SKIMMINGS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12285, 11 July 1914, Page 2

SKIMMINGS.

TJic Tailuipc correspondent of tha Rangitikoi Advocate reports that men used = to bushfelling work are in very

good demand at present, and employers are finding some difficulty in tilling .requirements. Plenty of unskilled labor is available, but- experienced bashmcn are at a premium. . Mr 1- Hopkins, formerly ehiet government Apiarist, and a veteran friend oi floriculturists in New Zealand, ;s about to leave jSew Zealand to liv*? in England. ... About GO,OOO acres oi Crown lands in various parts of New Zealand are open for selection this month, says the <> ellington Post. . ~ A number of rabbit-trappers in the Ma.sterton district are making good money this season by trapping the bunnv the carcases being forwarded to Wellington. Ninepence per panis the u~ual price received. Reports from the sugar districts or Queensland show that in some of the far northern parts the yield or last year will be exceeded. The yield in the whole or (Queensland last year v,as a record. 'Hiis season's output will be increased by the new returns from the new and large mill at Inkerman, the property of Dry.sdale Bros. . A party of 22 Swiss people arrued in Wellington bv the Moeraki on Wednesday last, it'is understood that they arc under engagements to work for a 1 condensed milk company. Tlio party include both sexes. There have .been quite a number of people of tlio same nationality arriving in the Dominion for some time past to take up employment in the manufacture of condensed milk. . Abundance of pasture, scarcity or money, and live stock at reasonable rates* have caused a- heavy fall m rural rents iu' Argentina. An exchange states that a well-known, estato which lias returned for the Previous five years an annual income of £oooo ■ is calculated to return only £3200 n 1913. . . x . , A pioneer says it is no use try ing to put farmers on the land in the Northern Territory, owing to the climate. "The Territory is a splendid horse and cattle country, and that is about all, he remarked. . An extraordinary meeting of shareholders of the Waikato Farmers' Cooperative Auctioneering Company held at Hamilton on Monday authorised an increase of capital to £300,000 by tiid issue of 100,000 new shares causing a fixed cumulative preferential dividend of six per cent. This step has been found necessary owing to largely increased business offering, which ' the company is unable to cope with without increasing the capital l . The number of sheep and li*nib£: put. through the W aingawa works during the past season was 261,957. This is an increase of nearly 6000 compared with the previous season. The rnimber of cattle and calves slaughtered was 6519, compared with 2270. Sheepfarmere will be interested to learn tliat Japanese buyers are apparently operating in this 1 district. In some of the stores Dales of wool are to be seen branded with the Yokohama and Kobe addresses. It- is understood that some local wool went to Japan last year, but this year's shipment :s a much larger one. The hales, nudum peel, will be shipped' to Sydney, where they will be transhipped to one of the Japanese liners. Mr \V. J. Byrne, chief officer of the Thames Valley Cow-testing Association, has been invited by the Colac Dairying Company, Victoria, to visit its district and instruct suppliers in the methods of cow-testing pursued in Now Zealand. The Colac Dairy Company is •the second largest in the _ Commonwealth, producing between 70 and 80 tons of butter weekly. The total wool shipped from the Gisborne district since July fst, 1913, Ifas reached 50,028 bales. Of this number 12,280 were shipped at Tokomaru Bay. The export of wool this year shows alittle increase on that sent away last vear, when tho total shipment reached 48,807 bales, of which Tokomaru Bay__coii.tributed 11/219 bales. —Bay Herald. The planting of fruit trees in the Nelson "district is proceeding steadily. The Regulus, which left Napier on Saturday. loaded a hundred tons of fruit' trees.from Hawke's Bay nurseries for Nelson. It has been known for some timo. past Csavs the Bristol Press of May 28th) that tho Bristol aud Dominions' Producers' Association, Ltd.. has. been seeking a managing director with a knowledge of affairs on both sides of the water —how the commodities are produced in Australia and New Zealand, and how they can be disposed (f to the best advantage in English markets. Such a combination, of essentials has been hard to find in one man. but at last the Association has seemingly 6olved the problem, as we understand that the position will be filled by Major. A. E. M. Norton. D.5.0., the Trade Commissioner for South Australia. It will bu remembered that Major Norton was especially sent from South Australia to organise the trade of South Australia with the Homeland. He arranged exhibitions, and was successful generally. Then he resigned his position in order to accept a directorship of Messrs 11. W\ Davidson, of Glasgow and London, taking charge of the Tooley street branch. This experience was so valuable to him that the South Australian Government again appointed him Trade Commissioner. Major Norton expects to sail for Australia this mouth, and, doubtless, whilst there will strengthen the supply end fidently be expected that the bonds of of the connection. Thus it may concommerce between Bristol and Australia will be greatly strengthened. Tho fact that many farmers in the Ashburton district have decided to go in for sheep-breeding this year, in preference to the less profitable industry •of grain-growing, probably accounts for there being far fewer farm laborers required at present, who would, in the ordinary course of events, be employed at ploughing. A Pendarves farmer told a. Guardian reporter that, while he would at any other time now have five ploughing teams at work, lie had done away with four of Ms hands since taking up fat sheep-breeding. A well-known New Zealand shearer, Mr D. Darrell, iu a letter relating to the condition* in the Argentine, says:—"'The shearing in the Argentine commences about September, but it .s no place for a white men to shear, or, indeed, to do any other kind of manual labor; the half-breeds that do the shearing here receive what would he "u linglish money about l-Jd per head, just about haff what we would get m Australia. The conditions of living, too. are very rough." Speaking to a Gisborne Times reporter, an experienced buyer stated that phenomenal prices were at present ruling for wool. In fact, the prices were almost too good. At Napier on Mondav week, he said that wonderful prices had prevailed, crutchings going as high as 9Jd. He stated that- the reason for the high prices was tho Japanese, French, Belgian and Russian orders, which simply had to be placed. They had to have the wool. When, these orders were placed he was of opinion that "prices would go down with a run.

