RURAL TOPICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2145, 30 July 1907, Page 4

RURAL TOPICS.

Tho matter of establishing an experimental farm in the South Island is now under consideration.

In regard to grain statistics, Mr. McNab states that if jiossible a trial will be mado next season in one county of taking tho actual threshing machine tallies.

After a lengthy spell of dry weather, there have recently been some useful rains in North Canterbury, and farming prospects have greatly improved in consequence. The early sown wheat is looking well, and many paddocks are ready for oats to be sown.

New Zealand stud sheep are appreciated in Australia. The Malieno,' on her last trip to Sydney, took 220 English Leicester ram hoggets, shippen at Lyttelton by the New Zealand Lour and Mercantile Agency Company. Ten English Leicester ram hoggets and ten ewes were shipped by Dalgety and Co., in the Warrimoi for Melbourne.

The Southland correspondent of the Weekly Press writes as follows: At present we arc enjoying or suffering the winter, and the weather is exceedingly cold. But we prefer to have winter at the proper time, otherwise we have no spring. Going through the country, however, there seems to have been no cessation of farm work, as the extent of Jilouglied land clearly shows. The work done is large, very much larger than is usual at this time of the year, and it is evident very extensive cropjiing is about to bo carried out. So this clearly disposes of all the talk about turning arable lands into sheet) runs, as every product of the soil is bringing big prices. Strangers, too, are coming and buying farms, so that everything points to continuous prosperity for this district. A Dunedin correspondent states that samples of hydraulic compressed fodder, the stuff which fed tho horses which drew the Russian and Japanese artillery into action, has been locally imported.' The fodder is compressed in easily portable cubes, each weighing lOOlbs and measuring 11 inches by 15 by 18 inches. Each cube consists of 761 b of alfalfa or lucerne hay cut fine and mixed with lOlbs of oats and 81bs of bran.' The sap is in tho oats, tho rest being comparatively dry. As to price, this now feed is dear, freight, duty, and other charges combining to make the retail figure almost prohibitive this year. It lias a. chance of being sold, but that is only on account of the current high prices for fodder in the colony. The cost to land and retail here would run from £6 to £6 lUs. Under ordinary circumstances, therefore, this fodder cannot bo imported, but tho New Zealand farmer would be well advised to go in more extensively for growing lucerne with a view to introducing tho hydraulic compression process in tho colony. A Dunedin resident who enquired intothe matter when he was in Australia says that about £2OOO would bo needed to put down a plant, besides which tho patent rights for New Zealand would have to bo acquired.