Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43378, 26 September 1908, Page 4

Farm Notes.

“•What is a heifer?” This question assumed quite an important shape at the hearing of the case Monies v. Ogiivy, at the Wairarapa District Court recently, says the Wairarapa Age, His E onor, after hearing the evidence of several witnesses, said that no doubt there was a.great deal of looseness in the popular definition of a heifer. One witness said a heifer was a young cow that never had a calf. Other witnesses were not certain what age of animal was entitled to be called a heifer. His Honour said that it was well-known that cows in milk w r ere frequently referred to as heifers. Expert evidence on the point failed to impress his Honour greatly, about a dozen such witnesses holding varied views on the point.

. Not only dairy, but also store, cattle are at present in somewhat poor condition in Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay (writes a Wairarapa correspondent of the Feilding Star.) The mortality has been considerable everywhere. Overstocking may have had something to do with the trouole, together with the lack of arrangements made for winter feeding dairy cows, but on the big farms and stations, the reason has been simply an insufficiency of feed. In the dry summer cattle were almost unsaleable, except at what appeared to be ridiculously low prices, and the farmers consequently retained more animals than they could sufficiently feed. Considerable loss re"* suited.'Feed now is very scarce here for fai cattle, and it is not considered that things will be greatly improved in this respect before December next.