FARMING NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, 15 December 1920, Page 7

FARMING NOTES.

I The Farmers' Land Agency, Palmerston North, advertise" lor .sale 120 acres, 20 miles from "Wellington at £l9 per acre. Head particulars. Farmers are reminded of the field day demonstration on lucerne growing j to be held at Mr ('ante Bidwill's !u----eerne paddocks (just past Kahaufara .School) this afternoon. Four Wairarapa hreoder.s —Messrs Wm. Perry, Bland Bayiier, Wm. Bayner, and W. Howard Booth—are shipping twelve stud Lincoln rains l»y the s.s. Mnhia, leaving Lyttleton to-mor-row. The sheep are being sent through Messrs Wright. Stephenson, and Co., Ltd.. Masterton, to their Argentine agents. The consignment is a particularly good one, .and tho breeders arc to be complimented on the quality of the sheep sent forward. The Department of Agriculture has received the following- cablegram., dated December S, from the High Commissioner:—"Wool sales commenced • yesterday willi large attendance from (all parts, but competition was unsatisfactory, and large proportion oP merinos and line crossbreds catalogued •withdrawn without bids. Medium crossbreds, fair bidding, and few superior lots sold at, unchanged price (viz. .Is to Is -Id per lb), Buyers purchasing to satisfy urgent requirements paid Government limit irrespective of market value, winch in many cases was lower. New Zealand Jirst day's catalogue included 2073 bales, mostly slipcs and scoured, which met poor demand. Average prices are: (Sixties to sixty-fours (merino) Is KM to 2s (id per lb, fil'li-s and lil'ly-six.-* (halfbred) Is f>d io 2s per lb. fortyeights (line crossbred) is .Id to Is -Id per lb. Others neglected, no quotations." This week's oll'erings consist of: "Australian.—Merinos, greasy, 1.1,000 bales, scoured ?&~>(\ bales, scoured 7no bales. New Zealand.Crossbreds, greasy, .1000 bales; scoured 21150 bales; siiped .1700 bales." Writing from To Kauwhata, Mr 11. J Masson, late of Carterton, and now with his father fruit-farming in the Waikato district, says thai the fire blight is n deadly disease. So far they have not experienced its ravages, the closest visitation being 25 miles distant. ''As hawthorn hedges are abundant in the "Waikato, and this is the best parent plant for the disease, there is no telling what will happen unless the Government will grant power to destroy all hawthorn growths." Mr W. T. Masson has it in his orchard in Onehiinga, and it is making too good headway at Henderson. The growers and Government inspectors are now fairly well organised, and if the power to destroy hawthorn is granted by the Government it is considered that the pest will be held in check. "I went to Otahau last Monday to see if," concludes Mr Masson, "and unless you have seen the actual thing you have no idea, how the fruit industry is threatened. IT you could give a Httlo warning to growers down that way, who seem to thing that it is only a scare, you would be doing the fruit industry a deal of good, for T feel certain that tinless the Pt'ess takes tho matter up, New Zealand will pay dearly for its fruit. The Government cannot trace how it first came into New Zealand, and there is no telling when or where it will make its appearance." !