OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2083, 25 January 1894, Page 12

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) CHRisTCHUitcH, January 22. The great heat of a week ago gave way to heavy rain, during which the The Wenthor wind changed to the south, and and the damage done by the wet was the Crops, reduced to very small dimensions

by the cool breeze that followed the cessation of the rain. No weather could havo been better than that which we have had for the last three days, and it is farmers' own fault if they have not made good use of ii. Most of the oat crop is now ready for harvesting, and a great deal of what is also ripe, and everybody is praying for two or three weeks' fine weather to get the grain safely stacked. This is not a season for threshing from the stook. Much crop has been laid by the rain, but the winds have not been high, and, beyond makiDg harvesting more .tedious, nob much harm has yet been done. Rust has mado its appearance pretty generally without causing much injury anywhere ; caterpillars have been rather destructive in some localities, but tho only strious loss has been caused by the birds, which in some instances have actually taken the whole crop. Excepting these bird-eaten patches the crops are generally heavy — so heavy that though the price of wheat i 3 extremely low, growers will obtain a fair return per acre, while oats will be a profitable crop. Wheat is expected to open at about 2s 2d for good average parcels in the country, and oats about Is 8d to Is lOd. There is so little barley that it does not much matter what it fetchee, but the price is certain to be high — perhaps %a for good malting quality.

The ravages of the small birds havo never been

so bad as they are this season. The They seem to have given up Small Birds their mischievous instinct for the Pest. time being, and become purely

granivorous, and as the grass seeds have been late in ripening they have turned their whole attention to grain. The Geraldine County Council last winter went systematically to work to reduce the pest, but, though the boys say that the birds are now so few that it does not pay to collect heads and eggs, the farmers complain almost as badly as ever. The Ashburton County Council a!ao did much to destroy birds and eggs, but there are still as many as ever, though from figures cited, quite a million [birds and eggs were destroyed last year. The county council paid £420 for eggs and birds — representing over half a-million ; tenß of thousands of ne&ta were

destroyed without any payment from the council ; and the winter's poisoning, natural enemies, and other destructive influences are to be Rddcd. Small birds and bad farming undoubtedly go a long way togethor. Where fields have suffered worst, it is generally seen that fences are overgrown and plantations neglected. For four or five miles round a large town, too, the birds are particularly aggressive, and it is evident that if effectual steps are to be taken, town as well as country must act. In a large private garden at Papanui, surrounded by trees in its own and adjoining grounds, a quarter of an acre is being enclosed with wire netting — fruit trees, bushes, peas, vegetables, salads, in fact; everything — as the birds take all the early produco. Later fruits and vegetables do not suffer so much.

The 40 Lincoln ram hoggets which Mr Henry

Overton sold three weeks ago to Stiul Sheep, go to Sydney were a Bplendid lot.

They were of the same lambing as tho lambs which he took over to the Sydney salea last winter, and which topped the market there ; but the 40 had wintered splendidly, and were, I should say, the best line of stud sheep that ever left New Zealand. Mr F. C. Tabart represented the purchaser in the transaction. Most of our large breeders will send drafts to the North Island fairs — not that they need do so, but to keep the fairs going as a valuable means of bringing buyers and sellers into contact.

Tho third sales of the season wore hold last Friday, when about 8000 bales Wool. were offered, some large clips

■: which usually appear at this series being retarded in shearing by the wet weather, so that the catalogues were smaller than otherwise would have been the case. There was a large attendance of buyers, and the disappointing news from the London sales had very little effect on prices, all descriptions excepting medium and iuferior merino realising full December values ; indeed strong bright crossbreds and longwools and sound scouring wools were a shade dearer^ than in, December. Some well-known clips wore aold, among them : — Eastcott, halfbred 9£d, Bsd, crossbred <B^d, B^d ; Glendore, merino combing 64d; Culverdeu, merino combing 7£d, halfbred hogget ds d, crossbred hogget 8,1 d ; 000 over Buccleuch, merino strong combing BJd, second 6Jrl ; J. Pearson, halfbred first 9£d, second 9|d ; St. Helen's, merino first combing 6jjci, first pieces 6^.d ; Governors over Akaroa, crossbred lamb B^d ; AO, halfbred evvo BJd, merino ewe 7d ; Haldon, first cross ewe 9^d, second cross ewe B^d, first cross hogget 8d ; Hayland, halfbred hogget B£d, merino owo 7d,

merino wether 6£d ; HP over Akaroa, crossbred lamb B£d ; Kinloch, halfbred hogget Bid, B^d, 7-Jd, crossbred hogget B£d, Bd, 7£d, halfbred ewe B£d, B^d, first pieces 6d to 6£d, merino 7-^d, 7d, 6|d, 6^-d, pieces 5Jd ; WHB, halfbred B|d ; Kilsyth, halfbred 9d ; Allandale, halfbred ewe B^3, wether Bid, hogget B£d, crossbred owe B^d, hogget Bd, first pieces 6^d, second pieces SJ, locks 3£d. (This is Mr James Little's halfbred breed.)

There has been more life lately in the sheep market, but most of it has been Sheep. infused by one buyer, who is purchasing both fat and good store sheep. Lambs have also mob a better sale, partly because they have been in better condition, and partly because exporters have been operating freely, in anticipation, no doubt, of very few lambs being killed in the coming season at Home. Prices all round are still Is 6d to 2s lower than at this time last year, the full decline ruling in tbo case of lambs. Old merinos, which a year ago were being rushed for at 5a to 6s, are this year neglected at Is 6d to 2s, and even ab these figures they are not cheap, as they are only lib for boiling down. Cattle and j>iga fetch extreme rales, very few comiDg into the markets.