FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 4, 29 January 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

Writes the South Taraaaki correspondent of the Wellington Times: The stock inspector* are busy inoculating calve* against blackleg, ami have put through to ihte about, ImUU, I'll \v report the calves reared on whey as compared with those reared on skim milk to be bolter. 1 saw (KM) whey (-.lives yarded for inoculation the iilhci day, anil uuiat say they compared favor ably with those of preceding years. With prices ruling at os to 10s there is not much encouragement to rem' them, own with tile price of pigs down to o'/jd per lb. Touching the price of pigs reminds mr that there is n lot of agitation about cooperation going on a( present, l'o my mind it is not much use a small body of dain fanners starting <>n these lines. If, say, Kaupokonui, .Kiverdale, doll's, Hawera, Mills', Awatuna, Opunake, J'ihaiua, and Kaponga co-operative factories joined ami built at Wellington so as to make the most of the small goods it would be feasible. -Most of these factories bare provision in their articles t>f association for this. There are several lo>»es to be faced. One, I notice, is the large number of pigs gelling condemned. The directors of factories will have in the future to face the <{iie*iion of sterilising the whey and skim milk. Some people also think any treatment good enough for a pig. Quite a number of porkers have the seeds of disease planted when they are young, especially in the winter. Draughty styes, wet beds, mud, and muck. Oh/ they are only pigs; it doesn't matter! People are quite in the wruijg. Denis should never be treated like that. His past record entitles him to the best, and he will repay it tenfold. The potato blight is bad here, and housewives have a good deal of cutting of tubers to make them eatable. The Maoris are complaining of the damage done to tlieir staple food. Spraying seems only time wasted, 1 notice the Maoris only tried it one year.

The threshing of oats and barley has commenced. The former crop is, generally speaking, a failure here, and promises 110 better this season. The rust always makes an appearance when ripening time comes and settles a good return. Barley, on the other hand, does well, and some crops are expected to go as much as 510 bushels this season. This grain is used a great deal for fattening pigs and feeding harness burses. Some sales have already taken place at Hs per busliel.

The fanner, particularly the graingrower. has a great enemy in the birds to contend with; but this season, says the Oamani Mail, the destriictivcnessof the feathered creatures seems almost unprecedented. Reports have reached the Mail from many parts of the island of the havoc wrought by sparrows, finches, and other birds, but the damage done in the Oamaru district is sufficient, to prove that something must be done to check the rapid increase in the feathered tribe. Speaking to a grower, a representative of the Mail was informed that it is 'io uncommon thing for Ion" or five acres out of a forty-acre paddock to be entirely picked, while in sonr cases,'especially where trees are near by, the destruction is considerably higher. | A paddock of six acres in the Waiareka j district was sown down in oats. Trees surround the crop, and, though extremely promising at one time, it is now hardly worth cutting.