THE FARMER.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 214, 12 November 1896, Page 5

THE FARMER.

AGRICULTURAL APATHY. At an Aberdeen show-yard dinner recently, 001. Innes, of Learney, referred to the disappointing results that had attended the efforts to establish " The Aberdeenshire Farmers' Meet Supply Company Limited." It had been resolved that .£25,000 of called-up capital was the smallest amount that, it would be safe to start the enterprise, and although circulars had boen sent to 5000 landlords and farmers, from Forfarshire to Eastsr Boss, the applications for shares had only come in to the extent of £5129. This result was most disappointing and incomprehensible. If only one-tenth of the proprietors and farmers addressed had agreed to subscribe for an average of fifty shares, the Company would have been already in operation. No one could say that a Company to sell the best meat produced in the north-east of Scotland, and with a guarantee that it was genuine, was not the best means of obtaining the distinctive and preferential valuo of such meat in London. At the same meeting Lord Huntley said : " Why should the rates be so largely thrown upon land ? During the last eighteen months, a great branch of industry, uamely,the manufacture of cycles, had been started into prominence, and within tho last six weeks companies for the manufacture of cycles had been floated with capital amounting in the aggregate to 16 millions sterling. And yet all that these companies contributed to the local rates was only the assessment on the value of the buildings they occupied, although they might be making millions of profit every year. Deferring to what Colonel Innes had said, he held that the only way in which the Aberdeenshire farmers could maintain the reputation of their meat in the English market was to form a Company such as was proposed for establishing depots in the south, and consigning direct to the consumers who wero ready to pay the prices that the farinors wished. In responding to the toast of "The Judges," Mr Mitchell, Auchnagathle, said he had no great admiration for the auction-riug. If a man could not sell his own cattle, it was time for him to stop business. He had heard it estimated that these auction sales cost Aberdeenshire farmers £10,000 a year. He thought the commission paid by farmsrs for the 3ale of their stock was almost sufficient to relieve the depression. THE ENLARGED PADDOCK. The as yet unnoted advance of Canada into the horse market, at least, has fairly got the better of our horse rearers. For spring-van work nothing of ours excels these Canadian beasts. They are long in the barrel, high in shoulder, and strong in the forequarters. Bone and muscle are their leading features, with well carried hoad-i. And they are to be laid in the stable for — £18. It is incredible but true that that is the price of these durable and show-looking animals. They are becoming familiar on the country roads in, at any rate, Perthshire, in the heavy van service, where 50 miles in the day, there and back, and loadod both ways, is not uncommon. If in this manner the paddock is getting enlarged, it is by good-looking horses, dirt cheap. And when Canada is over, Argontina is ready to begin. Hunters in want of mounts for heavy going, and Army Services for large guns, should look at these Canadians. — Scotch paper.