THE FARM

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14364, 15 May 1920, Page 9

THE FARM

AGRICULTURAL EVENTS FOR WEEK ENDING MAY 22. MONDAY. Pirongia Stork Sales. Ohincwal Stock Sains. Clearing Sain at Motumaoho. TUESDAY. "Waingaro Stock Sale. Hikutaia Stock Sale To Puke Annual Turnip Fair. Gloading Sale, at News toad. WEDNESDAY. Tirou Stock Sale. To Anga Stock Sale. Clearing; Sale at Koromatua. Clearing Sale at Pongakawa. THURSDAY. Hamilton Turnip Slocking Sales. Clearing Sale, at Nctherton. Clearing Sale at Hunga Ilunga. FRIDAY. Te Kuiti Turnip Stocking Sales. Morrinsvillo Slock Sale. Oparau Slock Sale. Mangaroa Stock Sale. Clearing Sale at Puketa'ha. SATURDAY. To Awamutu Slock Sale. "FROZEN MEAT MUDDLE." VAST STORES IN DANGER. Under the above headings the Sunday Post of Glasgow, recently contained a nost' sensational article on the food {lut at Home and -the demand for a ■eduction in price. The article pro■eeds as follows: There is evidently another first-class middle in the mutton mystery that calls 'or explanation. Briefly, the faels arcis follow: —The cold storage depots of he Thames are almost bursting with supplies of New Zealand and other meal. Much of it is going had.

More cargoes of meat are held up in 'he river, live million carcases are ready for shipment from New Zealand, and five millions more are |o be ready by 'line —yet not only is the public made 'o pay Is 'id a pound for million thai "ost 6Jd in 1014, hut Mr MeCurdy told the Food Committees so recently as December that a meal, shortage miglil occur. The public is being kept off mutton by restrictive prices just when l ought to have plenty of moat al tower prices.

There is million everywhere. The •old store sheds at Ihe Condon Docks ire bursting with it. the ships wailinp 'o unload have thousands of carcases o deliver. The docks are storing SOO.. ')00 tons of general merchandise now.

is compared with 100,000 lons in 191'i. Twice as much meal is being landed as is being consumed, the great v».erves which were idled up in many months, even years ago remain untouched. Those who know say thai unless the Government alters its policy much of il eventually will be condemned. Food Controller's Miscalculations.

Sir Thos. Mackenzie, Ihe High Commissioner for Xew Zealand, ascribes Ihe oresent deadlock In Ihe Insuflloicn! cold •dorage accommodation in lids country. Mid to Ihe miscalculations of the Fond Controller in r"egard to meat supplies \>sl year.

lii an interview with a Press representative. Sir Thomas said: "It scorns that the Food Controller came to the rone.lusion that thorp \v:is likely to h • ■i men I shortage. I cannot understand how lie arrived at Dial opinion, because lliose of us wliii worn familiar with the flocks anil herds of other countries knew that, immediately shipping' became available this country would have as much meat as it could eat." The High Commissioner for New Zealand asserts that the miscalculations o! Ihe Food Control, and our absurdly insufficient cold storage, threatened to damage seriously the great trade which New Zealand has been building- up for thirty years.

Unusual interest is being taken at Smlthfleld anr] other meat trade centres in the speech -to be delivered by Sir Aucklan dGeddes, president of the Board of Trade, at the complimentary banquet tn Sir Thomas Robinson Director of Meat Supplies. Jt is expecte 1 that Sir Auckland will make an official statemcnl concerning the Government's attitude towards the glut of colonial mutton, and it is possible that he will refer l<> the Ovcrnment's recent purchasc of Patagonian meat. Reducing the Price.

"11. is nil open secret that the Government arc anxious to relieve the glut by reducing the price, thereby automatically stimulating the consumption of colonial meal," said one of the largest importers at Srnithflcld.

CULTIVATION OF SUGAR. If all the lands under sugar cane in Australia were concentrated in one block they would occupy a space of only 20 miles, by a little more than li miles,'or a square with sides of about 17 miles. Yet in 1!)17 sufficient sug:ir was produced in the Commonwealth to more than meet all local requirements. Since then the cultivation lias fallen off, and this year's harvest is not expected to total more than 180,000 lons, which is 100,000 tons below requirements. II was found by the Royal Commission which recently inquired into the sugar industry that there arc no extensive compact areas of rich agricultural land in the Commonwealth which are suitable for sugar culture on a large scale. The

various centres of-production are separated by long distances, and the industry is conducted under various conditions or soil, rainfall and temperature, which materially affect the method and cost of cultivation. In New Sou'h Wales and in Queensland districts south nl' Macky there has been a gradual displacement of sugar cultivation by other forms of agricultural effort, of which dairying is the most important. In some parts of the New South Wales river districts dairying ami fruit production have wholly displaced cane cultivation.

A NEW SYSTEM OF FRUIT STORAGE. The New Zealand Patent Office lias issued lo Mr C. Chambers, of Xarara, New South Wales Letters Patent for a method of preservation of fruil and vegetables in which neither ice, chemicals nor machinery is required. The system, although new to Xew Zealand, has been in use successfully in Greal Britain the last five years, and fruit, after being eight months m the fruitrooms, has been sold to consumers in a perfectly sound condition with the llavour and appearance as good as when picked from the trees. The fruil can bn stored in times of plenty in the orchard in rooms of a capacity of from one lon to hundreds of lens, us required. The erection of such fruitrooms is simple and cheap, the cost of 1 renlinent afterwards bein# very small to Ihc orchardist. The inventor is Mr David Chambers. of S'dmouth. KiiKland, ,-ui uncle, of Mr A. Moody of Claudelands. Jottings. The British Minister for Agriculture (Lord Lee) says that "the "effect of (iovernment control has been lo breed a new race of farmers who were rapidly losing all sense of enterprise. Mr O. \Y. Leadley mentioned at a meeting'of the Farmers' Union in Ashburton lli.it it had been reported that a soul hern woolgrower had sent Home, outside the commandeer, 500 bales of word, for which he had received 100 pence per lb. If this were a fact, the matter should be probed to the bottom.

DEVELOPING THE HEIFER. In a general discussion mi farm topics, a writer in ti Canadian farm journal says:— I do not think wc can grow 1.1 ie dairy heifer too large so long as there is n.i tendency to roughness. Wc wanl more cows thai are well developed when young. What, a heifer loses when young siie can never again regain, for when she becomes a cow she has the strain of producing and reproducing. The largo heifer, with plenty of constitution to withstand hardship ami capacity to consume roagh food, is generally the high producing cow. In feeding our heifers we start, when iTorn, pul Hi cm in a pen by themselves leach them to drink, feeding new milk for five or six weeks, then gradually change them to skim-milk, taking about one week to make the change to feeding skim-milk, with a mixture of bran, oats, oilcake meal, equal parts, and feed dry after the milk with what clover hay they will consume readily. When about three months old a little silage or roots or both may be fed. We believe in feeding this until about one year old, when they are turned out lo grass, if it is pasture season, and let them run on good grass through summer months. With this treatment they come into stable in early fall in good condition, and should be in splendid shape to commence their milking period a I about .'SO months weighing from 1000 U) to 12001 b. As far as 100 much size, constitution and vigou" is concerned, I do not think there is much danger of feeding too liberally so as to injure a well-developed body, which is so necessary in a highly productive cow. Too many of our heifers are caused by poor breeding and poorer feeding. There is a limit with respect to fat. We prefer not to have growing slock 100 fat, but as a growing stock are under-fed, and. as a result, in poor condition, coming to their freshening period very much handicapped through lack of care and proper feed.