STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

By Dkovbe.

STOCK SALES. Addington.— Each Wed- Gore.— Alternate Tuesnesday days Ashburton. — Alternate Heriot.— Periodically Tuesdays Invercargill. — AlterBalclutha.— Monthly nate Tuesdays Burnside.— Each Wed- Kelso.— Periodically nesday Kyeburn. — Periodiinton.—Monthly cally Winton.— Monthly.

[Communications of interest to stockbreeders and dealers are cordially incited. AH communications to reach Witness oflico not later than Monday night,]

There are good times in store for southern sheepgrowers. The Southland Frozen Meat Company and the J. G. Ward Company have been for some time eagerly competing for the favours of growers, and the competition promises to become more keen still. At an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the former company last week it was decided to increase the capital of the company to £100,000 by the creation of 12,000 new shares at £5 each. Of these it is expected that Turnbull, Martin, and Co. and the New Zealand Shipping Company will take 4000 shares in consideration of being permitted to elect two directors, and with the object of loading at the Bluff. With the additional capital so obtained the purchase of sheep will bs entered upon. The contract with the Shipping Company is to cirry the meat for five years at Id per lb, with 10 per cent, primage and 5 per cent, return, which is the rate paid by the Belfast, Islington, and other works for which the company act as carriers. If the rate from other works is reduced at any time the rate from the Bluff is to be reduced also. Sheepowners may now rely upon getting the utmost value for their sheep with two eager buyers in the market, not to mention outsiders, keenly alive to the necessity for keeping their works going, and it is evident Southland's day has come at last. Growers will have their choice between selling^ outright to the company or shipping through them, but I suppose nearly everybody will prefer the former method, as ife involves no risk. Cattle that have to be driven in mobs or trucked to market lose considerably in value from their horns being in the way and either getting broken off or wounding other animals. Dishorning has been persistently advocated and as persistently condemned because of the alleged cruelty. But this is because the cruelty consists in cutting off the horns from the adult animals with a saw, and it is said to cause more pain in the aggregate than would be caused by allowing the horns to remain. As has been mentioned in these columns previously, there is another method that is almost absolutely painless. The calf is taken when a few days old, and the soft protuberances or incipient horns are denuded of hair and gently scraped with a knife. Then lunar caustic is rubbed on the point, which has previously been slightly wetted. If this is done properly the horns will not grow at all, and the calf suffers little if any pain. Tnis is a simple method, and should be universally adopted, because horns are of no earthly use to cattle, and are frequently the cause of damage in various ways. I remember when the pleuro-pneuuionia broke out in Victoria, cattle were inoculated for it, and the place chosen was the tail. One consequence was that many tails dropped off at the point of inoculation, which was about lft from the root. This was not only a disfigurement, but a positive injury to the animals ia a country where flies are troublesome in summer. But no such risk attaches to the removal of the horn«. As a matter of fact, not one valid objection can be advanced against dehorning. But, stay, lam hasty. There is one objection, but it only exists where cattle have to be shipped. A dealer who used to ship fat cattle to Tasmania before the quarantine regulations were made so striDgent that the business was spoiled, informed me that cattle with horns sustained far less injury on the voyage than poleys, because their horn 3 saved them from concussions when the ship rolled. Cattle are always placed athwart-shipp, and after a few days they become quite knowing, and steady themselves with their horns against the ship's side. The same thing might operate in railway trucks, but any one who has seen a cattle truck travelling loaded, but not so full but that the cattle could be knocked about, must have felt pity for the broken horns and gored sides. There ia another foolish custom that baa

f nothing to recommend it, and it entails a large annual loss on the persons who continue to practise it, and that is fire-branding cattle on parts of the body where the hide is the most valuable. Branding cattle on the rump or on the upper part of the ribs is sheer waste, as it depreciates the value of the hide. Only the other day a deputation waited upon the New South Wales Minister for Agriculture and asked him to incorporate in the Branding Act a provision that cattle must be branded on the jaw or on the shoulder. They stated that the annual loss inflicted on the colony by branding was not less than £200,000, and that whenever they required superior leather, they had to import it. There is very little cattle duffing nowadays, and a man does not want a brand on a beast that he can see half a mile away. It is not as on the cattle ranches in America, where they throw the animal, and with a hot iron resembling a soldering iron scarify a brand extending from ehaulder to rump, thus almost entirely destroying the hide for manufacturing purposes. A writer in the Waimea Plains Review has been visiting some neighbouring stations while shearing was under way, and has elicited some interesting information, practical and historical. From his account I learn that the lambing at Glenure, as ascertained at marking time, reached the high average of 90 per cent. At Ardlussa the yield was 9l£ per cent., and at Waikari Plains 60 per cent. The two former are very good averages, and speak well for the shelter available for the ewes and lambs. The last-named station has some very high and rough country, and the plain on the terrace is very bleak in cold weather. There has been considerable discussion in 'Victoria about the custom of keeping the names of the judges a secret until the opening of the show. The implied distrust is a reflection on the judges, and the custom has long been abandoned at Home. But the colonial custom has arisen more from accident than design. My experience has been that the secretary of the association or society has* been instructed some little time before the show to communicate with a number of gentlemen asking them to officiate, and in default of their being able to comply, to ask others. Motives of propriety

