AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.,

Shearing (says tho Daily News) has commenced in several parts of Southlund. This is much earlier than usual, i and is duo to the forward season. A South Canterbury farmer, who obtained 13£ d for his wool at the opening side in Timaru last year (reports tho Guardian) was offered only 10^d for the wool ho submitted at yesterday's sale. "Growing wheat is like playing euchre with tho joker in," said a witness in the farm labourers' dispute at Leeston on Friday. "You may hold the two bowers and tho ace. and then get euchred." ' The number Of beekeepers in New Zealand .'s given as 15,396, and the number of hives of all kinds at 74,341, an average of just under five 'hives per keeper. The late rains (says the Mataura Ensign) have made a oig difference in the Merino Downs and Waikoikoi districts. Grass Is looking well and is plentiful, and the oat crops are making rapid progress. Given a good season, an early harvest is looked for. •A new use for the land destroyed by gold-mining is recorded in the Mataura Ensign. ft says :— "Mr. R. Sheddan's experiment of planting iree3 on the tailings on his property at Waikaka Valley has proved very successful. A good number of trees were planted, and navo thrived wonderfully well. Some of the trees are now fully eight ieet high." As the waste material from mining operations is a grievous disfigurement to the landscape, it may bo hoped that Mr. Sheddan's example will be followed. ' x Where expert classing and sorting is not expected of farmers (says '"Roustabout" in. the Timaru P,ost) they- can surely pick out half-bred and three-quarter-bred from crossbred, and if crossbred is the only t kind grown, a fine and a coarse class can usually be found. It is a mistake to mix up all classes of wool, because ifc restricts competition at the sales.! "Outdoor farm labour is infinitely better and healthier for a girl than domestic service," said 'Mr. W. Lowrie, in his evidence in the Farm Labourers' 'dispute at Christchurch , on Monday. "I would recommend a girl to go to a farm rather than, to domestic service.'" To this Mr. Kennedy replied, "'Yes, domestics have a pretty rough time." inference has been^ frequently made to the question of how much weight a bullock wilj. gain daily over a given period during the fattening process, under favourable conditions. "Some little time ago," says an expert, " a i bullocks that was being fattened up on oaten sheaf, chaff, mangels, carrots and oil cake, was weighed at a given period, and at the end of thirty days it was again put on the weighbridge, when ife was found that the average, weight per day which had been added M r as l£lb." The dairy farmer generally throughout Otago (says the Dunedin Star) has ■recently passed through a decidedly trying time, and the losses experienced have been extremely heavy. Matters are now undergoing a gradual improvement. The salvation of the dairy farmer has been in tho recent rain. The current supplies from the- dairy farms of Otago are by no means equal to what they were this time last year, there being a falling off to. the extent of about twenty to thirty per cent. Agricultural and pastoral reports from I Mid Canterbury, according to the Timaru Herald, are cheering. The lambing in the upper districts on the Rakaia river shows a percentage of 100 to 105. The crops are thriving, and there is abundant growth> along the foot of the hills. Cereals are backward, but are makin" good progress. Feed is plentiful, and stock are looking well. The lambing percentage is slightly over the average. The dry weather is not suiting the farmers in the Lincoln district so well, everything being backward, and lambs will not be ready for the market so early as in years past. North Canterbury prospects arc satisfactory, but rain is wanted. "The rains have not been anything like excessive," . says Roustabout in the Timaru Post, speaking of the agricultural prospects, "and the country is in an exceptionally healthy state. It is a perfect picture from end to end. Stock are looking well, because the grass has not had sufficient rain on it to make it too soft. The crops everywhere , promise exceptionally well. Even those which a few weeks ago looked anything but good have made up in a remarkable manner. The harvest in consequence of the rains will be later than it was last year, probably by something like a month. There will be a gieat deal more straw, so that the operation will be a longer one that last season. There will probably be a,' difficulty in getting men to cope with it, and engagements are already beiug made." From a report in the Mataura Ensign it appears that the Hedgehope settlers have raised a very important point of public policy. It says : "A largely at« tended meeting of farmers and others was held in the Hedgehope Hall on the 25th November to discuss what steps should be taken to get grass-seed sown on the large area of bush burnt on Sunday, 17th, the -extent, of ,tho> fire being about five hundred acres, of which two hundred acres is a very clean burn. It- was the feeling of the meeting that if left in its present state, the area would be a serious menace to the settlers of Hedgehope, as it _ will come up a mass of Canadian thistles and ragwort, and then every wind from /north or north-west would carry the seeds of weeds enough to sow ail Hedgehope. It was resolved to ask tho Land Board to sow two hundred acres." It seems only equitnblo that the Stato should recognise in, respect to its own waste lands the same obligations I that it imposes on the settlers who are ! reclaiming the waste. Yet the fanner is liable to fines for permitting the growth of noxious weeds the seeds of which may be ultimately blown over his holding from neglected public lands adjoining. The Peel 'Forest correspondent of the Lyttelton Times writes: — We are having line cropping weather here, with \wum days between. 1 luivc never seen the country looking better. Between here and Geraldine all the crops arc looking exceedingly well. Between Geraldine and Hilton they are also good, but beyond Hilton, up to Kakuhu, Raupowai, Catile Valley and on up by Trentham, tho country loks as if it _ Wanted more rain. Still, all stock aro looking extremely well, and iho average of lambing has been very goodi A large number of properties have changed hands lately, Rnincliff, Opuha, Dougherty's, Melville Downes, and others all at considerably advanced values. Returning from Fairlie I pnssed through Middlo Valley, which is looking very well. The road winds down through a very beautiful plantation (Raddon's), whicli the Government very wisely secured when the Raincliff Estate was cut up. It contains a very finecollection of pines, oaks, larch, and other trees, and is a beautiful sight when tha autumn tints are on the leaves. The forest trees have a wealth of blossom this .yeauc.

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