FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2133, 16 July 1907, Page 4

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

■ The following message lias been received iu Palmerston North from a largo (irin of produce merchants in London: —"The general opinion here (in England) amongst the host authorities is that wo are. going to have next year very low prieos for cheese all through tho season, and it is estimated that tho dilTorence in value Will bo nearer 20s than 10s less per cwt than at prosent. If this ho so, thoso in New Zealand who linvo gone in for cheese-making will suffer very serious loss. Last year’s Chicago moat scare drove some peoplo from tinned moat to cheese, out they are alreadv coming back on to the tinned meats. Along with this unfortunate event there was very hot weather in England, and tho make of English cheese is estimated at about 20 or thirty thousand tons less than it will bo this yoar. 'l'horo was hot weather in Canada, and that forced tho„Canadians to stop making butter and go on to cheese, as tho price was high here. This year, all over Europe, tho United Kingdom and Canada, tho prospects for grass and pastures have never been bettor, and we anticipate a very large make ol cheese in tin l Northern Hemisphere, tho largest, in fact, for some years. These are the opinions of the best judges in the trade.” In a letter to the Ashburton A. and P. Association, Mr. W. Lowrio, director of Lincoln College, wrote:—“ln roplv to your inquiry lor an effective method of dealing with the blight on turnips, I am very sorry to he unable to suggest an efficient remedy; in fact, the position is in this ease that the physician cun make no pretence to euro'himself, for the turnips at the College have been destroyed as completely as have any of the crops around. I have no doubt the problem will in the course of time be overtaken, hut in the meantime no practical solution of it is known to me.” It is not likefv that any potatoes will be brought over from the Chatham Islands this season. There lias been a large amount of rain, and the tubers are not only damaged by tho wet, hut it is said that the blight lias devastated the crops. No seed was imported from the mainland last season. If tho disease has shown itself in the Chathams it must have been dormant, and brought out by the weather favorable for its development. As at the conference of 1906 the delegates to tho Farmers’ Union Conference just closed decided “to bring pressure to bear” on the Woolbrokers’ Association (London) to remedy the injustice of their rule of deducting lib off every hundredweight of wool sold by the producer. During a conversation with a Wellington Post, reporter on this subject, a local woolbroker stated that he could not see anv reason why tho London people should continue to claim the extra wool, which amounted to a gift of three pounds per hale. Thero might have been a kind of give-and-take reason for it years ago, when tlie trade had no finely-adjusted weighing machines, such as were in use to-day. But if the pound per hundredweight claim had now become a trade custom, it would be a hard job to make London forego such a paying perquisite. The pressman pointed out that the union intended getting the Higli Commissioner to take the matter up. “Well,” was the reply, “Mr. Hooves will find himself up against a hard proposition.” The broker went into figures on tho subject, and showed that the Bibs per hale gave the London brokers a gift from Now Zealand alone amounting to something like over £6O.DUO, taking the export of 420,700 bales for the past June to June period. The lew was made on other wool-grow-ing countries, for tins was a worldwide custom.

A South Wairarapa dairy farmer, who lias gone extensively, into tho business, tells his experience thus:— He had a farm of about 160 acres, for which some nine years ago he paid £l2 5s per acre. At the present time he milks sixty cows for nine months of the year. For the past four years he practically ran his dairy herds at a loss, because it was impossible to cull the animals before that period had elapsed. He had had much trouble in obtaining a good hull, and the cows were culled regularly every year into the sale yards. At the end of the fourth year lie is milking a herd bred by himself, and even now lie considers that the game hardly pays. This years he expects to receive £7OO from his sixty cows, which will return him approximately 33,293 gallons of milk, Against that he pays wages and expenses amounting to £4OO, and summed up, he says that the land is not returning him 6 per cen. on his purchase money. Thero was sold by private treaty last week a flax property at Iveretu at a sum which gives a fair idea of the great wealth in the native product. Tho property comprises 430 acres, about 100 which is waste, and tho purchasing price was £32 10s per acre. About nine years ago it changed hands at £7 per acre. It is stated that for a run of eight or nine months during the past season the miller leasing the property paid in rent and royalty £1750. Tho rent was £52, and the balance was mere royalty. But what makes this return from the property remarkable is that the royalty was only on 80 acres. Thus the owner received a royalty of £22 an acre for a native product growing in a swamp and never cultivated. Of course, the flax can only he harvested every three years, hut even then it is a wonderful revenue from a product upon the production of which nothing has been expended. Tho pu rcliasers of tlie property were a Palmerston and Rangitikei syndicate.