AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1970, 22 August 1889, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

News by the San Francisco mail states that the World's weekly report up to July from Bombay settles the fact that the Indian crop of wheat will be no factor in the world's ' food supply this year. English specialists believe the situation a few months hence will be as bad as last year and in some ways worse. The demand for wheat in Europe will probably be smaller than usual, as England and France promise better crops than last year; The yield of the two countries is expected to be 40,000,000 bushels in excess of 1888. Spain's crops will be above the average, and Italy's a trifle under! In Germany, east of the 10th parallel', the crop is almost as good as last year, but the showing in the rest of that country is bad. -Russia and Austro-Hungary will find it difficult to feed themselves, and much interest is devoted to the American crop. Russian wheat .had been going up a few days preceding, and a panic was only prevented by confidence in America. Later despatches say the big wheat shortage in Russia seriously prejudices that country's chance of raising new loans. Despatches from Toronto of July 17 say the Manitoba and Canadian NorthWest wheat crop is a failure beyond doubt, and the total yield will be little less than half last year's. The crop on thousands of acres will not be cut at all. The disaster is caused by drought. Farmers are reported to be almost destitute, and some instances are mentioned where they are subsisting on field mice and gophers, many leaving their land to drive their cattle to timbered country acrosa the United States; line. Reports from Dakota say the crops there are much better thau was expected, the recent rains having been beneficial. In North Dakota, Northern Minnesota, Western Wisconsin and lowa, the crops will be the best for years. ' The following letter, signed " Tomahawk," is published in the Hobart Mercury : — " The proposed alterations in the Victorian tariff, published this morning, are worthy of the selfish policy so persistently followed by that colony, and our on}y defence is retaliation ' in every possible way. I would form a league to educate our people to boycott everything which touches Melbourne. As a large fruitgrower, I would soon induce our people not to buy a tree grown in Melbourne nurseries ; as one- paying heavy cheques- every year to Felton, Grimwade, and other Melbourne firms, I am quite prepared to close my accounts there and go to Sydney ; and as a consumer, I would be only too glad to go without meat altogether rather than patronise a butcher who killed Victorian cattle and sheep ; and if they pass this tariff, and my grocer persists in pushing Swallow and Ariell's biscuits, as he didsome time ago, I will find another grocer. I ask all the other fruitgrowers, as well as c sawmillere, if they will unite ] with me in this movement. My notn de plume is well known, but you are welcome to give them my name." The Argus, referring to the letter says: — The feeling expressed in this communication, however -deplorable, is by no means non-natural, < and the various people who approve of the cry " Australia for the Australians " may be aßked whether they desire to intensify the hostility here revealed and cause it to be spread far and wide. It is sure to be intensified, and it is sure to be spread, if we persist in treating our neighbours as commercial foes ; and the consequent mischief is not easily foreseen. On these grounds the proposed combination would have to be deplored as a national misfortune, and the hope must be expressed that the Assembly will see its way to reduce rather than increase the taxes on Australian produce now proposed. The Zealandia was unable to take all the flax for shipment. She also took a quantity of New Zealand rope and tinned mullet from Eaipara. The Belfast Freezing Works were opened on the 15th for the first time since thefire. A party comprising the directors of the company, representatives of shipping companies, Chamber of Commerce, and other leading men were entertained at lunch, when the chairman (Mr John Grigg) alluded to the improved relationship between shipping companies and shippers as beneficial to the progress of such establishments. A cumber of complimentary toaßts were honoured. ■ • ' < A correspondent in the Daily Times . suggests that it would b9 a good idea to get a contrivance like a seed sower fixed on the guards' vans of the North and South expresses, and thus drop poisoned grain daily between Invercargil'. and Ohristchurch 1 A