TARGET SHOOTING

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20908, 13 September 1939, Page 13

TARGET SHOOTING

AMMUNITION SUPPLY STOPPED (By Telegrapn.— Association) WELLINGTON, Tuesday An announcement that all rifle clubs affiliated to the National Rifle Association are to be advised that no ammunition could be sold to them until further notice was made by Mr W. Meßain, chairman of the executive of the national body, at the annual meeting of the Wellington Rifle Association tonight. Mr Me Bain said that rifles and rifle barrels would also be unprocurable.

NOTES AND COMMENTS Pastures For Pigs Because good pasture is rich in body-building materials, the best place to raise pigs is in the padducks. There are many reasons for this. Ail pasture crops are rich in protein, and good young grass is particularly rich in it. Green pasture crops and young grass are rich in all the vitamins. Pasture crops are rich in mineral matter, particularly in lime and phosphorus, which are needed in such taiye quantities by young animai-s. Moreover, pasture crops are succulent; foraging on them means lhat the pigs, get exercise, and exercise makes for thrift and health. New Zealand Seed in Australia Various strain trials being carried out at Burnley, Victorian Government Plant Research Laboratory, suggest the importance of certified seed of clovers and grasses. This has its particular interest in New Zealand, because it is reported frm Burnley that some uncertified New Zealand strains are regarded as “rubbish," and this applies especially to perennial rye. While pasture improvement and pasture management practice continues to make Good progress in most of the States of the Commonwealth, there is a growing i tendency on the part of landholders to i look for the certified seed. They are not disposed nearly as much as heretofore to buy “a pig in a poke." Molasses For Sheep The slock branch of the New South ♦Vales Department of Agriculture lias eceived from one of its inspectors Miniates of the cost of administering nolasses to sheep in drinking water. .1 45s*a drum of 4 4 gallons, the cost t head of sheep was a penny a day. the method adopted was as follows: \ man was placed continually at the \atering place. As small lots of • beep came to drink, a petrol tin was Hied to about a quarter of its capably from the drum of molasses. This vas taken to the trough at various ,-oints. thus about three parts full, ml then poured into the trough at arious points, thus ensuring a fairly ven mixture with fresh material, fhe sheep relished the drink. and .vould return from a few yards away and take as much as possible. Stock For Tasmania Tasmania, which in the past has drawn on New Zealand for high quality ! stud sheep, is now securing both cattle and pigs from the Dominion. Following on the visit of Mr Allan Stewart, 1 managing director of the Allan Stewart Proprietary Company, and also secretary of every breed society in Tasmania—a position he has held for many years—Messrs Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd., have received orders for Romney Marsh. Southdown and Border Leicester sheep. More recently orders have been executed for Berkshire and Tamworth pigs. Last week an outstanding Polled Hereford bull from the well-known “Wi'.encote” Stud of Mr F. E. Humphreys, Gisborne, was sent forward. Pedigree Strains of Seeds The building up of improved pedigree strains and the multiplication of nucleus stocks of seeds have continued to be an important part of the Grasslands Division's activities, and as further species and strains are bred this work will increase, states the annual report of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. It is confidently expected that the production of nucleus pedigree stock seed must, quite rapidly, become a lever, as it were, in raising the general quality of all New Zealand certified seeds, and the constant flow into production, for increase purposes, of nucleus pedigree stock seed will ensure a continuity of a high standard of quality for all time. Since the introduction of pedigree seed the seasons, as a whole, have not been favourable for seed production in the main seed-producing districts, and the season just past proved no exception in this regard. Sheep For Africa Messrs Voss Bros., of the well and favourably known “Karere" Stud, who have in the last three years exported more ewes in direct sales to clients in the various Australian States than any other New Zealand breeder, have again through the stud stock department of Wright, Stephenson and Go., Ltd., extended their market by the despatch of 20 selected two-tooth mated ewes to a breeder who is founding a stud in Gape Province, ! South Africa. Although these breeders had sold all their surplus ewes—the remainder of their two-tooth ewes being sold at auction at the Sydney sheep sales, such ewes being definitely not a fair average of their sheep—they allowed a New South Wales breeder to select fifty two-tooth mated ewes from their own reserves. These ewes have just arrived on the purchaser’s farm and have been much admired by neighbouring breeders. Mr J. Daley, sheep expert attached to the X.S.W. Department of Agriculture, describes them as a typev consignment which were satisfactory in every way. Curd Feeding For Pigs An experiment conducted at the Ruakura Farm shows that curd feeding to poultry is quite a satisfactory alternative or adjunct to pig keeping on dairy farms where separated milk is available. Farms which can grow maize for cob can increase the cash return from poultry still more than shown by the 'Ruakura experiment. The Supervisor of the Pig Industry, Mr M. J. Scott, has given the earning value of one gallon of separated milk for pig feeding as ranging from 0.31 d to I.9Gd. These values were estimated from information supplied by 182 farmers from all over New Zealand. no allowance being made for labour or depreciation on buildings or stock. On Hie same basis the earning value of one gallon of separated milk when fed as curd to poultry in the present experiment at Ruakura for the first year was 3.7 d when the whey was not used and 5.0 d when the whey was used for pig feeding and valued at id a gallon. Even allowing for 54 per cent depreciation in the Value of the flock over the year, one gallon of separated milk is worth 2.6 d as curd for poultry feeding and 2.9 d as curd for poultry feeding and whey for pigs.