AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Owing to the long-continued wet weather, the farmers here (writes a Pukeuri correspondent) are haviDg a very bad time. Rust has made its appearance, and the quality of the wheat is expected to be poor. Much of the crop has been ripe for some time, but the ground is so soft that reapers cannot be put on it. A good deal is badly laid and twisted, and will be very difficult to reap. The hay crop has beeu almost all lost, but grass is everywhere abundant. Unless the weather takes up, tbe wheat already cut will soon begin to sprout." A Wellington inventor is said to have perfected and patented a freezing apparatus which will revolutionise the frozen meat trade. It is expected that every large butcher will be able to attach a small machine to his establishment, and thus indefinitely extend the process of preserving meat. Some extraordinary weights of sheep fleeces in the Hawke's Bay district have been recorded. A Lincoln ram yielded 331b of wool, three yearling ewes gave 291b, 261b, and 261b respectively, and a two-year-old ewe with lamb at foot 241b.

Mr M'lntyre, the Victorian Minister for Lands, who recently visited this colony, was banqueted by his constituents at Maldon. He claimed that his village settlements had been a success. He said there had been altogether 125 settlements established, The total area alienated for homestead associations was 20,016 acres, and for village settlements 46,120.acre5. The average area held by each person under Part I was 12 acres, and under Part II 40 acre*, or an average of rather less than 23-£ acres to «ach person. Some 140,000 sonls hid been placed on the land during five month?. If .fc was necessary to retrench fmtber the Govtrument would do it rather than impose fresh burdens of taxation on the people. Butter export waß now a well-established industry. There was room for an immense trade in cheese, for which the dry climato was better suited than that of New Zealand, where it had been so "ucoessfully prosecuted, and the frozen meat industry would make Victoria jump to the f -out. But in order to establish the prosperity of the country there muEt be cheap freight on the

railways. If not a farthing of profit was made} the people got the money indirectly if not directly. The great amount of damage done by the sparrow daring the grain season has naturally gained for him such an unenviable reputation that his good qualities have been entirely forgotten. That he still retains some, the following paragraph from the North Otago Times proves beyond a doubt, but the aiserfcion that the bird's instincts are undergoing a change will scarcely bear looking into, as it has always been acknowledged that he was insectivorous as well as grauivorous. Our contemporary says :— " The sparrow is said to be slowly changing its natural instincts, and does not now seek to find in grain its enly food. The other day, near Oamaru, a number of sparrows were watched chasing some kind of fly that flew close to the ground. The sparrows were generally successful in their onslaught. It is said that the sparrows in Canterbury have waged war against the bot fly. One thing is certain, and that is that if the sparrow is to live he will have to turn his attention to other things than grain, for their numbers preclude the possibility of a sufficiency of food of that kind being available all the year round. This may be the reason why they are gradually becoming insectivorous." The Christchurch Press of 7th inst. says : — "A singular accident occurred yesterday to a polo pony belonging to Mr H. C. Ken 1 , in Delamain's stables. The horse was found in the morning with the off hind hoof firmly wedged into his mouth. Caulks had been put on the shoes, and these bad rubbed all the skin off the roof of the mouth." Our (Sydney Mail) London correspondent telegraphs that a syndicate of leading firms proposes to acquire by purchase Messrs Shields and Elliott's automatic temperature regulator, which is intended to maintain the temperature of frozen beef at a uniform degree. It is believed that it will make Australian beef equal to American chilled beef. Ie is stated that the freezing works at Waitara are to be closed as the result of want of support by the farmers of the district. Mr A. M'Kenzie, of Merrijig, Victoria, informs the Mansfield Courier that he has been poisoning rabbits with pollard and phosphorus with splendid results. About a dozen pounds of pollard poisoned with {.hosphorus were laid in scratches wherever rabbits were seen. The result was 270 counted rabbits, and it was reckoned that for every one seen there were tea dead in the burrows. A burrow was dug out and 15 dead rabbits found in it. The