FARMERS COLUMN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2113, 22 June 1907, Page 1

FARMERS COLUMN.

The Halhince Co-operative .. Daily Company paid out upwards of £2500 for milk supplied liming May, being a record payment lor the company lor that month. . The average test for tlio month wits 4 7. On tlio subject of hot fly in hoists, a well-known Sydney medical men sends tlie following to the Daily Telegraph :—“Regarding hot fly and remedies for the same, one which 1 used to see employed in the Old Country seems to be unknown here. A quantity of the, young shoots and branches of the gorse were pounded in a largo wooden mortar with a heavy wooden 'mallet. AVhen the thorny mass was sufficiently broken up it was mixed with a little oats. Tlie horse ate this with relish. I have seen large' quantities-of * the larvae passed after a feed or two of the' furze.” Two farmers 1 , in the Opaki district, who'had beeif fairly successful in their dealings, went in for another two hundred acres of land,-ploughed tlio area, and- sowed it, with the idea of getting a big turnip crop on which to winter their sheep. The crop turned out splendidly, out. it turned out to he'’kail, caused through a - store- i ■man's l mistake; Next/’year the farmers sowed turnip seed over, the same i area, and the whole crop was ruined with the blight ; but a,. few chains away a neighbor is wintering 1000 hoggets on oiie'of the finest turnip crops in-tlio Waira’rapa. Lambing’ along The coast between Hawora and Opunake is expected to t lie slightly earlier than - usual this J year. i

According to the last returns Now Zealand possesses 20:108.471 sheep, 342,608 horses, arid 1,851,750 head of cattle.

. The Jvaikoura Star is informed that .Mr. James Tate, of Conway Flat, got a crop of magnificent turnips this year. Some of them, pulled at random from the field the other day, were 4Sin in girth and weighed 331 b apiece. The AVuirarapa Daily Times quotes figures to show that'the carrying capacity! of- a number of sheep runs . in the AA'airarapa has trebled since 1873, and concludes that enormous improvements have been effected in clearing and grassing the various stations.

IMPROVING DAIRY HERDS. The annual report of the National Dairy Association (South Island) deals :s follows, with the question of improving dairy herds:— Tlie trend of markets is beyond our control, as the weather is, and about is difficult, to forecast. There are, .ltuefer, many things within the lairyinan’s control and power that he might improve' his position by attorning to. The most important of all, md the one that there is most money n is the improvement of our. dairy

nerds. There is at. least one million sterling per annum to he raised out of bringing our dairy cows up to -a /roper standard of production in Now Zealand: The average per cow per annum over New. Zealand is not over U ! Clb of butter-fat, and 2001 b wquld !i.? a low-average; and no matter How prices may go in the future, if this matter-is not attended, to it may wrick Our dairy industry. Land, values are high ; much of our dairying •and needs' renewing with expend!-: lure on fertilisers. Only the- high prices ruling have enabled -dairy-far-., mers in many cases to make ends noct, and there is no certainty, that such prices will rule in future. If’

our c-ows were brought up to even--20011) average, we could face lower prices without being troubled. Our late Dairy Commissioner,/ Mr. Ruddick, now head of the Canadian Dairy Department, says: “The dairyfarmers of Canada are beginning .to realise, the importance of the question of tlio improvement of dairy holds, and;the .possibilities there are i i this line of work for increasing

•In -profits of milk production. According to the results which :liaVe followed intelligent breeding _and-selec-

itinfn, combined with good care arid -feeding, in other , lands, as well as the experience of progressive, farmers in this country, it-would speni to lie epo.vblile- to iitcrqase .tlio average pi'O- • Irctiou of Canadian herds by at •eiist 20001 b of milk per cow per year l)V applying the same rational methods. Such all increase in iiroduction would mean an additional revenue from dairying to the farmers of Canada of,at -least 30.000,000 dollars a lyear; without increasing the number of cows kept.” Cow-testing associations are now in. vogue among Canadian dairymeri. Each factory in New Zealand could organise a cow-testing association among its milk suppliers, and much good could - be done.

Then there is the matter of improving the-quality and .condition of the lv ilk supplied to the factories, which liar not received proper attention. Our-cheese and’ butter-makers arc do-

ing good work, -but could improve the quality considerably if a uniformly good supply of clean, .'well-cooled.milk could be secured. This also is one of

the tilings within the power of milk suppliers wliieli very olten is not attended to, and the good, work; done by those who dp attend tii it is almost jutihS, for u vat of milk will be just the quality of the worst milk put into it generally; impure milk, or milk in poor condition, brings the best down to the lower quality. • Then there is the matter of winter feed for our cattle. That needs at-

tention. This year wp app ‘ shipping the May make of cheese to London, and erp long 1 will ho shipping the June and Jidy make. 11l the South Island even in April this year cows were feeding on turnips—in some cases grazing on turnips in the fields, tops and all. YVe can liardly expect chcc-sq, hiade from mill? produced jjjider. these conditions' tq iuhl to our repitatipn, iip the London market, and the sooner we adopt some better method the better. Turnips probably

can be fed Id cows in a proper fvaj along with hay or other fodder without much liarpij liilt grazing cows on turnips ip the fields and then supplying;.the, in'ilk to the cheese factory should be put; down as u wicked and most injurious practice In the best dairying markets of Canada no tur-nip-fed, milk is allowed to enter a

fat tovy door. Other winter feed for cattle could he as easily grown in the South as elsewhere, blit m Otago and Southland, especially, dairy-jaiugefs seem wedded tp tfjpirV “dppps” : a¥ the on a and. indy jibssihle winter feed for cattle. Ensilage and other fodder crops are deomed impossible or useless. . , . ,