME. ■ ITS , USE IN AGRICULTURE. Interesting evidence in favour of using carbonate of lime in agriculture is furnished by recent experiences m Southland, carbonate of lime, meaning the unburnt limestone, instead of the kUn-bumt quicklime "usually applied to the soil. Mr A. W. Rodger, jun., of the Birchwood Estate, haying a deposit of limestone on iis property, was advised by Mr G. D. MScindoe, chemist at the laboratory, Invettargill, to try the limestone, crushed so as to pass through the drill, mixed with the seed and the artificial fertilisers. To. this end Mr Rodger introduced machinery: for grinding the limestone, and now,.after a series of thorough tests wi.a ther limestone m this fonn, as applied alike to, his . cultivation and grass lands, lie is abte -to prenounce definitely in favour of the,;new process.. Special features are referred ;ta in. tbe more economical handling. and of being able to mix the crashed limestone- in the drill with the seed and th?.. ordinary fertilisers, without injury to the . former. As all who liave experiffiQited in -the use of burnt lime in agriculture are aware, one of the objections w ; the -trouble attending distribution. ■lf7 a> lime-distributing machine is used, the fine lime dust is most objectionable, if not actually injurious, both to the horses and to the attendant hands, while on the other hand, if tbe lime is carted out and in heaps throughou the fields, preparatory to slaking and distribution by L shovels, the work becomes too expensrv* on account of the labour involved. Another objection is that the burnt lime and fertilisers nrask be applied at different times in order to prevent injury tcr-the latter, while scientifically the large quantity per acre required is held to be the reverse of beneficial to the soil bacteria, which forms so important an element rn the bringing forward of plant life in-'-the earlier stages. Chemically speaking, burnt, or as it is .commonly called, quick-lime, is not so jijUch a fertiliser in itself as it is an agent for bringing into nrtivty such plant lood as may be already in the soil, and to this end the heavy dressings required are ptaia factors in increasing the cost, bo'-h in. tbe purchase of tbe material and in the labour of spreading. At one time five tons' to the acre was a not uncommon application at intervals of from three to four yeais," but these heavy dressings are jibw obsolete,'.and the approved practice of late years, is about scwt. per acre, sar.. every second year. Even these quantities, however, are very considerably ■rpjuced ; in the, use of carbonate of lime, lewt. per acre of which is considered a fair, and 2cwt. a heavy appb'cation. In jfr, Rodger's practice the crushed carbonate of liine mixed with the seed and the artificial manure, is destributed by the drill, thus doing away with the inordinate jexpense attached to the ordinary liming treatment,