FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 391, 17 May 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

'Large quantities 'of oatsheaf chaiT are being carted to the various Ashburton merchants, and there appears to be a very strong demand for this commodity. It 'is understood -that the demand for chaff is chiefly from sources outside of the province. We are right now enjoying the most properoivs sheep times ever known («ays the American Sheep Breeder). With wool at 20 to 33 cents (lOd to Ki'/ad) per pound, and lambs' at 10 cents (sd) the man who eanroot make s'heep pay tad better quit the business. Thus complains the Southland Times: Seme sheen which' recently went north from Southland were fattened up for a forini-fit, aiui were then rueihed into the freezer, and emerged forth as "prime Canterbury mutton" for the London markets. 'Thus Canterbury receives the benefit of Southland's produce.

A curious exßvm.pl e of freak vegetable growth .has been .noted in the garden of .Mrs. Williams, North Adelaide. It is a cross between an ordinary thistle and a parsley plant. The thistle and the ■parsley 'were growing side by side, and it is assumed tlna.t bees carried the pollen from tihe .parsley to the thistle. The freak consists of a thistle stalk with an unmistakable'head of .parsley.

Threshing result,s in Southland are far short of those of the two previous years, but as the season had not been particularly favorable farmers are fairly well satisfied.

The MjurcUison Co-operative Dairy Co. (Greyroouth) lias received advice that its last shipment of butter ("Airship" brand) realised 125s per cwt. The Oanuaru potato market lias firmed lip, and as 'high fii--- £4 net casli on trades at a toady station has been paid for specially picked lines. Devwents are mat coming oh tn the market. From three Tndia.ii Runner ducks, a Ti'immi resident got no fewer than 85 p<s2n last month. The birds are last year's.

THE PRICE OF LAND. HOW VALUES ARE SUSTAINED. A gentleman much interested in an article in the Dominion comparing the price of farm lands in various parts of the world, states that the farm lands of England appear to be cheap, but that is only in the light of comparison with the dearer lands of this country. "It must be borne in mind," he says, "that we hear a.good deal about favored land which lias brought £3O or £4O an acre, but nothing of the lands that change hands at £5 and £lO an acre, according ito locality. As a matter of fact we are living now in an age of gambling, and, thanks to phenomenal luck with our ipiroduce, the fictitious prices asked and given for some lands appear to justify the, purchaser's enterprise." When faced with the return given toy good dairying country, the Dominion's informant stated that the return was usually made by the man, his .wife and family slaving from dawn' till dark all the year round, and by wages saved in employing every member of the family in the business. Working under these conditions, the dairy farmer is able to :pay interest on the money he has borrowed to buy his £4O-an-acre farm, and perhaps show a profit. But what does it cost them? "Take the wife of the average small dairy farmer —she slaves all her days, and half of her night, and tiie only rest for her is that found in the grave. The British farmer is on the whole a better-preserved man than the man on the land in New Zealand, and his wife has certainly more leisure and comfort. By his very strenuousness the New Zealand farmer has raised the price of the land, ibut with the first serious set-back in the price of her dairy products there will be change."