GENERAL FARM NEWS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 154, 19 March 1918, Page 8

GENERAL FARM NEWS

This year the Ashburtou Show, the first of the Canterbury autumnal series, was reducod from a two to a one-day event. 1 The breaking of the Otago drought, news of which is published to-day, is a matter of much importance. The dry spell has been a long one. Already the crops had gone off, and the milk yields had fallen, and in a little while the early frosts might have been upon the district and given a further check to growth, so that the prospects of sufficient food before next spring would liavo been remote. The balanes-shoet of the recent Jlawera Show gives the credit balance as £110. _ ' A visitor to the Model Farm at Stratford recently passed some casual remark about a Cambridge roller that ho noticed on the right-of-way. "The very best implement on the farm," replied Mr. Deem, of the Agricultural Department. "Every Taranaki farmer should have a good Cambridgo roller if he has nothing else." Continuing, Mr. Deem pointed out that ho felt very strongly on the necessity for plenty of rolling, and said that the land on this farm, whoro the crops were now, was rolled a week after ploughing, and was gone (war thwj) uii' fc«ft tSiijißS". lift tntft tilia aiii

down firmly and havo everything buried. This particular portion had only been stumped since last August, but it looked as though it might have been turned up a couple of years ago. The machinery they had at the farm included a Cambridge roller, drill, disc, plough, set of hanoivs, and a manure spreader. They fouuel that the tripods worked better than, the tine harrows in this light couutry. Tho tripods rolled all tho grass, etc., along the surface, but tho tines went- down anil dug up the buried grass.

Tho current issue of tho New South Wales "Agricultural Gazette" says:— "The proclaimed price of sulphate of ammonia in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania is £18 per ton wholesale, in single bags, on railway trucks, lorry, or other vehicle at producer's works, and £130 per ton retail, for one ton or under, in single bags, on railway truck or-other vehicle, at works or store. In Queensland the prices are £19 and £21 per ion respectively. A further provision states tnat when sulphate of ammonia is imported from one Stato of the Commonwealth to another State, the maximum retail prices for sulphate so itnportcd shall be tho actual cost into importer's ctore plus 10 per cent."

The lower end of the Taieri Plain, in tho vicinity of Henley and Otokia, is still tho cynosure of all eyes, especially of 'train passengers (says the ''Otago Daily Times"). This country, it will be remembered, was covered with water from the end of May last year up to within some four or five months ago, with the result that large areas of it were temporarily abandoned b.v the occupiers. The waters subsided too late to permit of the land being utilised for cropping, and the affected area has cotiremained untouched as far as tillage operations are concerned. One effect of tho .Hoods was to destroy absolutely all tho finer pasturo grasses, and their place has been taken by innumerable weeds, principally docks, to such an extent that tb<* surface of the land is now literally covered with vegetation of an unprofitable kind. Tho work of repairing the breach in tho protective banks "'-'ear Otokia is progressing, but it will probably he somo six weeks yet before the operations, which are of a substantial nature, are completed.

The next wool i aluation ill Gisbornc takes placo early in April. The recent abnormal rainy season has delayed tho work of transport, and the flood has been the cause of great inconvenience and delay to farmers oil the flats. Nevertheless, it is expected there will be a big entry of bales for this valuation, and all available accommodation is rapidly being filled up.