NOTES FOR GRAZIER AND DEALER.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14238, 29 December 1911, Page 10

NOTES FOR GRAZIER AND DEALER.

("Weekly Press and Referee,'*) Tall fescue threatens to become one of the pests, if not the worst, of the North (says tho "Dargavillo Times.'*) It may bo seen all along our roadsides in full seed and luxuriance, and cattle grazed on it bear full evidence of its evil effects. It should certainly be decared ono of the noxious weeds. Tho well-known Clydesdale stallion "Lord Kitchener," owned by Mr O. Percy, of To Ore Ore, died recently. Tho loss (says the "Manawatu Daily Times") is a serious ono to Mr Percy, as Lord Kitchener was a very valuable animal. In a summary of the sales of purebred cattle in Scotland during the year, compiled by tho "Banffshire Journal,' tho average of 1755 Shorthorns is given at £35 lis, as compared with £46 Is lid for 1301 in 1910, and £35 18s 4d for 1444 in 1909. Of Aberdeen-Angus, 1406 -were sold at an averago of £24 Is 6d, against £24 17s 2d in 1910, and £25 Bs' lid in 1909. Tho total for 3161 head sold of both breeds was £96,247, average £30 Ss lid; last year's averago having been £35 5s 3d. Tho wool-selling season is now at its height, says the samo writer, and naturally the prices obtained for the various brands are the leading topic of tho day in sheep circles. Some really excellent prices have been obtained, and the general level is highly satisfactory, and, although a shade below last year at its best point prices are higher than seemed probable a few months ago. Buyers and sellers are working at high pressure, and a big volume of wool is changing hands, something liko half a million sterling being turned over each week in Sydney alone. Experts differ as to tho future of values. Somo are confident that the Yorkshiremeu will be able to securo the cheaper wool they have been waiting for, after tlie Christmas . recess, but others see no reason what- ; o\cx for a fall, now that the market has come through an exceptionally trying timo so successfully. Tho general run of growers realise that present values aro worth acceptance, and sales i have been heavy, and a large volume of super -wools has been quitted at prices rangmg from 13d to 10-Jd, figures which should inako wool-growing very :e----munerative. • Stock owners havo had a bad time in the United Kingdom during this year. '. Mr James Elliot, tho retiring president of the Teviotdale Farmers' Club, in »] reviewing tho past season, said the hill j i lambing season was remarkable for rain, j and the shepherds, most of whom got j ] drenched thrico-a day, had a most ■ j anxious time. Taken ail round, t_e i summer was ono of the'iinest and driest • on' recorci, 'and one had to go back to ' 1563 for anything approaching it. j Wliilo Cheviot white wool experienced a fall of 2s per stone, haltbrcd and blackfaced showed an advance of fully Oct 1 per stone. The season had been a very 1 bad ono for feeders of fat cattle, there \ having been a loss of from £1 to £-, ] besides their grazing, on cattle which ' wero bought in tho spring and sold in , the autumn. In his report, last year 1 he mentioned that thero had bben a < rise of something liko 20 per cent, on i the price of sheep. Unfortunately, < that increase had disappeared this- -i year, tne reason for this being th.-it pas- , tures in the South were almost entirely , burned up, and consequently there was , a great absence of south-country buyers ' at the sales, another adverse factor being tho extensive railway strike in August, and atone of tho sales during j the strike consignors lost from Is to 2s per head, on all lambs sold that day. >

In view of tho present refusal of Hungary to permit Austria to make further importations of meat, tho Austro-Americana Steamship Company has established at Venice a floating cold-storage plant, with a capacity lor holding 1,100 000 kilos (kilo equals 2.21b) of nvjat. This lias been dono on account of the increasing demand coming from Italy and Switzerland, to meet which the company proposes to continue its importatiun of meat from Argentina. The possibility of an eventual satisfactory arrangement being concluded between Austria and Hungary is, furthermore, not lost sight of. Arrangements havo now been made by tho Austro-Americana lino to import a cargo of 600,000 to 800,000 kilqs of meat every three weeks. According to a recent report by the Austro-Ameri-. cana Steamship Company, 2,980,000 kilos of Argentine meat were consumed in Austria in 1910 and up to the present- in 1911, six out of their seven shipments having arrived at Trieste during the first six months of 1911. Tho company states that it will continue to keep Argentine meat in readiness at Trieste for tho Austrian market in case the pending resumption of the negotiations between Austria and Hungary should result successfully.