small exaction from counties, according to mileage, could, he suggests, be made to cover cost. It wpnlcl be easy for the guard to stop the dropping, going through places like Oacaaru, and also at stations when required. True, he continues, this would not touch the back country, but daily poisoning on a 400-mile line would undoubtedly tell on the scourge. A very nice pro- ; posal provided all the railway Hues were enolosed with stock proof fence and no settles in the immediate vicinity of the line ownt. Yowls of any description, F.our purebred, Hampshire sheep, .two being 1 rams, arrived at. Lyttelton by, the Cr.ttß.ader, on; the 16th, consigned to Mr Max F.riedlander t " Ashburtbn, in good condition, as during the

rough weather they were quartered in the cabin. They are quarantined for 90 days. Under a recent decision of the United States Treasury, New Zealand flax will henceforth be classed as eisal grasses, and the American import duty will thus be 15dol per ton of 20001b instead of 20dol as heretofore. ' The Wendon correspondent of the Mataura Ensign writes : — " I see your correspondent • A Practical Farmer' ridicules the idea mentioned by 'Agricola' in the Witnesß of a frosted potato recovering itßelf if left in the ground until the frost haa gone out of it. The idea may certainly be a foolish one, but on many occasions I have in the apring time found good sound potatoes within an inch of the surface, although the frost during the winter had penetrated the ground to the depth of 3in. I have also met with them partially uncovered after a thaw when that portion that was actually exposed to the air was the only part of it injured. Can ' Practical Farmer ' account for this at all if the idea that the earth draws tho frost from the tuber and leaves it uninjured ia ridiculous? — During, or after, a heavy fall of rain at this season of the year one often hears a' farmer remark : * Well, I had bo many acres of grain sown, but I managed to -'give it all one stroke with the harrows before the rain came.' This leaves one to infer tbat the right thing had been done in covering the seed, but I think this ia a mistaken idea ; for it often happens that before the harrows can be again used the seed haa sprouted to such an extent that the harrows in going over it would destroy a large proportion of it, in which case he haß to choose between two evila— he must either run the risk of destroying a portion of his seed or leave the land in an unharrowed state. If on the other hand the seed was left on the ground uncovered, it would taken or harm — except perhaps wheat that had been dressed with bluestone, or where small birds and rabbits were very numerous— auppoßing it lay there for a fortnight or even three weeks. My plan, if likely to be caught in thia predicament, is to finish off the harrowing aa well as possible aa the seed is covered: then should the rain come, both the covered and uncovered ia ail right." Nearly everyone who keeps cows baa at times been puzzled by apparently unaccountable changes in the milk yield. The product of one week will vary considerably from the record of another .week, and indeed this variation is often noticeable in comparing one day's milking with that of the next day. These 1 changes, however, do not take place without some exciting cause, and the control of them is generally in the cowkeeper's own hands. The treatment of the cows in thia respect lies at' the root of successful dairying. No matter how how much skill and science may be present in the making of cheese and butter, unless the cows are managed bo as to yield the greatest quantity of produce . poaaible, and that of the beßt , quality, every other effort will be wasted. It . is to the cow herself, in the first place, that we must look for dairy profit. The methods we adopt in keeping her regulate her production, and that in a measure regulatea all the rest of the buaineas. It ia therefore essential every now and then for every one who keeps even one cow, much more him who keepa a hundred, to carefully examine the management pursued, and to have duly adjusted the influences ..which tend either to diminish the yield or increase the coat of production. — Leader. A , recent issue of the American Sheep Breeder contained an offer from Reynolds and Daved, of Malvane, Kansas, whose flocks have the reputation of cutting very great weights of wool. Hearing, however, that a number! of woolgrowers had doubts regarding these heavy fleeces, they made a singular proposition. They offered to deposit with the editor of the Sheep Breeder £30 ; and to any one depositing the Bame amount they