AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Dairy cows are in demand in the far north wh.\tever may be the state of affairs in this pait of the colony. The Waikato Times says dairy cows, at their profit, appear to be rather scarce of late, while the demand for them continues to be good. We are led to understand thatthis class of stock — in view of the increasing number of factories, and improved price of milk — are likely to rule high during the coming season. It is -proposed by the New Zealand Dairy Supply Company to start a creamery at Hampden. At a meeting held in the Mechanics' Hall there on the Bth, Mr Birch, the manager of the company, entered into details of the proposal, ami stated that milk suppliers wouhl be paid at the rate of 3d per gallon, returning them the skim milk during part of the year ; during the autumn and spring mouths the price per gallon would be 4d. The movement was warmly supported. The Chairman, Mr Lefeyre, stated that from a canvas of the district he had received a promine of 260 cows. Messrs Lefevre, M'Kerrow, and Nicolson were appointed a sub-committee to represent the milk suppliers and to conßult with the company as to site and other matters. About the beginning of October was the date suggested to start the creamery. Mr M'Lean, of the Stock department, ha» returned to Wellington from his trip up the Coast of the North Island. With reference to the recent mortality in the sheep he considero this owing to the fact that few cf the farmers took much trouble in drenching their sheep ■ He recommends the farmers to stick to sul< phate of iron and salt. Of the increase of 15,000,000 of sheep in Australia, last year, New $ouih Wales bag 6,G00,000. Tha special prices and donations which have been received by thq "Wellington Agfcloultural and Pastoral Association in cmiufcctlyß. witb the

Is 3d per pound. The only places in the great metropolis where New Zealand meat (and that the inferior parts of it) can be purchased are at the East End, where the price averages 6d per pound. Our informant adds that all frozen meat sold in London is known as New Zealand mutton or beef, consequently this colony is branded with the supply bf the tough and inferior meats produced by the other colonies and Buenos Ayres. Mr Robert Bruce, of Darlington, England, has contributed to the Breeders' Gazette, Chicago, a serious of excellent articles on the Aberdeen-Angus cattle. While according to Hugh Watson, of Keillor, the merit of having formed the modern Aberdeen-Angus, he attributes to Mr William M'Combie, of Tillyfour, the praise of having preserved the breed intact, and of having been the means of bringing them into prominent notice. Iv these articles Mr Bruce mentions a fact not generally known, that the black doddies were, at one time, in danger of being wiped out by the übiquitous shorthorn. The splendid grazing and butchering cattle, the result of the cross of a shorthorn bull on an Aberdeen-Angus, was such a superb rent-paying animal that a very large proportion of the holders of polled cattle took to the use of the shorthorn bull, and but for ! the stand taken by Mr M'Combie, not only in keeping the breed pure, but in exhibiting specimens against all breeds both at Home and abroad, the shorthorn and shorthorn crosses would have taken full possession of the Aberdeen-Angus cattle country. Mr Bruce enjoyed many years of unbroken friendship with Mr M'Combie, and is therefore well qualified to write with an intimate knowledge of his favourite polls. A valuable experiment carried out in Scotlaud to determine whether linseed cake or docorticated cotton cake is the more economical food to use with turnips and straw in fattening cattle is recorded in the new volume of the '•Transactions of the Highland Society." Six cattle were fed on one kind of cake and six on the other variety, with turnips and straw ad libitum, while threo animals had no cake. Tho quantity of each kind of cuke given was lib per bead daily during the first five weeks, 21b in the next three weeks, 31b in the third period of ft fortnight, 41b in the fourth period of a fort> eight, s^lb in the next two weeks, and 71b in the last period of four weeks. In tho whole of , the 13 weeks the increase in live weight wan ' 2031b per bead among the beasts which bad linked cake, 2p3lb among the cotton cake lot, ' and 1691b among tfcojg V»bich ,b«d turfeips Bad straw only, The linseed c&'se lot gained Bib each jb Jira weight cr ife« »ve?ag« mote tbau frgs gained by tho coitcn C*k9 lot) pufc tfeijir &*ks Q^U% $ W t &5 59BlpM^ trftfe. ill 7fi §<Si titq

the matter, and would .support any action taken by it in opposition to the action of the grain buyers. Most of tho members present viewed with alarm tho reintroduction of " bags in," and considered the matter should be nipped in | the bud. I The annual meeting of the Stirling Dairy • Factory Company will be held on Saturday, J 3rd September. We (Leader) are glad to say I that the report and balance sheet then to be submitted is a highly satisfactory one, enabling | the directors again to declare the usual divi- , dend to shareholders, after wiping off 10 per cent, for depreciation. During the past season , the directors sent several small trial shipments i to London, which resulted very satisfactorily, ■ and were very highly reported on by the agents I there. The directors recommend payment of 3Jrd net cash per gallon for milk during the ensuing season, promising a further increase should the cheese market warrant it | The local correspondent of the Bruce Herald writes :—": — " I understand a large area of ground is being broken up on Coombe Hay estate this season — about 500 acres, I believe. The 1 greater part of this is very old lea, and will be j put under turnips and osts. Mr Martin, the present manager, is a great believer in feeding , sheep with chaff, and intends to go in for more 1 extensive feeding with chaff than any previous manager on that estate did. He expressed himself to me that ' we will have to go in more for feeding during winter, as these cold bare hills will not keep sheep alive during the cold winter months.' Mr Martin keeps six or seven rabbiters on the estate, and he is to have four or five teams at work during the spring, so that he is thus giving employment to a considerable [ number of hands on the estate." A proof of the excellence to which merino sheep can be brought by attention to breeding and careful depasturing was (says Thursday's Lyttelton Times) shown at the Addingtou market yesterday, when Messrs H. Matson and Co. (associated with the National M. and A. Company of New Zealand, Limited') sold a line of Mr George Rutherford's pure-bred merino wethsrs at the unusual price of 20s, and gradu* ally down to 16s 7d. These ebeep have been bred and reared an the Daletborpe estate, and commanded great Attention from buyers and breeders, as it is seldom that ouch very priluc merino mutton is put on the market. The tfew Zealand Times pooh-poohs the idea of ntiy lambs having been lost through tho roia< take made by the Stock department In its rscommendation for tho treatment of worms. Our Contemporary «&va i-," Tfas pamphlet only having beea leimed In ,/ujte, wo latins could faavts geen Jn any way ajfegteu, bectetfsS at tll£& felffie of tUa jyern? tllere ig net a nitlg)^ l&tfs 1&

