OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 13

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Christchurch, May 12. THE SEASON.

Nearly a month elapsed without a drop of rain, until the last day or two, when the wind changed to the south-west — our rainy quarter — and some heavy showers fell, with the prospect of more. The tobal rainfall at Lincoln from January 1 to April 30 was only 3-6 inches, and this is double the quantity registered on the Plains. Ploughing has been greatly retarded, and ia many cases the attempt to break up old grass land has had to be abandoned. Even stubbles cannot be ploughed in a workmanlike manner — the ploughman can only " tear them about a bit." Frost held off long enough to let grass make a much better autumn growth than was anticipated, and prospects for winter feed are not so bad as they were a month ago. Turnips, however, are with very few exceptions a poor crop in North Canterbury, and Cape barley, oats, and rye, with the plentiful supply of oats and chaff which farmers are provided with will carry stock safely through the winter. Straw naß hitherto, as a general practice, and except close to towns, been burned as soon as threshing was finished aud the grain carted away, but this year the glare of burning straw is a rare sight, the straw stacks having been left standing even in fields that bave ben ploughed. Another frequent sight this year is that of stacks of grain in sack standing carefully thatched in the fields where it was grown und threshed, generally oats, waiting for the grower to see whether if; will pay better to sell them as grain or as mutton. The wane of water is a serious matter to settlers in districts not traversed by rivers or races. Wells have gone dry, and water for every purpose has to be carted sometimes for miles. A thoroughly good rain — cay 3in — would be very welcome. Threshing is the only operation for which the weather has been favourable, and that is well advanced, very little nnthreshed corn being now left beyond what has been thatched to stand till spring. There have been the usual complaints about want of trucks to geb the grain to ship's side, but it must be allowed that the deliveries have been at a greater rate than has ever previously been the case. Much more wheat has changed hands this Beason at the low prices than was sold last year at the high rates. Farmers got a sickener of holding last year.

GRAIN AND PfiODUCE MARKET.

The recent improvement iv the price of wheat came very opportunely for the many farmers who were just finishing threshing, and most of them took the opportunity to cell and save storage aud other charges. Present prices, say, 2s 9d to 2s lOd for fair average parcels of Tuscan and Hunters, or Tuscan, Hunters, and Pearl at country stations are, not altogether unprofitable. Oats and barley are unchanged. Potatoes are beginning to come forward ; some localities have a fair crop, but others report very light yields. Growers ask 40s at country stations within 12 miles of Chria ichurch, but buyers declare that this price is out of the question. Cheese is selling fairly well, but butter is a complete drag in the market, the unfavourable result of the shipments from the Tai Tapu Factory to London having checked business in even the factory-made article. There is proof that really good butter is saleable in London, in the fact that a Courtnay settler has netted 9|d clearon bis farm for a consignment Home.

LIVE STOCK.

The sensation of the last fortnight has been the rapid rise in the price of sheep, particularly j those fit for export. Prime freezers, crossbred wethers and maiden ewes, went up at a bound a§d per lb, or say 2s 6A a bead, being now worth 3d to 3Jd per lb, and prime heavy merino wethers are in good demand for freezing at 2|.l to 3d, value of skins and fat having to bo added. Thus a 601b crossbred wether is worth quite £1. Freezing lambs have also gone to high prices — from 12s to 16s. Ordinary shop mutton has to some extent participated •in tbe rise and is worth 2d to 2gd according to quality. Retail butchers 'have advanced the price of mutton — at which paterfamilias growls ;' but the rise in price is nothing compared to the falling off in quality — it is seldom that anything but ewe mutton can be had, and the dressing is not nearly 30 good as it used to be. Beef is stationary, but cannot fail to improve. Store sheep have not yet followed the upward movement in fat sheep, but holders are very firm. Store cattle show no improvement, and good three-year-old steers can be bought at £3 10s. The bacon season opened with this month, and last year's prices of 3|d to 4d for prime grain fed were expected and indeed obtained by early sellers ; but last Wednesday the market was swamped, some 1400 being entered, and prices utterly collapsed, only select weights (say 1201b to 1501b) realising 2|d per lb, other descriptions selling down to 2d. Farmers would have preferred to take them home, but the curers' ring is so strong that probably that course would have resulted in no bid whatever being subsequently obtainable for them. Still the above prices are unreasonably low and cannot contiuue in force long. The North Canterbury farmers are wisely going in for curing their own pigs on the co-operative principle, and have formed a company for the purpose. There are some good curers among the promoters, and there is little doubt of the success of the project. HOESES. Two importaut sales have taken place during the last few days. Mr John Gtugg's annual sale was held at Ashburton on May 2, when of 116 offered 114 were sold. The light horses ware mostly yearlings to three-year-olds, by Tarn o' Shanter, bred at Longbeach, which were from colour, height, or other reason unsuitable for the Indian market ; and the draughts were also a miscellaneous lot, but both classes included a proportion of useful sorts. The average price realised was over £7, which, though apparently low, was regarded as satisfactory by the vendors. The sale was strictly without reserve, but when 10s was the best bid fora mare by Traducer from Charm, Mr Grigg was impelled to come in with another crown and retained her.

