Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43382, 31 October 1908, Page 4

Farm Notes.

The number of flock-owners increased in the year 1906-7 by .712, iflocks of all'dimensions Contributing exiept those of more than 20,000 sheop. The movement towards smaller flocks has continued during the year 1907-8. ' . The lambing of 1907 was on the whole higher than that of theprecediog .’prolific season, the estimated, average increase being 89 per'cent, for longwools, clowns and crossbreds, and 68 per cent, for merinos. The average mortality'waß small, f/f The increase in the stock of sheep disclosed by the returns for the current year is certainly no greater than was to be expected after such a •prolific lambing and with a reduced ; slaughter, particularly of wethers, for export. The removal of the sheep-rate has not been followed by such an increase in the sheep returns as to support; the su gestion that the tax had been to any considerable extent evaded. * ‘ Horses increased by 10,198 in New Zealand last year, chiefly in the North Island, and in the light-horse classes. ' The Secretary for Agriculture says that the results of experiments in exterminating Californian thistle, by - the Department and by farmers on their own lands, demonstrate that frequent cultivation, preventing the weed from making growth above the surface of the soil, is the most 'effective method of repressing this pest. ■'* A- ' ■■