GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1136, 25 May 1911, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

It is rumoured (a Dannevirke paper reports) that several Matamau farmers aro on tho point of selling out.

It is reported that there has not been on exciting demand for fat lambs in Southland, but prices have been good and payable. At one time farmers wero glad to get even money for fats. Now thcy think that lis. and lis. Gd. is too low. says a writer in tho Southland "Times."

The following is an extract from an articlo in the Sydney "Herald" on "preventable diseases":—"Heavy losses in the dairy industry, whicii arc quite preventable, have been sustained this season both in New Zealand and Australia. While the butter of this State has not suffered from fishincss to the extent of former years, the exports from the Dominion have heeu unusually affected. But, as if to make up for the difference, the local articlo has been more mouldy than during any previous year."

A crop of Dakota red potatoes, grown at Fordell, went-22 tons to the acre. A dozen of the larger sized tubers turned the scale at 21b. each, tho largest single specimen being 3Jlb., reports an exchange. In tho Matamau (Hawke's Bay) district a canvass is being made to ascertain whether or not it is the wish of tho dairymen to start a co-operative factory.. Kcgarding tho reports of shortages in trucks and covers in tho South, a country correspondent who endorses the complaint's says-that if some of the/ big commercial firms were to build great stores they would always be able to buy at a halfpenny to threo farthings less per bushel, for the farmers would sooner take that than bo bothered with the truck trouble. The annual ploughing match in connection- with the Wairarapa P. and "A. Society is to be held on Mr. Inglev's farm at Moiki on July 27. Mr. W. D. 'Watson, of .Masterton, has been appointed judge for the best team of horses.

A Southland farmer says that grass has grown splendidly since the rain, and that he believes' it will grow all tho winter.

.A'Lepperton (Taranaki) farmer has been trying the experiment of placing goats in a small area in order to cope with blackberry. On a paddock of about twenty acres it was not possible twelve months ago for any person to seo many yards in front of him, so dense.'was tho .growth of blackberry. Now the whole ground is clear, little else being left but stalks. He found that tho goats require special fencing, much more so than sheep: —Exchange.

Masterton dairyfarraers. are beginning to recognise the value of rugging their cows (states tho "Age"). One farmer states that the extra supply of rr/Ak yielded in the. early spring moro than paid for the rugs in one season.

By tho Mooltan, which /eft Fremantle for London recently, w» shipped the' largest consignment of fruit which ever left Western Australia on a steamer. The. shipment comprised 3738 cases made up of pears, apples, and grapas; the greater portion being consigned to London.. Mr. Saisell, of Springfield, Gulgong district, New South Wales, has had a remarkable freak of nature in the shape of a green tomato, 10 inches in circumference. The silk usually seen on a cob of corn is in the centre of this, but the freak had no resemblance whatever to a cob, although it was taken from a corn stalk «ix feet from tho ground. the curiosity is enclosed in a husk similar to that round a cob of corn. The South Australian Government has purchased an area of 5-1 acres of land at Wavvillc West, at J275 per acre, representing an outlay of .£14.850 as a- site for a new show ground for the Koyal Agricultural Society.