BRITISH AGRICULTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1895, 16 March 1888, Page 7

BRITISH AGRICULTURE.

(By Our English Agricultueal Correspondent.)

London, January 25. A Mild Winter. • We have had one of the mildest of winters so far, very few frosts, and those not prolonged, having occurred. Yet there has been froßt enough to keep the wheat and autumnsown crops from getting too forward, and they are now looking as well as could be desired. Work on the farm is forward, and farmers will be prepared for early spring sowing if the weather a month hence should be favourable. The area of the wheat crop is probably about the same as it was last year, when 2,387,518 acres were grown iv the United Kingdom. The agricultural produce statistics! showing the estimated yield of the crops of last harvest, have not yet come out, but are expected in a few days. The lambing season is now becoming general in England, and the reports up to the present are exceedingly favourable. There has been a very large drop of Dorset and Hamp-shire-Downs lambs and the ewes as well as the lambs are healthy. They are all the better for having been sparingly supplied with turnips, which are the cause of half the casualties among breeding flocks. In Scotland, unfortunately, or rather in the south-wesc of Scotland, there has beeu an alarming mortality among ewes duo to lamb in a few weeks. As many as 11 to the score have died in some flocks. Principal Walley ascribes the loss to watery swedes, which, failing to nourish the animals properly, have led to diabetes and the destruction of the kidneys, which iv some cases are found reduced to a pulp. The swedes, after the long summer drought, made rapid growth during the moist autuma, and were more watery than usual. No doubt the ewes have been too exclusively fed on these roots. Markets. The hopes of a rise in the price of wheat have not at present been realised, the mild and dull weather having been against the trade. Yet the statistical • position is very strong on the side of sellers. There are about a million quarters of wheat (including flour) on passage to the United Kingdom less than at this time last year. Stocks on the Ist of January were about 465,000qr more than ou the corresponding date of 1887 ; but that still leaves a deficiency of over 400,000qr, while the American available supply is 2,500,000qr less than it was a year ago. From India, moreover, we have very little wheat to expect till the new crop is ready, and Australian shippers are very slow in providing supplies at current values, yet the average price was down to 30s lOd last week, and there was a dull trade on Monday. Last year the average (for the whole year) was 32s 6d, as compared with 31s in 1886 ; but this advance was due to the comparatively high prices which | prevailed for a short time at the beginning of the year. The average for barley last year was only 25s 4d, and that for oats was down to 16s 3d per quarter. Barley has only once in the past hundred years been as low, and oats not fct all. In 1851 the average for barley was 24s 9d, while oats, were as low as 16s 5d in 1850. The meat trade continues dull. In the live stook market in London on Monday cattle of inferior quality sold at 8d to 8d per 81b (to sink the offal) less than the corresponding date of 1887, while prime oxen realised 6d to 8d more. The range of prices was from 2s 4d to 5a per so-called stone of 81b last Monday, as compared with 3s to 4s 4d a year before. For sheep the range was 3s 4d to ss, against 4s to 5s 8d in 1887. In the dead meat market trade was very bad, on account of the mildness of the weather. English and Scotch beef sold at 2s to 4s per Blb, as compared with 2s to 3s lOd a year ago, so here there 3s practically no change. In the case of mutton, however, the range was from 2s to 4s 4d for English and Scotch, as compared with 2;s to 5s at the corresponding date of 1S87 ; while New Zealand mutton sold 2s 6d to 2s Bd, against 23 lUd to 3s 2d a year ago. Butter is selling very well, the best Cork now in the market (and there is no superfine just now) realising 127s per cwt, and Keil butter 130s. Of course prices will go down when spring comes. Cheese also sells well, the best Cheddar being worth 50s to 80s per 1201b ; American, 40a to 625 ; New Zealand and Australian, 30s to 508. There is no change in the wool market, though the demand for English is brisk, and prices are firm. It is expected that there will be about 275,000 bales at the coming colonial wool sales. A Great Stallion Show. Horse lovers are looking forward to the great show of thoroughbred stallions suitable for breeding half bred horses, to be held at Nottingham on February 9 and 10, when 27 premiums of £200 each— 22 offered by the Government and the rest by the Royal Agricultural Society — will be competed for. The winners are to travel in specjfied districts of Great Britain at low fixed fees, and there is no doubt- as to the great benefit which will be conferred upon farmers who have suitable mares to breed from. The Price of Milk. Since the farmers here combined to stand up against the milk-dealers' ring and the beating down practised by the dairy factory companies, they have obtained muoh better prices for their milk — Is a gallon for the. winter being common. I see that the factories in New Zealand give only 3d a gallon, and I do not believe that farmers anywhere can produce milk at such a price. A yield of 600 gal a year is very much above average, and that at 3d a gallon would return only £7 10s for the produce of a cow, to meet all the expenses of feeding, attendance, risk of loss, and the carting of the milk to' the factory. The annual calf may cover the loss by deterioration, but would not do more. No wonder cows are selling at next to nothing in New Zealand. The fact is, the institution of dairy factories is a great curse to farmers where they are not carried on by farmers for farmers. It has been a great mistake to foster a new and powerful middleman element in dairying. The factories, by holding butter to flood the market with when they please, practically control prices, and ruin the private dairymen who compete with them. At least I am assnred by a New Zealand farmer who used to get his living by dairying that this is the case in the colony. TUese we not enough, factories here yet to.

"ring" the market, and I hope there never will be, unless they are to be co-operative and owned by farmers.