Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

PROSPECTS FOR 1932. FOR THE MAN ON THE LAND. It would bo rush optimism to say that at the beginning of another year the corner lias been turned for New L: aland farmers as too many factors govern the position to make it possible to foretell with any measure of confidence what the coming year holds for us to say the .least of it. The basis on which prosperity for this young country is founded is th.mount cud value of the primary products and so far as quantity is concerned, the Dominion cannot claim have reached anything near the peak of production when compared with other countries less favourably situated though- the increase during the past decade lias been remarkable and is eloquent testimony to the methods and ability of the primary producers. It is only this anomaly in production which, during the past two years, has saved the farming industry from utter collapse. Dairy fanners have suffered heavily though not to the same extent as sheep owners, as last year prices for wool and lamb were disastrous. For the year ending dune 30, 1929, the total value of the frozen meat, wool, hides and skins and other by-products exported was £30,810,M2. Comparing this with the figures for the year ending June 30, 1331. two years later, the total is £19,161.693. Wool, with approximately 100,000 bales under the 1929 shipments, showed ;i drop of ten millions sterling, but the most amazing fact shown by these statistics is that the value of the meat exported was £BO,OOO above the 1929 figures through an increase in the 60ib. j freight carcases being 1,163,588. Locally pin: prices- for all classes ot sheep fell enormously in three years. Fat lambs in 1929 were bringing 25s to 30s; last yar from Us to 13s ; goo.t breeding ewes fell from 25s to 35s down to 10s to 15s, and 'n other classes .the fall was on the same- per-

centage. The trouble is that this appalling lowering of prices .is in no way attributable to Dominion conditions, but solely to the drop in the world s markets over .which New Zealand has no

control', therefore, the prospects for the v-ear on which we have just 'entered, are almost entirely dependent on the many influences at work in Britain. There is going to be Empire preference for certain commodities, included in which will be dairy produce, but our main competitor in wool and lambs is the Argentine, and. as has already been pointed out, the possibility of the Dominions getting any material preference over that huge republic is very remote.

For years New Zealand farmers have been urged to increase production and they responded in a degree which few of (their advisers ever anticipated. Now tile only hope of salvation lies in lowj ering the costs of production. Farm I revenue has fallen in every item of I produce from a half to as high as a 'fifth of 'the totals of u few years ago. and the farmer’s expenditure has not i fallen to any appreciable extent. interest and local rates are as high, and in some iinstances higher, than they 1 an.re when farm produce was selling at double and .treble current prices. .According to statistics lately published interest and rents are lesponsible I’m 35 per cent, of the total farm exp. no tore in New Zealand, yet with a!i the slump prices 'there has been no redm. tbn in the inti rest bill, though the State, as the largest landowner, has met the tenants in the matter of rents If the farmers of New Zealand would only unite as did th.ir Irish confreres from the early "eighties” onward, their interest bill would be reduced as Irish rents were from thirty to forty per cent., even though we have neithei a Gladstone nor a Parnell. We have been told that it is a pernicious doctrine ho argue that our farm lands are over-valued, but bow a.ro Miter sts, taxes, and rates borne by the land to be reduced if the base on which these charges are calculated is left untonch ed ? The ‘'economic inequality of agriculture" is a fine sounding plira.se and the truth of it is quite apparent to most people, but we have non r heard of any pixelicu 1 solution of the inequity. The .'ear ahead of us gives promise of a v.orlil improvement or a colossal catastrophe according to the iherec of the .toils of wealth. Kurope cannot go on being bled wJiite by Amerie.i, now t!ie wealthiest nation the world has over sen, yet with millioil.s ot tier people si living.

New Zealand farmers can grow imugli In feed aml clothe len or

twenty times the present population, oit it they, too. nr. to he ruthlessly bln! !o sat >iy i.ho men y gods, then l h '.v must alsu iiicviiahly roll,ipse. We can go on hoping for better times, but ihe industry has rearlml a stage wiieii sunn thing mono tangible than advice Mill pi inii’.ses is required to save fifty per rent, of the men engaged in it. from null. Til K i'll id ids !•: c.m:i:i). roNSII!XM F.\ I .VI l.nMt IN. One form o i va i m ble pn bl lei I y ;,.I .Hell 11 .Jill ■li lel etnony p 1 |oi iiieil rn.iui dy ai. I.oiel.oi by tin- 1,..id May.n ■II ' lie .i - i i I ..I I lie first i . ill ■•.; a 1111 1C II t ; ...is ill iii - I 1 loe.ij