statement that rabbits will not eat pollard at this time of .the year is disproved by Mr M'Kenzie's experience. While riding into Wangs nui a few days ago a settler, who tells the story to the Chronicle, says he noticed large numbers of caterpillars crossing from one side of the road to the other. They extended for some two or three chains along the road. The Sydney Mail tbus tells of the death 'of a useful New South Wales agriculturist :— "C. T. Bagot died on Saturday last, at Coraki, Richmond river. Tbe late gentleman was, in every sense of the words, an enthusiastic agriculturalist and dairyman-. When squatting, as he was during the sixties, seventies, and eighties, at Ben Lomond, the highest part of New England, he a dairy herd, mainly of the Devon breed, and made cheese of very fair quality. Dairying at 5000 ft above sea levul where the winter was extraordinarily severe was not at the time mentioned profitable, but it pleased Mr Bagot, who came of the same stock as the worthy Canon Bagot, who did so much service to the farmers of Ireland. It would appear that the late C. T. Bagot failed to make squatting pay, for some years ago he had to leave his old mountain home and take to agriculture on the Richmond. He was a charitable,, good colonist, who did much service to the cause of agriculture in this colony." The Maori brought to Lyttelton a consign* ment of purebred sheep, which were placed in quarantine on Thursday afternoon. She left London with 17 rams and ewes, tat meeting with exceptionally bad weather no fewer than 11 received injuries from which they subsequently died, while several of the remaining six show unmistakable signs of the severe weather experienced during the voyage. The sheep landed comprise two Shropshire rams to the order of Mr P. Cunningham, and three English Leicester ewes and one Border Leicester ram to the order of Messrs Little Brothers. Of the sheep which died on the voyage the New Zealand Land Company, Messrs Little Brother*, and others were consignees. The animals came out in charge of Mr F Dormer, who appears to have done ail in his powtr for their welfare. The Dipton correspondent of the Southland Times writes on the 7th : — " An insect that has made its appearance here this year, is very hard on the plum trees. It is not the black leech that makes its appearance annually. In one garden I saw the trees loaded with plums and not a single leaf. We have also had a visit from the bot fly. I hear of two instances of horseß being attacked. — Harvest is going on apace, but it will be near the end of the month before it is general. We have only average crops this season, and the se have been lowered considerably by weather and birds, both of which have been pretty bad of late." - In the New York State there has been for some years a cheese brand law, under which every manu-aotuier of full-milk choose may pub a brand upon each, cheese indicating "fullmilk cheese," and the date when made, and no parson shall use such a brand upon any cheese made from milk from which any cream has been taken. The dairy commissioner in his last report sta'e; that the law continues to grow in favour, and it is recognised by the wholesale dealer, the retail dealer, and by the exporter as a guarantee that the cheese is full cream whenever the brand is upon it. The commissioner adds that the demand for State brand cheese will, in his opinion, oause .every manufacturer to brand bis cream cheese if full cream, and then the p'oblem of branding skim cheese will be solved, as a cbeese with no brand on it will be classed as skim cheese. The last report of the dairy commissioner gives the number of c-eameries and cheese factories in the States a* 2000. Mr A. B. Harrison, of Bell Block, has brought to the office of the Taranaki News a portion of ths backbone of a fat bullock which was slaughtered a few days ago at Mr Bayley's elaughteryard. In the bone was firmly embedded a portion of a prong of a hayfork, 7in long, which had pierced the spinal cord, and the animal had lived and thriven after the injury. It is supposed that the injury was inflicted when the animal was young and the bones were comparatively soft. The Mount Ida Chronicle says that the seagu'ls still continue to destroy a large number of lambs and weak ewes, and some action requires to be taken to prevent the depredations of these pests. It is quite a common thing for weak ewes and defenceless lambs to have their eyes picked out, and the gulls are growing more numerous and more destructive every year. It is being recognised that some action will have to be taken, and it is suggested that poisoned meat be distributed about the fields frequented, by these feathered marauders. (Continued <m j>asre It)