OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 22

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(Fuom Oub Own Cobeespondent.) j Chbistchtjbch, June 12. The weather for the last month has been very fine and genial until the last few TJio days. All vegetation made wonSeason. derfril growth for the time of r- year, and to those farmers who are overstocked— and there are many of them in spite of all past warnings— the abundance of grass, watery though it is, has been a Godsend. The potato crop has been pretty well secured, and most of the growerß have pitted them with the confidence that prices will be better m the spring. Present prices leave very little profit to the grower. Good, progress has baen made ( with farm work, and' sowing haß been done under conditions seldom experienced in winter. Autumn-sown crops look very well as a rule, and have afforded an unusually early and plentiful bite for Bheep. The weather has been all in favour of live stock, and Bheep, cattle, I and pigs have come to market in excellent condition, while stores are well prepared for j any .weather that may come along. The fine ! weather came to an end the middle of last week. The first change was from genial , autumn weather to keen frosts, followed by i snow, which on Saturday was the heaviest that can be remembered in many localities, the earth being covered to a depth of from 2in to 4in, according to situation. A high wind accompanied the snow, so that we may expect to hear of losses of sheep in exposed localities. The sno w melted very quickly on the low country, but wet stormy weather seems to have set in, and farmers will have to do a lot of artificial feeding for some time. This, however, is not so serious a matter as it would have been a few years ago, for nearly every farmer now has appliances for cutting and feeding hay, straw, or chaff, and for slicing turnips, so that a little extra energy or a little extra labour will keep 1 things going. Live stock of all kinds, too, is well worth taking care of in these times, j A wintry day such a3 Saturday was did not ! help visitors to appreciate to j Frozen the full the wonders of latter- j Chrysantlie. day enterprise —in fact, it muiiiH. looked almost natural in such weather to see .chrysanthemums —or anything else —in ice. The culture of chrysanthemums has taken a great hold in nearly every part of Canterbury, and they are almost the only flowers that farmers have taken much to — perhaps because they bloom at a period of the year when the farmer has time to notice them. The frozen blooms were very fine and large, bat most of the sorts are grown here, and individual blooms as fine as the English ones have been produced by our local growers. As a whote they have not been equalled here, | and every flower gardener and everybody who wishes to see what freezing has come to should | see these chrysanthemums when they are shown in Dunedin. The frequent, indeed almost general, absence of any garden on the small Farm farms " in Canterbury is one Gardens, of those things that strike a traveller, and of coarse does not increase his admiration for the district. In the days when there was no shelter and no water gardens were an impossibility. Vege-' tables and fruit trees would get on all right till the first nor'-wester descended upon them, and then they would be either battered to shreds or blown bodily away. With shelter and water available a few farmers have made their homesteads beautiful and healthful by gardens, but j they are still in the minority. There are scores ( of farmers on the plains who do nob even keep a cow ! They buy condensed milk, they buy potatoes, and green vegetables and fruit are unknown on their tables. The farmers in the water-race districts who repeatedly apply for leave to irrigate small patches of land for gardens are invariably men who already have gardens, and .wish to have better ones. Many of the country schoolmasters would teach the children gardening, but the sclfools are generally built on the worst bit of land in the district — impervious to spade, and the young gene- j ration grows up without idea of anything belter than ploughing in a quarter acre of potatoes, j which when they are dug are not fit to eat. The only remedy seems to be the spread of knowledge, yet under the circumstances it is difficult to see how the knowledge is to be spread. A The Central Dairy Factory is running in a very small way, but with the advent Dairying, of spring wilL be well employed. Farmers will be forced to send their milk to the creameries, for factory butter has practically driven the ordinary dairy-made article out of the market. Large quantities come here and to the inland towns from North Island factories, and the local factory will have to give heed to this important branch of the trade, and not confine themselves to export. The Christchurch retail price for factory batter at present is Hd and 15d per lb, and some of it is not of " gilt-edged " quality. Indeed, some of it looks to me like blended dairy butter put up in imitation of the factory style. Cows are very dear, and some have recently been brought I from as far away as Invercargill and sold at prices which paid the importer. There is a fear that dairy farming is booming just a little | too much just now. Dairymen talked about raising the retail price of milk, but it is still : supplied at 6d per half gallon, or 4d per quatt. J Cattle-breeders are having a slight return at last for their long patience, and have made some satisfactory sales lately. Mr John Deans has recently imported^a very fine shorthorn j 1 bull from Mr J. H. A^ngas, South Australia. Mr Deans long ago gave up keeping his herd up to show form, and by thus keeping down expenses he i 3 able to take a moderate price for j bulls of the ve»y best blood, which give satisfaction to buyers. The Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association have endorsed a Small resolution of the Geraldine Birds. County Acclimatisation Society — that the Government' should pass a bill empowering county councils to enforce systematic action in dealing with the small bird pest. Some of the members during I the discussion told harrowing tales of the destruction done, especially to barley. (This is a great reason for the decreased cultivation of barley.) Last summer the Ashburton County Council paid for upwards of half a million eggs and heads, and as it is certain that as many birds were poisoned in the winter, a million were destroyed in one year. The sparrows are certainly less numerous in many localities than they were two years ago, but they are still the heaviest tax that the grain-growers suffer. Ashburton has three (or more) patents for bird poison — Brooke's, which has a reputation throughout New Zealand ; Smith's, prepared by the Ashburton Drug Company, which has proved very effective since its recent introduction ; and Powell's "Longbeach Destroyer," which has some wonderful records to its credit, and whioh has made Longbeach freer of birds than it has

been for many years. Mr Powell himself lays the poison, and has picked up as many as 80 dozen of dead birds in two hours, and 200 dozen in two days. He declares that it is of no use laying the poison promiscuously ; it must be spread in the birds' feeding places, and he makes it his first business to find these out. The A. and P. Association also passed resolutions approving the principle of Agricultural the Land Drainage Bill and Politics. Stock Bill, suggesting a tremendous mass of amendments in each. At the same time a resolution against a return to the political management of the railways was carried for reasons stated — the reasons to be sent to the Ofcago Association. Sheep are selling better than they were a month ago, but it v probable Markets. that the winter weather will weaken prices of stores again. Cattle of all sorts sell well, and beef is so scarce that importations from the North Island are again spoken of. Bacon pigs are steady, and Mr Vecht will have to increase the production ' of pork very considerably to get 1401b pigs at 3d per Ib. The mills are doing a tremendous trade in flour at the low prices, and wheat is selling at a bett3r price to them than there is any prospeci of obtaining by shipping. Oats also are firm, especially ssed qualities, from which it may be inferred that a large area is being sown this season. One of the most sensible ideas that has come from an acclimatisation society Acclimatisa- of late is that of the Geraldine tion. Society, which, having a good balance in hand, have asked the Canterbury A. and P. Association to suggest any plant of agricultural value which it would be desirable to introduce and acclimatise. The suggestions were that certain valuable forage plants should be introduced, and Mr Murphy was to send a list.