FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 December 1915, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

. SOME NOTES FROM SOUTHLiANJ). GATHERED BY THE WAYSIDE. Writes an cx-Taranaki resident to the (News:—Southland i s coming into her own. After long years of struggling with conditions that would dishearten any but the stoutest, the low-lying wet lands of Southland are fast becoming glorious grazing farms, fairly beaming prosperity with its attendanttine homesteads, plantations, and motor-cars. It isn't magic. It's the result of sheer hard work, .dogged persistence—and the 'drain-plough. What the separator la to the dairying industry, the drain-plough has been, and still is, to the one-time swamp lands of the southernmost districts of New Zealand.

You do not hear much about prosperity. Rather not. The fanner as a rule doesn't shout out about his good times. Like the typical Briton, hj? must have his growl. And the Southlander is a Scotchman, too, in many cases. He is making a pot of money from the land just now, but you do not see it reflected in trade. He is flanging on to it, or using the unexpected cash to pay off his mortgage. Very sensible, too. For the first time in' the story of many a farm its owner is free of the money-lending octopus, and has a credit. Southland is wet, jolly wet. Taranaki has a reputation of that sort, but she ha 3 a porous soil and the water does not lie about as it doe 3 here. Like Taranaki, this is very largely a dairying district, and, again like Taranaki, we are assured that the very foundatiqn of the dairyman's success is the rain. Peed is plentiful, and plentiful is hardly the word. Paddocks are to be seen where the grass i s fully eighteen inches -high, quite ready for hay, and the paddocks where the cattle graze have a thick sole of clover and other succulent grasses, the clover being possibly the result of liberal top-dressing with lime. A comparatively mild winter—but even the "comparative mildness" brought with it more than one good fall of snow—and a wonderfully mild spring, made for early growth, and also brought the cows in to profit early and in splendid condition for the season's work. Milk and butter-fat returns are generally excellent. Southland is forging ahead in the dairying world, without doubt, and as each year more land is brought in, her cheese export must assume very large proportions. But—and it is a very big "but" —Her methods must be modernised. Few farmers know what their cows are I doing. They are years behind Taranaki fn that respect. Before the farmer gets ' as much, for his tremendous land-break- [ ing achievment as he should he will have to find out his unprofitable cattle and sent them to the butcher. The Babcock tester has here a great field, for cowtesting is a rarity, and the very idea is laughed to scorn by otherwise shrewd, hard-headed Scotchmen who declare—as Taranaki cow-spankers used to declare—that they do not believe in "these newfangled fads." But listen to the voice crying in the wilderness. At a function at Bluff the other day,' Mr. W. D.-Hunt talked to fanners and dairy factory directors about the necessity for and'remarkable results achieved from testing and weighing the product of each 'individual cow. He paid a tribute to the business acumen of the Taranaki farmer, saying that Taranaki had taken the lead, and if Southland farmers would look to Tarana"ki for methods they would not go far wrong. The butter province must try and act up to that reputation. A subsequent speaker, Mr. J. R. Scott, secretary of the South Island Dairy Association, made the statement that there was * 1,000.000 (a million sterling) per annum to be picked up by the dairymen of New Zealand increasing the average output of butter-fat by 1001b per cow. Southland supplies most of the beef for Otago, and there is some fine beef grazing on her gentle hillsides and rolling river flats. Areas of grazing land that are inundated each year as the rivers burst their banks are wonderfully productive, the deposit of silt from the floodwaters acting a 3 a benefieient fertiliser.

This province, as far as oats are concerned, is quite the granary of New Zealand. Southland and South Otago grain-growers appear to be iu for a splendid season, and on all hands are fields that are a treat to see. • Large areas of turnips are everywhere being sown, the turnip fields being' easily distinguished by the ridges. As far as could be seen, few farmers broadcast their turnips in these parts. The regularity of the ridges made by (he horse drawn. "ridgers" is almost, remarkable. 'Last year the good turnip crop was a godsend to the grower, as veil as to the unfortunates in Canterbury who, with paddocks nearly as hare as a board, were glad to pay 2"is to MOs a ton for turnips to keep their stoek alive. . Southland grows wool, too. Coarse wool is.a feature, and the sheep men are looking for big prices for this at the forthcoming sales. There is an unprecedented demand for strong wools For military purposes, and Southland is par excellence, the place for growing crossbred wool of the long, strong staple required. There should be little trouble with the condition of the clip, owing to the fine spring and the absence of dust storms. Lambing percentages are generally high. Enquiries show very few returns of less than 200 per cent., and cases are frequent in which ]-2,"> and 130 per cent, is about the figure.

OVER THK BORDER. Coming north from Invcrwrgil, through the luxuriant pastures of South Otago, one notices presently a. eliange in the landscape. In North Qtago, and particularly round about Oamaru, the position is serious. A dry winter, following on a very dry summer, had a detrimental effect on crops and pastures, and consequently upon stock. ( \ lew weeks ago came welcome shower*, and people were astonished at the recuperative properties of the soil. Brown hillsides changed to verdant pasture-lands. Stunted crops took on a new lease of life. Milk yields began to climb, but in this case the damage was practically irreparable, for stock was in no condition to withstand the effects of a surfeit of young grass. Karmer 3 looked once mo'p through rose-tinted spectacles. This happy frame of mind was short-lived. The middle of November saw a succession m scorching, enervating nor-westers. The country dried up, and the germ of growth crept into Hiding. Brown were tiie hillsides now, and soon the crops, wliich had freshened up. were seen to change. Stunted, thev are coming into ear, and the yield will be poor. Tn many cases stopk has been turned In, the owners being of opinion that, it is, more profitable to feed down such crops than to save them.