ON THE LAND.

Otaki Mail, 25 September 1922, Page 4

ON THE LAND.

Dorset liorn sheep, one of the most prolific of ail breeds, are becoming more popular in England. At a rocent sale a ram lamb sold for 60 guineas. The season promises remarkably well for daiiying in the Wairarapa. Cattlo have come in in better condition than for some years past. Mr J. W. .Smith, who for the past few years has been manager, of the Riverbnnk Co-operative Dairy Company, at Ngawaptirua, has been aploiuted to an important position on he Government grading stall. Wellington. About six trucks of fat cal lie leave Masterton each week for the Addington market near Christchurch. .Sometimes this consignment goes twice a week. This business has been going on now for some months. All over the Wnirnrapa the rainfall is well below the nvetage for flictime of year. Good stock must always be associated with good farming. Whatever ! may be the future of New Zealand ag- ] riculture, the farmer cun be assured | that pedigree stock will always be in demand. Potatoes cannot be counted as ripe when half of them come up with only sliglit pulling of the haulms. The skins should be hard and set, and not peel off with a mere touch of the hand. At a meeting of Marlborough fanners it was decided to form a company with a capital of fdd.uoo to trade auxiliary scows primarily from Pictou to Auckland, in the chatf trade. “I am aiming for an export trade of 2.000,000 pigs a year and I'll get it before I’m finished.” said Mr IC. IV. Gorringe, instructor of swim- husbandry, at Xgatca the other day (says the Gisborne Times). The fact that splendid oranges cun be grown in this district is evident from samples which were brought into our office by Ml- Cahill, of Waerenga-a-hika (says the Gisborne Times). The fruit was of particularly good quality for locally-grown products, being well shaped, of good colour and fair size.

The scarcity of new strawberryplants during the winter will probably have the effect of greatly reducing the output of fruit this spring. An Auckland grower from across the harbour said he understood there had been a shortage of about a million plants, which is a very serious mat ter. “I will be only too pleased to arrange for the expert officers of the department to co-operate with the C’awthron Institute in an endeavour to discover some effectual means of eradicating blackberry or controlling its spread,” stated the Hon. W. Nosworthy, Minister for Agriculture, replying to a question in the House. The Papatawa Dairy Co. (Wairarapa) has the same manager, auditor, secretary' and chairman its it had when it commenced operations 10 years ago. “What some of those Taranaki I armors want to do is to get out and learn something about farming,” said a well known farmer of the district in the Supreme Court.