WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 21

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

The weather has been a trifle squally, DUt on the whole not bad lambTh« ing weather which, is the Weather. chief consideration at pre- ' sent, at small dots i i<& ' rapidly increasing among the flocks on inbye farms. For the next few weeks farmers will have an anxious time. One thing in their favour is that feed was never so abundant, which means much. The land is too wet to work, except in breaking up new land, of wihioh there is a considerable acreage being turned over, still not as much as might be expected, labour being fairly .plentiful. But no matter how abundant en article is, it the money is not there we have to do without. •Mr A. Robinson, an Aorangi settler, haa ' - written a letter to the FeildJEw*s «n Itape. ing- Star giving his experiSeriois Fatality, ence of feeding lambing ewes on rape, whereby be lost 43 by death out of about 200. I imderetand the letter. 3lr Robinson i a to be complimented on being so methodical, as ht, gives the date wihen the sheep were- shifted from grass to raps and viceversa. Shortly etated, he has one paddock, comprising five acres rape and 1 five acres grass, with a ptack of good hay; ip which he ran 20 «wes for six weeks continuously without any loss of cheep. No. 2 paddook consists of 14 acres of tape to about seven acres of grass, with a stack of hay. On July 9 200 ewes were turned in, and remained till July 15. "Three daye after being- shifted on to the grass, using Mt Robinson's own words, "I got six dead, all apparently having died- from the same cause, wibioh I at the time attriIbuted to their having taken too much water. They, remained on the grass until July 28, when I put them on the rape again. for four days. On July 31 one died, apparently from the same cause as the others. On August 1 I shifted them on to the gross. On August 2 three were sick in the evening; on the 3rd they were dying all over the paddock, and on' the 4th 20 were dead, and & great many were sick — in fact, they *}H seemed more oi le^ affected. On the stoh they were still dying; on the 6th the Biefchess abated, and on the 7tih they were a good deal improved. Up to date 43 are dead. I have since put the sheop on a. 'bare paddock, and they are doing well."' Mt Robinson goes on to say : Now, the jmystery is that 43 died from feeding in ]S"o. 2 paddock, and there was no loss whatever from feeding in No. 1 paddock. The conditions w)«re similar, with this exception, that tie sheep in No 1 paddock were longer on the rape than the sheep in No. 2, and fche rape was also more rank ;n; n No. 1 than No. 2. A few recovered after being down. 7, (have continued since August 1 to walk

