GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 April 1910, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

..HiTae;; j Department'-, has been that r tb'e.' Eleventh International Conference of Sheepbreeders is to be. held in Liverpool, 'England, on June; 20.. A general invitation is,exten'ded'jtb.- all-'SHeepbreeders'.'Associar tions to : .send.representative's!. -Several frosty mornings have been experienced this week in Hawke's Bay, and settlers;are hoping that >these will ,'■ help, to' reduce;-the-ravages: .of, the;.vari-.ohs'ibligMs.froni-whichTtheiproyinceVhas; been suffering lately. | A particularly interesting competition at the Sydney Royal Show was that for the dairy bull which had produced the best five milkers. The class was open.ito. bul.ls;,pf ; ,any;.dair.y-.:breed, -and line milking tests were 'carried" out" by the local agricultural societies. ;A writer in an. oversea exchange, in noting the popularity of ilio Lincoln, states; that a-sum of 1000. guineas lias thrice been.paid for a Lincoln ram, and .1450 guineas once. One English breeder ,-las't v.&easpn'-'- realised over 860 guineas iper vlfeatlT for, ;50 rams, _a figure which, the write? says, has not been approached by any other breed in England.

Last year a sum of £250 was made at the Arataki. Experiment Farm by the sale of vines to growers. All the vine-s sold.are grafted on phylloxera resistingstocks. . . ;,; '' : . .-"',

, Some idea'of the'extent; o£ operations at Mr. B. ChambersV. thirty-five' acre vineyard at Te Mata, Havelock North, .may. be gathered from tho'.fact' that this week fifteen pickers have .been busily employed, and that a new 1200 gallon cask is .being installed. Farmers in the Kinvee district have been taking full advantage of the favourable weather to get their autumnsown crops in. A good quantity of oats has been drilled for sheep feed, and a fair acreage of grass and clover has'also Been sown, i'eed is. plentiful everywhere, and: stock, is looking'in good order to stand a severe winter, which numbers of people are-anticipa-ting. '.•'.■■ . The ravages of the grass-grub are being felt in- various country districts on the Plains land in the. Ashburton County. One fanner complains that in his paddock the grub'has .not left a green, blade-of grass. It is stated that if there were combined effort during the short season, upon which the grub is flying, in the perfected'form of a beetle, and fires were built systematically, there would bo fewer complaints of ruined grass land. Every beetle escaping at the breeding season means many more grubs in the adjoining paddocks next year. , " •■■ ■ The country in the Waimiro and Coonoor districts is stated by thc.'Pahiatua "Herald" to be looking particularly well at present.. The grass is so abundant that tho sheep are standing knee-high in it, and-there almost seems to bo a necessity for placing cattle on the land to eat down the pasture, as the growth is far too heavy to be suitable for sheep or lambs. Our Dargaville correspondent telegraphs that the Northern* Wairoa Cooperative Dairy Company manufactured during the month of March 46,2831b. of butter, as against 36,0111b. manufactured during the same month last year. The total increase to the end of March compared with the previous. season is aboilt 38 tons. The company has now definitely decided to proceed with the buildihg'of a new cream boat, a contract for the same having been signed on AVodnesday by Mr. Thompson, of Aratapu. -The/little vessel, is to be 65 feet over all, with 14ft. beam, and a draught of 4ft. 6in. .The"' engines aro to be constructed by Frascrs, of Auckland, and will give a speed of about ten knots per hour.

. Th© fruit show held -at-Motucka last week is stated by a competent judge to have been probably the finest exhibition of fruit ever got together in any single district in New Zealand. The apples were the strong feature of the show,, and there were magnificent .collections of Cox's Orange Pippins and Cleopatnis on Iview.. There, was also a large snowing! of beautiful'peari- ' .;;'■" ..'.':!""

Mr. Jaques, formerly canning expert to tho Department of Agriculture, reports that ho has had a most successful season with tho fruit bottling works he established in Motueka last year. He has put up something like 1000 cases of picked fruits in glass jars, tho varieties comprising, peaches, greengages, Victoria, Orleans, and yellow plums, and gooseberries. Mr. Jaques states that he had-no difficulty in securing ample supplies, offruit of the finest quality, and next season ho hopes to carry on his operations on a much larger scale. Asked the other day if he would pat his crack sheep, IJecord Breaker lll,'in the English .shows, in the event of sending it on from the Argentine' to catch the outward-bound direct liners from London, Mr. Short said • that in consequence of the English regulations against foot and mouth disease his sheep would not bo allowed to land alivo in the United Kingdom after-having been in the Argentine. This, of course, made showing quite out of the question. It is stated that a good proportion of the-.apples shipped from Kelson to London were slightly larger than are ordinarily shipped to that market. Tho Tasraanian raugo is from 2Jin. to 3in. .' in diameter, whereas a good many of the Nelson parcels ran up to 3Viit., and even Jin. . •■" The "Farmer" reports a brisk demand for oats and- chaff in tho north, ,the latter rising about lOs.'a ton last month. As there must be' a great shortage as coihr pared with last : season, prices are-''ex-pected to rule high through the winter. There is stated by a contemporary, to be a general feeling in the north that, a poriod'pf high prices for horses is coming. Nothing like the number of a -few years ago aro now being bred to .make good the annual loss caused by wear and accident, and at the same time many draughts have been purchased at thohorse fairs for Australia' and India.' Mr. Crispiano Cardenus has purchased tho, Burkedalo Estate at Waitoa, Auckland, where he intends to establish a' stud" dairy farm. It is Mr. Cardcnus's intention to select cows from the finest herds'in Switzerland and Norway.