Mr Hugh Henry, of Rangiora, lost his third horse last week, alleged to have been choked with the larvra of the bot fly. It would be interesting to learn the result of a veterinary surgeon's 2)ost mortem examination in one of these cases. The Government might do worse than appoint one to look into a few cases in which death is probably erroneously attributed to bots.

Mr J. Mynott, at New Plymouth, butter dealer, was presented with a gold watch and chain on Saturday by a considerable number of farmers in token of their esteem and confidence. Mr B. M. Smith, M.H.R. made tho presentation. Several farmers spoke of what Mr Mynott had done towards developing the butter industry. Among the passengers by the Monowai for 'Frisco was Earl Ranfurley, engaged in fruitgrowing in the Mildura irrigation colony. He is proceeding to California to obtain the latest information about fruit-growing, packing, and grading, and 40,000 Washington navel orange buds.

At the Royal Agricultural Show at Warwick the Prince of Wales' visit to the dairy was prolonged for nearly half an hour. Miss Maidment, the lecturer (says the Birmingham Post), tad the honour of forwarding to the Castle a dish of "ornamental butter" for tho table. This tribute appears to have been much admired, and the purpose of the prince's visit was to see such another dish made up. Miss Maidment, beginning with the butter as it left the churn, shaped a quantity of it into the semblance of a bouquet of Mardchal Neil roses, and offered the finished work to the prince, who bore it off in triumph to his carriage, declaring it to be a veritable work of art. The Duke of York facetiously asked if he might have a buttonhole of the same flowers ; and Lord Brooke assured the modellist that the Countess had for a moment been so completely deceived by the close resemblance to real objects of tho flowers sent on the previous evening that she had instinct ively bent forward to inhale the perfume. Tho effects of light and shade, which are due, in real roses, to the semi-transparency of their petals, is imitated in this case by forming these delicate exfoliations thicker at their bases than at their edges ; and the dainty irregularity of their curves is faithfully reproduced. The Prince was cheered as he carried off his trophy.

A gentleman connected with the shipping trade who has recently arrived here from the old country giveß some interesting information in refereuce to the sale of New Zealand meat in and near London. He informed a member of our staff on Monday that at Clapham (which is just three miles from the great meat markets at Leadenhall and Sinithfield) New Zealand mutton fetches lOd, and beef from Is to

cost of the other cake per bullock. Therefore the decorticated cotton cake proved the more economical food. But this was not the end of the experiment, for the manure made by each lot of cattle was separately used for a crop of barley, and that of the cotton cake beasts produced the best crop. During the first 14 weeks of trial there was scarcely any difference in the gains of the two lots fed on cake, but in tho finishing period of four weeks there was an advantage of between 31b and 41b a head to the beasts which received linseed cake. The figures clearly show that the least economical ration was that of turnips and straw only. Under the heading " Notes from tho Country " a traveller has the following to say re agricultural affairs :—": — " Not during the last nine years has New Zealand shown a more beautiful appearance and a more prolific abundance'of feed, both natural and artificial, than at present. The mild winter, now almost over, has had a most desirable effect on the pasture of the colony from one end of the colony to the other, and everywhere throughout the country stock of all descriptions looks healthy and fat ; sheep, in particular, are looking pictures of health, and I do not hesitate to say that the coming season's clip will be one of the best we have had in New Zealand for some years. The winter has been phenomenal in its effect on all classes of agricultural proceedings. Everywhere ploughing is going on without a hitch, the weather being all that could bo desired for the purpose ; and, judging by the busy attitude of the farmers, there is every appearance of a considerable area of land being under crop this year. The companies and stationholders are also putting a lot of ground under crop— llßo, 1800, 1000, 9000, and 2000 acres are patches I have dropped on during my travels in Canterbury and North Otago. With the above prospects and a good Government, and three or four months' work at once for your Oamaru unemployed, tradespeople in your forward town cf Oamaru have good reasons to look forward to better times than they have been having of late. I thiuk I have given you a fair idea of the state of things generally from Amberly to Palinerston South."

The Clutha Free Press says that Mr Bawers, the Government dairy expert, is expected to deliver a lecture at Owake some time this month, and it is expected that his advent will give an impetus to the manufacture of butter in tho neighbourhood.

The •• bags in" question came up for discussion at the last meeting of the Warcpa Farmers' Club, the Waitahuua Club having written stating that some grain agents were trying to buy grain, bags in, and asking for the club's support in opposing the reintroduction of such a system. It was agreed to inform that club that members of this club heartily concurred in

The rise in tho value of Shetland ponies is interesting. Last century the price of a pony in the islands was LI Is. In 1800 it had risen to L 3. In 1850 the value of the pony for coalmine work was recognised, and now a first-rato pony is worth in the North of England Lls to

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