were prepared; to ship a three-year ram that they would guarantee to shear a fleece weighing 401b of wool for 365 days' growth, The ram haa been shorn at the public shearings for the last two years, his first fleece weighing 221b, and his second 35£lb. If the fleece weighed 401b they were to receive £30. For each pound "Jess than 401b, 'however,' £10 was to be deducted, and. for each pound over 401b £5 was to be added to the price. They would guarantee that the fleece contains nothing but what Nature gave it. If found otherwise, they would make the person proving thia a present of the ram. In addition to this, they extended a cordial invitation to woolgrowers to attend 1 their public shearing on May 20. The aame newspaper contained an article on tbe subject of raising the average of the flock. The writer recommends growera whose flocks are not too large to keep a yearly record of the weight of each fleece, and to reject all those sheep whoso fleeces do not come up to the required standard. The radical objaction to these, methods of estimating the values of sheep is, of course, the well-known fact that in rams, and, indeed, stud ewes,"greaßy weights only afford a rough guide to the actual quantity of real wool grown by sheep. High clasp atud sheep no longer command the fancy prioes of a few yeara past. In proof of this statement, we (Weekly Times) have only to take a glance at the average prices ob tamed at the annual Bales of atud sheep held at Sydney during the past seven years. Laat month - this year's sales were held, but the prices did not meet the expectations of the sellers. The quality, Btrains of blood, and grades were quite as good aa previous years, but the average price was very low. When we come to consider the highly favourable season that ia in prospect in the riging price of wool, the^falling off in the demand for pure stock seems all the more strange. The following figures show how tbe salea have ranged during the last seven years :— Year. . , Sheep Sold. Amouut. Average. ££ a d 1883 ... 2400 ... 47.578 ... 19 16 0 1884 ... 1871 ... 27,864 ... 14 17 0 1885 ... 1952 ... 2t> 432 ... 13 10 0 1886 ... 137H ... 10.768 ... 7 1(5 0 1887 ... 2287 ... 20,647 ... 9 0 0 1888 ... 2312 ... 24,690 ... 10 13 7 1889 ... 3016 ... 23,653 ... 7 16 10 Goldthorpa barley haa a peculiarly square formation of head, which is large and of beautiful quality. Mr Dyaon, according to tbe Adelaide Observer, explaiua its origin :—: — "The way I have become possessed of it is thia : A few years ago I found one head among my barley, and I eearched for dayß and could not find another like it ; and from that one head last year I grew -over 60 acres, and it has not varied in shape and stylo." The United States Congress haa passed an act authorising the appointment of an officer for experiment stations under the Waahinpton Department of Agriculture. A sum of £119,000 has been appropriated" towards the endowment and assistance of agricultural experimental atationa throughout the States. Beaides - this Bum, the various Stataa have i £26,000, making a total of £144,000 that haa been act apart for tho support cf these atationa There ape now 46 stations in the Union»-8o that, : taking an average, each station will receive £3000 thia year. There are several buSjBtations attached to some of tbe larger stations, and altogether Bs£ trained men are connected . wijtti theae tysfcitu,ti6nji. .. \' . "In-anawarto the following queations-^Have you laid down any land to permanent pasture? If % bo; have you laid it doWn with a mixture in--' eluding or excluding ryegraka ? What baa been

the result? Do you find ryegrass die out? What ia your opinion on ryegraas? — Bell's Weekly Messenger has received replies from over 400 correspondents, of whom all but three or four are in favour of a proportion of ryegrass in mizturea of grasßßoeda. Insurances have been effected in Dublin on no loaa than 10,000 tons of Irian bacon, which will bo despatched to Paria from Ireland during tha summer and autumn to assist in providing for the wants of the vißitora to the' Exhibition. A large farmer and sheep owner who (days a Canterbury paper), has been holding over a good seized line of freezers for some time, ha 3 with a view to keeping them fat put them on a good turnip field. Though young sheep and of a hardy sort of croaabreda, several of them have been found dead lately. This is accounted for by the want of exercise. He has proved this to be the case aa since he baa had them removed to grass at night deatha have not taken place. It ia aaid that death under these circumstances is due to syncope or a