FARM NOTES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2783, 28 April 1911, Page 2

FARM NOTES.

Mr H. £. Bacon, proprietor of the Gore and Maitland factories, has received word from London that the first shipment of cheese from these factories has been sold tor 62s per cwt. This price is probably a record for Otagoand Southland this season.

A meeting of representatives of the various dairying centres of New South Wales have formed a union with the primary object ot combatting the claims for higher wages and better working hours of the rural workers union, when they come before the Arbitration Court

; Some Tatanaki stock-dealer* went as far south as Oamaru looking (or the snips in cattle that were reported to be obtainable thereabouts through the drought. The best line they were offered was £4 los a head for very ordinary aged dairy cows. They left them. The power to produce milk or milk fat abundantly is indicated by a goodsized udder, teats of good size and squarely placed, skin covering udder to be mellow and elastic, the underneath to have a network of veins, also large mammary veins and good-sized milk wells, and solid escutcheon, prominent eye, and backbone. Milk is a product of nervous force acting on the bloody and the eye indicates the nervous energy generated in the forehead or 1 brain, and {he prominence of the backbone indicates the size of the power line along which nervous energy is transmitted to the udder. The farmers of the Waitara district, according to an exchange, are just beginning to realise the qualities ot lucerne as a fodder for their dairying herds. It thrives exceedingly in this soil, and its general use is going to mean a big thing tor the industry. A recent deputation of butter manufacturers and shippers asked by Mr Fisher, the Commonwealth Premier, to remove the severe penalties tor short weight, stating that butter was sold in London by weight delivered. In order to maintain the reputation of Swedish butter abroad a system for examining butter intended for export was adopted in 1910. The butter from each dairy is examined without notice three or four times a year, and it it is found to come up to the standard the dairy is allowed to use a special registered trade mark. A farmer states that dairy farmers cannot be too strongly urged to . keep a few sheep on their farm in addition to the cattle. A Te Aroha farmer stated recently that the dairying season now drawing to a close had been the worst season experienced for many years. The cows, he said, had never recovered from the drought, and yields of milk had been abnormally light. Me hoped, however, that the rains tailing that day would cause the grass to grow for some weeks yet, so that a scarcity of winter feed would be avoided.

In some parts of the Wairarapa district butter fat tests are on the up-grade, despite a falling yield ot milk, but at Rangiotu creamery tests show a distinct falling off in the last returns, and suppliers do not appreciate the position. A settler informs a correspondent that some of the suppliers are talking freely of installing their own separators next season. Jersey breeding is booming in Taranaki. At a recent sale of Jerseys at New Plymouth the prices ranged from 10, is}, to t;| guineas. One cow brought 43£ guineas, and the reserve on one bull was 45 guineas. Dairymen are still very keen on the Jerseys.