Agricultural Notes.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 215, 14 November 1896, Page 3

Agricultural Notes.

« [By a Practical Farjier.] The experience of the past four weeks is happily a rare-one even in this watery corner of " The Land of Sunshine." It is exactly a month to-day since the clerk of the weather put the sun in his pocket, and gave Aquarius, the water bearer, the hint to pull the string, which Aquarius did so heartily as to pull out the plug and break the string, hence the delay for repairs. Horses and men have had a months full-pay holiday. Vegetation felt the snow and hail and rain so much that she donned her waterproof, packed her travelling gear, and went north by express. Wheat took ill with its cold wet bed, it got cramped and stiff, and threatened to die right away, and is almost unable to " get oot o' the bit " even yet. Oats, always poor and always hearty, though accutomed to all sorts of ill usage, gf>t a sad battering, but being ever ready to come again when the blast blows bye, is first on its legs, and on dry land in good order is already as brisk as if it had never hung a wing. For two or three days the tide has been turned, work on dry subjects is being resumed, and in the middle of November we are taking up the operations stuck a month ago. So progress is reported whatever may be thought of it. Those stretches of land which were to have been put under late oats need not be sown in that crop now for threshing purposes. Half harrowed fields must just take their chance, and when " grand " crops are spoken of as having been the result of l 'ae stroke," there is always a suspicion of the virtue having been one of necessity which, carried out logically might go to prove " The effect was great because the dose was small. 'Twouia have been greater got it none at all." Bather than sow oats no;v, turnip or grass, or turnips and grass, with a snuff of guano, must be the rule." Potato growers have known for long that the market in Gore is very easily supplied, so nobody hereabout grows more than supply their own immediate wants. If a demand from Gore sets in good and well, if not, the balance of the stuff is sold to the pigs, where the demand is always good, the- picking unquestioned, the quality faultless, the pedigree of the produce never asked for, and the price paid some time. There are occasional variations, but such is market life in common. This year things altered, potatoes got scarce, and Oamaru sent down the article to be sold at 9s 6d a bag. Omaru made a good shot that time, but it would need an occasional bit, for it was wont to overstock our market at 2s 6d a bag. It costs us 6d a bag to dig them here, let alone other trifles ; and though they have been a good spec, fot the few locals who had a pickle on hand, there is little inducement to go in on chance for future trade. As it is, planting is just begun, and for all the condition the land is in, there is no hurry in the matter. As grain prices continue to harden, the honest millers harden their hearts, and the poor but honest baker sticks on a penny. Oats are getting up in the buckle, too, and ought to be worth far more thin 2s a bushel in Gore, for don't ye know oatmeal is now the same price as the best snow-drift roller flour. Think of that, ye Southland porridge pots ! When the farm3r's wife goes to sell butter she gets 6d per lb, and eggs 4d to 6d a dozen. What the retail purchaser pays is quite another thing, but some wicked informers lodge statements that they charge only 33 per cent, on the turn over. Alas ! alas ! between millers and hawkers and grocers, and their plunder, the poor unsophisticated cookie, as usual, finds himself between the devil and the deep blue sea. Bailage charges on frozen meat begin to liven up the locality, and the Farmers' Club last week did the right thing to make matters hot 'neath the Minister's pot, and set the billy boiling. For one customer to be pampered and another punished i 3 not the principle on which public railways should be run, but according to Mr Hudson, the assistant gemr.il manager, it is the correct principle. That is a difference in a nutshell. This gentleman finds that it pays the department handsomely to run road metal for public bodies at nominal rates, also to run wool for special parties at on 3 - half schedule charge, and coal at a big reduction also for special parties, but has not the least idea whether it pays or not to run frozen rabbits the sami distance at half the rate charged for frozeu mutton ; see his evidence. The public is getting into a few wrinkles of this nature gradually, and " votes of unabated confidence " in the present management do not form any part of ordinary conservation Oil the subj ect. There's some washing up to be done ere long.