FARM NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 2426, 6 August 1891, Page 2

FARM NOTES.

The drought is being severely-, felt by sottlers who are not served .by wafer races, and water for household use and for cattle has, in many cases, to be carted. The dry weather, however, has been all in favour cf sheep, which have, fattened well, and prices having been good, stocks have boon reduced to a" minimum, and low contain very few beyond the breeding ewes. Great anxiety is felt for genial weather to bring on the glass now that lambing is beginning. Pastures- in the history of the district |. have never before been so bare. Early tsowh .gr;iii crops look well, and the 1, cessation of the sharp frosts that have [ prevailed so long has enabled good progress to be made with ppriug sowing.

1 The drought is being severely felt throughout; the Waimate county. Growth is almost at a standstill for want of rain, and if rain does not fall soon it will be a very serious matter indeed. Water is very scarce everywhere, and the watering of stock can only be done by driving them a considetable distance. In some instances settlers have no water at all on their holdings, and have to depend on their neighbours for a supply.

TII3 Department of Agriculture of New South Wiles has issued a pamphlet on pigs-

The lambing season has commenced generally all over the Wellington province, and the reports, as a rule, are very satisfactory.

It will be good news to New Zealand butter exporters to leani that in Samoa it is fast driving out the Danish imported article, and now, owing to better packing, it is fetching a retail price of 2s per lb. The Taranaki Agricultural Society, in I a letter to the Minister of Lands, recommends that Mr Sawers, the Government dairy expert, should spend the whole of his time in the North Island during the coming season. The condition of agriculture in England is indicated by the fact that the returns 1 for 1890 show that 4,852,225 acres are occupied and farmed by the owners, that hundreds of farms are let at rents that do not pay 5 percent, upon the buildings, fences, drains, &c, and that plenty of land is let for the amount, of the tithe tax alone'; also that thousands of acres are unlet, with owners only too willing to [ take any tenant.

The crop of lambs is an unusually heavy one this season in most districts in England. Pairs are pretty general, while numerous instances of triplets and even quadruplets are reported. In the.Shropshire flock of the Duke of Devonshire, on tho Holker home farm, 296 ewes have 436 living lambs, 140 doubles, and 156 singles. At the home farm of the Earl of Beciive, at Uhderley, 94 halfbred Cheviot and Border Leicester ewes have produced 150 living lambs, six triplets, 16 singles, and the rest doubles by Shropshire rams. In many other cases tha proportion of lambs to ewes has been equally marked.

; The Canadian experimental farms are becoming more appreciated every year by the Canadian agricultural community. It is said that the number of sarnplea of seed sent to be tested as to vitality and germinating power for the first three months of the present year numbered 2804, as against 1250 tested durina; the whole of last yeiir. These samples are carried through the post free of charge, and no charge is made by the Government for the tests. Considerable success has also attended the efforts of the department in getting the farmers to try mew varieties of grain. Up to the middle of last month no less than 5386 sample bags of grain .('wheat}, barley, and oats), containg 31b each, were distributed in the different parts of the Dominion.

" Better times for farmers " is the title of a chapter in the May report of the statistician of the American Department of Agriculture. The prices of maize and oats, Mr Dodge says, are—or were in May —100 per cent, higher than they were a year before, while those of wheat wenl greatly increased, and those of cattle had advanced.24 per cent, to 34 per cent., accordingly to quality. First, he say 3, a bad season cut down the crops of maize and oats, ana eliminated a surplus which had reduced prices below the cost of production. Next, two years of under average wheat production in the world reduced stocks ; and now the unfavorable prospects in Europe make it probable that prices will be high during the season. Cattle in the United States, too, have become comparatively scarce, through liberal exports and the sale of cows by men who were, disgusted with the p,oor returns of breeding. But if, as Mr Dodge certainly has reason to believe, farmers in Aiueriea wj.ll get better prices fqr their products this year,, if not longer, jihan they have pfytainec} during several recent years, farmers jn othep pountries must share in phe advantage.

Although the law authprjsing tl)p iormation of co-operative agricultural associations in France was only passed a few years ago, there are now established no fewer than 910 of these associations, with a membership pf 40,0,000. Some of the small peasant cultivators, stand aloof, der terred by the annual payment of a s.ma{] subscription. In many parts of the gountry, however, the peasants appreciate advantages of co-opsration, evidence | of' whiph, h,as been, collected by M, ' Bernard and otfjei'd, The objects, proposed in the constitutions of syndicates are thus classified by M. Bernard : —1. Study and defence of common interests. 2, Suppression of middlemen in making purchases. 3. Suppression of middlemen in making" sales. 4. Agricultural fjredjb and mutual credit. 5. Arbitration in pla,ve o£ Jigitatjk)n, 6. Mutual insurance against morjbality among fftrm animals. ' 7. J^utual aid and '§tfner* annuftt£on allowances.. 8. Promotion of agricultural progress hy propasjandisn) and practical measures.' Goinparat'iyely few of the syndicates ai present embrace the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of these objects, and those which deal with the sale of their members' products are not nearly as numerous as those which engage in .90- operative purchases.

Amongst-, other movements in the dirge:tion of laud settlement (says n Victorian journalist) the Queensland Minister of Agriculture has caused inquiries to be n*a<lp of the leading sugar planters of the colony as to whether- $nd upon ''what terms they would be prepare^ to out up, their plantations into small farms, either for Jease or sale outright, with tho vjew of inducing ag^iculjfcur^ts of limited means to djregi their ajilentfon t# sugar Replies have reaghed the ttepartinetft fiom various parts of the colony bijt more; especially from Mackay. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company in that district have intimated their willingness to lease small areas on a five years' tenure at 5s peu scrg for cleared and stumped land, and Is per acre for uncultivated land, equivalent to 5 per cent on the purohasing pripe. They will cut u'p^ their lauds into 00 aore blocks, and endeavour to give eaolv 27 acres cleared and'the same area of uncuitiya^3 or dispose elf it a 6 an upprice' of §£{ .and $j. v^ectiVely per acre. Horses'' an<jt iinplemfentii will 'lie sfll^'to the tenauis on' favouralile tetms, ( and when tiie apj^iganfas are men df trust- ' worthy repute special' ai'raiigeijjejjts will | be made for the supply of rations for the first; year ? and to provide galvanised iron <

I ior thoir houses. Tho cine grown will ho I purchasod.-aHTie current terms ruling in the district^/*T)n the other hand, "the fanner haa-^ to enter into a five yearn' agreement to crow nothing but sugar, and not to erect ;i store, public house, or any Jjusiness-prcmisiis without the permission 'of the company. The success of the scheme was pronounced fr.un the first. Immediately upon the publication of the terms ottered hy the company the. sugar lands in tiie Mackay Histricfc were rushed by small fanners. Two thousand aires have already been leaded, and the outlook is so promising that a new mill, with a crushing power of 15,000 tons is likely to be erected before next season. It has been plainly shown by the small capitalists of the colony that they are not only willing, but anxious, to go upon the land, if they are only given a practical chance.