FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 252, 30 November 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

Areas of country in various parts ot the Dominion are still being stocked with sheep, and it is obvious that the carrying capacity of the country (has not yet been reached, and that the output of fat lambs and sheep will increase with the extension of cultivation.

An astonishing new fodder plant called Uelianti is at present attracting the attention of British fanners. It is, now being tested on a considerable scale in Norfolk. The plant, which grows to Oft, and can be cut twice a year, is full o« .B.ugjirv-and M'° '.?oot is also.an edibjs, vegetable. It will beWlTsinuWW'at) tons to the .acre of roots and twice as much forage as lucerne. 'lf it fulfils promises it will be the most valuable green food for the dairy cow ever introduced.

At the beginning of every dairying season, says Mr. D. Cuddie, Dairy Commissioner, in his annual report, there is a change in the management of a number of butter factories, and the result is very often a change in the quality ol produce. Some times it is for the better, but just as often some deterioration is evidcriceit Managers and buttermakers who have beeirdoing fairly good work where they have been employed lor some years do not always succeed so well when they take over the work at other places. Then, again, really good men are sometimes allowed to leave their ciupl'oyers, owing to other dairying companies offering slightly higher salaries. Altogether, there aro 100 many changes in the management of factories throughout the Dominion. The directors •of many of the dairy companies do apt seem to recognise that it would pay them to retain the services of the best men in tlie business.

There is great room for improvement in the standard of tho ordinary ewe flocks of the Dominion. The smaller -fanners especially (says an authority) still purchase the number of ewes they require from year to year without considering whether they are similar in quality to those they already possess. Neither do they follow any settlea policy as regards the breed or quality ot the rams used by them, and the result is seen in the irregular character and quality of most of the smaller ewe(locks. The standing ewe-fiock of the farm should be classed to a* even a standard as possible, and well-bred rains' of uniform character should be used. Only by this means can the quality ol our export mutton and lamb be improved and New Zealand sheep farmers maintain the advantage which they at present possess over those of Australia and the Argentine.