FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 August 1919, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

INTENSIVE CULTIVATION. CHILDREN'S COMPETITIONS. Hearty approval is given by the Hon. D. 11. Uutlirie to the suggestion that an agricultural competition for boys and girls should be organised ou national lines. "The effort to stimulate intensive cultivation of the soil is deserving of the highest commendation," he said, "especially as it starts with the youthful section who eventually will become occupiers and workers of the soil. The ' scheme, as long as it proceeds on sensible business lines, should receive every support locally and nationally. It is based on the system of boys' agricultural clubs established in some of the American 'States, where the effect of 1 competitions on agriculture in jreneral • has far exceeded the most sanguine ex- ' poctations of those engaged in propa- ' ganda work. The competitions that are suggested appear to me to be really a matter for the Education Department, associated when ■ possible with the Department of Lands and Agriculture. If these three Departments, working in ' earnest co-operation, would apply their ' influence to secure agricultural develop. 1 ment and intensive production they ' would be well repaid by the betterment • of New Zealand as a whole. " Indeed, it is surprising that not until j now have some portions of the Dominion 1 begun to wake up to the necessity of attention being paid to these vital factors in the national prosperity. In some districts, notably the Wnnganui Education District, agricultural education has received attention for the past 10 or 15 years, with the result that today agricultural instructors are recognised as experts, and are constantly being approached for advice, even by farmers who formerly had no time at all for 'new-fangled ideas.' It must be recognised that the proposal to inaugurate agricultural competitions for young people on the lines advocated by the Otago Expansion League is only one of the levers that may be used to procure . better and more productive farming in ' any locality. It is a means of getting scientific knowledge into the minds of the fanners of the future, and of pro--5 viding the farmers of to-day with prao j tical demonstrations of means by which their land can he made to yield greatly increased returns." 3 _ ' SIBERIAN DAIRYING. 5 The great war had a disastrous effect • on the Siberian butter export trade, as ' the Baltic Sea, through which the greater • part of the butter moved, became closed, 2 An effort was made to ship the butter • through Archangel and by the way of ! other routes, but the results were un- • satisfactory and tho price fell to low 1 levels. Finally the war developed a 5 strong domestic demand for butter and • the Russian Government adopted mea- > sures preventing the exportation of it. "■ The price again became high, but because ' of the great demand for meat thousands of dairy cows were slaughtered. It is t estimated that the number of milch cows ; in Western Siberia is less by 25 per cent. 1 than before the war. That the quantity t of butter made in Siberia has materially » lessened because of the war is shown by 3 the Russian Government's estimate that (13,000 tons would be produced during ■ i lie year 1917. Those figures, as com- •• pared with those of butter exported • during the year '1913, shows a decline of ! 40 per cent, on the export figures for the > year alone. t Mr. J. C. Cooper stated at a meeting > of shareholders of the Wellington Farm--1 ers' Meat Company that complaints j continued to reach tho directors cont cerning the over-dipping of lambs. He s pointed out that a big'loss was likely . to be suffered by farmers on this account. 1 A Wairarapa dairy farmer, who ret cently sold his farm at a good figure, t went in search of land in the Levin and 1 Olaki districts. He discovered that farmers were asking prices ranging from t £IOO to £H3O per acre. The farmer 3 finished up by investing in Wellington . house property.—Age. 1 According to the United Sliuos report - on farm wages in America, when the 3 laborers were hired only for the season j the average wagis per month, with board, 5 for the United States were: In ISoO £2 t 12s 3d, in 1869 £2 12s OJd, in 1875 £2 i 15s Bd, and in 1909 £4 5s 7d. In this ! year the corresponding wage in the l Western States was £7 5s 4d, in the t Northern Central States £5 4s 7d. in the f Northern Atlantic States £5 Is Md, in i the Southern Central States £3 B~s 2d, nnd in the Southern Atlantic States £3 , 2s 3d. When, for the calculation of the t 'average monthly wages, the wages of f the laborers engaged by the year, to-, i gether with those hired only* for the , season, are used, the following "are found: For 1891 in the whole of the United s States £2 15s (id. During the industrial i crisis of the nineties wages fell, but rose • again to £2 17s 2d in 1599, to £3 3s . lOd in '1902, £3 17s 2d in 190(1, and £4 ■ 2s 4d in 190». According to the reports ■ of the Inland Revenue, the total amount ; of agricultural laborers' wages rose from I £73,513,733 in 1809 to nearly twice as ■ much, namely £130,709.95.1, in 1009. If i it be considered that the average rate I cf wages had been only about 30 per • cent., and that the number of laborers' • had oertuiniy not doubled within the ton i years, the great increase in the total , can only be explained by assuming that : the time during which agricultural laborers are engaged in the course of the year ; has of late year 3 considerably increased. ! The average amount of wages paid per ■ farm was £l3 0s 3d in 1899 and £2l i 8s 2d in 1909.