FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9719, 15 January 1895, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

[BY ' OUR ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL CORRES' PONDENT.] London, November 16. A "WET AUTUMN. The autumn so far has been one of the wettest ever experienced. Daring the last fortnight, for instance, rain has Mien heavily nearly every day or night, and during the present week there has been a perfect deluge. Since my last letter was written there has been no opportunity of getting mangolds off the land, without doing a great deal of damage by the heavy carting. This has been incurred by many farmers rather than leave the roots in the fields longer in danger of Injury from frost; but where the fields have been cub up by the wheels of carts and trodden by the horses there will be a very small chance of a good barley or oat crop nexb season. In the North of England there are still some potatoes unsecured. Wheat sowing was stopped when it was about half done, and there appears to be no prospect of finishing it in proper time, so that it may now be regarded as a certainty that the wheat crop next year will be the smallest ever known in this country. This is not of much consequence now that wheat has to be almost given away, except in the districts where straw usually commands a good price. In many other ways the web autumn is a very great disadvantage, for it is a bad starb for the whole of of the corn and root crops of nexb year. In the firsb place there has been very little opportunity of autumn fallowing to kill the weeds which were exceptionally abundant after the web summer. Again, the land intended for spring corn and roots has been too wet to be ploughed in good condition for the winter. So long as ib is all ploughed up by Christmas it will be in good time, but the chances now of getting ib all done when it can be laid up in fairly dry condition are very small. Lastly we have to consider tho great loss of fertility which occurs in a wet autumn through the washing of nitrates out of the soil. With grass farmers the case is different. They have had a great abundance of feed throughout the season, and their stock have done exceptionally well, they have still plenty of keep when the pastures are not too wet for stock to be on them, and their animals are improving at hardly any cost, because it is usual at this time to get them into the yards, so thab all feed grown in the autumn is so much gain. AGRICULTURAL IMPORTS. Official reports show that the quantity of wheat imported during the first two months of the cereal year ending with October, have been greater than usual, while those of flour have been loss. The great flood of cheap Russian barley which came last year still continues to pour into the country, bub other kinds of grain have come in only moderate abundance. The quantities are shown for the first two months of three cereal years in the following table : — Two Months' Grain and Flour Imports.

The figures in the second table indicate a strong probability of most classes of imports this year beating all previous records. The number of cattle so far is smaller than that of the ten months of 1892, and is still more short of the numbers of the like periods of the three preceding years. Bub sheep have come in greater number than in any year since 1889, while fresh beef and mutton have beaten their previous records by a long way, and the receipts of bacon this year have mounted up to an astonishing extent. Adding together all the quantities of dead meat, including rabbits, we get a total of 9,059,865cwb for the ten months of this year, as compared with 7,887,320cwb in the corresponding period of 1893, and 8,940,123 cwb in that of 1892. Receipts of butter keep on mounting up year by year, and those of cheese which obtained the maximum in 1892 will apparently be greater for the current year. LIVE STOCK FROM AUSTRALIA. The consignees of live cattle and sheep received from Australia in the Port Pirie either cannot or will nob give the full details of expenses, so that I am disappointed in nob being able to present a full account of expenses and receipts, as I was able bo do in the case of the Maori King. Since my last letter was written, however, further details of the sales of the animals have come to hand. One of the Shorthorn carcases sold at 5d a lb, four realised 4£d, and three 4jd. The average weight per carcase was 10491b, and the average gross return £20 6s 6d. The hides were sold ab 15s each, the fab, averaging 80lb each, sold at 2£d, and the offal for £2 4s 5d a head. Altogether the gross return on the Shorthorns was £22 10s lid each. Four of the nine Devons sold ab s£d a lb, four ab 5Jd, and one at sd. The average weight was nob quite 8141b, and the average gross return £17 10s 2d per carcase. The hides realised 15s each, the tat, averaging 741b, 2Jd per lb, and the offal £2 3s 3d per head. Thus the average gross return of the Devons was £19 13s 5d each. lb is nob much use stating the expenses on this side only, unless the cost of the cattle in Australia and the ocean freight and other expenses can also be given ; bub if ib be supposed thab these exceptionally heavy and well-fattened beasts were worth £10 a head in Sydney, or £4 each more than the far inferior animals sent by the Maori King, which is not all an unreasonable estimate, and supposing also that the expenses of transport and charges on this side were the same as those of the first lot, the average cosb of which was £20 3s a head, including all expenses on both sides of the ocean, we get ab an average of £24 ab leasb on the debtor side for the latest consignment of cattle. The gross return of the 17 animals as stated in my last letter was £343 15s 7d, and if we allow £12 for the insurance of the beasb lost on the voyage, the total gross return comes to £357 15s 7d, or nob quite £19 18s a head on the number shipped, showing a loss of over £4 a head, as comEared with one of over £5 a head in the Maori King. This record is only an estimate ; bub as the expenses of transporting and marketing the heavier beasts of the last cargo must have been ab leasb as great as those of the firsb lob ib can hardly be far wrong. These losses prove nothing as to the prospects of a remunerative trade in full cargoes; bub as the fatalibies in big lots would certainly be much heavier there is ab leasb a chance that they would fully meet the lighter expenses per head. My own opinion is thab the live cattle traffic from Australia will never pay, and as ib cannot possibly be carried on without an immense amount of suffering to the animals, I should much prefer to see the chilled meat experiment a success. Thab method of sending beef to this country must be a much more economical one than the plan of sending live cattle, and as the meab sent in the Port Pirie was kepb all right until ib reached Colombo, there aeems to be no reason why ib should nob be kepb good during the whole voyage, seeing thab the failure occurred through the break-down of the machinery of the vessel. With respecb to the sheep the'loss was unquestionably a heavy one, seventeen of the carcases sold at 3|d per lb. three ab 4£d, and 22 at 4|d. They averaged in weighb 551b each, and the average gross return was nob quite £1 3s. In fact, if we take the number shipped, the gross return was jusbaboub £1 each, which only meets the ship freight, leaving notbiag for firsb cost, insucance, or expenses on this side. I ,

