GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1109, 24 April 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

The dairy factory returns for March aTe a good deal below the figures for the previous month (states the Hawera .'Star"), this being due principally to the spell of dry weather. Of tho factories in the Hawera , district, Hawera will pav'ont the!largest sum for the past month, viz., ■£3723: The;, butter-fat totalled 85,1201b., and the pay-out was at the rate of 10|d. Mells .will distribute -P-1312 for 31,5051b., while the suppliers of the Normanby Cooperative, .Factory will receive between them £\Ui. The amount of the butter-fat was 27,,'i-lSlb. , Teupence per lb.-, was. the pay-out in connection with tho : last-named companies. JJgaere will pay out ,EISSB'. The inoculation of:calves, as.a,precaution against,blackleg in the Hawera stock area is about finished, only one or'two districts-, requiring. to bo visited. To dateno fewer than 16,000 calves have passed through the inspector's hands, as against 8300 fe-r the previous season. The. inspector said to a "Star" reporter that the big increase was due to the fact that farmers' were keeping more calves .as there had been apparently a shortage of fat cattle. Asked as .to the condition of stock generally throughout the district the officer, replied that they were all satisfactory, perhaps an' odd thin beast here and there. With' the advent of tho autumn growth there should bo an abund- , ance of feed for tho winter. . Some time ago the Taranaki Provincial Executive of the Farmers' Union offered prizes for the three test eYsays on "The achievements of the Union; its position today, and , its prospects for the future." The competition was open to all. Taranaki exchanges report that at its last meeting the executive received the judge's decision, mid the order of merit in which ho pl.icnd the essays were: J. S. (Hilton, Ota.?o),l; E.'C. Jack (Wellington). 2; John Cimchmaii (Dunedin), 3: Herbert Lmvis (New Plymouth) and T. L. Mills (Feilding), i. Tho dairying of Denmark results now in an export of .£8,800,000' a year in the butter alone made from only a million cows in the 1400 creameries of the country (says an exchange).