FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 283, 16 July 1908, Page 6

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Ground barley and skim milk cannot be surpassed for feeding sows just after farrowing, as it produces a great deal of milk of fine quality.

Green manuring helps clayey land by making it more open and letting in the air. The decaying vegetable matter also produces acids that operate on the chemical plant foods to render them available.

Mr Allan, a well-known Wyndham bee-master, has cut adrift from farming altogether, and intends to depend on bee-keeping for his livelihood. Speaking to the Southland Beekeepers’ Association (says a Wyndham paper). Mr Allan was most confident of the future of the business. He was certain that his venture would be a success, and he believed that, next to farming, the producing of honey was going to be the most important of the allied land industries.

Speaking at the official opening of the Sydney sheep show, Sir Francis Suitor, the president of the New South Wales Sheepbreeders’ Association, declared that the closer the settlement the better would be the sheep. They had only to look at Tasmania. There the holdings were small, and the farmer could give individual attention to the flock.

Speaking of the liking of clovers for lime Dr Hilgendorf, of Lincoln Agricultural College, said that a part of the football ground at Lincoln College had been limed to get rid of rushes growing there. The rushes died out. Two years afterwards it was found by careful observation that on the part which had been limed there were double the number of clover plants that there were on the unlimed parts.

Some almost unbelievable tales, states the ” Mataura Herald ” are current as to the extent of sheepstealing operations in Southland. A farmer estimates that in one district alone in which he resides the loss can be put down at not less than 6000 head, and tells of how he left home and on returning in about three weeks' time found that of 200 sheep he had left in one paddock, only 80 remained. He scoured the country and found two or three, which had evidently been knocked up by fast driving, on a farm some ten miles distant from his plaoe, but further investigation was resultless.

Writing of a visit to Mr Lobb’s farm, near Feilding, the Manawatu correspondent of the “ Farmers’ Union Advocate ” says : On this same farm there is an instance of the benefit of drain ploughing. The top flat had been drained, and this year Mr Lobb had 40 acres of rape on it. He fattened 1400 sheep on it (the majority were lambs). He tells me he gave £8 an acre for the land about seven years ago. A farm down the valley had been sold lately for £l6 an acre, and the purchaser had been offered more for it since. The proximity to Fielding makes the land valuable for growing oats for chaff.

Word comes from Bathurst of a wonderful wool clip (says the “ Sydney Stosk and Station Journal ”). On October 10th, Messrs Anderson Bros., district land-holders, commenced shearing with fourteen machines, and since then have put through 85,000 sheep. From this number 2300 bales were taken, and this must be regarded as a great yield. The clip, a good deal of which will be scoured, is valued at £46,000. It goes to the Home market. Messrs Anderson Bros, are remarkable for tne care exercised in classing their wool; in this department more than 30 men are' employed, and each fleece is sorted into 42 classes.

In speaking to some teachers’ classes in Timaru the other day (says the “Lyttelton Times”), Dr Hilgendorf (of Lincoln College) said that wood ash was the cheapest form of potash. Burning gorse trimmings on roadsides was a waste of good manure, the ashes from them being of considerable value. It was noticed

at Lincoln College that where gorse had been burnt, or where ashes from burnt gorse had been scattered, there was an increase of plant growth, particularly of clovers. At Lincoln a gorse burner, drawn by a horse, was used, ancT the ashes were saved and taken to the manure shed, where they weie used to mix with superphosphates. Superphosphates were always more or less wet, and would not run freely through the drill. The addition of the dry ashes helped to overcome this trouble. Many farmers used bonedust to mix with the superphosphate for the same purpose.