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Shannon News, 13 July 1923, Page 2

The proceeds from the Masterton A. and P. Association’s stock drive amount to £BOO, .wiih many sums to . be collected yet. 1 Whitebait nave already been seen in considerable quantities in some of the Taranaki streams. This is very much earlier than the fish are accustomed to make their appearance. A correspondent writes to the Chris: church “Sun” stating that the high price of potatoes-in' New Zealand is due entirely to speculation, thousands of tons having been sold merely on paper, qnd do not exist. For the 12 months ended June 30, last the Cheltenham Dairy Co.’s factory at Makino manufactured 2011 tons of butter. Twelve months ago the management made the 2000-ton mark its objective, and thus has been able to go beyond the estimate. The Koputaroa East drainage scheme has, despite the unsatisfactory weather, made good progress. The main drain is now opened up as far as it is_ intended to take it, and although owing to tiie unusually heavy rainfall, the benefit at present felt from this is not so great, as it otherwise would

be, it is still noticeable, one feature being that during .the late flood, the water did not back up over the road as had previously happened in even smaller floods. When in 1911 Mr B. Faithful, a wellknown farmer in Puriri (Te Aroha) commenced herd-testing with Mr W. J. Byrne, who is an authority on the scheme, hi s herd averaged approximately 2001 b of butterfat ,but, as a result of testing, he steadily improved his average until at the end of the season just closed his fecord for actual delivery at the factory was 3751 b. Mr Faithful says his ambition was to improve to an average of 4001 b. and he feels certain that had he not disposed of his farm and herd he would soon have realised his desire for the rate of progress was remarkable,