GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1068, 6 March 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Wairar.'ipa potato crops appear to havo escaped, the blight,' generally speaking.

The -I'iako Swamp has for some time furnished- u subject of- wide interest to farmers. A Dominion representative hns been told several times lately that the swamp, land has not yet been developed to the state cr.pected. The Raugitikei correspondent of the "Tarariaki Herald" writes: "A recent visit totkc Piako Swamp, or, as it is more generally known, tho Hauraki Plains, does not show the great progress and general prosperity that the officers of the Lands Department promised.- Pipir'oa, which wis described as the 'coming centre of a prosperous agricultural district,', .consists of a wharf, a, water tank (carried there from the Thames), a few'huts belonging to the Lands or Public Works Departments, and a soda-water bore, which is useless except for bathing under. ...Tbe'-settlers are for the most part getting their living by draining, and so it is likely to bo until there are better roads, and-a- good' water supply. A few of the sections near the river, with flax on, look well, but those without flax and away back are doing no good. When the Primo Minister was through some few weeks back a large unmbcr of settlers petitioned to have their rents reduced. Peat fires are burnins in parts of the. swamp t , mostly outside the occupied area and towards the big canal."

The death is announced of Mr. Michael Cudahy, head of the'great meat-pack-ing company., bearing _his_.,name. Ho was born in Ireland at the en' 1 of 1811, and accompanied iiis-parents to tho United States in ISO, settling in Milwaukee. Mr. Cudahy. started his career as a journeyman butcher and meat-packer at tho age of fifteen. .Thirteen years later he became superintendent of, the Milwaukee packing house belonging to -Elankington and Armour, and his management was so successful that Mr. Philip Armour, of Chicago, took him into partnership four years later. Afterwards he and his brother Edward took over entirely tho Omaha branch of the undertakings of the. Armonr-Cudahy Company, and carried it on in their own name. Mr. Cudahy was interested also iti other, business concerns, including banks. He was highly esteemed for his integrity as a man of business and as a citizen. ■-'■••,

It is estimated that the Chinese gardeners in the Corowa district of New South 'Wales who produce vegetable crons for tho Melbourne market, spend Gd. in fertilisers on each tomato plant, and as a result get the .earliest crops,' when prices are highest. . . :*