ON THE LAND

New Zealand Tablet, 23 January 1919, Page 43

ON THE LAND

£ : V ; THE HONEY CROP. -•, The Director -of the Horticultural Division of the Department of Agriculture has received from the apiary instructors the following report concerning the honey crop prospects: Auckland.— climatic conditions have not been favorable to either the secretion of nectar by the clover or the gathering in by the bees, cold nights having been the rule during the past month. Unless the season is somewhat later than usual the crops generally will be below the average. Beeswax is quoted at from 2s to 2s 3d per lb, Wellington. The climatic conditions have been rather unfavorable for apiculturists. However, there is still time for a good crop to be gathered should an improvement be forthcoming. The balance of last season’s crop has ceased to come into the grading store for export, and will be used for local consumption ; but it is anticipated that a number of new lines of this season’s output will be forward shortly. There is a demand for beeswax at 2s 6d per lb. Honey in pats and pound sections is not procurable. Dunedin. prospects of a good season have greatly improved. In the northern districts indications point to a good crop. Advices to hand from Canterbury indicate assured payable returns. Extracting is in progress. In Otago and Southland the weather conditions have not been so favorable. However, it is still early to forecast this season’s returns. There is still time to secure a good crop if climatic conditions are favorable. Generally clover is in good heart, more especially in Canterbury, where there has been a phenomenal growth. Prices are firm. Mr, Clayton, of Peel Forest, who has a bee farm of 500 hives, states that the season is going to be a record one for honey. The growth of white clover in the district is abnormal, and honey is plentiful. An Ashburton resident is arranging to take 20 returned soldiers to the farm to demonstrate the lucrative business of bee farming. THE KEEPING OF MILKING-GOATS. The whole subject of the keeping of goats for milking purposes deserves far more attention in New Zealand than it is at present receiving (says the Journal of Agriculture). We have only to look round and see the large number of unoccupied or partly occupied sections, and patches of rough, hilly ground growing nothing but scrub and weeds adjacent to many workers’ homes, to recognise that there is a splendid opening for people with limited capital to bring these into profitable use with much benefit to themselves and good results to the land. Thousands of acres at present lying idle in small patches all over the country could be leased at a mere nominal rent, or even secured rentfree in return for keeping down the weeds. Again, many home sections in our outer suburban districts are large enough to run a milking-goat; tethering can be largely practised in such situations. Goats as a means of supplying the home with a pure, wholesome milk have, indeed, been woefully neglected in this country, especially when we see what beneficial advances have been made in that respect all over the world. This apathy is probably largely due to the fact that animals of good milking-strains have

not been imported. The best milkers are found in the Toggenburg-Swiss and the Anglo-Nubian breeds and their crosses. It is not unusual for these animals to reach a yield of three or four quarts per day.