FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 311, 22 September 1908, Page 6

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

STOCK SALE DATES. Hastings—Tuesday, September 22nd. Kaikora North—Thursday, September 24th. Waipukurau — Tuesday, September 29th. Some remarkable wool was obtained from a merino wether by Mr A. C. jKensall, of Hamilton, Victoria. It was 16in. long and was supposed to be the result of six or seven years’ growth. The most notable feature in this wool is that the fibres run even from end to end, and without the least sign of a break, save at about 4in. from the tip, where there is a very slight indication of weakness. The sheep was running at large in the Grampians while this great length of staple was growing, and it speaks well for the strong constitution of the animal that the wool should be so even throughout. The fibre was a little finer near the skin than at the tip, but that would be accounted for by the age of the animal, for when the fleece was taken off he would be an old sheep. The prevailing nor’-west weather, writes the Kirwee correspondent of the “ Lyttelton Times,” jvill remove the snow from the hills and warm the ground, but a nice warm rain would do a great deal of good, as it would give grass and grain crops a good start. Turnips have held out fairly well, but in many cases farmers could have done with a larger quantity, to enable them to keep their stock off the young grass till it got a good start. Kale is coming on again very quickly, and will soon provide a good picking for ewes and lambs. There has been a good deal of grain put in ‘ this season, and the early crops are looking remarkably well. The lambing has been very good, no cold, wet storms having occurred. The rainfall for July was >6.3oin. and for August 1.26 in. and for the corresponding months of last year 1.19 in. and 3.82 in respectively

In describing a model cowshed erected by a dairy farmer in the Eltham district, and declared by the Stock Inspector for the district to be a good model for those intending to erect proper milking premises, the Eltham “ Argus ” says the Goyernment’s suggestion of a race has been adopted. The race has been concreted and is 30 feet long and 3-Ht wide, branching off into a concrete yard. The yard is regarded as a valuable adjunct of the race, as it enables the cows to be got into the race expeditiously,. The cows are drafted into the shed from the concrete yard and the shifting of a swing gate at the bottom of the race allows the cows, after being milked, to go through another yard out to the pastures. All the cows are dehorned, the farmer finding that it makes the cows quieter. It has been found that the race saves a great deal of labour in cleaning up. A PROLIFIC OAT. There is growing in Lancashire on Garton’s seed grounds at Warrington, a single oat plant which surpasses by several hundred points any cei ear ever produced in the world. The single head contains a few short of 1000 grains, ten times as many as will be found in the best crops. The plant is a more or less accidental result of the original system of what may be called accelerated evolution, which has been practised on these grounds for the last twenty-seven years. This particular prodigy has been obtained by crossing highly developed oats with the wild oat, which has an incalculable capacity for bearing seeds. These are small and useless, but the’ strange fact has been discovered that the wild oat may in crossing even enlarge the grain of the cross, as well as increase its number. This particular oat is but an extreme instance of the new productions in cereals of all sorts. It is an indisputable fact, though practical farmers will have difficulty in believing it, that on these grounds oat crops of 160 bushels to the acre —that is twice the weight of a high average of present crops—-

have been reaped without any artificial manure or any intensive cultivation. It may be years before the most prolific of these grains come into commerce; but a juncture has been reached when a great part of the world, has suddenly come to see that England is the greatest plant breeding country in the world, even greater in plant breeding than animal breeding. Especially in Denmark and the United States have these scientific 'results at ""Warrington caused a sensation, and this pitch of certainty has been reached, that each country can get from England just what it requires—a large ear, or short straw, or loose husk, or tight husk, or early maturity. Indeed, Canada is now being supplied with her chief requisite, a grain no less than seventeen days earlier than those at present grown.

The yield of some cereals has been doubled in the last thirty years. It may be doubled again in the next thirty; and it is a legitimate source of national pride that one of the chief of American professors of agriculture has reported to his Government that England leads the way in the new science of the fields, as it indubitably does in the breeding of animals.