Tho farm property market is stated to have been particularly brisk at Whangarei during last month, and several largo farms changed hands at good values to southern buyers. -.' A- ■ Mr. Petersen,, in . Taranaki, has gained some note with a Jersey cow, which yielded 4.91b. of butter per., day on a five weeks' test. This works out at 31.31b. a week, and 171.51b. in tho five weeks. Tho average test of the cow's milk was G. 5. She was bred by Mr. Cornwall. . Heather, a well-known show cow, was another of the small milkers which yielded, remarkably. well. Fiftypounds flf milk, of a: G.B test, was a one day performance of hers. That equalled 3.41b. of buttcrfat a day, and 23.8 a week. , The Angora goat is justifying its reputation as a weed cradicator at Karaka Downs, Mr. -F. E. Trolove's property, Aotea. His little herd of ten, 6ays tho "Kawhia Settler," are' keeping -blackberry, vines entirely stripped. of. leaves .and young shoots, although grass is plentiful in their enclosure. Prices for fruitvin Auckland have been very low this pointing more than ever, to the need of some all-embracing system of co-operation among growers. It is hoped that at'the next Conference of Fruitgrowers' Associations, which will probably be held in Hawke's Bay in October next, this subject .will. ■ receive special attention. ' An unusually large number- of classes for instruction in wool sorting are being formed throughout tho Dominion this winter. Judging by the interest .which.is being,taken in this question, there'should soon be a noticeable improvement in the condition of tho smaller clips coming iu to the local sales.

The Auckland A. and P. Association will hold its winter show in the new shed, which is being erected on the Queen Street wharf. ..-.'■:' The "Press" says that during the past lev years the codlin moth has spread practically all over the province- of Canterbury, ,rcporfs going to show that very few districts are free from it. Some parts of. Christchurch are still 'clean, but St. Albans and Papanui are infested with it, and it is also abundant in parts of Biccarton and Opawa. Some of the orchards in the .harbour bays aro badly infected, so that in some instances fully one-sixth of the crop is useless for market, and this despite the fact thatPcareful mea--sures were 'taken.' to destroy tlio moth throughout tho season. But for this, probably not iivo per . cent, of tho. fruit would' have'-been:'fit to pick. '■' Tho- total loss this year : 'throughput." Canterbury' 'from''this cause must -be very considerable, and it,will become heavier unless fruit-growers avail themselves of all possible means, of keeping their orchards free from the moth. ' ... . The season has been a good one for :milk suppliers .(writes the Killinchy ■ correspondent of the'"Lytteltoh Times") as feed has been plantiful all through the spring and summer months. The supplies at the local factory have been well maintained. A good piece of dairying country in the vicinity of the factory is to be subdivided and a "boom" in "dairying is expected here. lhii-ing the present season, a weed hitherto absolutely unknown in the Wairarapa, has put in an appearance, and has probably come for a lengthy stay (writes "Hayseed" in the Hasterton "Times"). Though painfully familiar in certain districts down south, "Dodder," the scourge of the clover crops, was never seen here until a few weeks ago, when 'some • of our local clover growers were surprised to see strange scabby-looking patches. in'\their ripening .crops. : Farmers in-the Peilding district are more and. more alive to the value of manures every year. A local firm reports that where three years ago they sold 50 tons of fertilisers* last season they sold 500 tons. It has been suggested that at tho next swede and turnip competition, under the auspices of the Jlasterton A. and P. Association, the nutritive value of the crops be also taken into consideration, as it does- not necessarily .follow that tho biggest crop shows the best fattening result. A crop may be avery big one to" look at and yet not h^ve J os much nutrition as a smaller crop. This, of course, can only bo \ ascertained byan.analysis'of. food constituents in the roots, and it is proposed to send one or two roots from each competitor to a qualified analyst, and thus discover the respective merits of each.