WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.
The drought is still with us, and th© water supply is failing. On The one farm where dams are «e*thsr, depended on the owner has now to drive all his stock a milo and a-half to' water, and, to make matters worse, the house supply is getting very low. ° The Feilding Industrial A. and P. Association show is now recog. Feilding nised as one of the best on Show. the Coast. The weather being perfect, there was a large attendance last week at the fixture, more especially on the second day, Feilding show can only be considerad a local affair, except as regards fat sheep and lambs, o F which there were 146 pens, aggregating 286 fat sheep and 230 lambs. The exhibits would be hard to beat in the Dominion. The judge of the sheep was Mr A. L. Joseph, Riccarton, and of lambs Mr T. Dowling, Hinds, and exhibitors seemed well satisfied with their decisions. Four years ago, when the Feilding A. and P. Association wa« started, the idea was to hold a farmers' «how only of fat" stock and grade sheep and cattle. Being so close to Palmerston North, of which all the stud breeders in the district are supporters and prominent on the management, it was thought there was no need, for herd and flock book classes at Feilding. However, it was decided to have two sections — namely, " Farmers" classes of flock sheep, that must not b« entered or eligible for flock book,'"' for Romneya and Lincolns ; and "Purebreds, that must be entered in flock book or accepted for entry in same," the date of shearing to be stated on the entry form. The entries received certainly justified tho association's action in having the purebred c'ass. The farmers' classes only had 88 entrier. against 231 of the purebreds. In the latter there are classes for Border Lvioesters, English Leicesters, Southdowns, and Shropshires. in addition to the Romney and liincolns. It may be interesting to southern readers to <me tTie separate entries -of breeds. In the farmers' classes there were 60 pens of Romnejs and 28 Lincoln entries. The purebreds comprised 1 93 Roinneys and 38 Lincolns. Again, there were 14 exhibitors in the farmers' class in Romneys and five in the Lincolns. Tho exhibitors in purebreds numbered 15 in Romneys and six in Lincolns. The young breeders were well to the fore with exhibits in the purebred sections, and exhibited a lor of good 1 useful sheep. None of the old breeders sent forward any sheep in the Romneys except Mr E. Short, who penned for exhibition only hi<? latest importation, just out of quarantine. The Romneys were a most interesting section, the whole of the exhibitors being local men. In the farmers' class the Romneys >vere a very good lot indeed. Personally I fail to see the utility of showing ranra in this section, being a true believer _in purety of blood on the part of the sire. With ewes 't is a different matter, and at all shows farmers should be encouraged tc exhibit their breeding ewes. The aim of the farmer should be to improve his flock by selection, leaving ram-breeding to speciali«ts, of which there are enough and to spare at the present time. Lincolns in both sections were sparsely represented, as was to be expected in the strong hold of the Romney. In the purebred section. Mr Wm. Gadsby. of Hawera, and Mr Wm. Rayner, of Masterton, took all the prizes with some excellent sheep, and come o£ their rams were sold at fair prices. The Southdowns were the chief centre of intere«t to fat-lamb producers. The entries were not numerous, but they were all grand sheep, and Mr Little, of Hawke's liay, who judged, said he had a hard job to separate some of them. Messrs S. R. Lancaster (Palmerston), G. Knight (Feilding), and E. Short had amongst their exhibit? imported sheep, Mr Short having added S(suthdown breeding to his stud farms. It remains to be seen whether he will be as successful with them as he Ins been with Romneys. In the class one ra l over 21 months there wore only three entries, all of which were imported. Air
Little p!:iced the exhibits thus: Short's 1, Lancaster's 2, Knight's 3. In a'l the other classes Mr Lancaster had the best of the bargain. There- was but a small margin between any of them, the whole of the entries being grand-shaped animals. The competition in Border Leicesters was confined to Messrs Slack Bros, and Neiison, the sheep having all been bred by the exhibitors. Thej were a good t\po of the breed. In English Leicesters, Messrs S. R. Lancaster, Slack Pros., and C. A. Leicester were represented, the judge giving Mr Lancaster most of the first prizes. In Shropshire* there were but three rams, Mr \V. Mills (Cheltenham) taking first for aged ram and Mr Raynor (Masterton) for one under 21 months. At one time the Shropshires were liked in the district, but have now faMen in estimation, breeders declaring that the lambs are liable to 6cour in this humid country. There were eight entries of pet lamb 3 exhibited by children. If the district does not produce a race of young farmer*, it is not from want of encouragement. Pet lambs are a great nuisance on a farm, but it is well to put up with what often gives so much pleasure to the youngsters, and the keeping of them, inculcates a love of animals in the young. Seeing that Feilding is the centre of such a splendid dairying country, the entries of dairy cattle were disappointing, ihe largest ; number in any one class being 11 for the best, dairy cows. Taking them as a lot, they were very good. The dairy heifer 6 were small in number, but those shown were good. The pedigree classes in the dairy breed