FARMERS' COLUMN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2108, 17 June 1907, Page 1

FARMERS' COLUMN.

Last soason over a million of money was ” distributed among tho ■■■ butter ; producers of Taranaki, and this sca--1 son tlio roturns will bo greater, the ! weather being- the most -favorable that, lias ever been exjiorienced for the dairying industry. Land values, however, have been inflated to a ridiculous extent—lis •mucin as £4O to £SO per acre being required in these cases. Tile custom (says a contemporary) is to pay a--deposit of about i!5, and depend on Providence for the remainder.

Considering that Auckland’s supply . of potatoes is now .practically all being drawn ' from Tasmania; •it is remarkablo" hoWjow the price is at the present time > (says, the Auckland ; Star). As a matter of fact, at £4 10s ’ to £4' 15s, ex store, the present quotation .potatoes are cheaper* now than they have been for some years past at this-' season. When profits, freight, and duty are deducted, the receipts , of the unfortunate • grower j must bo small indeed. A peculiar feature'of the present position is that the consumption of potatoes is not increasing in • Auckland, in spite of the low * prices ruling. It would seem as if people- get out of the habit of eating so many ' ’potatoes -when they .wore dear, and have not resumed'. The N.Z. Times has it from an authoritative source that one man in the Wairarapa obtained, no less than thirty-two tons of honey from his hives last season. The informant declared that the 750 colonies of this successful beekeeper could be kept on two acres. As he sold all his honey, and that before it was made, at 4d a pound; net wholesale, the returns amounted to £1194 13s for the soason.'

Farm laborers in the North Island are organising with a view to improving their condition. Some weeks ago Mr. Andrew Collins, a member of the Wellington Conciliation Board, gave some addresses to workers in the Taranaki district, and the sequal is the formation of a collide-of unions, one for Taranaki and the othor for Wanganui; both have been registered. A gentleman in touch with the leaders of the Farmers’ Union stated • to a Post reporter that the effect-of an arbitration award might be very hard upon -the dairying industry?-It would mean, he submitted, that a small dairyman, who had, say, half a dozen children helping him, would have to pay the award wages to them. Many could not afford this, and they would hi obliged to do without their chil-

dren’s services. The alternative was milking machines, but many could not afford these' machines at present. Oh the other hand, it has been argued for the employees that taking the year all through they liavo to work long’ hours' for comparatively poor P ay ‘ . . , .Tli© swagger is evidently, not so mu ch a thing of tradition as official reports make it appear. A delegate from' the East- Coast told the Farmers’ Union Conference at Levin that one 1 station-owner -kepk.ua- staff of hooks especially to cook for the swaggers.- At Tupurupuru, Mr. Buchanan’s 1 station;; about.. thirty or forty turned up every flight. One landowner' had 450 acres of bush,- on the felling of which lio had employed 450 men. A Rangitikoi settler, on ,tlxe other hand, complained that lie did not see a single swagger. Ho believed farmers did not- do half enough to give - their men employment during the winter, so as to keep them. A Horowhenua delegate complained ,of tho'lac'k'of labour on the West'Coast. He had had a job von’ his - hands for nin'o months owing- to tlio difficulty of finding .labourers.,.,; fAt a meeting- of • bee-keepers,- gt which there iwas- an attendance of thirty members, including four ladies, it was decided that a Canterbury- 800-keepers' Association should be formed, with the object of promoting' humane and profitable bee-keep-ing throughout Canterbruy and generally in : Nc^;-Zealand.. “Auckland "province will undoubtedly rival Taranaki as a dairying disjunct.’*' This is the opinion expressed |to a Wairarapa pressman by Mr. G. jit:-Sykes’, secretary of the Masterton A. and P. Association, who visited the Auckland Winter Show, and travelled through, the Waikato to Roto*. Irua. The land in tho Waikato, lie .says-, is admirably fitted in many .'quarters for dairy farming, the soil •producing cleaner and more sustaining pastures than- aro to bo seen in the Taranaki districts, where the quality of the grass is affected by •too much rain. Mr. Sykes thinks that land' which runs one cow to •three acres -'is preferable •as a. dairy district to areas which aro much richer in pastures. And it is in this ‘particular that lio expresses tho Opinion that Auckland province may ultimately become tho butter province of Now Zealand-

I A couple of ypars ago a nitrogenfixing bacteria of leguminous plants 'burst on the world with the brilliance of a meteor, and the problem of obtaining nitrogen lor soils was solved i—or: it was thought it was. Several (things have happened since then, and how the United States Department of ’Agriculture has issued a special circular to the effect that some of the extravagant and-misleading claims contained ill soino : of the advertising matter now appearing-in regard to the inoculating material for legumes niake :it-necessary’’to again call attention to the limitations ol‘ the vnluo of- inoculation. The limitations are summarised from bulletins issued by tlio department at various times, but they may bo epitomised as follows: !“No ■ boneficial results can be expected for a particular crop if the bacteria for a particular crop are already present in the soil. But little, if any, benefit can be expected from the fise of these- bacteria if the ground is decidedly in need of other fertilisers, such as phosphates, potash, or lime. But little, if any, benefit can

be expected from inoculation if tlio soil is already rich in nitrogen. A recent- examination of the samples of cultures-for inoculating legumes, obtained through various seed firms throughout the United States, indicates that- there has been a slight ’improvement in the general’character of these, cplfurpsd'-