FARMING & MARKETS

Wairarapa Age, 20 January 1922, Page 7

FARMING & MARKETS

FARMING NOTES. A meeting of the Tinui branch of the Farmers’ Union will be held on Friday. A big fat bull was sold at the last Cambridge stock sale for 6s, out of which had to be deducted commission, driver’s fees, etc. South African live stock returns for 1920 show 28,491,000 sheep, which is a considerable decrease as compared with 1918, when there were 31,981,000 sheep in the Union.

The recent outbreak of rinderpest in Belgium is traced to live cattle from America in transit, or actually in the docks at Antwerp, coming in contract with a cargo of infected Zebu cattle passing from India to Argentina.

At a meeting of Ashburton chaffcutters it was decided that the price tor cutting oatsheaf chaff be reduced from 14s to 12s 6d per ton, ajid that the rate for cutting straw chan remain at 25s per ton. The meeting decided that no further reduction in prices was possible, as expenses, especially for wages and fuel, had declined very little since the rates were last fixed.

A Levin shearer returned home last week from his annual round of the sheds in Hawke’s Bay. He states that the season, although there was some broken time on account of bad weather, was a good one, the members of his party averaging 12,000 sheep per man.

Final statistics regarding agricultural production in New Zealand for 1919-20 season show that 142,473. acres were under wheat, as compared with 210,775 in the previous year. The oat area is given as 29,520 acres m excess of 1918-19, when 487,337 acres were under that crop.

Mr J. R. Howard, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, takes a decidedly doleful view of farming in the United States. He estimates that, of the 6,000,000 farmers in the states, 1,500,000 are bankrupt owing to declining prices.

The world’s heavy-weight bullock champion is now in Australia. He is a Shorthorn-Hereford cross, and at Wanganui weighed 36421b5, being thus 861 b heavier than the famous Irishbred roan Shorthorn, “Pat the Giant,” which at the Birmingham Fat Stock Show in 1912 is said to have scaled 35561 b. The bullock, which was bred by Messrs Bayly Bros., of Wanganui will ,it is said, carry a lot of beef yet, as he came off the grass.

Plans are under way for the formation of a co-operative association to control the domestic and export trade in wheat in the United States. Individual farmers and their organisations will be the shareholders, and it is hoped the scheme will be sufflci cntly jjbrward to handle the 1922 crop. It is expected about 50 per cent, of the total wheat produced will come under the control in the first year.

A cable has been received stating that the Argentine wheat surplus is officially estimated at 120,000,000 bushels. Importing countries generally are refusing to pay Argentine the export taxes on wheat, and business there is stagnant thus throwing more on other maikets.

Cut or uncut seed potatoes —which give the better yield 1 ? This is a question which the Ashburton Experimental Area is attempting to answer (says the “Guardian”). Last year it was shown that cut Dakota seed yielded badly, but this year the results are better, although generally it may be said that cut seed gives a weaker and less even crop. Other varieties are being subjected to the same test with varying results, but a general tendency in favour of uncut seed. Another comparison is being made between the yielding properties of crops grown from small and medium-sized seed.

It will be remembered (writes a London correspondent) that some time ago Messrs Vestey bought up the whole of the beef which the British Government then held. The intention was to sell it on the Continent, but Messrs Vestey seem to have misjudged the Continental requirements, with the result that most of this meat is still on their hands. Not only is it taking up a considerable amount of cold storage, but it is naturally an obstacle in the way of the profitable importation of fresh supplies of frozen beef. The matter is being taken up in business and official circles, and a deputation is to wait on Mr Winston Churchill (.Secretary *of State for the Colonies) with a view to obtaining Government

assistance to get this produce out of the wav. Doubtless, Messrs Vestey

would be very pleased to get rid of it, as it has been one of their most unfortunate speculations.

Under the auspices of the Wairarapa Agricultural Experiment Committee, a : field day will be held in Mr Murdoch McLeod’s paddock at Martinborough 1 on Thursday, at 2 p.m., when Dr. A. H. Cockayne and Mr F. W. Greenwood, of the Agricultural Department, will lecture on the experiment being car-: ried out there to determine the different effects on rape of the finely - ground Mauriceville lime and the unground Martinborough lime. The experiment covers a number of plots treated with different quantities of the limes and manures, which include basic slag. Gear manure. Ephos, Nauru superphosphate, and Nauru ground , rock.