filled fairly well. The quality was there right through, both In Jerseys and Ayrshire?': There were no entries of shorthorn*, and Hereford? were only saved t by Messrs Short and Wheeler filling up the j pens with some of their good animals. The fat cattle wonld also have been a failure . but for Mr Short exhibiting; a pen in each } clase. ""I mu&t not forget to mention i Mills's pens of red-polled cross. This ( is comparatively a new breed in Jie Dominion. The show of light horses was j a credit to the district, but the draughts | were a meaere exhibit, as there was not more than 30 animals in the 11 different ' classes. This may be owing to farmers being still busy with their har\est. The J pigß were a fairly good lot, there being a j number of excellent representative*. The | t>aeon nige of any breed most suitable for the factory were especially good Still, the entries were not what they should be. The 8000 people who attended had a grand outing, thanks first to the weather, and secondly to the excellent management Everything passe] off without a hitch. The stewards were always at their posts, j and tho secretarial duties were ably at- i tended to by Mr E. H. Fisher. He may ! not know a «horthorn from a Hereford, 'out j ho km ws how to run the office on which depenr'.-, the success of the show. 1
The Folkling ram fair was held on Thursday, the day after the 6ho\v. Ram No one expected to see Sales. much briskness, but the
business was deader than the most pessimistic- could have predicted. One reason advanced is that the dry spell j we are having is causing breeders to doubt j whether they will have any ewes left. This | is arrant nonsense. There is no doubt | farmers are getting cautious 111 their stock- j dealing, and rightly so; but there is plenty of time 'for good rains to give us> ample nutritious atitumn feed, and as fat sheep and lambs are sold they make room for others. Of course, there is the possibility of what has never happened on the Coast before — a drought that would annihilate our stock as it does in Australia. No sane man, howe^ cr, looks forward to such a state of things. The position to-day is that sellers and buyers alike aie bea :ng time — waiting for the turn of the tide, both know- . ing that if rain comes within a fortnight sheep, more especially ewes, will go up 4s or 5e a head. The West Coast can support i all the sheep it has for months to come, if | not overrun by the surplus from the East , Coast. At the Feilding sales a few good ( cheep fetched fair prices — in fact, a payable 1 price to the breeder. At the same time many failed to elicit an offer. Prices may be quoted thus:— Flock Romney. 9igs for, one or two extia good sheep, but for the bulk sold 3gs to sgs. Lincoln were in little demand, t-trong-constitutioned sheep selling at sgs to 9gs. Leicestors, both Border and English, may be quoted at from 30s to 50s; Southdown, from 2^gs to 4j.gs ; | Shropshires. 25s to 50s. At Palmerston on ' Tuesday, the result was about the same, large numbers failing to find a purchaser. Should *-am come soon, the market may rally somewhat. One good effect the slump will have will be that the knife will be used more freely for the next few years. ' to the great improvement of the flocks of the Dominion. The Hon. R. M'Nab, Minister of Lands and Agriculture, paid an Tlie Dairy all too brief visit to the disSchool. trict to inspect the land _ offered by Mr Lethbridge for the proposed dairy school. By the use of Mr E. Short's motor cars he was enabled during his visit of five hour* or so to see a good deal of the country. He was shown round the valley of the Oroua. and fclso of the Kiwitea, to within sight of the j Rangitikei and Stormy Point, returning by 1 way of Makino to Mr Lethbndge'i property.,^ The Minister listened attentively while the Maims of Feilding for the site of the dairy Jchool were placed before him. It was minted out tba* dairy /•vctoriea and
creameries abound, and that a technical school is about to be opened which will compare fa\ourably with any in the land. Mr Lethbridge had offered to provide £1000 for the dairy school, if established here. As an outcome of Mr M'Nab's visit, another munificent gift was offered to the State, and accepted. Mr G. O. Wheeler, of " Barford," a prominent breeder, offered selections from his Romney flock and Heieford I herd to the Government for tho State farms, and I understand Mr Clifton will be up shortly to select them. Some may , consider this as another^burnt offering for I the dairy school, but Mr Wheeler is an enthusiast in the cause of the improvement of our flocks and herds, and this is only a 1 further instalment of what he has already dona in advocating the advancement of agricultural and pastoral matters. While in the district, tho matter of subdividing some of the properties for closer settlement was brought under the notice of Mr M'Nab. You have already had particulars of the deputation by telegraph, so I need not dweil .upon_ the matter. The Minister said in effect that he did not like even to think of putting the compulsory clauses .of the Lands for Settlement Act ■ into operation, but if the owners would not , 6ell the Government would have to coneider what, further steps they should tako. j He would promise to do all in his power to cai ry out the desire of the deputation. j ANTIQUA OVIS. •
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 20
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1,961WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 20
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