GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 27 March 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

' "Silver beet" . is reported by some /New Zealand, garden experts as a comj ing forage plant. The beet, it is believed, : -will grow and bear for three years without being rosown. It is prolific and im-

I mune from ordinary pests. Experiments \ are being made with it by the Agricultural .Department in tho South Island.

■' While the prospects of :the season would .justify the expectation of general exnanlision in tho dairy industry, in Australia (says the 'Tastornlists' Kcview"), it is 'to be feared that progress will bo seriously retarded by the rapidly-growing ■ intensify of tho labour difficulty. Tho scarcity, of hands, unsatisfactory character of the help available, and the

prospects of vexatious regulations to be imposed by unionism, are having tho effect of. driving many farmers "out of the dairying business wherever wheat-growing, fat■lamb raising, or other means of making profitable use of the land arc available. How far these reductions will be counterbalanced by, increases where alternative industries are not available is difficult !to calculate, nor is it easy to estimate -to what - extent tlie employment of families, and the extension of machine milt:ing will affect the question, but there is no doubt that tho condition of the labour supply will in the, coming year seriously ; hamper the progress of Australian dairying.

An exchange reports: "Blackleg has made its appearance among stock near New Plymouth. One farmer, it is stated, lost some 20-month stock which had not been inoculated. Inoculation has been

.proved to bo successful in preventing spread of disease, that it is marvellous that any farmer can.be found who ■■ has not taken advantago of it." An American inquiry into the Island ■history of tho Guerusey. states that it is igenerally conceded that they were originally a. combination of tho Norraanby and Brittany cattle from tlii.- near-by coast of France, In Youatt's "Cattle," published in London in 1834, tinder Alderney cattle, 'ho says:—'Tirst among tho fereign breeds, and a regular importation of which is kept up, wo have the Xorinanby or Alderney cattle. The _Normanby cattlo are imported from the French continent, and are larger, and have a superior tendency to fatten; the others aTC from thn islands near tho French coast; but all of them, whether from tho islands or the continent, pass under the common namn of Alderney." In a history of tho Island of Guernsey, published in 1830, tho cattlo of the isla'nd'aro spoken of as "Norman cattle." As early as 1789 laws irero passed forbidding tho importation of outside cattle, so that tho breed has been kept Dracticaliy pure for more than 100 years. The Koyal Guernsey Agricultural and Horticultural Society fostered tho breed- ■: iiig of the cattle for many yoars. and has records of tho prizes won at tho shows so far back as 18GD.