A NOVEL COMPETITION.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 68, 8 December 1911, Page 4

A NOVEL COMPETITION.

FOR YOUNG FARMERS. Latest Sydney files state that at the last meeting of the H.D.A. Association, a proposal of Mr Gilder, of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College staff, was adopted. The proposal was made and adopted with a view to interesting farmers and others, together with the members of their families, in accurate records of the results of the various operations connected with agriculture, and may be summarised as follow : —(i) To induce the young people on the farms to “ form a habit of recording observations ” at what may possibly be the critical stage of their lives; (2) to encourage farmers who may not have the time, inclination, or training, to keep accurate records themselves, to.interest the members of their families in the matter, and thus hand over the book-keeping to the younger generation; (3) to enable the farmer himself, on seeing the results of his work summarised, to ascertain the most profitable parts of his business, and thus to enlarge these, and at the same time to eliminate or else improve the less successful sections ; (4) to indicate th'e benefit of noting results of various kinds, with a view to looking for the contributing causes. The competition is to be on the following lines: — (i) The. entrants (either boys or girls) mustbe under the age of 16 years on February 29th, 1912 ; (2) a diary shall be kept, and full records taken from December -Ist, 1911, to February 29th, I9H (a full three months); (3) all entrants shall be residents for this peried on a holding of at least one acre in extent in the Hawkesbury * electorate; (4) the operations recorded shall be those of the owner or occupier of the area referred to (only one candidate shall be allowed for each set of operations on any one area); (6) applications for en-

hance shall be made on or before Saturday, November 25, 1911, to the secretary of the association (applicants shall state their names, addresses, ages, with date of last birthday, and size of farm or holding), no entrance fee to be charged; (7) the adjudicators agree to keep all figures and results strictly secret, and these will be returned to the candidates, (8) in order to ensure regularity, the adjudicators have the right to call upon any competitor for the work done to date on giving two days’ notice in writing. The work will be returned with as little delay as possible. (9) Upon any farm where any two or more fairly clearly defined branches of work are carried on, members of the same family may take part provided they indicate the branch they have selected when submitting .their application. (10) While of necessity each candidate will have to seek the assistance of parents and others, the final record, as sent in, must be wholly the work of the candidate. Marks will be given as follow : —Completeness, 30 per cent; regularity, 20 per cent; summarising, 20 per cent ; value as a reference, 10 per cent; neatness, 10 per cent. A prize of one guinea will be given for the best dairy and summary for the period mentioned’; 10s 6d for the second; and each competitor who furnishes' a conscientious attempt will be awarded ss. The candidates may select one or more of the following :—Dairying, poultry raising, orcharding, or mixed farming, or the growth, cultivation, harvesting, and marketing of any one crop may be selected. If dairying, the diary should record the number of cows milked, estimated or measured yield, how fed, labour employed, price received, and anything that may add to the value of information given. drawn as to the effects of fe'&l, weather, length of milking period, etc., on the milk yield will be ess£ pecially welcome. If poultryraising, the number and breed of the fowls should be stated, together with the amount of feed (w:hether grown or purchased), egg yield, pri.ce, how marketed, methods and results of incubation (if any are used in the hot weather), hoy/ labouLis. provided for, sales offpoultry, ahatlisf and their causes (if known))/etcsfif orcharding, the area under trees,- the age, variety, returns, diseases noticed, daily operations, etc., may be given. In each case a general idea of the weather should be recorded daily. It is suggested that the diaries be kept’in one-quire foolscap books. ■ J r Constitution of the •> V A DEFENDER OF THE BREED. The ability of the Jersey to stand rough times has been frequently questioned, and instances have Always been forthcoming to show ima-t-the constitution of the Jersey is as strong as that of most heavy yielders. Discussing this point at the Taranaki show, a prominent Jersey breeder said that in fifteen years’ breeding in one of ./the coldest climates in New Zealand, he had lost only one cow. If. w'as'his practice to rug his stock just before it came into

profit, but he had never rugged any of his young stock or anything that was turned out. Referring to the value of rugging milkers, the dairyman in question quoted the cases of men who lived almost alongside him, and were hardly able to make both ends meet, simply because they did not look after their cows and protect them from the cold at night. If the Jersey was turned out to rough it with Shorthorns, Herefords, or anything else, the Jersey defender held that it would come in (rough and ugly no doubt), but alive, where the others would be dead.