The triumphal reception ul’ which Hay's wharf, hard by London Bridge, was a day or two ago the scene vouln have done honour to a victorious general coming home from the war (th ■ writer of the article remarks). Even a popular him star from overseas might not have disdained to he welcomed by the arrival in London by the admiral of. the port, in the person of the Lord -Mayor, accompanied by m .sheriffs, a fanfare blown by the trumpeters of ithe Royal Horse Guards, a guard of honour from the Arothwsa. and a bevy of curtseying English dairymaids, wreathed with emblematic •sashes, and supported by a chef, a

In ewer, and a rhymie toastmaster with a pretty taste for light verse. As h happened, Ithe hero of the reception ceremony wa,s neither a brass hat no an exquisite of the screens, but a burg load of cheese from New Zealand which were formally introduced to tin Lord Mayor and the rest of the assent bly waiting on the wharf by Sir Tiio-ma-s Wilford, High Commissioner for the Dominion, as the cargo of Hie ship of its main cheese II cut to come to London. In the inspired language of the toastmaster, these brethren of the curd (complete with vitamins) had come "from creamy pastures drenched in isun, to fight the fight, as you yoioselves, for British cheesp for Brit'sh shelves, and make it every day much harder for foreign rinds to iill 'the larder." With these brave words ring'"g in their ears, the company sat them down, in the good old British lash <>;. to a frugal luncheon of Bi it sh i hse:: and British beer., enlivened by the Lord .Mayor and others of the with eloquent speeches urging Hi cm to "Buy British" and to drink to til success of the Mew Zealand cheese industry.

The occasion, it should be said, was fully worthy of the cheerful and impressive dignity with which it was ee cbrated. Last year Mow Zealand supplied this country with n nrlv twothirds of its total of about 155,C00 toilof imported cheese. But it means to do better still. With the establish ment of iits special cheese fleet it will be able during 'the next 12 months to •ship to these shores 120,000 tons ol British cheese and 180,000 tons ol British butter. The barge-load honoured by the Lord Mayor bring us, in fact, a day's march nearer to the time when, given 'the true spirit of mutual goodevil] throughout the Empire, the basic foodstuff of this country will hr produced, though ill different parts ol Hie world, on British .soil. That, as the Lord .Mayor said, is the ideal c-om-ep-tion, and New Zealand enterpr.se well deserves to be It hanked for helping us towards its realisation. At the same time New Zealand will be domg a further and peculiarly useful service i<> Great Britain and its farmers it its example stimulates them to make mom use of their surplus milk by ii’cr as ug their own outpuit of home-made cheese. For the cows and pastures of the . ountry are second to none in th 1 world, and the value of the cheese brought from outside last year and sold in Hie home jnarkot was well over £12,000,000.

KICKING REMEDIED IN COWS. The cow that is a .perpetual kicker is a nuisance in the dairy. If she is an extraordinary milker her perverse ways may be tolerated for a tune, otherwise it will b\ better to dispose of her. 'lh-a kicking habit may be an inborn trait but more often it is the resin'i of indiscreet handling on the part ol the owner or milker. It may, however, b the result of an over-sensitive condition of tin.- udder or of the nerves most directly connected with it. A little sore on the teats or adjacent pains may also make a cow kick. It is not |ik Iv that any one remedy will prove iuiallihle for all cases. Some cows seem go be moderate kiekn's ny mere habit; they are constantly stepping around wh.’.e being milked, making small threats ot kicking and occasionally performing the real act when the milker is off Ins guard. Such can be restrained, to some extent at least, hy crowding them into a eorner up against a wall. Leg-tying ran be simplifi d by using a heavy strip in a place of a rope. One with a buckle and ring attached is very convenient. After buckling the sirup tightly around the leg. pass a sinad ropi or something else through the ring and tie to a partition or post. The kicking strap is more effective for correcting the kick ii than the whip or milking stool, and is easier on both cow and milker. t'ATTLK X 1'11'iI) SALT. Fxperimenls earned on many years

ago by fhideoek and his associates at the Wisconsin (experiment Siatioii. I nited Stat.es. were the firsl to show conclusively that eat tie normally he >1 an additional supply of common salt beyond the amount normally roetani'd in the various foods they eat. In ih ' 1 experiments when eatt-lc were imtiiil'.ined on Iheir usual ralion, except tha. ni salt was aildeil. after sc,n il mm ill- :n----jurioiis elferts on their health wrre r adily apparent. They ''.ere .saved from L disaster ! >\- supplying sal'. Mere le I'eii'tl.v various oilier seieiii isis have she' n the need for sal I lot i>! Inw > la.- 1 1 live stoek. notably pigs. e j