FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 159, 5 January 1914, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

THE SMALL IV!IMS NUISANCE. ■ Writes our Makc.tawa correspondent: —The small birds pest is a matter that should be taken in band in a manner : that will cause a marked diminution , in numbers, and if a total extermination could be brought about so ranch the better. Why farmers neglect such things'! is, to say the, least, very puzzling, considering 'that there is many a lump of Covernment money spent in other ] . ways that, would not be of such direct j benefit. As Disraeli once said: "The farmer grumbles, but he pays," and so on for all time apparently. One can plant oats or barley under, the most approved methods now-a-days, but ha still has to adopt the old style method of allowing "so much for the birds." Sow ; tho seed by hand and the, birds' leave the ground white with tho seed shells, and when the plants of those left • appear they pull them up by the root and the surface is covered with the,i young white shoots. Sow the seed 1 by machine and the sprouting plant is i treated ill the same manner. Now we have large Hocks or swarms of sinaSl birds stripping the.ears of ripening barley (just a little beyond the milk stage) not yet ripe for cutting, and leaving the. stem as bare as a lead pencil. County councils and road boards arc supposed to assist in a minor degree to the bird extermination, but the result is as one j bucket of water in the ocean and if farmers do not, wake up to the urgent need for immediate and drastic action the ultimate end will be, not "so much [ for the birds" but "all for tho birds!" | The havoc played at times with fruit, also, is another side effect that should receive tittenfion. Thousands of pounds | have been spent, one time and another, by the Government in dfaling with the J rabbit pest, and they should be asked I to initiate means to protect the farmers which, let alone, will in the near future give the farmer a pretty plain lessen for his apathy. Then, of course, "who'd I ha' thought it?'' If I remember aright, j a little while ago the County Council decided to discontinue the encouragement of destruction of nests, etc., and no doubt they had good reason for so doing, but there is no reason why the Government should not initiate methods to assist the council or road boards more liberally than hitherto.