GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1994, 27 February 1914, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

- In a, few weeks a new and important ■industry.'will be started at-Edendale, Southland. This is > the manufacture of sugar of milk, a iby-product of the dairying industry. ■ The cheese, factories for years -wasted in butter enough to pay the -wages of their,staffs, and after' the butter-fat was oxtracted from tho-whey there: remained in'.rosiduuni a valuable substance for which there is a worldwide demand. The idea of making use of this by-product was conceived by two chemists, who aro the prompters of tho industry.' The chief ■' market will bo for brewing and for baby's.milk,.and it is "expeotod.'that.the sugar ■ will havo a, '.WflrM-wide, demand.-' ■ '

;'. Pay.rilcu.ts'i'to suppliers of the Thames 'Valley Comparative Dairying /Company for butter-rat supplied during . last month totalled £13,136, as against £9728 for January of last year.

It is ropbrtcd that large purchases of shcop are'being, made in Southland by .Canterbury buyers.'-Sis'thousand head ;ar«'aaid'to havo been railed north duriing. tho'vpastthreo weeks. At the same 'time.'there is; general complaint' of a shortage of sheep in Southland. ..

. ''Southland farmers aro gotthig good prices for .their fat lambs .this season. For .firsts drafts . several 'farmers havo eold'at, 18s. 6d.'to 20s. An East Chatton .farmer who'received 18s. 6d. for his first .draft,; only; obtained 10s;< for bis' first draft-six-years ago.

■■' Orchardists with pieces of wasto land at their disposal wore urged by Mr: T. W. Kirk: at. the Nurserymen's Conference to plant them thickly with pihus IhsignLs'tb provide timber for the futuro. Koresigbted fruitgrowers in the Motueka district Lad dono so in, tho past, and some of-.them woro now being offered £1 per tree. Ho spoke with personal experience of tbo value of pinus insignis timber for-fruit cases, and declared it to be superior 'to wliito pine.

".".At a. .meeting' of tlio Ashburton A. and P. Association .on Tuesday a now noxious weed, which bas beeii found growing in the .'district,- was exhibited. A letter from Dr. Cocka.vno, Government Biologist, described the week as Toad Flax (Linaria vulgaris). It was not

harmful iii chaff, hut it would spoil any sample of seed. It was liable to quickly spread over paddocks, owing to having underground stems like the Californian thistle. To eradicate the weed fallowing and cultivation were necessary. A potato crop, with good cultivation, would assist in eradicating Toad Flax.

With the continuation of warm weather tho grain crop 3 in the Clinton district was ripening apace. A considerable amount is already in stook, and with another week of line weather harvesting operations should - bo fairly general, in the rest of Clutha, as well as in Bruce, most of the crops are in stook, or the binders aro busy in the fields. Tlio best oaten crops to be scon in South Otago this season'are in the Catlins district, where the prolonged early rains did net have such a deteriorating effect on tho growth as elsewhere. A good heavy downpour is wanted everywhere ilist 'now lor the turnip crops, and for the grass. Blight is very apparent among many of the potato crops.

Tho difficulty that looms ahead to keep up the world's beef supply is already causing, attention, to-be paid to new countries suited to cattle-raising. Several" experts have reported • recently upon Southern Rhodesia as adapted for graziers. An area of 10,000,01)0 acres of land, suited to the growing of cattle is reported;as being practically ;uninhabited. To other areas mentioned are 3,000,000 and 3,500,000 acres. Those have been reported upon by Texan ranch* owners, and also by Professor Wallace, of the faculty of Agriculture, Edinburgh University.