GENERAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1512, 7 August 1912, Page 10

GENERAL ITEMS.

"There is 110 country on God's eartli where the farm labourer is treated tetter than ho is in New Zealand." Mr. Sheat at the Farmers' Dominion Conference. A consignment of 10 Romney rams from the Parorangi stud is to be shipped to Uruguay by the lonic this week. According to Mr. C. 11. Ensor, of Canterbury, who recently returned from a trip to' Australia, some of. the British breeds, bred on Australian soil, are quite equal to those bred in New Zealand. "I bnlieve," Mr. Elisor says, "that by using the same methods of culture Australia could rival, and possibly excel, New Zealand in the, frozen mutton trade. Although New Zealand undoubtedly stands at the top in producing the best quality of sheep for freezing, the. Now Zealaiulers who arc going to Australia will certainly build up a very formidable competition." At the annual meeting of the Whenuakura Co-operative Dairy Company, the balance-sheet showed a balance of ,£1835 to the credit of profit and loss account on the year's working. The sum of .£12,191 9s. Gd. was paid to suppliers during the season. The receipts from the sale of butter„wero .£IG,GS6 4s. Messrs. J. Hurley, P. llourke, Turner, and W.. D. I'owdrell wore elected to vacancies on the directorate. At a subsequent "meeting of directors, Mr. J. Hurley, for twelfth successive year, was elected chairman. Provision will be made at the next show of the Mastorton A. and P. Association for an ambulance tent, whore assistance can be rendered to ridors who are injured in the jumping events, or to spectators who may meet with accidents. There has been a considerable demand for apple trees in the district surrounding Feilding and Palmerston, and, according to a I'eilding nurseryman, fully 10,000 foung trees have been planted this season in the territory mentioned. Pear and pcach trees have also been planted in' fair quantities, but the demand for other Fruit trees has not been nearly so keen is in tho case of the apple. The annual report of the Stratford Dairy Co. gave tho following statistics "or the years 1910-11 and 1911-12, the figures'for 1910-11 being in parentheses:—' Number of. supplies, 221 (217); milk revived, 29,723,4311b. (29,393,500); average :ost, 3.87 (3.81); lb. fat,, 1,151,238(1,122,580); b. butter, 1,328,439 (1,304,340); over-run, 15.3 (16.1); lb. milk to lb butter, 23.37 22.53); cost of manufacture, 1.17 (1.09). The working account shows a balance of £4888 9s. lOd. This will bring the averige paid for butter-fat for the year to 12.02 d. per lb. The working account ihows that for the year ending Slay 31 ast the sum of .£52,897 15s. Id. was 'paid » suppliers, arid 14s.' Bd. in wages. The cost of manufacture was ,£4014 15s. id., and of selling and management .£1595 Is. Bd. The total payments on all ac:ounts were «EGG,OOB 9s. lid. Butter sales produced ,£64,777 Us. Id.. ' The report submitted to . the annual neeting of the Nonnanby Co-operative JairyCompany stated that the pay-out of .s. 3 5-lGd. for the season' was most satisactory, taking into consideration that jntter. was made up to tho middle of Jctober. The increase in the milk supi.ylmd Tendered necessary the extension >f tho factory and a contract had been et at .£BBI. Appended to, the report was :he following table of averagesLbs. of nilk received, 10,088,M3; lbs. of butter-fat, 174,781; average test, 3.711; number ot' ;ows, 1875; number of suppliers, 48; cast >f manufacturing cheese, .460(1.; cost of narketing cheese, 1.02 d.; average price per b. of butter-fat paid suppliers. Is. 3 i-16d.; average yield of tuttor-fat per :ow, 1991b.; average return per cow, il2 3s. Ud. Used for cheese-making: Lbs. >f milk, 8,422,255; lbs. "of butter-fat, 112,490; lbs. of cheese from lib. butter-fat, !.73; lbs. of cheese made 855,222; lbs. of nilk to lib. of cheese, 9.84; average test, 1.71; cost per lb. f.0.b., ,5C6d. Used for >utter-makiug. Lbs; of milk. 1,C0G,208; lbs. >f butter-fat, 62,290; lbs. of butter made, 0,525; over-run, 13.22; lbs. of milk to lib. nitter, 23.02; average test, 3.71. Dealing with the suggestion that a local •aluer should be appointed to act with ho Government Valuer in valuing land, dr. J. M'Qucen stated at the Dominion Conference, of the Farmers' Union that Canterbury farmers had gone to Southand and bought certain land which old lands in the district knew a man could lardly make a living off. Some of the nen who took up these lands were ruined. I'his, said Mr. M'Queen, was as good an ndication as one could get of the good lljlt would be done by a local man acting vitli the Government Valuer, because the qcal valuer would have been able to say it once what the producing value of the and was. Speaking at Stratford recently, Mr. 3uckeridge, tine of the organisers of tho .''armei's' Union, said that fourteen years »go he was told by one of the meat ex- I lerts at the Sinithfield Markets—tho | ;rcatost in the-world—that New Zealand neat was better by Id. per lb. than that soniing from the Argentine. Since then le had cn several occasions questioned !hese same experts, and their opinion of j nir meat had not altered. Yet if myone glanced at the market reports in lie papers, they would find that it was lot uncouitnon to find Argentine frozen mittou fetching higher prices than diil :!k; Dominion output. This showed Uu*k if system on the part of New Zealamlers, ind by that luck of system we were losing innnally one and a quarter million pounds. Similarly, we were losing thousands of pounds ny luck of a system in ilacmg our exports on tho Home markets. \gain, we had no system of disposing of jur butter and cheeso.

A WTNNKR OF COMI'KTtTfO.XS. The Eg|?-lnjing Competitions for 1010-11 ind 1011-12 were both won by pens reared uo "A. and P." ('hick Kaiser. The first twjcntial for profitable poultry keeping, Qbt&ia&oU. froui ftU Stwttoeii,"