FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 274, 10 April 1911, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

BUTTER FROM THE ANTIPODIES. it is twenty years since butter began tu arrive troni .Sew Zealand and Aus- ( tralia (says the London Daily Newt), and the few packages which came and , were regarded suspiciously have now grown into a monthly consignment in the season of twenty-one million pounds. Last year no less than sixty-six million pounds of butter were received from the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand. ''New Zealand butter," said Mr. Sparrow, who lias just concluded a tour in the Dominion, to a News representative, "comes into season just when the home supplies fall off, and its advent has considerably affected th& market. Before it caine we were almost wholly dependent on Continental supplies. Most of this was 'store' butter, which became rancid and deteriorated in flavor. The New Zealand summer being just opposite to ours, we can, thanks to improved refrigeration, now bring to the consumer a pure, fresh, grass-fed butter made from the milk of cows feeding in open pastures on natural food." The News goes on to say: "The progress of dairy farming in New Zealand is phenomenal, and is mainly the result of the improved land system. The Government has power to purchase at a valuation sheep runs and cuttle ranches suitable for closer settlement. Thus an estate of 3!),!*82 acres used as a sheep run near a railway line was recently split up into 81 holdings, ranging from 170 to 218 acres. The value of the land goes \ip from £.2 or £3 to £3O or £4O per acre, and even at the enhanced price pays well." "Every farm and every creamery is under strict Government supervision," added Mr. Sparrow. "On most farms milking machines are used, and where men perform the work they have to be scrupulously clean. The milk or cream is dealt with in the creamery by the latest machinery. Then immediately after manufacture the butter is put into the refrigerator, and remains until the boxes are taken out of the ship on the English dock-side. There is certainly a ! growing future both for the farmer in New Zealand and the market for their products here." FARMING LAND. HIGH VALUES ANTICIPATED. "Do I think that good farming land 1 has reached its highest price?" remarked one of the best judges of stock, perhaps, in New Zealand to a I'almerston Standard reporter the other day. "No, Ido not. I have every reason to believe that good agricultural laud will reach considerably higher values. \ou see, after all, New Zealand is only a small • country compared to, say, Australia. And in this Dominion there is son:? very good land, and a lot of very poor country. That the good land will reach still higher values 1 have no doubt whatever." How will it be made to pay? "'Why, by more intensive cultivation, and better farming all.round. Our farmers have got a good deal to learn in that respect. But experience teaches. And when a farmer has to pay high rent or interest on borrowed money he will have to bestir himself and see how these payments are to be met. The happy-go-lueky, rulc-of-thumb style won't do now, if a farmer is to keep abreast of the times. He will have to use his brains as well as his hands if lie is to succeed. I am told that land on the Waimate Plain* sold as high as £+3 a day or two ago. That will show you that the value of good land is not on the down grade. But those who pay big prices must make the most of it, or it will be a hand-to-mouth struggle, to keep going. They may rest assured of that."

SOIL BACTERIA. As soon as Dr. Russell, of the Rothamstead experimental station, England, announced that he will be able to kill parasitical bacteria in the soil so as to allow the useful to multiply and do their beneficial jvork unmolested, Mr. W. J. Colebatch, acting principal of the Roseworthy Agricultural College, South Australia, and formerly lecturer on veterinary science at Canterbury Agricultural College, started a series of experiments to prove the value of the discovery under Australian conditions. A strip of land at the college was divided into 18 plots, each containing 1-lfiOth of an acre. These were sown with King's white wheat, without manure, and were immediately top-dressed with sifted soil previously treated with varying quantities of different antiseptics. In two, carbon bisulphide was used in varying quantities in two benzine, in three naphthaline, and in three phenol. A complete report of the trial will 'be awaited with interest. It will be probably found that the results will not be as startling as in a cold country like England or Canada. At Rothamstead the crop returns were appreciably increased. These beneficial bacteria require heat in order>to develop at their best, and Australian temperatures naturally assist them. NEW ZEALAN'D BUTTER. The directors of the Masterton Cooperative Dairy Co. recently discussed the question of the whole of the New Zealand dairy factories going into the matter of a better method of dealing •with their output. The difference in price between Danish and New Zealand butter was between Ids and £1 per cwt. Lately the quality of New Zealand butter had been improving, and the difference in price on the Home market was far too great. The directors considered that it was in the interests of dairy factories to go into the matter. The matter was brought up by the secretary, Mr. ?,. Brown, who had recently been corresponding with the Prime Ministat (Sir Joseph Ward) with a view to tlie latter making enquiries while he was in London at the Imperial Conference.