in the Canton of Argovie a strange custom exists in the selling and' buying of horses among the peasants, who delight in ■outvying each other in discovering original methods'. A few days ago. at the village of Sulz. a, peasant bought a horse from .another at the rate of £40,000 a mile (the Geneva correspondent of the. Daily Express' says). The buyer thought he had a bargain, but when the horse was measured by a veterinary surgeon, from nose to tail, the price woried out at £94 —about £3O more than it was worth. A lawsuit followed, but on the suggestion of the judge an arrangement was arrived at out of Court.

At » meeting of the Holstein-Frie-sian Breeders' Society at Palmerston North, the report said that the average •butter-fat production of the dairy cows of the Dominion was under 1801b per annum, so it was extremely gratifying to find two-year-old Holstcin lieifers producing 5001b of fat and over 15.000 lb of milk; three-year-olds 6501b and 18.0001b of milk; mature cows over 0601b of i'at and 20.0001b of milk. This proved that they were on the right road to improve the dairy herds of the country. The chairman (Mr Newton Kimi)'said it seemed to him absurd that"l.Bolb should be the output of the cows in this country, when they had Hoisteins producing up to GOO and 7001b. This was not confined to one or two cows, for there were a considerable number that had reached that standard, and it was most gratifying to breeders. It was decided to ask the various breeders' societies to co-operatc in an endeavor to get the Government to carry pedigree stock at half rates on the railways. j

Cattle, horses, and dogs appear • o thrive in the islands of the South Paei-

lie. Cattle have been successfully introduced to the Cook Islands, and' in Raratonga one may see small herds of fat bullocks feeding on excellent grass, which has been sown .by the white planters among tho cocoanut palms. Horses have been iu use in most of the islands for years. The natives- favor the Chilian ponies, which carry- incredible loads, and live on the roughest of food, but. there are many New Zealand horses about, and properly looked after they thrive satisfactorily. Tlis islands swarm with mongrel dogs, which' are of no use. The dogs eat cocoanuts and bananas readily, and a visitor to the isalnds will note with some interest the horses' method of negotiating a cocoanut. They work the fruit into a suitable position, and then stamp upon the shell' until they break it, and can get at the kernel. * Even' horses which ha ve been in the topics a comparatively short time have learned how to enjoy the succulent nut. Mr Herbert Crowthcr. latclv Collec-

tor of Customs in Tasmania, and now in Christehurch, told a reporter that for all practical purposes only three kinds of apples are grown in Tasmaniafor export, namely, the Stunner (cooking and dessert), Adam's Scarlet Pearmain, and the French Crab. This is not always the case, hut is the result

of experiences. In tfie last eleven months the export has been 1,300,000 cases, or about 153 times greater than the quantity exported from New Zealand' last year. There is still a good balance t-o'sliip, so that by the end of the twelve months' period the big-total ■will have been considerably increased The growers now intend to add t-o the sorts grown, the Ribstone Pippin. Five Crown and Golden Harvey (a small apple of exquisite ffavor). and these will materially increase the exported output. Mr Crowthcr says that it must obviously be many years before Netv Zealand can rival Tasmania in exporting apples, and he doubts whether oiir climate will produce the same quality of fruit. The value of our white rn'ne timber was hardly realised until tho development of the dairying industry, when it was found to be the ideal timber for the manufacture of butter-boxes, inasmuch as it was a clean, easily-worked • wood, which -carried none of its taint to the butteri The value of this timber is 'increasing, a.s the forests are being laid low. . It is learned that there now exists a large factory in Melbourne which is engaged in the manufacture j of butter-boxes, which have a lining i of white pine veneer, about an eighth I of an inch in thickness. "White pine carries a heavy duty in Australia, and it pays to use it sparingly in the mat;- I ner mentioned. - By using the veneer t)f j white pine any sort of scrap timber may be knocked up into butter-boxes,. I which hitherto have had to be made, wholly of white pine in the case of the packing of butter for export. The beekeepers conferring in "Wellington were much interested in a statement made yesterday morning by Mr G. H. Bueke ridge, of Taranaki. [ Honey, lie said, was provided in manv American, hot-els in "individual pots" containing' from an ounce and a-half to two ounces. For such a pot the customer was charged 15 cents. That- was, said Mr Buckeridge, a very line price for honey, and the supply of the commodity in such a forjn would pay the producer very well if lie. could, get tail- proportion of the price. He felt sure that it would be possible to sell ' a large quantity of good honey in the best hotels and on the railways if it was put up in an attractive and suitable form. —Evening Post. "Tho State of Michigan will plant this year two million trees." says the Chicago Tribune. '•'Hundreds of acres where a few years ago stood giant pine ] trees, but which are now bare, will once more be turned into beautiful forests I j by that State. Michigan is the second ' State to take up the matter of re- . forestry. A year ago the State of Minnesota planted one million . trees. • The example of Michigan and Minne- j sota might be followed bv other States j ' with a good deal of profit."