FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1922, Page 12

FARM AND DAIRY.

FARM MANAGEMENT. “DO IT NOW.” In many places of business there may be seen neat texts or proverbs. Perhaps they originally emanated in America, the proverbial land of hustle. The text most frequently met with is “Do it Now.” It stands as a silent, terse recommendation to all concerned to apply their energies without delay, and reproaches those who are prone to sloth and delay. In farm management the necessity of prompt action and strict attention to detail is very great. There are seasons of the year when the farmer finds the task of coping with the necessary work very difficult. From Sepember until the hay has been harvested the many duties crowding in are difficult to fulfil. This trouble can be lessened by well laid plans. A good manager has his plans laid out twelve months in advance, and the successful farmer must arrange his work for at least six months ahead. Every farmer knows that he must provide root crops for next winter. He should now decide upon the area to be sown. If this needs stumping, clearing, and fencing, “do it now, and if the land can be spared it should be ploughed early, rolled down and occasionally disced. Thus, during a time of comparative slackness it is possible to get ahead of the work which would otherwise heap up and bury delayed efforts to cope with it. There is great advantage in keeping ahead of the work. It reduces the worry of management and admits of immediate attention to accidental happenings without harmful neglect of the general plan. Moreover, in the case of growing crops if the land be ready well ahead of time, the sowing can be done under favorable conditions, and better results will be achieved. Soft turnips for late summer and swede turnips for winter have been a general practice in Taranaki. Club root and dry rot are causing great loss in these crops and away from coastal land the grass does not come early enough to follow directly after swedes. Mangolds and carrots do particularly well throughout Taranaki, and they are both very free from disease. Mangolds are especially valuable to fill the gap before grass becomes plentiful. Both these crops need hand rolling, and frequently farmers set forth to grow several acres. The result is that the area cannot be properly cultivated and the crop is a comparative failure. If half an acre of each be grown and well cultivated, the work does not become oppressive, and the result is gratifying.

INCREASE IN PIGS. DUE TO EDUCATION. The results of the educational propaganda of the Department of Agriculture are amply illustrated by the statistics available, said the officer-in-charge of the pig division. “This propaganda has taken the shape of lectures to returned soldiers at the experimental farms, and on the farms in various districts,” said the officer. “Look at the results. The result is shown by an increase in the number of swine in the last two years of 98,000 in the North, as compared with 10,000 in the South Island. We are now centring our efforts on the South Island, and are confident of the same relative increase, REMARKABLE ANOMALY. The following figures were supplied showing the increase': North Island.—North Auckland 18,909; Auckland, 33,062; Hawke’s Bay, 5276; Taranaki. 20,399; Wellington, 19,797. The total number of swine now in the Dominion is 342,227, as compared with 235,347 in 1919. Australia has 1395,968; Canada, 4,040,070; South Africa, .560,155. HERD TESTING AGAIN. Only 4 per cent, of New Zealand dairy cows are tested, only 13 per cent, of purebred bulls are in use. and our average butter-fat. yield is below 170 lb per season per cow. At least 90 per cent, of our cows should be tested, 90 per cent, of our purebred bulls should be in use, and our average cow should give nothing less than 3001 b of butter-fat per season. Our dairy industry is a comparatively large business, consisting of some 500 dairy factories, a million cows, and about two million acres of land. In any large business such as this it is essential to successful working that there should be no serious leakage of profits, and there is a leakage of profits continuously taking place on the dairy farms solely through the milking of 20 to 40 per cent, scrub cows in the herds. As showing what Australia is doing to encourage herd testing, the .South Australian Minister of Agriculture has approved of the payment of prizes to members of the Murray Bridge Herd-testing Association. The first prize of £75 was awarded to Mr. J. A. Halliday, whose average output per cow from 12 months was 939.21 gallons of milk and 364.291 b of butter-fat. The average number of cows in his herd is 46. The second prize went to Mr. B. H. Green, the average output per cow for, 12 months was 68017 gallons of milk and 308.701 b butter-fat.

EASY SYSTEM OF KEEPING FARM ACCOUNTS. Practical working systems of accounts which anyone may adopt without special study are the best for the •farm. One of these is a direct-entry system requiring no preliminary books for original entries, which later would have to be posted or copied into permanent accounts. From two to ten minutes a day. investigation shows, is all the time required in keeping books, according to the simpler methods suggested. This does not include, a day or two. possibly more, required at the end of the year to elose up the books and start a new set. It. is recommended that the accounting year he started some time after the last erop is harvested in the fall and before the first crop operations are started in the spring. The beginning should be made on the first day of some month. The foundation of any set of books is an inventory showing the farmer’s assets and liabilities. The assets include real estate, live stock machinery, and tools, produce, feed and supplies, cash on hand and in bank, and accounts receivable at the date the inventory is taken. Each item under these headings should be listed separately. Real estate should be < at wh»t it

•be sold for under normal conditions; live stock, feed and farm produce, at market prices, less cost of marketing; farm supplies, at cost; machinery and tools, at a price allowing' for annual depreciation. The liabilities should include mortgages, notes, and accounts payable. The sum of the liabilities deducted from the total assets will show the farmer’s net worth. SEMI-OFFICIAL TESTING. “Jersey Breeder” writes>from Riverlea as follows: It is a well kown fact that the primary industries of the Dominion are at the present time as they have been in the past, the mainstay of the country, this being especially applicable in the ease of the dairying industry during these days of general trade depression followed by inevitable, financial stringency.

