FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 190, 23 September 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

COULD THE FACTORIES ASSIST? A movement is on foot at Pahiatua to form a yield-testing association, and it is- probable that the Government will be asked to send an official to that town tor the purpose of addressing a. ineetrng of settlers 011 the subject. It appeals likely, however, that the Governments reply would be the same asi that sent to Dannevirkc (says the Dominion). The circumstances arc similar. The position of the Department jusnow is that it is desirous of confining to one centre (for the present season) all the attention that it can afford t.> pive to the yield-testing movement. It hopes in that way to be the 'better able to ensure that the first venture in this important scheme shall be successful. Probably-thi« is a very decision, although people at Pahiatua., Dannevirkc, and elsewhere who wish to make a beginning will naturally feel some disappointment. Departmental assistance, however, is promised for next season, and meanwhile, perhaps, something may be done in tho progressive districts mentioned by tho aid of the dairy factories. The Australian factories are affording such aid to Australian farmers, and the example set is worth looking at. At Invorell Factory, in New South Wai. s. suppliers are assisted in tho testin?. The suppliers send in sample bottler of milk from various cows, tak.-u at consecutive milkings, and the facto; v tests the samples for butter-fat. The dairy farmer himself can, unaided, ascertain the actual weight of milK yieldnotebook recording the weights of milk for a certain period, and each cow's production ot commercial butter for the year is then computed. The information thus obtained enables the dairy farmer to see at a glance which of h's cows are best and which worst.

The great conipetitor of pastoral Aus: tralia is the Argentine, but the recent very severe drought in that countiy should not be without its influence on wool values in the coming season. That there will be a surplus in Australia is generally recognised, but the bad times experienced of late in South America are likely to result in a serious shortage there, so that the world's supply of wool will not be above the normal point.

The vitality of seeds is a never-failing topic. In an English paper a correspondent writes of the plants that sprang up at Cilurnum, on the Roman Wall in Northumberland, where the camp was lately dug out. The walls were dug out, leaving a trench some 10ft deep. The following year a little blue Spanish 'flower was found growing on the sid?s of this trench. A 9 Cilurnum was the only station on the Roman Wall where direct access to the water was to be had, it was made the camp for cavalry, the stables of which may still be seen. The cavalry was Spanish, and one can believe that in the equipment of the cavalry grain from Spain would be earned 'bearing seeds of other Spanish plants. There is the flower blossoming down tfho side of the trench, and it is not known, to exist nearer than Spain. Mr. Thomas Strickland, a farmer at Warragul, Victoria, gave some interesting particulars the other day of the products from his farm. Taking the period of one year from Ist September, 1908, to 31st August, 1009, the gross returns from his herd of 183 cows in milk alone was £3262, and the net returns were £2873. He paid in milk freight alone £389, and in other freights £.70,-mak-ing a total revenue to 'the railways from his farm, of 800 acres, of £459 tor the year. Hi® gross returns gave a result of £l7 lGs fid per cow, and the net Teturns £ls 13s lid per cow. The iatter he believed to be a record fo# Australia, considering the size of the herd.

Queensland offers splendid opportunities to the capitalist who is anxious lo escape from the restrictive land laws of this country, which do not allow him 1/0 speculate in thousands of acres; but the man who has to make his way in the world, by his own unaided efforts will find New Zealand a much more congenial place for the, exercise of bis activities than any part of the Commonwealth.—Lyttclton Times.