species of apoplexy. The Leaderstates that extensive areas of oats and Cape barley, together with smaller quantities of English barley and peas, have been sown in the Camperdown district thia season. The Rockhampton (Queensland) Bulletin states that the s.b. Aahleigh Brook wr-a at the time of writing loading up with about 1000 tona of' fresh beef, which ia to be taken to England in a frozen condition. Thia is said to be the first shipment of the sort made from the Northern colony. Hitherto splendid specimens of fat cattle hav^bpen boiled down for their tallow at Rockhampton, or driven overland to the Southern markets, whore they usually arrive so much deteriorated by the long journey as to realise but little more than store priceß. The abundance of winter pasture in all parts of the country {writes " Freehold " in the Australasian), with the good season alao in the other colonies, must make the coming summer market a poor one for butter. New South Wales, instead of taking any of our Burplua, will export a considerable quantity, and our local markets will probably be over-aupplied. Our only relief will be in auccesafully striking the London market. The Sydney butter factory and cold storage system succeeded in making a success of exporting to London at one bound, two or three years ago, when a surpluß became suddenly available, It will be well for those who have butter faotories at work to perfect their management, so that a false step may not be made by beginning to export an inferior article. It is not sufficient to have a factory, but alao to have a good buttermaker to work it. This is the difficulty. It is easier to get one good butter-maker for a factory than 100 for bo many private dairies, but that one cannot be done without. Let , thia be seen, to before the flush times of the apring and summer arrive. Canterbury is not the only place where farmers' co-operative societiea pay. We leern from the Sydney Mail that the earnings of the Clarence and North Coast Farmers' Association for the half-year ending June 30 were £3240. After paying all expenses, a net profit remains of £1200, which is very satisfactory, oonaidering that the paid-up capital is only £3000. The total turnover for the halfyear amounted to £59,277, and the consignmenta were 68,974 bags of maize, 51,000 ft cedar, 20,000 spokaß, 80 baleß ot hay, and a large amount of other produce. Thia is by far the beat report yet submitted by the association, which now haa 1300 shippers and a business connection with 650 firms. An experiment was made last year by a firm of English seedsmen aa to the comparative weight of green produce yielded by various crops. Italian ryegrass and kale mixed head the Hat with a crop of 79 tona per acre, next comes mixed maize with 38 tona, then oats and tares at 26 tons, and millet 22 tons. It must be remembered, however, that the value of a crop depends upon the amount of available food, and not an extraordinary quantity of water enclosed in the tissues of the plant. At a Bale of country property in the Bungaree district thejother day (says the Leader) the auctioneer prefaced his remarks on the land by obaen^ngJ — "I know, gentlemen, I shall be aßked, ia thero any thißtle in the land ? Well, I have the authority, of the vendor for Btating , that there ia not : and if there were, 1 do not think it ia such a serious matter to any good farmer. I know that those of you who are owners of property in this neighbourhood have had your farms depreciated 20 or 30 pSr cent., and those of you who have wold have had to put up with the loss. The tenant farmer has Buffered to tbe tune of thouaand of pounds, by being unable to sell a bag of seed grain that is known to ba grown in Bungaree. And why is all thia ? Becauae you have been crying stinking fißh for some years, and you have to a great extent to thank your member of Parliament and your Bhire councillor for bringing this.pedt forward in and out of season — thrusting it under the noaea of Ministers of Lands, Ministers and Secretaries of Agriculture, Profeaaora of Chemistry — and the whole machinery of State has been called into requisition to abolish this pest. I tell you it ia all fudge, and when you have got off the fence and ceased to wear out the seats of your pants looking at the thistle growing it will be the better for all of you. There are a dozen men I see now who own farms right in the centre of the worst infested part of the district, and I believe they will bear me out when I say they have not a thistle on their land. And why ia this ? Becauae they till their land aa it ought to be tilled, and do not trouble the