Mr William Boag's sale, at his homestead, Burnside.Teudaltown, last Tuesday, was a very different affair. It must be ranked as one of the most important sales of pure Clydesdale stock ever held in New Zealand. Mr Boag is one of those happy men who by industry, perseverance, enterprise, and above all uprightness iv all his dealings — even in horses! — has attained to fortune, and now while yet in the prime of life is handing over to his sons the active working of the greater part of his splendid estate. Mr Boag's stud is well known to have been built up from the best blood and quality obtainable from Auckland to Southland, aud from Tasmania, Australia, and {Scotland, and was probably the best all round stud of its size south of the line. There was a largo attendance, including breeders and dealers from all parts of New Zealand, and a sumptuous luncheon was provided. Biddings at the sale were fairly spirited, and every lot was sold, bat the

prices were scarcely such as would have been realised a few years ago. Still the seller was satisfied, and it may safely be said that none of the buyers will have occasion to be dissatisfied. Twenty-nine mares by Iron Duke, Chancellor of Blackhall, Pride of Scotland, Sir Colin Campbell, Rewfrew Jock, Taieri Tom, and other famous. sires realised an average of close upon £24, eight selling at 7gs to 15gs, and the others from 20gs to 45gs. Sixteen two and three-year-old fillies and geldings, mostly by Taieri Tom, brought from 15gs to 40gs, average £22. Yearling colts by Lord Dunmore sold at 17gs and 19gs, and colt foals by the same sire atlsgs andl^gs. The three-year-old entire colt Conqueror, by Pride of Scotland from Gentle (first prize at last Christchurch show), was bought at 80gs by Mr J. Choak, owner of that good horse, Pure Diamond. In trotting stock, the five-year-old gelding Berlin Boy, by Berlin from a thoroughbred mare, sold at 52|gs ; and the four-year-old gelding Burnside, by 13erliu from Black Jean by Talisman, at 72|g8. The other hacks, draught geldings, &c, brought fair prices as times go, and the total of the sale, 70 lots, amounted to £1626 9s. In the public sales the demand is hardly as brisk as a year ago, but there are buyers for all good, sound, young, useful sorts ; while aged, crocks, and nondescripts can scarcely be given away. Very little is doing for export, either to India or Australia. "WOOL. Some of the buyers at the early sales and in the country last season have burnt their fingers. I hear of one buyer whoge purchases at that Lime have been resold at an average loss of £3 a bale. The odd lots that come to market ju^t now fetch very low prices — 5d for Rirap.'.u rv (merino), but sheepskins are very lttMn c/j u\h-t than before the news of the fill m L mdon.

SHEEP DIPPING

Several cases of the death oi rams after, dipping have been reported, and inquiries have shown that it is a practice with some people to mix the dip stronger for rams. Instead of this being done it is safer to make the dip somewhat weaker for rams, their nature apparently rendering them more susceptible to the effects of poison on their skin.

