LAND, STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10685, 31 December 1925, Page 2

LAND, STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS. (By "Tho Tramp.") Not for some years has Canadian cheese commanded tho same premium over New Zealand cheese as during the past few months. This premium has amounted to from 2.32 shillings per hundredweight of 112 pounds to 3.093 shillings. It is worthy of note also that the premium for white cheese is considerably higher than for coloured.

Experiments scorn to indicato that fertilisers are often applied too lato to bo able to act with full effect. This applies especially to dressings of phosphates and potash in tho autumn. The sooner they are applied after the harvest has been gathered the better.

The appointment of the Commission of Inquiry to investigate the working of agricultural banks and rural credits abroad has been gazetted. The scope of the inquiry includes an investigation into the methods of financial assistance afforded to farmers in countries and States of Europe, Egynt, and America, and the report is to be made to the Governor-General not later than June 30 of next year.

Chicago trade advices indicating that the Argentine Government crop figures published recently were grossly misleading led to a sharp advance in the wheat market, which gained as much as 1\ cents from the day's bottom prices. At first tho market was depressed by the report, but when the general disbelief of its accuracy later became current, wild fluctuations followed. The Tirade was more inclined to accept recent unofficial estimates that the Argentine's exportable surplus would be 93,000,000 bushels instead of 140,000,000 as suggested by the report.

Canada's horse population is estimated as being worth £15,000,000; her milch cows as worth £14,000,000; her other cattle are valued at £8,000,000; her sheep and lambs aro estimated at £1,300,000; her pigs at £4.000,000; and her poultry at £2,500,000.

There are about 10,000 cows in Jersey, or one for every two and a-half acres of cultivated land. The forage on Jersey is rather scanty, and the cattle are tethered rather than run loose on pasture. The cattle are handled very carefully; grass and vegetables form tho main part of tho ration, with very small amounts of grain. In 1763, and again in 1789, laws were passed on the island prohibiting the importation of cattle except for immediate slaughter.

The largest pig in all Great Britain is living in state at West Leigh farm. Yeadon, Yorkshire. This is a large white boar bearing the proud name of Tockwith Emperor the Seventeenth, and weighing half a ton. In spite of his size, the Emperor has a small appetite —a mere two buckets of food a day. Small pigs demand more than this. Estimated in terms of ham and bacon, Tockwith Emperor represents at least 5000 good breakfasts.

Leading Danish farmers, dairymen, representatives of export associations, and private exporters assembled at Copenhagen on September 24 to discuss butter exports. Speakers emphasised the fact tbat the heavy increase in British butter imports from the Dominions, coupled with "the systematic agitation organised in England for the enhanced marketing of Dominion butter in the future," was going to intensify the competition with Danish butter.

A Wanganui farmer who fattens a number of pigs during the year stated that with the recent droo in the price of bacon pigs and the high price of pollard, etc., there was nothing in the trade at present. A breeder of purebred pigs had also told him that even this was being overdone in New Zealand at the present, with the result that many fine purebred pigs were unsaleable, and had to be fattened for slaughtering. • At the present time it was almost impossible to sell young purebred Berkshire boars.

With reports current that the world's exportable wheat surplus is 34,000.000 bushels less than import requirements, wheat prices rose sharply in Chicago last week. It has been announced that the Argentine Government has issued a report showing that the wheat yield this season is 45,000,000 bushels, compared with 92,000,000 bushels last year.

" One of the most pronounced alterations in the meat market," declared Mr W. H. Millward, chairman of directors, at the annual meeting of the Gear Meat Company, "is the great dieparity now apparent in the values of lambs under 361 b as compared with those over that weight. This ranges from ljd to 2jd per lb, which indicates the preference for light-weights. It is to be hoped that farmers will see the necessity of catering for these requirements, and by reducing the, number of heavy-weights bring about the normal margin. This year it is probable that climatic conditions will take a hand in this direction. It is estimated that the quantity of lamb alone which will be in storo in England at the end of this month will 'amount to over a million carcases. These, at this period of small demand, may be difficult to place. However, the lower prices should stimulate consumption and reduce shipments, thereby helping to restore the balance; but the values ruling last season, it is feared, cannot be expected.''