State for ehenvcjls to eradicate a weed that ia only to be got rid of by elbow grease and good tillage. Now, gentlemen, give me a bid for thia property." And the property was bid for, and was passed in at £15 an acre less than could have boen got for it five years ago. According to an announcement made by a French contemporary, it Eeemß that butterchurn makers will perhaps have to turn their attention to the construction of otber things — perhaps dyn&mo-elsctric machines of very low electro-motive force. According to a patent taken out by Mr A, C. Tichenor, milk is introduced into a vessel of special form, and into it are placed a pair of electrodes, and a current is thus passed through the milk. Butter ia formed in little balls on one o£ the electrodes, and it is said that to extract the butter from 45 litres of milk the current f fom a dyn'amoeltactrio machine, equivalent to that of about 40 Danielle, for from 3rnin to smin is all that ia required. With such a current, the balla of butter are sufficiently volurnhioua to detach themselves from the plsctrode and float to the Burface of the milk. Th 9 butter thus obtained haa to be worked in a baratto or something of the kind, ao aa to work tho small pieces into a compact xn&88. The patent also mentions the electric manufacture cf ohee3e and of removing the bad taste of butter that has turned rancid. We da not know how far the indications of the patent specifications have bsen verified in actual uea. • • - "In the time of wheat harvest " meana the time of wheat haivest in that particular epot. "As a matter of fac^ there is not a month of the year in which wheat ia not reaped. The harvest is in January in Auatralasia, Chili, and the Argentine ; it ia in February and March in India and Upper Egypt j ifcis in April ia

Mexico, Lower Egypt, Turkey in Asia, Persia, and Cuba; it ia is May in North Africa, Central Asia, China, Japan, Texas, and Florida ; it iB in June in California and the Southern States of America, in Spain, Portufal, and Italy ; it is in July in Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Franco, Southern Russia,. and the Northern Sta ea of America ; it is in August in England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Lower Canada, Columbia, and Manitoba ; it ia in September in Scotland, Ireland, North Canada, Sweden, and Norway ; it is in October in Northern Ruaaia-j it is in November in South Africa ; ifc is in December in Bunnah, The manager of the Oroua Downs courteously placed at our (Manawatu Herald) disposal in June the returns of the sale of 90 cows ex Rimutaka in London., The excellence of the grazing on this well-known eßtate ia without question, yet the cowa shipped were hard of sale at the low figure of £4 a head. They were therefore frozen, and returned a value of £6 18 i Si at the station. This item was certainly encouraging to shippers, but the last returns to hand are still more ao, and Justine. Mr M'Lannan'a anxiety to see further provision made whereby the stock in tbo diatriot can be sent to a better and an outside market. Mr M'Lennan informs na that the last lot of cowa, the particulars of which are to hand, numbered 48 and have netted the handsome aum of £7 4* 3d a head at the homestead. This is nearly double what they would have fetched locally. The newly formed Agricultural and Pastoral Association at Wellington have iaaued the schedule for their inaugural ahow in November next. A very fair number of prizes are offered for competition in the various classes, and the prospects of a successful inaugural show are certainly bright. Mr W. H. Levin heads the special priz9 list with a donation of £25, while there are then £10 prizes, and quite an array of £5. FARM VOTES, Horses Drinking with Food.— A traveller in Norway aays that the horaea in that country have a very sensible way of taking their food, which might be very beneficially followed here. They have a bucket of water put down beside their allowance of hay. It is interesting to sac with what relish they take a sip of the one and a mouthful of the otber alternately, sometimes only moistening their mouths, as a rational being would do while eating a dinner of such dry food. A broken- winded horse ia scarcely ever seen in Norway, and the question ia if the mode of feeding has not something to do with the preservation of the animal's respiratory organs. Fobty-nine Days TJndeb Snow.