Production, and increased production, i should ever be the watchword. Now in the latest authorised fees for semi-offi-cial testing drafted by the Department of Agriculture a very considerable change has been effected. Previous to April 1, 1922, the fees were five guineas per cow per annum, but now, according to the latest advices, are to be as follows: For the first cow or heifer, ten guineas; z for each subsequent cow or heifer, 3 guineas. The argument advanced by the Department of Agriculture that the change of five guineas per cow tended to increase the proportion of breeders testing only one or two cows, seems to my mind not exactly an undesirable feature. The man who can afford to test only one or two cows deserves every encouragement, even though the testing may be done at a financial loss to the Department. Certainly it has to be admitted that this loss in some few isolated cases is fairly considerable. For example, in a certain part o-f the •West Coast of the South Island, it costs the Department about 30 guineas a year to collect 15 guineas, the fees for testing three cows. This must surely be a very isolated case, and there cannot be many of this nature. Even so, why not induce these backblock settlers to test their stock, thus showing them in some material form that the interest of the wayback farmer is worthy of a little consideration ? If we require greater production, how better can our ideals be achieved than by assisting these enterprising breeders? After all, the man who breeds the pedigree stock is the one worth while to the country, and if this were more -fully realised by some of the farming community the result would be the elimination to a great extent of the few averaging herds which are a continual hindrance to the improvement of our dairy stock. Therefore, whv increase the testing fees to an almost prohibitive level in so fat as the man with the small means is concerned? Is there not a possibility that some of these men may be debarred from launching out when -faced with a ten guinea fee to begin with, and be compelled to discontinue the semi-official testing? Therefore, why should the monetary aspect of the case possibly jeopardise to any extent the splendid future of New Zealand dairy stock?

The effect of the increased rate, especially with butter fat fallen considerably in value, will be to sweep entirely from the field those breeders testing only one or two cows, the very ones deserving every possible encouragement. Why not strike a uniform rate of four guineas per cow per annum ? That would meet the requirements of all concerned and be a hardship to nobody. Though it is regretted by the Department of Agriculture that any action which may restrict the number of new testing breeders should be deemed necessary, one fails to see why financial loss should be solely the determining factor, even under present conditions. This certainly seems worthy of speedy investigation by the various breeders’ associations of Taranaki.

I trust that further information may be forthcoming from some of your readers.

A Masterton farmer recently forwarded fifty-six sheepskins to Wellington, and his return was thirteen shillings.

We frequently read that one or other of our dairy factories have “switched over” from butter to cheese, or the reverse. This is even worse than those sheep breeders who changed one class of wool to another to meet the market, sometimes after building up a flock for twenty years. As the sheep is evolved for quantity or quality of wool, so is the cow for butter or cheese. Wise men follow one or the other, and this change by a factory is disastrous to the herdsman.

It is officially estimated that the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company’s output of butter for this season will be about 16,000 tons, as against 12,500 tons last season. The cheese output will be about 5000 tons, which is approximately the same as last season’s.

The impression is very general that purebred dairy cattle are more susceptible to disease, especialy tuberculosis, than grades. It is, however, shown that on eighteen experimental •farms, on several of which herds of both purebred and grade cattle are kept, and on all of which a good stock of dairy cattle are maintained, two had experienced an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis, but that no greater tendency to disease had been noticed among one than the other. No difference had been observed between purebreds and grades in their diseaseresisting powers, and this included not only tuberculosis, but also infectious abortion. It is shown that the constitution of the individual animals and the careful isolation of those that are diseased are vastly more important factors in influencing the spread of disease than the circumstances as to whether the animals kept were highly developed purebreds or were grades. In short, it is not a question o-f greater susceptibility between purebreds and grades, but only one of more frequent exposure to infection.

The competition of Argentine wheat with Australia is so great that the official forecast of the erop is always awaited by dealers. This was given at 6,811.570 tons for the. 1920-21 season, and the Argentine Director of Rural Economies and Statistics, holding that the estimate was too large, has revised the figures in the light o-f the threshing done, and set* the total harvest down at 4,6-20,000 tons. Adding stocks over from the 1920 harvest, 1,350,000 tons needed for home consumption, and 550.000 tons for seed, the quantity available for export in September was 1,725.(M)0 tons. The freight market, as quoted in London in November, was: Buenos Aires or La Plata, to the United Kingdom or the Continent, 17s (id. According to “Broomhall” the close nursing of wheat by holders in the Argentina has led to expressions of doubt whether there is the stock of grain estimated by the Government and by grswers.