PROSPECTS IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12995, 24 December 1907, Page 8

PROSPECTS IN CENTRAL OTAGO.

GOOD CROPS OX EVERY HAND,

THE BABBIT PEST.

Mr J. J. Ramsay, who has recently been through a considerable portion of the Central Otago district, was in Dunedin last week, and a representative of the "Otago Daily Times,'! in the course of a conversation with him on Friday, elicited some interesting information.

fcpealnng generally, Mr Ramsay said that with an experience in Cent-ral Otago dating back to the earliest days of settlement there he had hardly over seen better crops all along the railway lino than there are now. The crops looked excellent, and tho grass exceptionally good. Hyde, in particular, looked particularly well. There was an abundance of feed, the hills even being green right up to the snow line, and old residents of that locality stated that there had never been better crops. The same was true of the iMiddlemarch district, and tho yields of wheat and oate promised to be exceedingly heavy throughout tho whole district.

■Mr" Ramsny also stated that so far as he could learn, the wool clip was exceptionally good. In speaking of the wool clip, ho mentioned' some interesting facts regarding the Earnscleugh Run. Owing to the rabbit scourge that run was abandoned some years ago and fell on tho hands of the Government. Abont five or six years ago, however, Mr §. T. Spain took it up, and niado a bold bid to exterminate the rabbits. This year Mr Spain shore something between 12,000 and 15,000 sheep, and had an exceptionally heavy clip. Hβ installed shearing machines in the shed, and the old run was once more a scene of activity. In conversation with Mr Ramsay, Mr Spain said that ho attributed his sucoos* entirely to tho keeping down of the rabbits. Whilst £1 per 100 had been the standard price for skins, Mr Spain had given 255. and sometimes Til spring, when the rabbits wero scarce, as high as £1 13s Gd, recognising that every rabbit killed then was equal to a large number later on. In this meaner, and with ]the help of tho prices during .the export season, Mr Spain has got tho pest under and the sheep or top.

Asked as regards the fruit outlook, Mr Ramsay said it was excellent, and there would be a heavy yield of apricots and peaches. <