FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 325, 18 January 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

i Writes a iSouth Tiirunuki tom* ■pendent tu the Wellington Times: ■—lmagine the number of cows on each farm getting culled out every year, do to the saleyurds tuul look for yourself, and if 70 per cent, of cuttle at nearly every sale are not rejected cows then I know nothing of 'what I am writing. A step in the right direction also is the testing of individual cows, which 1 am glad to see the factories doing for the dairy farmer. ' Many are the arguments for and against the Jersey breed. The oldfashioned dairyman, who has been breeding from the Shorthorn strain for these last twenty-live years, will not have the Jersey at any price. He, of course, keeps liis steer calves till they are 'bullocks, ami studies the beef as'pect more than the butter-fat. This type of farmer is, generally speaking, a rich man, and from necessity do;', not make the close study a poorer one would. A neighbour of mine has a twoyear anil four-inonths-old pure Jersev heifer which Ihas been giving ;i!)lb. of milk daily with a 4.1) test, which means, roughly, 12 17s 4d per month on Is per tb." butler-fat. A Riverdnle farmer who has paid big prices for Jerseys, says some of his purebred cows have touched a- ,C 4 return for a "ninth's ■milk. Whether the introduction of the Uerscey here will have any ell'eet on checse-nuiking. as some allege, it is hnrd •to say. No doubt the milk will gel. 'richer, and experts say at over a 3.8 'test there is a leakage in checsc-niukim.". ' Milk tests are higher here by about 'three points compared with this time year. The good winter and easv spring we iiave to thank for this. l'f left the animals in good heart and condition to face their season's work. The weather lias cleared up after ten days' •storm. Hay is getting rushed in. lint the sweetness has gone out of it. The cattle market is -till dull, feed •is plentiful, mil the tightness oi money is chielly the reason. Hundreds of growing cattle arc; wanted for the back euimtry. but the sheep fanners have had 'their hands tied, and up to now couldn't operate. The wool market reads sounder, ami I hope the worst is over. Inquiries have already set in for leasing land for milking next season. Prices asked range from Ms per acre to alls, rates extra. Country reports indicate superb harvest prospects in Canterbury, given line -weather from now till the completion of tlie ingathering. The rapid development of the pastoral industry that followed the success of the frozen meat trade threw an immense acreage of land into pasture that had previously been under cereal crop. Wheat had Wen the staple farming product, but it was not profitable to anything like the rlegroo frozen meat is. -\ow wheat is bringing high, juices, ami, much pasture requiring renewal, the occasion seems to 'have been taken this year to grow a good deal more wheat, and the area is | very much larger. The long spell ;>f grass has done the land a world of good, 'and an abundant crop is- the natural I tonsequencc. The. yield hoped for this year will lm equal to, if not better than, the best previously recorded. ' 1 notice all those who are keen to start for themselves lirst put their feet on the rung of the ladder of leaseho. 1, and when they get rich awl independent tondemn leasehold as the very worst form of tenure.

The South Taranaki Beekeepers' Association is noiv under way. Mr. (I. TavJor has been elected president, and Mr. 11. War.ciip secretary. II has been detided to write to the Department 1.0 arrange for a visit of a bee expert to 'llawera to give a lecture. All endeavour is to'be made to arrange for an exhibit by beekeepers at the next •local A. and I>. sihow. It was mentioned ■at the inaugural meeting that a class 'for instruction iu bee culture would probably be started in connection with 'the. proposed technical school in llawera. One member reported that when in Wellington last week be received a number of inquiries for Taranaki honey iu bulk •at a price which would give good re'turns. tire demand! for best quality •there being greater than the supply.illawera Star. The potato blight has again appeared tit Taradale, near Napier. The Nnpier 'Daily Telegraph, referring to this nniwelcoiuc vi-itation, says that a method of saving tubers three-parts grown Kal'tor flowering) when attacked by 'blight, is to pluck up at once all the .haulm, or top, By this means the virus 'of the disease is prevented from passing 'down the stems into the tubers, which 'ripen in safety. One grower in the dis'trict has saved three crops iu succession 'by adopting the method described.