FARMING NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 312, 9 July 1898, Page 4

FARMING NOTES.

The weather has been boisterous and wet during the week, with keen westerly squalls that are very hard upon live stock, the continued wet also being anything but favourable. July is, perhaps, the hardest month of the year for farm animals, and if they are not provided with ample supplies of food, including hay or straw, will quickly lose flesh, a condition from which it will be difficult for them to recover before the Bpring is well advanced. Dairy cows, whether in full milk or dry, need special attention, it being a frequent subject of remark that so many of tho cows milked for the creameries should be allowed to get thin aud weak during the winter, and are thus not in a fit state to yield full quantities of milk for some time after calving, what should be the moat profitable months of the season being devoted mainly to making flesh instead of producing milk, to the manifest loss of the dairyman. The remedy is obvious. Feed liberally during the winter, for which purpose swedes in moderate quantities, with well-saved straw, are valuable auxiliaries. Now that the leaves are off, and the sap down, no time should be lost in pruning and cultivating round fruit trees, tho beneficial results of which are too often overlooked ; albeit the improved appearance and increased returns from a carefully pruned and wcllmpnaged orchard, as compared with one allowed to run to waste and grow anyhow, should be sufficiently realized by this time. It is a mistake to suppose that a large and straggling tree will produce a greater weight of fruit than a much smaller ; but well pruned one, what is gained in numbers, being lost in size and symmetry. This is fully recognised in some of the leading orchards in New South Wales, where the tendency, of late years, is to head the trees hard back and keep them comparatively small. It is conentded, and justly so, that by this mode of treatment, a much finer quality of fruit is produced, and the trees—being smaller—are more easily Bpraged and handled, and further, as the trees can be grown closer together, more, fruit can be grown per acte than by using the old style of standard tress. The markets have been quiet during the week, with a steady demaud for farm produce. The recent drop in fat stock has been about recovered at the latest sales. Store cattle and sheep are in brisk demand ; but dairy cattle, with the advance of the season, are somewhat easier.