Agricultural Notes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 September 1910, Page 4

Agricultural Notes.

The Inst Saturday and Sunday in August were a sample of winter weather without doubt, and the less we have of that kind of climate during the next six months or so, tljo better. Hitter sou'-wester blowing, with cold, driving rain, is not the weather a flockmaster would choose for new.ly dropped lambs; and it is a sure enough thing thai, a good many of the additions to the dominion's flocks in Canterbury will have succumbed to the combined effects of cold and wot. The ranges to the west had a thick mantle of white right down to theii foothills, and oven the Port .Hills •had a light coating of snow on the tops.

A ploughing match was held' at Mr H. AVright's farm, Higlifidd, Kirnvee. and a Canterbury newspaper remarks that the gathering proved so successful that one is .ratlier at a loss to imagine why a flag of distress was flown at the paddock gate to guide visitors to the match! Someone with distinctly hazy or revolutionary ideas must have orectcd that flag, which was a rather tattered, red ensign, flown 'with the Jack downwards— the well understood signal of distress at seal

The fair sex turned out in force to the above-mentioned match, ami there woro more on the ground in proportion to the general number present than I have noticed at any ploughing match (recently. They took_ a great interest in all the proceedings, too, and gave their moral support to vantious fathers, uncles, ibrothors, cousins, and friends among tho competitors. One could iiot help noticing the ravages of the grass grab in the paddock where the ploughing match was held; the patches infested I,y the pest showed u pvery distinctly both before and after "lie i:md bad :been turned over. The herbage over the locality whi;? the (jniib had pegged out ! ts clnfi oov.ld be kicked up with, the bo>t (\\riteeasily, showing that all the roots had been systematically cut through a few inches below the surface of the ground; while, where the land had been ploughed, the fjoil that had been bored through and through with, the journeyings <rf the grubs, appeared) quite rotten .and fell all down in a- crumbly state from the mould'boards, lather spoiling the even appearance of some of the competitors' work. In course of conversation with a good many farmers on the gro'uiul, 1 gathered that none of them knew a ireally practical method of getting rid of the grass-grub; most of them scorned just resigned to the loss caused by the pest, and trusted to luck that it would lee no worso than usual.

The. idea of having a sheep dog trial for farmers' dogs in conjunction with the ploughing match was a good one, and a great deal #f interest was taken in it. It was a pity that the entry was so small — only six coming forward, and one being disqualified—but perhaps on the next occasion thctro will be a bigger number of competitors to face the judge. Tt cannot be said that the work done by any of the dogs was very good, it wa.s only fair, as the fact that the winner was only awarded 17 points out of a possible 30 will testify; but there is no doubt that the event was a very popular one, and the judge, Mr F. Busch, of Springfield, is hopeful that these competitions wilf catch on, and then some first-<rate sport will be witnessed. "■['ni iblest if I-know upon what grounds nine-tenths of ordinary farmhands base their claim fo'i wages at eight and. ten shillings a day," said a farmer the other day. "1 have figured it out carefully, and have come to the conclusion that unskilled labour on my place is only actually worth about five shillings a day to me, without keep. That is what I reckon a man is worth from his heac. downwards; there is no limit to what his head may bo worth, and if I find an employee of mine has brains, and will use them in my interests, T can guarantee that there will not be much argument about the wages question ibe.tween us. Though it may sound like 'blowing,' I can say it is brains that has made my farm what it is, and nve- times tt e slogging, undirected, would not have had the same resullt. T hi:ink a great many ■l'mr-mei-s think and plnn" kill enough. .1 know men among n\ neighbours who are not lnakin'" enough to move themselves ; ru? their families out of the distr I , thev say I am a lucky l.m, hit I think that the results [ jrot i>.av more rightly be put <\n\VA to ;, litle common sense and <\ rethought, and not i"st ' Icttiii; things slide,' and 'lehaneing it.'" and 'reckoning it will be" do-lit enough.' "