THE Waikato Independent. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1907.

Waikato Independent, Volume VI, Issue 384, 11 June 1907, Page 4

THE Waikato Independent. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1907.

Farmers in the Wairavapa district are experiencing serious loss in connection with their turnip crops this winter, caused by What is known as turnip rot. It appears that the disease starts with a few black spots, which later turn to a blackish-white color; then comes an unpleasant odor, and the turnips arc abaqlutely useless.” As showing the rapidity' with which tjio rot spreads, it may be mentioned that one farmer there states that * ho has lost 80 per cent, of his turnip crop of 300 acres. The seriousness of this to the farmer may be guaged by the fact that the 300 acres carried 30 tons of manure, that much labor was required to bring the area into a productive state, and that he expected to feed i six or seven thousand sheep on the turnip for fully three months. An important point in connection with the whole outbreak is the blow it will deal, if not checked, to the frozen meat industry, as regards sheep and lambs. At a recent meeting of the Waitarapa Pastoral and Agricultural Society, a prominent sheep farmer pointed out the seriousness of the j turnip rot to the, frozen meat trade, as unless its ravages could be checked the growing of turnips for winter feed would be stopped, and the loss to the farmers of the Wairarapa would be a menace to the breeding of sheep there for the export trade. Considering the serious loss this would occasion to the district, the speaker suggested that the Agricultural Department should try and find a cure for the disease. So far we have not hoard of any outbreak of the turnip rot in this district, but all over the Waikato farmers have lost a large proportion of their turnip crops from what is known locally as “ the blight.” Asifche damage done to turnips, both here and in the Wairarapa, is somewhat similar it would seem that there is little difference between the turnip rot and turnip bliglit. Anyway, the above facts in regard to the turnip rot shorAd prove of interest to our farming friends.

THAT the Government is entitled to great credit for the starting of the Agricultural Department and the good work it is doing, will more than probaby he admitted by all farmers, no matter to what political party they may belong. For the Department has rendered valuable services to the farmer in various directions, notably in connection with the grading of butter, cheese, the frozen meat industry, the poultry industry, experimental farms, and in many other ways “ too numerous to mention,”—as the auctioneers say in their advertisements. It is therefore pleasine to notice that

recently, at a social at Levin, Mrs. J. Wilson, president of the New Zealand Fanners’ Union, said he had to make a confession, in the presence of the Hon. Mr McNab, in icgard to the poultry industry : “ He said when a poultry expert was appointed, he with others had said the step was folly. ‘ I see how,’ he added, ‘ that I was entirely wrong.’ .The poultry industry, under the direction of Mr 13. D. Hyde, chief export, has made rapid strides, and the farmers in the Levin district had an excellent market practically at their doors.”. As Mr Wilson is such a prominent opponent of the Ministry, this candid confession by him must have befin like halm in Gilead, to the Hon. Minister of Lands.

Nor was this all. The delegates of the Farmers' Union paid a visit of inspection to the State Farm at Levin. The delegates, it is stated, “ were not only much interested in the work the Department is carrying on there, but were more than pleased wi th what they saw.” Ht may also interest dairy farm-, ers to know that " the champion cow in the dairy shed at present is a three-quarter-bred Holstein. Her milking period dates from August, 1906. Up to the present this cow has given 191 b of butter fat from 12,931 b of milk, with an average tost of 3.8.” In regard to the dairy herd of the Farm, the Hon. Mr McNab, at the social already alluded to, expressed the hope “ That before long they would have a milking herd at the Farm whose superior has not been recorded in the agricultural journals of the world.” The above tributes of praise speak* eloquently for the excel- 1 leht manner in which the Agricul- I tural Department is managed, and the valuable nature of the work it is carrying out in the best intsrests of the farmers of this colonv.