Agricultural Record.

New Zealander, Volume XIV, Issue 1284, 7 August 1858, Page 2

Agricultural Record.

To apeak of the produce market in general terms, we can only say that it is, if possible, more dull than last week. Business has been, and is likely for some time to be, strictly confined to small parcels for immediate use. The late trial of the pulse of the market not having proved favorable to speculation, we hear no more of an immediate rise in flour. The demand during the last few days has been very slack, and prices are consequently somewhat easier. This being the case, wheat is less inquired for: but, the quantity offering being small, Bs. 6d. to 9s. per bushel is still to be obtained without difficulty. With regard to oats, it is scarcely possible to quote correct prices, for a sort of panic having spread among small holders unable to await the turn of the market, many of these are inclined to accept any bona Hdg offer that is made, and until we have intelligence from England of the cessation of shipments, nothing like confidence can be restored. Oats having fallen so low, Cape barley is in little or no demand, but for English barley, in good condition, for malting, there is a moderate inquiry. Maize has of course declined in value proportionately with other descriptions of horse-corn, and is equally dull of sale. The only article of produce forming an exception to this general depression is hay. The demand was last week brisk, and the entire quantity sent to market was readily disposed of, at an advance on the rales of the previous week. We take the subjoined report of the Geelong Market on Saturday from the Advertittr : Corn Markets.—The market was as well attended on Saturday last as we have seen it the last three months, and the transactions were pretty brisk. Wheat was selling at from Bs. CJ. to Bs. 9d.; maize. Bs. Gd to 75.; bran. »s. ad. per bushel. Potatoes, best sort, .€l3 Ids. to £'l4 per ton. Oats have suffered a depression, and were selling at (is. Gd- to 7»-> but rather dull of sale. Best flour from £tl IDs. to £32 per ton. Barley, none in the market. It will be seen by the following extract from the Sydnt]/ Morning Hera/d of Saturday last, that the price of flour was there only expected to rise, but that no advance had taken place : nor will the receipt of the intelligence from Adelaide, now on its way thither, be likely to affect the market, as was anticipated. With the prevailing dulness here, and the decided want of firmness in South Australia and Tasmania, there is little probability of a rise at Sydney : Flour and Wheat.—We have no material alteration to report of the market for flour, prices remain nominally the same as last month’s quotations, but it is generally thought that an advance will shortly take place. The millers, being in the market to buy, will not raise the price until after they have purchased. This fact has made the bakers and dealers more anxious to operate. Wheat continues scarce, and in brisk demand by the miilers. It is teponed on Change that 15,000 bushels have changed Lands in Adelaide, ou Sydney account, at Bs.3d. to Bs, Gd. per bushel. The millers have been very short of wheat for a long time past. The only arrivals of wheat now constituting anything lik* the market supply come either coastwise or from New Zealand, With the exception of a very few small parcels, there is nothing by the roads. The price remains al about Bs. for sound samples- Though no change has taken place in the mill quotations flour has at present an upward tendency. Fine £2O, second quality £lB per ton of 2000 lb. Bran 2s. 6d. per bushel. But for the unfavorable nature of the weather yesterday the plnughing-match in Carlton Gardens would doubtless have been belter attended* The novelty of such an event coming off in the centre of a populous portion of the town would, on a fine day, have attracted many who are usually indifferent to such trials of skill, and had the morning and the previous day not been so wet there would also have been a greater number of teams on the ground. As it was, the match was more successful than could have been expected under the circumstances. Some parts of the ground were quite unfit to be operated on by an ordinary plough at all, but off the old roads, and wherever there was a patch of turf free from broken bottles, iron hooping, and like rubbish, of which these gardens have been the receptacle for many years past, the work was as well done as it always is by the ploughmen whose names appear on the list. One of Samuelson’s diggers was set to work on the ground by Mr. Morton, but it is scarcely fair to compare this machine with a purpose. On turf especially it shows to plough, it being intended for a different disadvantage, only leaving the sod torn and ragged, and unfit for the reception of any other than grass seed. The machine is unfit, in its present shape, for any agricultural operation here, unless it be the improvement of pasture laud ; but, under a modified form, it could be rendered a most useful implement to the gardener, vignerou, or orchadist. No more definite arrangements have yet been made respecting the Bulla and Champion Matches than those we were enabled to notice last week. On Monday next, we presume, the days for both will be fixed. In a New York paper, of March 30th, we find an account of the sale of a lot of llamas that were imported from Peru, or rather from a Chilian port, their exportation from Peru being nominally prohibited. From the former Slate, however, they were obtained in the first instance : but the wh de business seems to have been sadly mismanaged. Although in charge of a native shepherd, no less than 20 died at Panama from the hues of snakes and other venomous reptiles, and the casualties of the climate, during three weeks' detention there hottest part of the summer. After crossing the isthmus uipremainder were shipped in a brig too small to afford them sufficient accommodation, and with a bad supplv of tood ; so that only 42 reached New York alive. Of these 4 died after being landed, and 38 were offered for sale in good condition, but to a very limited number of buyers; in fact, none were sold by auction, but when it was found that no sales could be effected publicly, a private offer was made by a Mr. Cameron —described as an Australian shipping merchant —fora parr to be sent as a present to the New south Wales Agricultural Society: a member of which, Mr. Gee, was present and was sard tube desirous of purchasing the whole herd. Three—a male andjtwo females —were subsequently sold to Mr, Cameron, for 340 dots., or about £‘GB, to be forwarded by the first ship to Sydney, in which it was considered likely that the whole lot would be sent off at the same time-