FARMING NOTES

Wairarapa Age, 20 November 1919, Page 7

FARMING NOTES

Four-tooth shorn forward wethers made 32s 2d at the Masterton sale yesterday. The Matahiwi cheese factory is selling cheese to Masterton retailers at 10£ d per lb at the factory door. Everybody has seen paintings of how the tiller of tho soil in the early days drove his pigs to the market 1 by a rope attached to the hind leg. Any class of cattle showing condition are realising good prices in the Wairarapa. Poor-conditioned stuff—and this class predominates—is hard to quit. | A well-known East Taratahi farmer informed the writer yesterday that the shortage of cattle feed was not so acute in his district as in other 'parts of the Wairarapa. There is at present a good demand in the Wairarapa for sheep of all classes. Shorn medium-sized black face hoggets made £1" 0s 6d at the Masterton sale yesterdty. Lambing percentages in th§ Nightcaps district, says the Otautau Standard, are reported to be very low, a large proportion of the lambs being dead born, the cause being attributed to the shortage of feed. I A total of one hundred and twentyeight applications from discharged soldiers for financial assistance for the purchase of farming and residential properties were dealt with by the Hawke's Bay Land Board on Friday, and Saturday last. - A Forty Mile Bush farmer recently refused £1 per heqd, with a 25 per cent, reject, for his lambs on forward delivery. A Masterton farmer on hearing this opened his eyes with surprise, as much as to say that he. was a foolish man who refused such a tempting offer. The modern system, but one not yet painted, is to give the "gintleman who pays the rint" a seat in the back of a motor car. This animated picture could htve been seen at the Masterton stock sale yesterday, a. Wairarapa farmer having conveyed three or four young pigs to. the yards in his motor-car. Farmers with comparatively small capital will appreciate the fact that I exceptionally easy terms have been arranged in connection with the auction sale of the Manga to rb Estate, at Dannevirke, on the 26th inst. This sale presents a favourable opportunity to secure a farm near the centre of the most progressive district in southern Hawke's Bay. Particulars re terms, plans, inspection of property, date of possession, etc., are advertised in this issue.

EMBARGO ON HIDES. . Farmers assert that the embargo on the export of hides" is one of the most farcical and. iniquitous pieces of machinery ever conceived to control- prices, and the sooner a set of sane politicians are returned to Parliament to repeal this law the better will it be for all concerned. The butter equalisation tax, they say, was certainly a class tax, but there was not the opportunity for exploitation that is furnished by the embargo on hides in order that cheaper boots might be provided the masses. But how absurd this is, when we see boots advancing in price every week and rumours set abroad that prices in the near future will soar kite high. It is a known fact that in Australia, where hides are sold on the open market, boots are 25 per cent, cheaper than they are in New Zealand. The embargo was a war measure introduced by the Coalition Ministry.. Having * failed in its mission,. then why does not the existing Government .repeal it? This is a question th&t every farmer is asking, yet no candidate for political honoifrs has ever given it. mere mention. As the people are not getting cheaper boots, who then is getting the difference between what the tanners are paying and what the producers are receiving for rejected hides on the open market? The tanners are paying up to 14d per lb for certain weights of hides, and the rejected lots from the siame line are fetching up to 25d per lb. What a farcical position? A Wairarapa settler rocently put a number of calfskins through a local firm, and he was astounded on eyeing his return. The good, skins, which had been obtained by the tanners, who ahvays get first selection, realised 23d per lb, while skins that were "cut" or otherwise damaged wore afterwards sold on the open market at 33£ d per lb, a difference of 10|d per 1 lb. The producers generally would not grumble were they assured that the public received the benefit, but the ever-increasing cost of shoe leather leads them to believe that legislation has been passed to legalise the operations of trusts and combines. They can think nothing else in face of the facts that confront them. If the producer chose, he c<?uld create a shortage of sound hides by the free application of tho knife, and thereby secure for himself 50 per cent, nicrease in price. This is the position as it stands, p,nd the sooner tho Farmers' Union' or some other representative organisation asks thfe powers that be some pertinent questions, the sooner the grave suspicion of profiteering that exists will be eliminated or the real truth disclosed. The farmer is a longsuffering individual, but he may yet turn on those who depend upon him for political power. I