the ewes with, their lambs as soon as they can walk into JJo. 1 paddock and without any bad effect — indeed, they seem to enjoy it immensely. A post mortem examination of the d<ead sheep discloses apparently littl-e that is wrong. The gall is about five times too lai-ge, but all the other organs seem right, although too much flushed. The shieap died in 48 hours. lam hoping someone will explain tbsi mystery." At the instance of the Chief Veterinarian t)i« Wanganui expert visited the farm, and his verdict was that the aheap died from fatty degeneration of the liver, while another authority likened the symptoms to yellow atrophy. Fatty degeneration of the liver seems to account for the fatality most nearly, but there is something in the fact tteit the 20 in No. 1 paddock were not affected, and, again, when the 200 were turned into the other paddock we could readily expect to hear of disaster within a day or two from over-feeding on rank raps, but there appears to hay* been no signs of disease until after nine days, and they had been shifted! on to grass three days previously. To my mind iihere is something yet to be solved as to the cause of death, and I will await further information before being satisfied that there were not some other contributing cause beside what is detailed. The reports of the Farmers' Union Conference, which was followed Conferences, by fche conference of delegates from the various agrieulturar societies in the Dominion should) have proved interesting and instructive reading to farmers. The delegates at both con-fsa-enoes are to be complimented on having done good work in the interests of vfoe farmer. Of course, their decisions are only recommendations to the Government to enact such regulations by law, so that the different motions passed can ba enforced. Perhaps, in some instances, such as inspection of stallions, these do not «-o far enough, but half a loaf is betteT than no bread, and' the .promoters in improvm^ our horses will be encouraged by the result of the voluntary inspection scheme, which was inaugurated some two years ago m Victoria against a large and influential opposition, on tin. ground that it waa an mfemgeinent of the liberty of the subject. To-day those oppositionists are not only in favour of the voluntary but some of them are in the front rank in endeavouring to make inspection compulsory, and doing away with the unsound stallion by making the owner pay a registration fee of £15 annually, wihile the horse that obtains a certificate of soundness only has to pay £5. By all means let us get rid of disease of whatever form among domestic animaJs. At the same time, it is a© necessary tuafc some means should bo adopted to improve the formatior of horses, there being stallions travelling' tie country offering their services at a small fee that should t>9 knifed Of course, the argument is that farmers as breeders have the matter, in tiheir own hands, and could and should boycott all such mongrel, mal-formed brutes. So they could, only that there is "always a sectionon the lookout for the lowest-periced animal, whether it be bull, ram, or stallion. However, time is the essence of improvement, and it is to be hoped' that now that voluntary inspection is in forces or shortly will be, formers will eupport the horse carrying a certificate, and by so doing- help greatly towards the elimination of the unfit. Seeing tinat dairying is largely carried on «n the coast it is to be Contagions hoped that the motion «rarVamniUift. . ned at the- Farmers' Union Conference concerning mamimtis wall be accepted by the Government. - I ™ s *® w »° doubt that if mammitis was scheduled as a notifiable disease it would! shortly bs wjped out. At present inspectors affected wtfch contagious mammitis, so that the disease 19 spread broadcast, and unwitfcragly farmers, when buying a cow in tb? sale-yards, may infect his whole herd. It is nearly as serious and disastrous as tuberculosis-only that it is more easily eliminated. J In what measure are, auditors responsible? tiohiu r Tnis , is a question that is I I!! 7 now bein « asked by a ] argo Auditors. Bection of the farming community, who have shares in co-operative dairy companies. The defalcations have occurred in the past, but uneasiness has been caused by the discovery that the late secretary to the Cheltenham Dairy Company had over a period of years appropriated over £1000 of the company's I nion«y. The late eeoretarv, having been ! in the employ of the- company for 10 years or better, had the confidence of the direc- j tors, and was highly respected by everyone i in the district. At the same time, in oho ■way an danother, he was adding £100 a year to his salary. One method of doing this seems to the lay mind to -be so glaring that it is hard to understand how it escaped the notice of the auditors. The secretary, having a few cows, supplied milk to the factory, and when making up his cheque for the month's milk, at times included his month's salary, and then drew a cheque for his salary besides, thus paying himself double wages. But he had many ofcher ways of manupilatinjr the books, euch as getting tradesmen's bilk passed, twice and putting one of the cheques m his own pocket- When arrested he made no defence, and last week was sentenced to two years' imprisonment on each charge, sen- I tences to run concurrently. I think there were eight charges. It may be mentioned that he resigned 12 months ago. After the new" secretary had been in the office a short time he reported to fche directors that there were irregularities in the books, and a j special audit was made, with the result above mentioned. The two auditors who have acted for years are above suspicion, but the shareholders who have been de- • frauded express the opinior that they see j little use of paying for auditing ac a protection when they have lost £1000. One ! plea put forward on behalf of the auditor j is that he is not paid sufficiently to thoroughly examine every entry and voucher in such a concern as a dairy .company." That is no excuse, as usually he fixes the fee himself. Be*ide% if I contract with a ' man to dig a ditch for me at; so much for the job, unless the work is don: according to specifications and in a workman-like manner, he it. liable should any neglect on j his part cau=e me loss. Therefore it is | only reasonable to expect an auditor to do ' his work thoroughly, or lx> liable to some i extent when defalcation*? have been over- ; looked — that is, that ; ( it can be proved that if ordinary oaro had been taken by him as an expert accountant, 6ucii defalcations could not have taken place. Many

farmers who are on directorates of co-opera-tive companies have not had a business training, and depend largely on the secretary. Besides., when they employ auditors to overlook the secretary's work, they expset that their interests arc fully protected. Somehow it is not recognised that there is such a thing as fidelity insurance. That Is the b&st way out, and companies, co-opera-tive or priiate, should adopt the system. It will pay them to bear the. cost themselves for the security it gives. There should be no exemptions, as it has sometimes happened that ;t is the most highly-respected who make default.

ANTIQUA OVIS.