WAIRARAPA NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 2

WAIRARAPA NOTES.

(FROM OUR SPECIiTi CORRESPONDENT.) The first pat crop of tho season'was placed under , tho reaper and binder • at 'Greytown this week. < The collection of ratos from' Native owners continues to bo a perennial trouble with tho Wairarapa South and Featherston Coanty Councils. The trouble is tho multiplicity, of Maori owners, and the fact that the Natives themselves pay no more regard to a ratecollecting note than if it were a discarded totalisator ticket, At present tho wholo business is a farce, with the laugh on the side of tho Maori. ' ,It seems vory probable that Greytown' is destined to become one of tho most important fruit-producing districts in tho : Dominion. Experts liavo stated that the* soil is most favourable for. tho growth of fruit, and this opinion is borne out by the results of some.orchardists iwho have gone into the business on a fairly large scale. Among these are Messrs. C. Birch, of Papawai, and. P* i Saywell, and a number or Matarawa orchardists. With the adVent of the Greytown Frnit Growing Company private growers wilj receive a certain amount of aid through systematic grading; ■which..will be introduced at the larger estab-' lishment, and taken advantage of by the smaller man. ' ' Mammitis In the Wairarapa. Mammitis is prevalent in, a ntnnber of tho Wairarapa dairy herds, writes our correspondent, and' owners are getting rid of the infected animate ns store cattle. The disease is said to bo prevalent in Taranaki, where one farmer estimates his loss this season will be £500. It has been ascertained that con-. tagion l is spread by the hands of the milker, tho milking-machine; and skim milk! An authority states that unless something is dono the loss to the industry will bo incalculable, and proof of this assertion is evident by the fact that, in one sale-yard alone in the Wairarapn this week, twenty dairy cows with udder discasos were sold to be fattened up for the butcher. It may. be explained that, so far as is known, the effects of mammitis are not injurious to the beef qualities of dairy cattle.