ON THE LAND

New Zealand Tablet, 30 August 1917, Page 46

ON THE LAND

Speaking to an Otago Daily ■ Times reporter concerning the rabbit industry in Otago, Mr. C. Todd said he had had 33 years’ experience in connection with the trade, and had' arrived at the - conclusion 7 that it could not be emphasised too strongly that the rabbit industry militated against the real prosperity of the province and the Dominion. The country now rabbit-infested; would, if cleared of the pest, support hundreds of people who had no inducement , to go on' to Otago" Central lands under existing conditions. He knew the Otago Central land well, and he was satisfied that it could be made as productive as almost any part of : New Zealand if handled properly. The wire netting of holdings, and leaving-the rabbits to their natural :, enemy, plus judicious poisoning, would soon have the effect of clearing the land and converting it into good pastoral country. All the low-lying areas could be made intensely productive in regard to fruit and lucerne. . “I would be the last one in the world to discourage the growing of fruit trees,” said Mr. L. Paynter during the pruning demonstration at Te Awamutu recently, “but the best advice I can give to the dairy farmer is to not keep more than 20 trees. By proper selection and management this number will provide him with ample fruit for domestic use, without being a tax upon his already occupied time. A man should easily attend to this number, whereas a big orchard was very apt to be neglected, and, in the end, besides being a sort of a hobby, the smaller number of trees would give vastly increased returns. My firm advice,” he concluded, “is 20 trees as a dairy farmer’s orchard-” “Agricola,” in the Farmers’ Union Advocate, writes:—“There is a tendency for the crops to run to straw under - present conditions, and farmers will no doubt endeavor to stop this tendency as much as possible. Labor will not be too plentiful next harvest, and it will not be too expert. Heavy straw means a lot of hard, expensive, and trying work. Therefore farmers will probably go in for closer stocking in regard to the wheat crops than they have been accustomed to do in the past. If the thing is done judiciously there is no danger, as I prove for myself every year. Even spring crops benefit in some instance from a run over by the sheep. It is a pleasure to handle a crop that is not too heavy along in the straw, provided that ..there is something in the heads as well. < Of course, it is possible that even with the most judicious feeding there will be a lot of straw at the time of harvest, but a feeding down may help matters in a growthy season. Many a crop that is heavy in the straw at harvest, in spite of the fact that the plants were fed down in the spring, would have gone down altogether if it had not been kept in check earlier in the season.” Messrs. F. Barkas and C. S. Neville, of the District Supplies Committee, state (says the Timaru correspondent of the Christchurch Press that they have been asked by Mr. James Boaden, the Government appraiser, of sheepskins, to draw the attention of farmers and pastoralists to the serious wastb and loss that is going on all through South Canterbury and Otago, owing to want of care in many cases in the saving and marketing of sheepskins. Mr. Boaden says, that on a moderate estimate, he considers in the districts where is is now valuing and purchasing sheepskins for the Imperial Supplies Department, the farmers are losing at least £IOO per week, and nearly the whole of this sum might be saved if all the farmers and sheepowners would take more care with their sheepskins, Mr. Boaden is emphatic in stating that the number of skins he is obliged to class as faulty, torn, damaged, rat eaten, or carelessly butchered, is much too great. If all farmers would exercise common care in taking the skins off the sheep, drying them, and properly picking them before sending them to the stores, there would be very many fewer , skins to be classed as “damaged and faulty,” with an increased return to the farmers. w