FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 13, 9 February 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

|. VACCINATION OF CALVES. About 7000 calves have been inoculatTed against black leg this year in this gt, district, and about a thousand are still |-i t<> lie operaited upon. Mr. Munro, the inspector for the district, states (.'that almost without exception the stoekJ 1 : - owners are now ready to assist the inspectors. in every way, bringing their prompt to time to the various ..yards ivhere the inoculation is carried I .iron. Whilst knowing that their stock i* is free from the disease, the farmers go /-Vto this little trouble in the hope of f,, completely stamping out a disease which jjvat one time threatened to be the ruin £ of many dairymen; and which, but for adoption of the recommendations of i_j the Veterinary Division by tile Minister Agriculture, would have been still £ "rampant in the district, When the fiat Lt'weat forth that Taranaki was a quarantined district, and that no young stock £ could be sent out of a defined area withpout the certificate of the Stock Departp.ment's officers,! there mi a. hoM from Sf-;one end of the district to the other, and farmers cried out about the injustice of EtUe thing, which they considered was fcfgping to force them to the wall. Nothfeiag of the kind happened. The auctionJfeers assisted the Department by every ftmeans in their power, and farmers were to have their calves vaccinBated. Presently Taranaki was known as *jfa place where blackleg was almost unknown, and the restrictions were retainled only at a very wise safeguard. Now I?the man on the land it reaping the advantage of the rigid bupeotlon and enforced regulations of the Agricultural

ft FARMERS AND RAGWORT. Chatting to a noxh,as weeds inspector lihe other day, a News reporter gathered |fome idea o? the casualness of the averfarmer. A landowner who howls |inid growls about the uselessness of the iNoxkras Weeds Inspector will tell you pof the patches of ragwort or blackberry pin Ms neighbour's place. And he will |fceep a luxuriant hunch of ragwort right |qnder his nose in the vegetable gardwi yjlongaide his house, or sending out its golden glow—later on. its far-travelling jSffeftfr-:from beneath the shelter of his jfoyjr-dred or'stable. No amount of perSuasion* reason, or Argument will make |the average farmer clear his land. Only She fear of the law will do that. IjThe clearing of weeds is an "expensive i platter, of course, and • your farmer | ™£nd, whose propertv is in the market ■ W T sale ' is not anxious (o spend too Ipach in clearing the weeds off tlie place ithat .he hopes will be in tlie hands of Someone else in the following year. InIjstances have been cited where men have in " badly over ragwort. The Ipiilk of tlie land " deals " take place in piiitjtr, and at that season of the year jjjfcgwort throws out no feathery foliage sOT yellow blossoms to announce its lirepeace. The buyer sees nothing to which ®e can take exception, and takes pos[fession of the fann. !iv late smiHM'r of following year lie knows to tlie full Mat he has purchased. One man who liad sueli an experience has now seven or Sight, men at work clearing land of |ragwort. And all this might have been prevented had a previous owner kept Alt eve open for the first sign of the med aatf eradicated .the first few plants.