— On the fatm of Kineaton, Kinross- shire, thero were nine black-faced owes under the Bnow 49 days. They had no food of any kind all the time. At the break of the storm they came out of the Bnow very poor, but all able to run about and gather their food on the clear places on the hill. After a few days they were put on better food. AH the nine had a lamb each in lambing time, and they went on the hill all summer, and did aa well as the other ewea.Feeding Pigs.— -In response to a correspondent about feeding pigs seven months old, Professor Stewart replies in the "Country Gentleman" as follows:-— "The following will be a good combination of food to feed them : 1001b corn meal, 1001b wheat middlings, and 1001b wheat bran. Mix these thoroughly together dry, and then feed 21b of this mizture with lgal of skim milk per day, and if each pig gets 2gal of skim milk per day, it will also . get 41b of this mixed feed. If each pig gets more than 2gal of milk, still it may require it all. This ration will require increase as they grow older. As soon as clover gets large enough to out, give about three quarts of this green clover in the feed for each pig per day. This will keep them healthy and increasa their gain. They should gain about l£lb per day. How Wheat is "Gkadbd" in Amebioa. — In America people buy and sell by "grades," not by sample as we do in this country. "No. 1 spring wheat," or any other official designation, represents a fixed definite quality, which every ore in the trade understands. When a farmer or dealer sends grain to an elevator, it is inspected by duly appointed officials, declared of such and such a grade, and a receipt is granted for the ascertained quantity of the declared grade. The wheat is then stored, not by itself, but in a mass with thousands of other consignments, all duly graded, so that a man never gets his own wheat out again. He merel gets the same quantity as he delivered of the particular grade. Such a system of grading is not possible in any other country in the world but America, unless, perhaps, to a certain extent in Russia. In America there are vast tracts of land all producing the* same quality of grain. There is the " spring wheat belt " and the " winter wheat belt," and so on, phrases which indicate certain areas of country all producing the same quality. Now, in this country, from climatic differences and varying mixtures of soil, there may not be two farms in one parish yielding the same quality of grain ; nay, on a single farm each field may be different. A Scotoh or an English farmer could not understand the process by which wheat is graded in America ; but it is this peculiarity of American grain-growing that has enabled the business to be reduced to such a perfect system. Distance Travelled in Ploughing. — Could you give me any idea, says a correspondent in the Mark Lane Express, of the distance travelled by a pair of horses for every acre ploughed ? To which that pajfer replies ; — A team, in ploughing one acre of ground, travels the following distances, according to the width of the furrow :— Bieadthof Length Travelled Furrow. per Acre. Inches. Miles. 7 ... ... ... 14i 8 ... ... ... llf 9 ... ... ... H 10 ... ... ... 9 0-10 11 ... ... ... 9 12 ... ... ... 8} 20 ... ... ... 4 8-ltt 24 ... ... ... 4 TIIE ENGLISH CATTLE TBADE. The two great centres for the buying and celling of the cattle, Bheep, calves, and pigs destined for dissection by the carving knives of the great meat- eat«ng cojamnnity of London are the Metropolitan Cattle Market at Holloway and the IWga Cattle Market afc Depfcford. Both of theae places belong to and are controlled bg tlja City Corporation, and is alao the London Centra! Meals, Poultry, and ProTfisioa Markets at Smithfield. Atthelast-Iflamed J»kca euad to fee conducted; the businew now

done at Holloway. It proved, however, rather incommodious for the expanding trade of the butcher and the cattle dealer ; and, besides, sanitary and other considerations suggested that the centre of a crowded city like London was not the most desirable place for the bringng together of upwards of 1,000,000 animals annually. So this part of the cattle trada was banished to Copenhagen Fields in 1855. Here the principal days are Mondays and Thurßday. Buyer and Beller then meet and haggle over the price of fat bullocks or still fatter piga. The bullocka are '.iod up in rows in what we are called " alleys," which are so arranged that intending buyers can freely and safely inspect the Btock. After thus carefully scrutinising, with an air of wisdom and certainly no lack of shrewdness, a herd of half a dozen, the buyer perhaps mutters, " £22 10s a head." It is still early in the day, however, and the salesman wants at least £23 a head ; bo he deolines this offer, which, perhaps, he subsequently regrets, They don't talk much, these cattle