STEAM PLOUGHING,

The success of the system of ploughing by steam power— not the English system of driving the plough by a wire rope attached to a stationary engine, but by attaching several ploughs directly to a traction engine — has attracted considerable attention, and the Canterbury A. and P. Association has decided to hold a public trial of engines, ploughs, and other appliances during the current year. Information on the subject will be useful to many, though at present, when coal is dear and oats cheap, it is improbable that the new idea will make much progress.

Some of the more recently started flaxmillers are already in' trouble, as could only be expected when they began at the top of the market, and their first shipments, when sold at all, have had to be .quitted at minimum prices. The best lot of flai left in Canterbury — that on Hon. John M'Leau's Laghmor Estate, near Ashburlon— was lately offered for sale by tender. A big price was offered for this flax a year ago and refused, and I have not heard how the recent attempt to sell ha 3, gone. The Government proposal to offer a £10,000 premium for the best machinery for dressing flax is nob looked upon with approval hero, it being considered that private enterprise, which has already effected great improvements in 'the mode of preparing the fibre, is quite equal to working out the problem of how best to prepare the flax for market and manufacture. There has been a bit of a controversy about the pricei at which fibre can be placed on board ship, various figures from £11 10s to £20 per ton being quoted. I had occasion lately to go into the matter, and can say that at the present prices of green flax a good article of fibre cannot be put on board ship at LyUelton under £18 a ton ; and in the case of newly-started mills, whose owhers-inust outbid those earlier in the field for the green flax, the cost must often exceed £20 a ton. The iuventor who can utilise the tow for textile fabrics — such as woolpacks — has a, fortune before him. Woolpack* of New Zealand flax would not have the fault of jnte that bits of fibre mix with the wool and cause damage.

farmers' clubs,

_ Now that the Amuri Sheep Farmers' Association seems to have merged into rabbit boards, the Sefton Farmers' Club is the principal live body of the sort in the Northern' districts. Reaper trials, noxious weeds, small birds, aod other subjects of interest to farmers are dealt with, both theoretically and practically. For some years the members have clubbed together to obtain fresh seed wheat from beyotd their district, and this year, as on some former occasions, the required supply is to be obtained from Oamaru and parcelled out among the members. Sush an example is well worth following in other districts, especially as I understand that at Sefton woolpacks, cornsacks, biading twine, and other farm necessaries are procured in the same co-operative way. At Temuka, in South Canterbury, an effort is being made to make the local Caledonian Society the medium of communicating useful knowledge to farmers. Mr A. M. Clarke, president of the society, has suggested the delivering of lectures on agricultural subjects, and Mr M. Murphy, secretary of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, has consented to open the series.

HOESB BREEDING.

The nature of Mr Marquis' last letter puts it beyond the pale of legitimate discussion, and I here will only say that the practice of using any crossbred sire whatever is unanimously condemned by everybody with the slightest knowledge of breeding. As for the stamp of horses used in America for farm work, the light, active ones exist only in the illustrations of implement makers^ catalogues. The number of Clydesdale and Shiro horses exported to America from the United Kingdom during the last few years, and the continued demand for animals of these breeds, show what American horse breeders are doing. Let Mr Marquis visit, any dry day during the grain season, the railway stations at Sefton, Leeston, Southbridge, Rakaia, Chertsey, Winslow, or, bettor still, West streot, Ashburton, and he will acknowledge that whatever the Timaru horses may be like, the farmers' teams north of the Raugitata are hard fo beat in any country in the world. In ordinary circumstances, four of them will travel three miles au hour with a treble- furrow pbugh, and a pair over four miles with a 6ffc or 7ft cat reaper and binder, and put in their eight hours' work a day month after month. A useful Clydesdale gelding or mare, five years old, is worth £20 to £23; a really good one, £30. A gelding or mare of the light sort— there fire a few about— is worth, if sound and upstanding, £14 to £16.

The Onebnnga reservoir, a comparatively new structure, has been found, as the result of a recent test, to be leaking at the rate of 63,000 gallons of water per day.

Ayer's Pills are always ready for use. They are sugar-coated, easy to take, and sura to bring relief and cure. They are effectual in all diseases caused by disorders of the stomach and digestive organs.