AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 15124, 13 October 1909, Page 8

AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

A BRIEF REVIEW. [From Oub Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, October 12

Fhe seventeenth annual report of the Department of Agriculture isi only about half the size of the bulky volumes issued in the past. Mere it is evident that economy has been practised, just as it has in other matters connected with the Department. During the year ended October 31, 1908, the number of holdings over one were in. extent increased by 1735 and the area in occupation by 640,071 acres. The figures relating to the agriculture exports of the dominion have already been given ; in any case, they relate" only to the year ended September 30, 1908, and are pretty stale information at this period. As toithe flax industry, it is stated that tie greatest hope of a recovery from the existing condition of things eeems to lie in the cultivation of varieties which yield a hotter proportion of fibre and in some cheaper method of milling. In tho section dealing with sheep it is stated that there is great room for improvement in the standard of the ordinary ewe flocks of tho dominion. Reference is made to the success of the dairy- season and to the fact that the value of the export of dairy produce was. £2,600,437, a-n increase of £242,323 upon the previous season's total. The industry of pork feeding receives greater attention in the North Island than in the South. At the end of the year there were 2494 Angora goats in New Zealand. The Jocks at the Government stations have made fair progress, and generally the goats have been increasingly availed Df as destroyers of noxious bushes and tveeds. Tho position as regards horse breeding is said to be still unsatisfactory. Unsound horses continue to be bred from. In the districts where rabbits are regarded purely as a pest to be exterminated by all possible means the numbers have been reduced and tho ■nuisanc.e is well under control, but in the localities where trapping'is relied upon the position is still unsatisfactory, and rabbits have during the year mysteriously appeared in localities where they had been previously unknown. The small birds pest Continues to increase and will do so until systematic and universal efforts are made to cope with it. The poultry and bee-keeping industries are shown to have made progress, and the last fruit harvest is stated to have been generally good.