necessitate privacy in such negotiations, and probably not even members of the committee know until the day of the show who the judges are to be. Certainly I never knew the names to be known in time for printing in the catalogue. There seems no more harm in knowing who is to be judge at a show than who is to be judge at a horse race. There was a better entry of sheep at Burnside last week, 1536 being penned, and prices receded accordingly, even though butchers were short. The pound was topped in one case with crossbred wethers in wool, and prices ranged down to 11s 6d for medium shorn ewes. At the monthly sale at Riversdale bidding was unsatisfactory and few lines were disposed of under the hammer. Crossbred hoggets brought 12s 93, crossbred wethers (shorn) 9s 4d. At Gore fortnightly sale a small entry of about 800 came forward. Gore is more a dealors' market than one of supply. Fat sheep ranged from 15s downwards. Cattle were also a poor entry, both in quality and quantity, at Burnside. Ooly 74 head, and these mostly medium, were entered, and prices ranged from £12 7s 6d for extra good bullocks to £6 17s 6d ; cows, £9 17s to £3 17s 6d. Store cattle have been sold privately at £5 2s 6d per head. At Addington last week the market showed a small supply and a brisk demand, the improvement being most marked in lambs and pigs. Store sheep and cattle sold well — particularly the former. Beef sold at from 22s to 24s per 1001b, mutton at 2d to nearly 2^d net, lambs at 9s to 10s for medium, 10a 6d to 12s 3d for prime, and up to 16s 3d for exura heavy. Pork realised fancy prices. The lambs here referred to as topping the market at 16s 3d were bred by Mr Campion, of Broadfields, and were only lambed in the list week in August. These were an exceptionally fine line, as the price showed. After undergoing the statutory period of quarantine at Lyttelton, there wero discharged on Friday last two two-tooth pedigree Shropshire Down rams imported by Mr Parry and Mr W. Grant, of South Canterbury. One is from the herd of Mr Minton, of Montford, Shropshire, being named "Emigrant." The other was bred by Mr W. Thomas, of Endon, Salop, and was exhibited before his departure at the Shropshire and West Midland show, j obtaining a commended certificate, He ia i

named "Knighton Boy." Report speaks avourably of the condition of the sheep after their detention in quarantine. Pleuro-pneumonia is reported as having broken out 50 miles to the east of the Burro, South Australia, among two lots of cattle. Five hundred head have been inoculated, and 300, comprising the remainder, are to be inoculated shortly. So far the losses are light, but the inspector entertains fears that the disease is spreading. He has been informed that pleuro is on the north-east track, about 100 miles from j Burro, and is visiting that locality. The sales of store sheep have begun in Canterbury, the first sheep fair having just been held at Culverden. There were few buyers present, and under 7000 sheep were offered. The following lines were disposed of : — For Mr Walter M'Farlane, Kaiwarra, 200 two-tooth halfbred wethers (part line) at 9s Bd, 248 twotooth half bred ewes at 9s 6d. For Mr Edgar Jones, Pahau Pastures, 70 fat crossbred wethers at 13s 6d. For Mr Duncan Rutherford, Leslie Hillp, 240 merino wethers at 4s 9d. For Mr W. O. Rutherford, Montrose, 2850 merino wethers, six-tooth and full-mouthed, at 4s. For Messrs Hayter, Wharton, and Co., Highfield, 409 full-mouthed merino wethers at 3s. The St. Leonards halfbred wether hoggets were bought in at 9s 3d. For Balmoral estate, for Mr W. Thomson, 780 merino wethers at 4s 4d. At the corresponding sale of last season the St. Leonards halfbred hoggets brought 12s to 12s 2d, the Balmoral merino wethers ss, the Montrose merino wethers 6s 5d to 6s 6d, and the Leslie Hills merino wethers 5s 5d to 5s 7d. It must be noted, however, that some of the merino drafts were much smaller than those sent forward last December. One of the advantages to a newspaper of being good friends with the Government is that you can get early information. A case in point has just occurred with regard to the sheep returns of the colony. They have been made up for the year ended April 30 last, and'were laid on the table of the House in manuscript form in the expiring hours of the session, but were overlooked. The printer has just concluded his work, some necessary alteration and cor" rections having been made ; but no newspaper got the returns till Monday with the exception of the Lyttelton Times>

whose correspondent at Wellington secured a copy last Friday and telegraphed the substance of it to his paper. Why an important return like this should be concealed until December — for a period of seven months — is more than I can tell. The number of sheep in the colony in April 1893 was 19,357,730, or an increase of 786,978 on the year before. Of the increase the North Island claimed 461,064, and the Middle Island 325,914. There were 2,370,077 merino wethers and 3,288,947 merino ewes ; 4,535,761 wethers of other breeds, and 9,187,584 ewes ; 2,467,899 breeding merino ewes, and 6,293,761 breeding ewes of other breeds. The number of sheepowners in the colony on April 30, 1893, was : — Auckland, 2178, being an increase of 236 over the previous year ; Napier, 1226, being an increase of 89 ; Wellington and West Coast, 3321, being an increase of 287 ; Marlborough and Nelson, 1332, being an increase of 52; Canterbury and Kaikoura, 3359, being an increase of 298 ; Otago, 3363, being an increase of 287 ; — total, 14,779, being an increase of 1249. I regret that I am unable to do more at present than submit the naked figures. Comment must be postponed until the returns come to hand, but it may be noted with satisfaction that in spite of the drain caused by freezing the increase in the number of sheep in the colony continues. There as been excessive mortality among the lambing ewea this season in the Maniototo district. One authority says the loss has been the greatest experienced for 15 years. The cause is said to have been the severity of the winter and the antecedent weakness of the mothers. Perhaps must be added to this the prevalence of the custom of mating large, longwool rams with old merino ewes.