FARM AND DAIRY.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8099, 10 January 1907, Page 1

FARM AND DAIRY.

j A New South Wales stock inspector writes thus of what he saw during a visit to the Dubbo district :—" I saw a crop of wheat belonging o Mr Laverack, of ' The Meadow*,' that struck me as the best thiug in wheat j I ever saw. It is entirely new to me, and is one of William Farrer's breeding, and is called' John Brown.' The heads are a rich brown, and it stands over sft high. It has a beautiful firm clear white straw, and a good bunohy head. The day before my visit they hud 150 points of rain in a thunderstorm; but not one straw of John Brown went down, though some Purple Straw in the adjoining paddocks was much knocked about. It also seems practically ru>tproof, as though it was in two separate fields surrouuded b? Purple Straw and Federation it showed no sign of rust, though the other crops were rusty. Mr Laverack tells me that he got one bag from the Agriculturul Department last year for which he paid 5s per bushel. He got five bags from that, and has now 150 bags, and intends to sell his surplus for seed. Another advantage 'John Brown' seems to have over other wheats is that the heads, even when very ripe and ready for stripping, do not bend down more than a couple of inches, thus making it easier to strip the harvest. Grass-seed is very bad out that way, and the lambs are suffering terribly." The cheese factories of the Wairarapa have a mutual agreement in regard to the disposal of their outputs, which is an object leson to co-opera-tive dairy companies in other districts. They first of all decided, in conference, that they would not sell outright any cheese for export, but would ship it on consignment, and do this for a term of years, Buyers were thereupon invited to meet delegates from the different factories, and the firms through which the outputs should be shipped were selected. The factories recognised that if they were to get full market value for their produce they must select reputable Home agents, and allow these to handle the produce over an extended period, so that thereby a connection could be built up for it. One of the Wairarapa cheese factories, Dalefield, has consigned its cheese to a Glasgow firm for a long tfrm of years, and with the most satisfactory results. Probably this example induced the other factories to adopt the same sound principle. Consigning through one channel from year to year is the one means by which the disposal of Mew Zealand dairy produce may be placed on a permanently satisfactory footing, for it is only when the Home agent is assured of a . continuous supply of a particular •fcrSTuf-ihat he can afford to make a feature it it, and build up for ic such a connection that market fluctuations will have a minimum of effect on its selling value,