AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

.. — + Owing to tho recent long spell of d'.y weather in tho .South Wuiiuiapa, furmei-, were compelled to stop dipping. A petition has, in coiisenuonue, had to bu sent to the Stock Department asking for an extension of the dipping season to tho 31st iust. Farmers think that this date should bo made the cud of the dipping period of each year, as the end of Mai eh is too early. , The correspondent of tho Auckland News says that the rain that was experienced throughout the Wairarapa last week has proved most advantageous to tho farming community. Previously th« majority of pasture and turnip crops were in a wretched condition, owing to the prolonged spell of dry weather, but now that state of affairs has beun altered. The stock market has also* improved, while the milk delivered at the various factories has almost regained its -usual quantity. On account of the absence of ram, things were commencing to assume a very eerious aspect, and naturally the latest precipitation has had a reassuring effect on the farmers. It is stated that the Californian thistle is causing some of the Ballanco settlers considerable annoyance. The Pahiutua paper says that shalite is being purchased from the local gas works, and spread on the ground, and thus choking it out. This is done at considerable expense, but is found to be very effective. The bush district surrounding Makarara and Makaretu (Hawkes Bay) is in a very fiouiishing condition. Feed is abundant, and the general prospects of the country are highly satisfactory. The Rongotea Dairy Company lias decided to doal with the drainage from the factory by means of septic tanks. One with a capacity of 32,000 cubic feet is being excavated. All recent visitors to Taranaki are greatly impressed with the progress that district has made, through the outter industry. The railways are crowded with passengers and freight, and an air of prosperity is everywhere manifest. Mr. A. C. Thompson, managing director of the newly-formed South Canterbury Dairy Company, has received an offer from a well known firm of merchants at Home to take all the surplus butter that, can be produced at the Central Factory, at a guaranteed price of not less than 3d per lb — Timaru Post. Notwithstanding tho unusually broken and unfavourable condition of the weather during the past four months, some heavy yields of grain aie being recorded in the Ashburton district. Harvesting operations (says last week's Tapanui Courier) have been at a standstill for nearly a week, and farmers are getting anxious to secure their crops, as the damp, muggy weather is very prejudicial to grain. The Olaina cot respondent of the Mataura Ensign states that Mr. Alex. M'LachlanV mill has threshed out 134 bushels of Garton oatß per acre on Mr. Robert Fortune's farm, Otamii. This breaks the record! "Rusticus," in his Farming Notes in the Bruce Herald, says that a fortnight ago farmers were congratulating themselves on the splendid prospects they had of getting their crops secured in good condition ; but sinco then they have received a rudo awakening to the fact that the prospects of a harvest are never certainties until the gram is threshed nnd tho proccedu s^nl. Tho heavy rains had done v lot of damnge. The season , which was already lato so far ns harvest operations w*re concerned, is now getting advanced, and though oats muy yet bo threshed directly from the stook, it would bo «n exceedingly risky policy to leave wheat standing n day longer than is necessary for its proper keeping in tho stack. Rain ami fog have caused n. standstill in harvesting in the Dunslan. The Times snys that us it is getting very late in the season, and tho harvest is not half through, tho continued wet weather is earning a great deal of anxiety among the farmers. A poultry breeder says that Guineas as insect destroyers are unequalled and invnJuuble to farmers. They are great travellers and keep constantlyi on tho movo from one side of the farm to the other, catching insects as they gc. They keep off hawks, nnd I never knew ono to come on a, place where guineas aie. Thoy are great layers, and nests have been found containing thirty eggs. Guineas aro very nice eating, and tasto next tp wild meat. A real, though surprising fact, is related by a Seadown settler, in connection with tho recent floods. This is that the water surrounding a stack, picked it up and floated it away for a distuuee oi about 180 yards, says the Timaru Post, when the stack - sottlcd down again, as intact as when it was first built. Visitors into the back country of South Canterbury reported ou their return from their holidays that the uustacked grain, generally speaking, was in a skockingly Iflid state, through the recent continuous rain. Bluck irt colour, and sprouted, a lot of it would only be fit fo*r fowl and pig feed. The Waimate County Council have de cidod to experiment with rape seed poisoned with red lead for small binl*. The farmers in the Beacan&lii'ld d...irlci, saya the Timaru Post, aie starting to cart their grain in once again, but it is in a very bad state — grown and black. A spell of fine weather is much hoped for now. so that tho land muy bo mado ready for ploughing. The threshing mills aro beginning to hum again. The rain has been a groat drawback to them utso. Last week's floods did much damage to crops in the Taieri district (Otago). The sprouting of wheat in the stook followed tho heavy rains in the Tokomairiro distiict (Otago).^ Tho preliminary estimate by the Victorian Government Statist of the wheat crop for 1901-02 is 12,113,712 bushels, a drop on the actual outturn for the pievdous year of nearly 7,000,000 bushels. "Sheep farming," said Mr. lnazo Ni> tope, the Japanese Director of Agriculture of Formosa, to a Sydney pressman, "has been tried by us over and over again — for the last twenty-five years — but the sheep deteriorate, mainly because they persist in eating a; kind of bamboo which j?rows in the country lands very extensively." Reports from tho country (says a Melbourns press telegram) arc' distressing. Everywhere a great shortage of grass is mentioned, and fat stock, butter, etc., ai« naturally becoming scarce. Stockfeeding is almost general. The country is in a very bad state, and large purchases of molasses, hay, oats, bran, etc, aro being mado to keep stock alive. The cold weather on the tablelands has set in, and sheep have perforce to be shifted back to the plains. The outlook is very unsatisfactory, and though hqavy rain would now '>c acceptable, it can scarcely effect an immediate improvement. The Pnstoralists' Review states {hat in New South Wales the drought has never been so widesorend befote, and practically all Queensland, except the Darling Downs, is in the snin^ state. There is very little grass left now in either New South 'Wales or Queensland to travel or truck stock to. Wheat-growing on a large scale has been entered into by quite a number of land-owners on the plains between Glenthompson and Ararat, in Western Victoria. The average return this past seaEon has been about five nnd a half bags to the acre, and ns high ns seven has been obtained. It is roughly estimated that 50,000 bags of wheat were grown thii y«ar in this nsw area*