FARMING NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, 15 March 1923, Page 7

FARMING NOTES.

An extraordinary specimen of sweet clover, no less than eight feet high, nt present on view in Oamaru (say? the North Otago “Times”), ground from which it was taken was particularly poor and adjoined a plan tation of bluegums. This was the first time it had been known to be grown in New Zealand. Mr AV. 11. Buick suggested yesterday that the A. and P. Assoc .ration should hold its ram fair a little earlier, say in January, on the same day as the flock ram fair, and that auctioneers should be limited in the number cf rams they could offer. The matter will be considered by the ram fair committee. The difficulties of settlers on the lower Whareama in breeding black face lambs owing to the uncertainty of getting them away across tho river was discussed at the lea bridge comniision yeterday. It was stated by several witnesses that a rise in the river quite frequently holds up the fat lambs, entailing considerable losses on owners. One witness sa d that after two years of this he gave up the experiment. The Masterton A. and P. Committee discussed at length yesterday a suggestion by Mr W. H. Buick that breeders should be given preference at the ram fair to dealers who bought up outside rams and got them all soi l before the genuine breeders had a chance. Mr F. Percy: “The dealers ought to be cut out altogether. Let them sell their rams as they buy them. The fair should be for breeders only.’ Mr W. Perry said the difficulty would he to enforce the rule if they made it. Dealers could arrange to use the breedIpr’s name. An American newspaper states that Californian woolgrowers are again on top after two very lean seasons, the price of domestic wool having risen to 50 cents a pound, w’ith a prospect of a further rise. A well-known Amer can broker states that the tariff of 35 cents per pound is responsible fo? the high price. The new tariff on scoured wool makes it difficult to im port cheap wool from any country. Therefore the U.S. woolgrower has no cause for complaint. The manufacturer, howver, is compel! d to buy large share of foreign wool for hs mills, as the United States supplies less than half the country’s needs. As a matter of fact, it costs three tim -s as much to-day to grow wool as it did 25 years ago.