MATTERS OF INTEREST.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 639, 7 June 1921, Page 10

MATTERS OF INTEREST.

Demands for cow covers will total 70,000 this season. It has been proved beyond question that if there is one thing that pays more than another it is to cover the cows during winter.

The South Island is dependent upon the North Island for butter during the winter months, and requires about T 0,00() boxes to iili iis demands.

The contribution of the cow to the

national wealth of New Zealand in butter and cheese alone represented the export value of £10,851,000 for the twelve months ended October 31 last.

Last year the trade of the port of New Plymouth alone amounted to 123.954 tons, of which 95,712 tons were imports, coastwise and overseas, and 28,242 tons exports, practically all for overseas. If'to these are added the trade of Wait am and Pat’ea, the total was probably some 209,000 tons, the exports of produce being valued at nearly £»,000,090.

Young calves never do well in damp dirty quarters. A good floor made of cement or concrete, well bedded with short straw, shavings or sawdust to absorb the liquid manure, will facilitate cleaning and will keep the calves warm. -

Rape has a high feeding value. It has been fed to dairying cattle with some degree of success. It increases the flow markedly, but many object to the taint it gives the milk, This trouble can be overcome by feeding the rape after milking.

In live stock breeding 'if an individual comes from a strain that includes famous animals, that is a good start. If the particular line which leads to that individual possesses worthy progenitors, that is promising. It the individual itself has the right qualities that is valuable. But if it has a record of performance m reproducing the desirable traits which it possesses, or if its immediate relatives have uniformly good records, that is of the utmost importance.

The annual meeting of the Southern Hawke’s Bay Provincial Farmers’ Union Supported the proposal of the Poverty Bay Provincial Executive urging the Government to take steps prohibiting trusts and big combines operating in Dominion produce, particularly* Armour and Co. anil Vestev Bros.

A motion in favour of having the Farmers’ Union registered under the Arbitration Act was eventually referred as a remit to the Dominion Conference.

For many years it has been the practice of potato growers in the Channel Islands to plant table-size potatoes in preference to the ordinary planting size. Cut seeds are rarely used, and the disbudding of the sprouted seed to one or two eyes is never practised. It is claimed that stronger plants, with increased yield and earlier maturity are obtained on account of the larger amount of food the parent plant carries. It would pay kitchen gardeners to give" the method a trial, especially for early crops; also for autumn sowing, when rapid development is required.

A record consignment of butter for one day was received at the Farmers’ Freezing Company's gradingstores in Auckland on March ill, that being the last day for receiving butter for export under the agreement entered into between the producers and the Imperial authorities. The quantity received totalled 11,590 boxes, which is more than double the number . usually received on any one clav in the height of the season.

Butter is being retailed in Masterton shops at 2s To per 11) cash and 2s 8d booked, Early\lambs have already made their appearance at Mr Slack's farm, Otaki, Manawatu,.

f Conditions in the Waikato are thus described by a farmer (says the Fcilding Star). Things up here are only passable; the whole of the Waikato has suffered a very severe drought, and is not out. of it yet. We have had only about two hours’ rain, one hour per day, this last week, and that is really the first rain for the kit four months. People are drivingcows four miles for water, and generally dairies are getting milk by the pint, where they were getting it by the gallon this time last year. It will be a severe winter up here, no feed and no chance of casement in the money market.

There are 95,000 crates of cheese stores awaiting shipment. The value of this is over half a million sterling. The total number of crates of cheese held in store in the Dominion is 300,000. It is partly due to this fact that the price of cheese has kept up so well in England.

The butter position is certainly becoming complicated and hard to understand, says the Post, in an editorial. There are over 300,000 boxes of British Imperial-owned butter awaiting shipment, butter bought at 2s 6d per lb, or 280 s per cwt here in New Zealand. It is not worth more than 263 s per cwt in London to-day.