dealers, They simply use their eyes and their fingers to prod the beast and ascertain their condition, calculating meanwhile how much the beasts before them are worth. Thus transactions representing hundreds of poundß are here performed much more quietly and decorously than the sale of Bixpennyworth of beef in a butcher's shop. The area of the market proper exceeds 20 acres, though with the.laittr, slaughter houses, taverns, &0., it covers as many as 75 aores, and affords accommodation for upwards of 50,000 of the different animals sold there. It was opened by the Prince Consort in June, 1855. It is paved with granite, and is capable of being flushed with .water from every part. This keeps it fresh find clean. Tho largest number of cattle that have entered it in one day waß 10,000, on December 14, 1863 ; and of sheep, '38,500, on July 16, 1868. The toll charged on cattle is 6d per head ; on calves 3d ; and on sheep and pigs about a l£d. Horses and donkeys are also offered for sale Bometimes, and every Friday there is the PeddlerB 1 market. From the toils alone the annual income of the market is more than £11,000. The market at Deptford, though like the Holloway market for cattle, sheep, and pigs, is the emporium for foreign stock alono. A.t Holloway it ussd to be customary for foreign cattle to be mingled with home-bred cattle. The result of this indieorimate mixing was that in 1865 a couple of imported cowa brought the rinderpest into England. Now, all cattle for London from abroad, except thoße from Canada, Holland, and one or two other places where proper precautions are taken against disease, are landed at Deptford, are sold there, and also slaughtered not later than 10 days af • er their arrival. No animal that has once stepped on to the jetties by which cargoes are unloaded ever gets farther into England than the boundary of this market, except in the shape of beef, mutton, or pork. So stringently aro these regulations enforced that even a pair of horses once sent over with a consignment of cattle from America could not be recovered by their owner except by going back to America again. The site of this market is historically interesting. It was one of her Majesty's dockyards, and was established as such by Henry VIII. In it is erected a board with this inscription : " Here worked as a ship carpenter Peter, Czar of all the Ruesias, afterwards Peter the Great." This historic spot became the gory establishment it now is in 1871. The old dockyard was purchased by the Corporation for £95,900, and £140,000 were spent in fitting it vp — turning old workshops and boathouses into slaughter houses. These surround an old monastery that still stands, bearing the date 1513. The number of animals that enter the inexorable portals of this house of death is annually increasing, and is now not far from a million. At one and the same time as many as 5000 bullocks and 25,000 smaller animals can be comfortably stabled here, The entire market covers an area of 30 acres, and in this area the operations that.are carried, on are numerous and varied. Of these an idea may be gather (limply from the buildings that one encounters during a walk round. At the entrance is a police office. True, some of the American cattle that come here are quite wild j sti 1 it is not for them that the police are required. Adjoining the police office is a post office with telegraphic communication, and farther on are the banks, officials' offices, and the offices of the customs house servants, besides several private dwelling houses. Prominent features are, of course, the slaughter houses, of which there are 70, and other buildings, such as the boiling houses, for the treatmont of the fat and offal. A busy scene is presented by the unloading of the cattle. So complete are the arrangements for this purpose that as many as eight boats have been unloaded in two hours and ahalf. On stepping ashore the cattle or sheep are put into oheds where they are fed and watered. They are then examined by a Government official, and, if all sound, passed on to the lairs ; if not, they are slaughtered in a slaughter house specially set epart for infected cattle. The catcaases of such cattle are put into a strong cylinder, like a boiler set on end, and melted by high-pressure steam. To ahow how the trade at this markot is growing, we give the number of Gteamers that have discharged cattle during the past thrae years — vix., 1103, 1138, and 1114. Some of these steamers rango in tonnage as high as 4500 tons. The annual income of the markot exceeds £50,000, and is principally derived from the ( wharfage and