FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 221, 25 February 1915, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

NEWS AND NOTES. At an enthusiastic meeting of wheatgrowers of the Lincoln district (Canterbury) it was decided to form a Farm-' era' Co.-op. Flour Milling Association on, the lines of the Farmers' Milling Associa-j turns in Australia. The price of thej shares fixed at £2, in order to get all the small as well as the large wheatshares was fired at .£2, in order to get for the buildings was left over for consideration at the next meeting.

One farmer in the Western District lias put up a good record this season in the way of profit on sheep farming. Ilnviu.'.: a. good farm for early feed and plenty of winter feed last winter lie purchased at the. end of autumn old ewes at from 5s to 7s a-piece. The worst of these he fattened off quickly and resold. The remainder he bred from, and boasts having reared over SO pel cent of lambs. The wool from these ewes iu«<b 12!Jd per lb, pieces 8-ld pr lb, and last week th'» first, draft of lambs wer P sold at l!ls (id, and the culls of the ewes at 21s (id.

All the live cattle imported into the TJnitd Kingdom for food last year, 2152 in number, came from the Channel Islands, none having been received from the United States, or Canada. Early in the year some 1707 sheep were imported from the United States. The quantity of beef imported for the eleven months ended November; 1914, was 8,174,404cwt., against 8,451.770cwt in the corresponding period of last year. The value was £17,114,463, against .£14,005 - 240. Nearly all the chilled beef came from the Argentine, but of frozen beef rather the largest consignments were from Australia. Of mutton 4.780 881 ewi Were imported, against 4.028,008 last year, New Zealand, Australia and th-> : Argentine being' the largest senders in the order given.

A short time ago, says tlic Canterbury Times, a paragraph appeared in these cohiiiiiis stating that at tlfc Inverevinrill show the judge of Jersey and Aldcrnev bulls was unable to decide, which bull should be given the championship, the three-year-old owned by Mr Harry Saunders, of Waiirnt''. or the three-year-old exhibited by Mr Robert Marshall; of Ryal Bush. It went on to say that in consequence of his inability to come to a decision, the judge called in Mr Watson, of Tai Tanu, who favored the lastnamed. Mr' Watson explains that a serious error has crept into the paragraph, since it distorts the actual position. He was not called to decide the championship, hut as the judge could not come to a decision in tlie aged class his (Mr Watson's 1 services were requisitionI ed. Further, Mr Watson states that Mr Saunders' assertion that he (Mr Watson 1 I was the breeder nf Mr Marshall's bull, is incorrect, since the animal was bred by.

Mr George Gould', of Christchurch. Some interesting statistics, showing the Volume of the export trade in sheep and lambs for October and November l of 1013 and 1014. w r ro sumhittcd at the half-vparlv meeting of the Victorian branch of the Meat Industry Employees Prion. T'v» figures are:—New Zenln»"l: 1013, 44.507 circuses: 1014. 948.574. Kew South Wales: 1013. 586.704; 1014, 771.083. Queensland': 1013. 730.016; 10!4 1.447.600. Victoria.: 1013, 893.430: 1014, 426,124. The increase in New Zealand was about 2000 per cent.- Queensland, nearly 100 per cent.; and New South 'Wales about 50 per eent.: whereas in Victoria there was a decrease of nearly 5(1 per cent

Aftr some falling-off in the demand from Vancouver for New Zealand butter there is every indication that the Canadian trade is now coming back to normal. By the Niagara a consignment of 11,000 boxes was shipped t» the Canadian port from Auckland, and it is stated that in spite of the drought the produce is of excellent qnalitv, and the high standard attained bv the Dominion product is fully maintained in the consi'.»iment about to be sent awav. The falling off of the past few months is attributed by a contemporary merely to the passing effects of the money market and oilier war influences, and is of no importance'as indicating the prospects of he expansion of the New Zealand butter trade in the American markets.

The European countries now at war carry over 110,000,000 of sheep . Of this number Russia has over 48,000.000 head, the United Kingdom 29,000.000 head: France 10,500.000, and Austria 13,500,000 head. It will surprise some of our readers to know that Servia has within 2.000,000 as many sheep as Germany, 4,000,000 woolly heads roaming over the mountains and vallevs of that

war cursed land. It is unlikely thc.t Great Britain's sheep stock will suffer h.sses through the war, hut the Continental flocks, especially in Austria, Germany and France, will lose heavily. The position of Russia is somewhat different from the other countries. Her flocks are isolated, and it is hardly possible that her sheep will be slaughtered by the enemy. 'A protracted war in Europe will no doubt reduce her sheep stock 15 or 20 per cent., which means a-great shortage in the Euronean wool supply for years to come. With a steady increase in the consumption of woo], and an annual decrease in the sheep stock, the outlook for cheap wool is a gloomy one. But then the sheep farmer doos'n's want to see wool cheap!

T he "Future of Horse Breeding" is discussed by Sir F. ]). Stern in the Live Stock Journal Almanac for 1015. "It is to be hoped," says the-writer,'that European war has at last brought home to the public what every thinking person must have known for years', that the size of our army is totally inadequate for what is required of it, and that the number of light horses needful for that army is rapidly diminishing. Horses are now needed for: 1, racing; 2 farm work; 3, cavalry; 4, hunting; and the few, very few, needed for harness s.nio.C o.\\i in Suiaii .u.-iqi w.v,?, A'uiissod I'iii! '>|.ioa\ mS.iq A'.iqi '.T.-unajow !s.i,in.uo A'iflpw.w A"q p.nq A'ftspm o.n: s.is.ioq.wra s.is'imdx.-i jit;:i;iit oq} 0} ;lui,tt() -f puis e, jo spjsua ;>\\i uio.tj p.ii[ddns ;iq una >[.ioa\

old, and the enormous prizes open, to thniii and amount of enjoyment' they afford to a largo class of people in the form of gambling will always make it worth while to many people to breed thorn. Farm horses can start work sit two years old, they require less care and attention than any other horse, and invariably fetch a reasonable price even it public auctions. It pays farmers to ioiued them."

Tli Clirislchurch Press says:—Two |,:»ts of wheal, to which considerable mI: rest is attached, are to be seen on the farm of Mr Charles Rudd, at Greendale. Five years ago, during harvest, two immense heads of wheat were found amongst a crop grown from imported seed. These were saved by the workmen and given to Mr Rudd who, being somewhat struck with the largeness of the heads (one of which contained 112 grains), resolved to try and cultivate enough to test it as a milling wheat. After five years' careful saving of successive crops, Mr Rudd now has 25 acres of this wheat growing on his Greendale farm, besides which he sent a small quantity to Lincoln College to be tried in one of the experimental plots. The wheat is heavily bearded when green, but most of the beards fell off on the grain ripening. The chaff assums a reddish tinge, and is velvety in appearance. The wheat promises to be a prolific yieldcr. as heads containing up to 110 grains have been grown by Mr Budd.. Although going to considerable pains, Mr Rudd has not ben able to discover anv known wheat which, in description, i (tallies with this variety, and Professor" llilgendorf has not been able to trace any resemblance to known wheats. Mr Rudd had a small quantity of the wheat milled last year, but unfortunately no report was furnished by the miller as to tlie value of the grain for milling purposes.