GENERAL NOTES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2672, 19 January 1916, Page 8

GENERAL NOTES

"Tlie best all-round harvest for very many years," was the remark of Mr. ■W. T. Wells on the crops in the Manaia and surrounding districts for tho present season (says'the "Witness ). Tho hav harvest is? the best within the experience of very many years —-the best both'in quality and quantity. It ts pretty well double that of last year. Despite the heavy call the war has made on our manhood, there have been plenty of men for harvest work, but, it.must;bo said, very few young meti have been available (says Mr. Wells). Hay-maKing wages-have stood" at Is. 9d. per hour and dinner. Very little is being done in the way of ensilage this year owing to the limitations of labour, and at the wages rates just mentioned ensilage-making would leave no margin of 'advantage ,to farmers. , _ , In some Now South Wales districts for many years past it has been the custom • for farmers to have sufficient of .their wheat gristed ,at the local flour mills to meet their requirements m flour for the year. The .practice was for the mills to charge a certain fee per bushel for gristing and to give the farmers the-flour and the whole of the by-products. It was an arrangement whioh gave satisfaction to both growers and millers, but under the wheat scheme of this year an absolute veto has been placed on the continuance of tho custom, and the farmers are indignant. The. tick which was introduced into New South Wales on cattle imported from New Caledonia is described by the Government entomologist of that State as tlippoboscca equina. One of these pests' was captured by a horsetrainer near Sydney, on_ a valuable racing mare.. This "flying tick," as it is called in New Caledonia, has ■ a pair of very strong claws, with which it clings to the skin ,of the victim. It irritates by blood-sucking and. by crawling. It is brown in colour and very tough, so that a blow will not kill it. , A .Taranaki butter buyer is of opinion that the prices which the season's cheese will realise will enable the factories which consigned to pay out from Is. 7d. to Is. 9d. The Taranaki "Herald" states that the ninth shipment of butter and cheese from New Plymouth this season was to be made this week, ■the Corinna taking 8000 crates of cheese and 10,998 boxes of butter for transhipment to the Limerick. This will be the most valuable shipment sent from New Plymouth so. far, as the cheese should realise £40,000 on the Home market, and the butter £38,493, a total of £78,493. The total amount sent from New Plymouth is 81,237 boxes of butter and 39,907 crates of cheese, as compared with 17,274 boxes of butter from Patea tad 55,346 crates or cheese. i One Masterton farmer has harvested eighty bushels of oats per acre this season. ,