On the Land.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3785, 19 May 1908, Page 4

On the Land.

A»WORD FOR THE SHROPSHIRE. V.'h':« the Shropshire has not proved the fat lamb sire in this island the Southdown has, the neater conformation of the latter better suiting our rather coarse ewes- -there is no denying the fait that the large black face has its good points and pays as well as a fat lamb sire when of the best breeding, is used on suitable ewes and is kept on the right country. A Southern Shropshire enthusiast—who naturally makes out'the best.case he can for the breed—spoke thus to the 'writer the other day:, "The Shropshire gives as good a carcase as the Southdown, with this alvantage—the body being longer more loin chops are provided the butcher. Certainly in some districts in Canterbury the Southdowns gives the better result, while in other districts the honours are divided between the English Leicester and the Shropshire.. There is no breei which will leave the same numbe of lambs as the Shropshire. In some cases in the North Island, especially on the sweeter lands, Shropshires would do excellently. In some cases Southdowns are being used in this island, and there is probably more Shropshire than Southdown blood in them. A Gisborne man who tried English Leicesters and Shropshires as fat lamb sires last season got much the better result from the latter. Good Shropshire wool is practically of half bred character, and is not, therefore, affected as the general run of North Island wool when cross breds are not in fashion.

SCARCITY OF LABOUR The scarcity of farm labour web the subject of a farmers' complaint to an Eltham Argus representative, j "It has been stated that farmers j are terrors to growl and hard to get . on with, and that may be so," said the farmer, "but if one has had dealings with some of the farm labourers round about here, the charge is excu'sable. Speaking for myself, I know j of farm hands to whom I would give £2 and £2 10s willingly, and I know that I should get good results from their labour, but unfortunately milking is not the best of work, and a man tires and drops out, and tries his j hand at something else. He is not to : be blamed either; but his leaving places the employer in a difficulty. This season I had occasion to advertise for a man, and an applicant appeared, stating that he had had considerable experience. His wage was £llss, and if he proved a good man his earnings were to go up to £2: hut the man turned out an arrant duffer, the cows not being properly milked nor the cans washed, and he had to go." "The immigrants should prove useful?" "No, I don't think so. Your paper has published a list of big shipments by successive steamers, but nut of the thousands landed, probably not more than twenty have found their way to Taranaki, the centre of dairying. They are probably useful n sheep farming and ploughing, but dairying is not particularly clean, and I have found some who did not relish rubbing up against a cow or coming in contact with one to the detriment of their clothes. Tou will find that my experience is shared by many others. The last man I had put a week in with another farmer before coming here, and that particular milker must have visited a good many farms during the season if he wished to be in employment. Good wages are worthy of a good hand, but it is an exticmely difficult matter to get valuable labour, and I think that next year I shall drop out of dairying and take on dry stock. "A farmer near me had a milker 'who took advantage of the employer's absence to take things so easy that the farmer's wife had to milk 25 per cent more cows than the hired man. Only those who have been brought up to it, and can be thoroughly interested in the work, will make good dairy farmers. If the young folk brought up to the work would only stick to it they would help matters, but where a farmer has to employ labour as in my case, the dairy industry is not satisfactory. Hence my determination to abandon it and go in for sheep. The only trouble is in getting reliable help. Men who are prepared to look after the stock in the owner's absence can always ! get good employment and high wages; I but they are few and hard to find."

TTic same old story of plentiful lack of interest was told at the annual meeting of the Feilding branch of the Farmers' Union last week. According to the Feilding Star the report read by the chairman opened with a regret that so many members were in arrears. There were seventy six members paid up, as against one hundred and five the year before. The total reciepts were but £55 2s 6d, while the number of outstanding subscriptions was sixty eight. The meeting was called for three o'clock, but at that hour there was not a quorum present. Member 3 straggled in right up to five o'clock, by which time most of the earlier arrivals had departed. It was pointed out by one of the members, who was feeling a bit sore over the way things were going, that while the tradesman was willing to pay sixpence a week to his union, the farmer was either unable or unwilling to pay as much as threepence a week for the same purpose.