GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 824, 24 May 1910, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

The proverb, "the. early bird catches the worm" has applied to wheat growing in. Southland this year. Those growers who sold early in the season secured i 3s. sd. to 3s. Gd. per bushel, and they arc able to congratulate themselves oji that figure seeing, that with the New Zealand millers well supplied the outlet now is for tl)e English markets, for which- the ruling price at-Lytteltou is 3s. per bushel, equivalent to 2s. 9d. on trucks in Southland. '' 'in' Canterbury as .in Southland is to some extent giving way to dairy-farming. Mr. Donald M'Lean, a big Tun-holder' at Jlcthven, is one of the latest recruits in that way, and a Dunedin firm is installing a creamery . and several large milking-plauts for him. Dairy, cows-are such , good value in Canterbury (they range from <£9 to .£lO per head) that Mr. M'Lean has found it more economical instead of buying locally to bring 400 cows all the way from Taranaki to Canterbury. . The Otago A ; . and P. Association's Winter Show, to be held on May 31, has produced a record number of entries. The number for this year totals .1011, as. compared with 1002 for 1309,.'and 982 for 100 S. The Balfour Dairy ' Co-operative Company > (Southland) has' advanced to' tho stage of being duly foraied and registered. ' " Considering the time of year, the grass throughout Southland is stated to bo showing good growth, and in many places its appearance is better than it was a couple of months ago. Fanners . continue to . • curtail their stock, says the "Southland News," and as a result the freezing ivories are being rushed with sheep. Otherwise the sheep market is dull, as with the possibility of feed being short parties are disinclined to buy.. The quantity of'.apples and pears exported overseas from Victoria during the season which has just terminated was 149,819 cases, the total T)eing 31,377 cases less than that for tho immediately preceding season. Shipments to the United Kingdom represented 94,357 cases apples and 2430 cases pears, 45,034 cases of the former fruit and 394 cases of the latter f going to the Continent, 355G cases apples and 248 cases pears to Eastern ports— whither shipments continue to be made— and 3200-casos of apples to South Africa. J: The number of. Southland's dairy factories is before next season likely, to r&icli the. half-century., Forty establishments have been on tho manufacturing list this year, and several .new organisations' are being promoted to. be ready for next spring. - The following paragraph is from tho "American Sheep-Breeder": — "The American flockmaster who imagines that sheep-raising in tho Argentine Republic has been reduced to- a "science will receive soverul'.shocks'.in/.rcading the articles now appearing in the, columns of tho 'American Sheep-Breeder.', When the American flockmaster loses 25 per cent, of his lambs he, thinks it a •calamity. Ten per cent, is about the average loss throughout the United States during an ordinary year. Our. Argentine correspondent puts it: 'To American ears the yearly loss of from .50 fa 75 per cent, of'the lambs will'sonnd'incredible,' but, nevertheless, this .is - true*: Our authority states that barely. 30 per cent, of the lamb harvest ever reaches the ago of three months'." -Mr. A. W. Rodger, of Birchwood, near Nightcaps, will be able to take credit for being the organiser of probably tho liiggest individual development in dairying which has ever taken place in Southland (says tho "Invercargill Times"). Mr. Rodger is of opinion that the Birchwood Estate (of which he is the owner) with its good deep bkek-'-lonm-soil is not only eminently adapted . for dairying, but it is for that purpose surpassed by no other land in Southland. So ' confident is he of its capabilities that whilst retaining the hill country for'sheep (the whole property hitherto having been a sheep run) he is cutting up tho flat land into dairy farms,. and .is installing tenants into the farms on moie than liberal terms. Mr. Rodger is building a fourroomed house, stable, and 12-cow byre on the latest improved principle on each farm, and is also providing the cows, horses._ and carts. All the farmer has to do is to find the labour, in. return for which he will be a partner in tho transaction by deriving his income from a share basis. Option to purchase his holding is to bo a part of the arrangement 'with each tenant. The milk is la be dealt with at a two-vat factory, the erection of which Mr. Rodger has just completed. IT WORKS WONDERS. "1 have used Dr. Sheldon's New Discovery for a considerable time," writes Mrs. R. J. Sherrilr, Lilydale, Tas. "I would not bo. without it, as it is invaluablo for young children, as they lake it readily, and it works wonders." Price, Is. Gd. aud 3s.—Advt. 14*