Improvement of Stock.

In France and other countries largely occupied by small farmers, and among whom I spent many years, the Governments have stud and experimental farms, where, for a moderate fee, the farmers get the use of high-bred stallions, bulls, and rams. In France the Government has in this way some 8000 entire horses of an average value of £800, thus giving the farmers the use of a class of animals that would otherwise be entirely out of their reach, and so raising the character of the stock raised in the country far above what it would otherwise be. A system of supplying the farmers in England and Ireland with both mares and stallions is now being advocated, for the purpose of securing a supply of horses for military purposes. A most important item in a country such as this is the quality of the stock, as it depends almost entirely on the stock and its products, in which is included dairy produce. Much of the stock owned by the small settlers in this district has deteriorated since they bought it. Had these people been able to obtain the use of good animals from a Government farm it would have improved, and the owner of two or three cows or a mare would be placed in a position to breed as good stock as the wealthiest settler. Such sites as the neighbourhood of Woodville, Pahiatua, Danevirke, Norsewood, or anywhere where small settlers are thickly located, would be suitable for such Government farms. They would, in a small way, be to a small farming district what the home station is to a good-sized sheep station, and should be fairly central to a district. A few good Shorthorn and Ayrshire bulls, Clydesdale and thoroughbred stallions, and a few good Lincoln and Romney rams might be kept. It must be kept in mind that a badly-bred animal eats as much as a well-bred one, and that unshapely joints and coarse inferior quality of beef and mutton are not as saleable page 29 in England as those from well-bred animals of moderate size—a distinction that will no doubt extend to frozen meat. A desirable weight of sheep for the London market will probably prove to be from 60 to 70lbs., and cattle about 700 to 8001bs. Much has been said about the mutton frozen to be sent to England being equal to English mutton. As a matter of fact, our long-wool mutton, or the crosses from it, are equal to the best English-grown long-wool mutton, or the crosses from that. English-grown long-wool mutton is very coarse, and only fetches a second or third price in the English market. A great part of England and the better pastures of New Zealand are only adapted for long-wool early-maturing sheep, and the quality of mutton is coarse and inferior, just in the ratio of its early maturing. The best quality of mutton in England, as no doubt it would be here, is grown on country too thinly grassed, too steep, and in too severe a climate, owing to elevation, to carry long-wool sheep. This might be some consolation to those who came so late into this district as to have to settle on the Ruahine and other ranges. The best and highest priced quality of mutton was the black-faced Scotch, the Southdown, the Cheviot, the Merino, and the Welsh in their purity. The meat of these is dark and close-grained, quite different from the pale, flabby, long-wool mutton. Any cross of Leicester or other early-maturing breed caused deterioration of quality. Well-grown three-or four-year old black-faced Scotch or Merino wether mutton is not excelled, and this mutton (Southdown and Cheviot) is chiefly used by the wealthier people in England at a higher price. The drawback to Merinos in this country has been their being so wild—a result of the usual system of management not easily avoidable in large flocks in this country. This makes them fall off rapidly if not carefully driven and otherwise handled before being slaughtered. It will be fresh in the memory of many how troublesome cattle used to be under the same system. On the continent of Europe, where Merinos were kept in small flocks, and a different system, they were actually quiet. It might be a surprise to some to hear that I have seen flocks of pure Merino wethers in the streets of London. These were from France and Germany chiefly, and were sent into Wales to be fattened there by the Welshmen and afterwards sold by the West End London butchers as Welsh mutton, the most delicate and highest-priced mutton in Great Britain coming almost within the list of game. There was as much difference between the quality of the mutton of these small breeds and that of the long wool as there is between the Merino wool and long-wool. The Aus- page 30 tralasian Colonies have beaten the world in quality of fine wool, and might also yet take as high a place for mutton. None of these small breeds are adapted for rich pasture, excepting for a short time to fatten. In old days, before there was any English grass, I have sent from this district Merino wethers in considerable number that were guaranteed to all go over sixty pounds, delivered in Napier. A cross of Cheviot on Merino, and so to breed forward, seemed a likely way to create a suitable sheep for high thinly-grassed country, always supposing both rams and ewes to be judiciously selected, promising a moderately-woolled, hardy, good mutton sheep that would stand after a few crosses being put on turnips. Crosses from the Lincoln in such situations have not been satisfactory; they were not hardy enough. The wool being too open to protect from the weather, they had not the instinct for picking up a living on thinly-grassed steep country. 1 spoke of the small breeds from my own experience extending from the north of Scotland to the north of England and Wales. I have seen Cheviots in Scotland up to the line where pasture vegetation ceased, over 3000 feet above sea level. I might have something more to say about these small breeds and their management on another occasion, also on the grasses suited to those high elevations, which were not the grasses we sowed here. These were not found at that elevation, and would probably not grow there. A cow of a certain breed would produce twice as much milk and of better quality on the same amount of feed as an ill-bred animal. The Ayrshire is a standard breed, although of course there are others that have claims to excellence for this purpose. Settlers going into dairying would be safe with this breed, as those breeding for beef chiefly would be with Shorthorn.

Something might be done by a Government farm of this kind towards advising farmers when sowing their permanent pasture as to the most desirable grasses to sow, and on the management of stock. This is the more needed, as there are not many of what might be called hereditary farmers as in old countries. People who have followed all sorts of occupations go on the land here, and have to learn much of the business while on the land—an expensive way. Nothing is more sensitive to the nature of the feed on which the animal producing it feeds than dairy produce. In this respect this Island has a great advantage in the length of the grass season, which might be called eight or nine months, according to position. It would probably be well for factory purposes if farmers made the milk season correspond with those mouths. I can say from observation in various countries page 31 that there is no better butter made than from cows grazing on good grass while they are in milk. I have seen in England dairies where the cows were entirely kept under cover (it was an experimental farm) splendid crops of grass being cut for them. Still the butter was oily and inferior, the prolonged housing being apparently prejudicial to the health of the animals. Otherwise the conditions were altogether most favourable—dairies with regulated temperature, floored with white marble, shelves and milk tanks of the same, hot and cold water ad libitum, stained-glass windows. It is the same with much of the butter made from root-fed cows in the Home country—it is hardly eatable. I am quite sure cows grazing on the grass of this bush land can, as a whole, be made to produce better under proper factory management. A great point is to avoid over-stocking. Hawke's Bay has as a rule been over-stocked for the past twenty years or more. Overstocking is most prejudicial to any kind of stock, as well as to the pasture. Bather make a mistake the other way. I cannot help fearing that some of the estimates I have seen for the carrying of dairy cattle in this district are overdone. I should expect half the number of good cows to yield as much milk as the larger number proposed. The cow being, say, a machine making a given quantity of grass into milk, it is no use employing two where one will do it, and this is hardly stating the case strongly enough. Settlers who already know the carrying capacity of their own or similar land for long-wool or other sheep, might approximately get at the probable number of dairy cattle to replace them with, or to stock new land, as follows:—Say, roughly, that the sheep averaged sixty pounds dead weight, and that the cattle averaged six hundred pounds dead weight—thus one head of cattle would weigh as much and require to support as much weight from the grass as ten sheep, and this would be a fairly safe basis to start on. Borne of the estimates I have seen for carrying dairy cattle about here would be equivalent to carrying from seven to eight long-wool sheep to the acre. Dairy cattle, like growing stock, are hard on the feed, and should have as much as they can use. Milk has to go down the cow's throat in feed before it reaches the pail.