AROUND HAWKE'S BAY

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 101, 31 May 1930, Page 3

AROUND HAWKE'S BAY

PARAGRAPHS OF INTEREST TO THE FARMER. One has only to travel around Hawke's Bay these days to realise that hawks are becoining more prevalent than in late years. A bounty of 6(1 ou wings and feet is atill being paid by the Hawke's Bay Acclimatisation Society and tkere are certain farmer ti who annuaily collect a few shillinga froin this source. Tlien again there are some farmers in the way-backs who hold the opinion that the liawk is not the pesfc that it is alleged to be. There are otliers wlio agree that it is a pest, but are apathetic as to destroying the hawk. Occasionally, for the period of a month, the society increases Ihe bounty to ls, bnt this has not auy notxceable eifect in increasiug the numbers brought in. * * » A Hastings fanner, who has just paid a visit to the Wairoa dstricb, tells me that conditions up there are very different to those ruling down this end. The hill country is far greener and there seems to be plenty of roughage about for cattle. Most of the farmers on the flats have been treating their land with super and sulpbate of ainmonia and although this will show its best results in the Spring, already it lias worked wonders in bringing the grass away. * * * There wero practicallv no shiprnents of sheep from Hawke's Bay to the South Island this year and similarly shipnients from Gisborne have also shown a drop. In one recent season Gisborne supplied Canterbury with 100,000 sheep, but the numbers have been deereasmg during the last two years, with only approxiinately 20,000 sent to Lyttelton this year. During the first four months of this year Canterbury reeeived only 83,730 sheep, a decrease .of 36,460 when compared with the corresponding period last year. The sluinp in values on the Addington market shortly after a few lots had gone forward was the cause of several thousand Gisborne sheen booked to go to Lyttelton being retained in the district, with 3000 diverted to the Waikato. According to a southen report the North Island shiprnents, of wnich Gisborne sheep constituted the greater part, were responsible for the large decrease in the receipt of sheep in Canterbury, for there was nothiug to show that the arrivals from Marlborough, Nelson and the Chatham Islands had been fewer. o * * * Ewes in lamb continue to meet with a poor ddmand on Hawke's Bay markets, but those vendors who are holding lines of this description will shortT ly havo to dispose of them as most of them are now nearing the timo when they will be heavy m lamb. Alreadv dry sheep are proving more popular, possibly on account of tlie facfc that it is less trouble to shift them. * * * According to oificial figures 101,716 acres of Hawke's Bay land have been top-dressed, in comparison to 342,840 acres in North Auckland, 886,996 acres in Auckland, 317,598 acres in Taranaki, 291,331 acres in Wellington and 38,805 acres in Gisborne. The quantities of dressing per acre in Hawke's Bay are shown to be less than in Auckland. These figures show that there is still considerable room for improvement in our province in relation to top-dressing. Top-dressing is the greatest single factor in modern tlmes to stimulate grass production. * * * Toiling under the burden of an old style, a fariner is setting himself a hard task even with the best of land, and it would be to the utmost advantage of farmers here if they were able to make more frequent trips to other parts of the coifntry. and discuss their problems with oth'ers in the same class of occupation. it is regrettable that more iuterest is not bemg evinced by farmers hero in the iorthcomng trip to the youth Island. There they would see different methods, and gam experience in a variety of ways that would -assist them. * * * In speaking of tarifl's, a Dominion faruier the other day recommended that a better system than tlie existmg oue of eaeh individual government in the British Lmpire iixing its own tarifl's would be the reiegation of this power to an Empire taritf board. Such a proposal, he maintained, would give active expression to the "trade within the Empire" slogan. * * ♦ Proof of tlie popularity of superphosphate with Hawke's Bay farmers is afforded in the fact that of over 100,000 acres top-dressed in the province, only 4000 acres have been treated with slag. * * * We certainly live and learn these days. Hawke's Bay tomato growers will be interested to hear that many gfowers throughout Australia are experimenting with paper mulch in a small way. Even with the use of paper not especially manufactured for the purpose good results have been ob tained. At Nanneela. in the Rochester (Vic.) irrigation area, a tomatogrower was able definitely to demonstrate that the nse of paper mulch bad proved .useful in checkmg weel growth, in reducing the need for cultivation and the use of water, and had kept the ground teinperature in a more equable condition. In Queensland many growers of pineapples are using the American type of asplialt paper with beneficial results, and there is everv prospect of paper mulch com ing into general use.