lairage dues. For bullocks, these dues are 53 a head ; for calves, 2s a head ; for Bhe«p, 9d ; and for pigs, Is. Other sources of incorna are from manure, rents of slaughterhouses, eoalding house proceeds, and the produce of the boiling houee. Belonging to the market is also a steamer meant for conveying cattle from tha rnarkot to^ other ports. The annual mirnbsr of beasts thus transhipped is about 30,000, and the charges for this amount to about £5000. The Ferret as a Babbit Exterminator. Editor Witness,— Sir : The Gore Farmers' Club has, it neems, taken- a decided stand against the policy of the Government in purchasing ferrets to be turned loose in badlyinfected rabbit districts. As this club happens to bsßecond in point of importance in the county of Southland, I would advise its members to pause, leat they may compromise their wisdom, and consequently their influence, in the eyes of the Executive by forwarding motions to Wellington—the purport of which the Minister cannot popsibly comply with. Some farmers who, having turned a few dozen ferrets loose on ground which was beiug trapped at the time by as many men, become indignant because they cannot S6e rabbits lying dead in all directions. They fail to see thw for obvious reasons, because the ferret usually kills in the burrowß, and becauao a great number of the ferrets are maimed by traps. Other runholder3 think that a few hundred ferrets ought to dear in six months an estate which 50 or 60 men had failed in clearing, although they may have been employed on it for the past 10 years. * I have never yet come across a farmer bitterly opposed ts the ferret who could give me a hona jide eason for being so. The usual answers

are that the ferret is not a good, natural enemy; that it kills the native fauna! which keeps our insect peats in check ; that it gets into the lakes and rivers and kills wild duoks; and finally that the ferret is sure to become a worse pest than the rabbit. The last objection, however, would be impossible, for even the looust must give way to the rabbit in this respect. lam fully posted on this subject. I can prove what I say. lam fully alive to the fact that in thickly populated districts the rabbit is a valuable animal ; for its flesh is both nourishing and wholesome, and its skin forms a superior article of commerce, and I am satisfied that were it not for tho rabbit and the bit of gold New Zealand would have had to face the unemployed question in all its ugliest phases long before now. But my contention is that had the rabbits in any unpopulated country been allowed to increase unchecked, then vegetation would disappear before them like chaff before the wind. Therefore the sooner we increase our stock of natural enemies in the back country among rocks and forest lands the better ; and the ferret is the strongest and the best adapted animal for such country. . As regards the ferret becoming a pest in turn, that can never j happen, for unlike the stoat or weasel, the ferret's natural food is the rodent, and when this food fails them or becomes scarce then the majority of them will wander and succumb to starvation. Some, of course, may come across a settlement, but then they are so easily captured that they can never become a pest. The stoat and weasel, on the other hand, are smart climbers, and so cunning that it is a difficult matter to capture them. Besides, they are pretty bold when strong in numbers, and these animals may eventually become a nuisance. In conclusion, I may inform the Gore Farmers' Olub that Strabo, the historian, tells us that ferrets freed Spain from the ravages of the rabbit pest, and that hundreds of our runholders and station managers bear testimony to the great amount of good the ferret is doing, while lastly Mr Alfred Douglas' report should be considered, A more reliable, energetic, and efficient officer than Mr Douglas is it would be diffioult to find, for he is all over the country in all sorts of weather, and surely be has no motive in sending a falße report to his superiors. lam certain he would never have reported favourably of the ferret had he not sufficient evidence to back up his assertions. Regarding the allegation made by a member of the club that ferrets were being trapped and resold to the department, , it is evident that this gentleman's understanding must be as shallow as a saucer, for I can assure you, Sir, that a man with a stolen norse in his possession would have a better chance of escaping punishment (as he could have a jury to try him) than onefound traffickingina Government ear-marked ferret. — Yours, &c, Edendale, August 17. Fabmeb,