AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AND PAS TO RAL NEWS.

In connection with the opinion that a market exists in England frozen pork, as there is for beef and mutton, it is calculated (says the Melbourne Leader) that not less than 3d to 4d per lb would be the net price received by the raiser after all expenses of marketing have been paid. When wheat is at its present low figure it is worthy of serious consideration whether it will not pay better to turn it into pork. The first three to five months of the pigs' living can be got from the grazing paddocks chiefly, and it should not cost much to top them up during the next three months. Young pigs, not more than 9 or 10 months old, should sell readily, and up till this age they can be reared most economically. The cross between a pure Tamworth boar and a pure Berkshire sow gives just the kind of meat that is best liked everywhere, streaked with lean and fat. Nobody nowadays likes meat that is all fat, *nd the suppliers of the dairy creameries and factories ought to give their attention to this subject.

" Bruni," in the Australasian, writes : — '•' Some surprise was expressed by the stockowners in Queensland when the information was telegraphed that Sir Thomas M'llwraith had expressed the opinion that the beef shipped to England from Queensland was much inferior to that received from America. I .am informed that since his arrival in Australia Sir Thomas M'llwraith denies having made the remark. An owner of a very large herd in Queensland informs me that every care is taken by the management of the Lake's Creek Works to freeze none but animals in the best condition. An inspector of the company examines the cattle before they leave the pastures. No steers are taken that will run over 8001b of dressed osrease, or less Jhtm 7501b. The animals are all between three and four years of age, and are generally very well bred. Aged bullocks that run to heavy weights are not accepted under any circumstances, and the only way to dispose of them is to send them to the melting pot or sell them to the canning factories. The prices realised even for the finest fat cattle are extremely low. My informant told me that he never got more than £3 for his best cattle, and he finds it suits him better to sell the fat steers at that price to the freezing company than to ship them on his own account. Aged steers of heavy weights have been disposed of for canning at £2 18s 6d per head." Mr John Wallace, M.LC, has (according to the Melbourne Leader) 3000 acres under lucerne on his station on the Murray, near Corowa. He bought 10 tons of lucerne seed this season for £70 per ton, his immense purchases from various dealers having served to almost clear the market and raise the price of seed to £100 per ton. The quantity of seed sown per acre by Mr Wallace is 12ib. To sow thickly, he says, keep 3 the grass and weeds from growing, and as a result the lucerne plants are not interlerred with, as in paddocks where thin sowing is done.

By getting hides branded low down on the shoulder, instead of all along the side or tump, and by extra care given to the flaying of the beast and keeping the hides clean during the process of slaughtering, the Queensland Meat preserving Company reckons that the quality aud condition of its hides means a net gain of £5000 per annum over what it would obtain were the hides put on the market in the slipshod manner usually adopted.

Of the lambing in Victoria the Melbourne Weekly Times says: — "The present lambing

season is one of the most prolific known for years on the Darling. Ewes and wethers are in tip-top condition, and everything tends towards an abundant clip. It is probable that the sheds which usually start in July will not commence till the middle of August, judging by the present state of the river. Grass is not too abundant. A few inches of rain would now be of great service to the herbage. When the flood ,water 3 recede there should be splendid feed on the alluvial flats."

As showing the great drop in recent pastoral values (says a Melbourne exchange) there is grave significance in the figures recently given by Mr John Cooke that during the past five years Australasia has increased the quantity of wool prodnced by 465,000 bales, or 32 per cent, without receiving a penny more for the total output. The woolgrowers have had to depasture about 24,000,000 more sheep, pay interest upon the cost of the necessary improvements and the working and shearing expenses on the sheep ; and have had to bale up and pay land carriage, railage and freight to Europe on 465,000 bales of wool more in order to barely keep up the previous gross return. For about 15 years past a Californian ranchman has bsen quietly breeding Angora goats, with the distinct object of getting a large flock of improved animals. Recently some other Americans have thought to "go one better," and have visited Cape Colony, buying buck goats especially, and as good does as they can secure. But the Cape farmers do not care to part with their besb animals, and make it a source of congratulation that so far only specimens have been disposed of. They now propose to follow the example of the Turkish Government, and pass an act to prohibit the exportation oE Angora goats, lest other nationalities should come into competition with them. The action proposed is far more likely to bring about that which they wish to avoid. It is well known that Angoras of quite as good a strain as any known in Cape Colony exist in other countries, and it has only been on account of the shortness of supplies limiting manufactures and the apathy of those very opponents who are feared that the product has not very largely increased. Purchasers of Angora goats hitherto, outside Turkey and Cape Colony, have invariably been wealthy men, who have only purchased them as a enriosity. Let it once ba known that there is profit in the business and opponents to Cape farmers will rapidly increase. — Adelaide Observer.

On the qu:sbion of exporting horses from Australia to London, the Sydney Daily Telegraph expresses surprise that "there should be such an extraordinary divergence in the relative marketable value of horses of identical class here and in England. At the present time the shipping facilities are bo advantageous, and the improved appliances and accommodation for transit so great, that the risk of loss on the passage isreduced to a minimum. Added to this, there is the cheapness of the market here, and an existing scarcity of horses in Europe to supply the demand. The first project has just now taken practical shape by a syndicate of London capitalists, through their representative, Mr F. Klein, of London, who has for some weeks past been engaged carrying' out the enterprise. Arrangements are in progress for the shipment of a trial consignment to London, to be forwarded in the course of a few weeks."

According to the Lumsden correspondent of the Southland News the rabbits destroyed during the last two months on the New Zealand Agricultural Company's estate number 14,000. The carcases have been sent Home frozen, plus several bales of skins of which the carcases were not kept. Freezing stopped at the end of last week, as poisoning was to begin on Monday. A correspondent in Monday's North Ofcago Times writes : — "In a local in your paper this morning on rabbits you say that there is no skin disease among them in this district". I merely write to put you right in this matter. A great many of the rabbits killed in the autumn were very mangy indeed, and others had small lumps of matter on their necks and shoulders, popularly supposed to be hydatid cysts. The rabbits here are, in my opinion, scarcer than they have been at any time during the past five years."