FARMING & MARKETS

Wairarapa Age, 10 December 1921, Page 7

FARMING & MARKETS

FARMING NOTES. Shearing is on in the Hawke’s Bay district and if the weather continue.' lino most of the large sheds will be cut out by Chrastmas.

.J'everal exceptionally good crops of oats, and one of barley, arc to be seen in paddocks adjacent to the Martin-borou;.',h-I'eatherston road just now. writes a south Wairarapa correspondent. A leading Taranaki dairy company chairman has worked out the reductions in freight charges as regards dairy produce. They amount to £2 per tc-n, or 16.6 per cent in the case of butter; and 12s lOd per ton, or 5 per cent., in the case of cheese. In these days of low prices, potato growers may find some comfort in the statement of a noted authority, who says: “A penny spent on potatoes will give as much nourishment as Ijd spent on bread. What a big saving to the national expenditure if potatoes were more generally used.” One of the characteristics of the Aberdeen-Angus breed of cattle is its heavy proportion of dead meat to offer when killed and dressed. For most breeds it is usual to calculate the dress ed weights at 60 to 65 per cent, but the Aberdeen-Angus generally runs to 67 per cent. *

According to several cheese factory managers in Southland there is some splendid rennet about this season, and one brand is working out at well under 3 ounces. This is good news for he, cheese factories, for duel >g the war year s much of the rennet used required as much as 8 ounces to the 100 gallons. From estimates furnished by the inspectors of stock in the various districts, the average lambing for the current season in the North Island is estimated at 89.65 per cent. With 6,312, 456 breeding ewes in the North Island as shown in the 1921 sheep returns, the number of lambs is estimated at 5,659, 117. The corresponding figures for last year showed a lambing percentage of 57.95 and 5 338,704 breeding ewes. ’ “I have no sympathy with any farmer movement that proposes to corner cr established monopoly prices on food products, but we demand the r'~ht to be allowed to market, our crops ;n an orderly way and as the consumer wants them.” This is the succinct remark of J. R. Howard, president of the American Farm Beureau Federation, before a bankers meeting in Chicago. The American “Breeders’ Gazette” says: There was a story of a Kansas Duroc-Jersey sow that farrowed 134 pigs in 43 months—up to March 1. this year. Now, a little more than five months later, this sow has farrowed another litter of 20 pigs! This gives her a record of 154 pigs in four years, or 8 litters averaging 191 pigs per litter ranging from 14 to 23 in unmber. The writer is wondering wether swim history at any time, anywhere, has recorded the equal of this performance.”