GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1130, 18 May 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

■V farmer who was among the party from the Paten district who visited the State Farm at Moumahaki last week says that" more than one of the farmers wero surprised at the size of the Ayrshire cattle. Romo of the dairy cows were considered to be very fine. Mr ■ Chas. Douglas, secretary to tho Hawke's Bay A. and P. Association, has had the misfortune to dislocate his right shoulder, and will be incapacitated for about a week, says a Napier paper. Sir. C. J. Bea-kes, Director of Livo Stock and Meat in tho State Department of Agriculture, delivered a long-promised address to farmers in the Town Hall, Opunake, at the end of last week. At a conference of directors of Victoria butter factories in Melbourne a protest was entered against .the Commerce Act regulations, which propose to-limit the moisture content in export butter to 15 per cent. It was also resolved to enter an emphatic objection to the compulsory »rado-branding of boxes containing export butter. 'The Minister will bo urged to adopt a 1G per cent, moisture limit The new regulations are -down to take effect on July 1. • A very large volume of business is being done- this season in. chaff (states the Southland "Times'. , ). Hundreds of tons of Mataura chafT are, being sent from Mataura station to Canterbury and Auckland. Many farmers held back? a" larger proportion of onts than usual from threshin", and this is being cut into -chaff and sent north. The wisdom of this course is being debated; but the price that has been ruling for chaff (£i per ton. as against L's. 2<l. per bushel for oats) is in favour of chaff. On the other hand, farmers are losing the straiv. A shipment of bull beef has.beon sent from Invcrcargill to London. The paper which reports the fact states that the meat is for use by the Army. Tho Maketawa correspondent of the Taranaki "News" writes that tho Durham Koad creamery will run every otner day now. The mild-weather being favourable, the growth of grass has kept tho supply of milk up wonderfully. In some districts the milk supply to dairy factories has , reached a very low total, and tho majority of dairy factories in Southland will he closed by the end of the current , month buys the Southland '"limes"). For April ths paysheets of some companies did not exceed JIISO. In all cases, and particularly mi tho smaller factories, the unusually and unexpectedly email output has made the cost of manufacture- exceptionally high, and though the season is closing with high piiccs for che-eie, bonuses to suppliers will not be- general. . An operator in .the pig trade, in conversation with a newspaper representative, referred to the rise of pork, i-oui-pence per pound, he said, was now beini paid to tho farmers, and that rate had not been current for some timo past. At this, particular period of tho ywir, ho stated, pigs were" usually scarce, us the .custom was to get rid of them with tho close of the dairying season. Tho increased value of beef had, however, been the means of hardening the prico of pork, tho latter having risen in sympathy with the rise in beef. He was of opinion that current rates ought to convince the farmer that keeping pigs was a most profitable attendant to dairying, and ho considered that it was yet capable "of ■very great development. The big ilax mill at ilaori Hill has been closed down for somo time, but tho growth of flax on tho undulating country in that vicinity has beon very good and in many places it will be ready to cut again in less than a year.—Southland "Times." In tho Cheviot district there lias been a good growth of grass, and feed is looking very well, considering the set back in early autumn. A considerable amount of wheat has already been put in, and it the weather continues lino the quantity will bo considerably augmented.