STATION, FARM & GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Volume 15, Issue 1487, 15 May 1880, Page 5

STATION, FARM & GARDEN.

We invite views and experiences upon matters relating o ike station, the farm, garden, and household, and ask that they be given in as brief and condensed a manner as miiy be. Our columns are also open to correspondents who desire information wponmatters concerning agriwlture . What in the name of wonder has come to the woollen manufacturers at Home ? After eagerly competing with one another and running up prices to an extent highly satisfactory and reassuring to colonists, they suddenly let them drop, as recent cablegrams inform us, by 2|d to 3d per lb on certain descriptions, and thus dash our sanguine hopes to the ground. Do they not know their own minds? Is it all haphazard when they go into the saleroom whether they shall give 3d per lb more or less for the wool they want 1 Can wool be worth one week fifteenponce and the next only a shilling, I without any intervening change in either I supply or demand 1 It seems to us that there must be some "bearing" of the market going on ; that, seeing a constant upward tendency, a combination of buyers was formed to check it, and if this be the case the fall will be only temporary, as an effective demand will soon set in from elsewhere. It is very disappointing at best, but we need not conclude yet that the fall has been established with any degree of permanency. Crossbreds, we observe, have suffored the most, and this will be bad news for our farmers and freeholders, who'mostly go in for that class of sheep for paddock feeding. If the previous rise has really been more rapid than justified by the state of trade and stocks, the recoil is probably more severe than is warranted, and in that case a partial recovery to a stable average will take place, though the highest rates of the series will not be regained. Withdrawals will also no doubt be made to relieve the market from the pressure of large supplies. ___________