may point out that two errors occur in an account given of the sheep in the Live Stock Journal, one being thab the average weight was 1051b each,_and the other that the average return was £2 3s 6d each. These mistakes occurred, I am informed, through dividing the total weight and money return by 22 instead of by the whole number of sheep sold, and the accounb leaves entirely out of accounb the six sheep lost on the voyage. MOSS IN PASTURES. I do nob know whether there is the same trouble in New Zealand as there is in the pastures of this country in many cases with respect to moss, but, on the chance of this being the case, it may be worth while to mention a statement made by an authority who has been trying an experiment. He shut up some covered pasture afa the end of July for aboub a month to enable the grasses to seed, and he found that as the seed stems grew they carried a great deal of the moss up with them, and, indeed, left the greater part of ib lying loose on the ground or partly detached. This plan is certainly worth trying.

1892. 1893. 1894. Qrs. Qrs. Qrs. Wheat 2,659,299 2,811,584 2.9S2.9S9 Flour as wheat .. 1,234,980 1,390,338 1,172,995 Total .. .. 3,894,279 4,201,920 4,155,981 Barley 1,217,196 1,539,364 1,882,327 Oats 870,126 823,094 864,433 Peas 66,300 93,781 90,952 Beans 212,548 176,467 173,424 Maize 1,383,694 1,037,790 971,499 Receipts of other principal agricultural commodities compare as follows for the ten months of the three calendar years up to the end of October : — Other Principal Agricultural Imports. Ten Months. 1892. 1893. 1894. Cattle No 441,235 295,309 419,650 Sheep „ .... 78.0S3 55,261 386,415 Pigs' „ .... 3,386 138 8 Beef, fresh, cwt. 1,689,309 1,512,000 1,771,347 Ditto, salt „ 223,484 165,446 198,906 Mutton „ 1,427,615 i,679,024 1,907,959 Pork, fresh „ 82,220 13D.307 136,692 Ditto, salt „ 194,101 160,73? 193,321 Bacon „ 3,368,113 2,668,483 3,209,316 Hams „ 1,105,150 857,105 873,722 Meat.prsrvd,, 651,398 485,722 437,569 Do. unenumerated „ 125,426 150,286 154,260 Butter , „ 1,839,421 ,,,,■ 1,969,817 2,156,309 Margarine „ 1,668,599*" 1,006,159 933,922 Cheese „ 1,858,409 1,733,861 ■ 1,890,328 Hops „ 112,342 132,484 107,721 Potatoes „ 2,299,518 2,735,210 2,392,504 "Wool, lb ...... 629,144,278 588,132,138 619,9S7,051