AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2150, 9 May 1895, Page 15

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The committee appointed iv connection wifch the recent address by Mr Bragato on vice and fruit culture iv Central Otago held its fi'sfe mcstii'g on the 3rd icsb. Mr A. Batbgati, ciairruan of committee, presided. It was resolved—" That an association bs formed, to be called 'The Central Ofcago Vine aqd Fruitgrowers' Association,' with the objtcb of promoting the establishment of vine aud fruit culture in Central O'ago ; and that a nulscription of 5s constitute membership." Mr Bafogate consented to act as treasurer pro tern., aud the city was divided into sections for canvass by members of the committee. It was decided fch it a3 i oou as, say, 100 members are enrolled a meeting be convened for the election of officebeaters, fco. The secretary was asked to place himself in communication with (he various horticultural and agricultural societies in Otago and Southland. The meeting then adjourned for a week. At the request of Mr T. W. Krk, Government biologist, a number of thoae interested gathered at the City Hotel on Friday to inspect his collection of weeds. The collection, which embraces from 240 to 250 specie*, is a rare one, and very complete. It is divided into the following eection3 :— (1) Spinous plants and burra damaging wool, (2) weeds of cultivated land, (3) weeds of pasture laud, (4) weeds of water courses, (5) parasitic plants such as dodder, &c. The collection was inspected with the greatest interest, and the absolute necessity of some legislation to cope with the evils arising from the propagation of weeds was frequently expressed. The following is an extract; laken from the report of Mr Kirk to the Government in 1894:— "It has betn remarked that the weeds of a country are not usually indigenous to that country, and this remark applies very forcibly to New Zealand. Our weeds are imported. Plants under natural conditions are not frequently weeds : it is when the conditions of growth become unnaturally favourable that they develop and multiply so rapidly as to be considered injurious to the husbandman and pastor&lut. Unfortunately, this colony aonoars to supply thesa unnaturally

favourable conditions to a very undesirable degree ; for weeds, injurious fungi, and injurious insests alike multiply in our genial climate to a most marvellous oxtont. Tne weeds in this ou'itry may bs likened to an invading nr/ny which, if uot OArefully w«tched :uid opposed at every point, will soon wrest thj soil from the lawful po"-a<f"ors." The cablegram which we publish elsewhere stating that 200 of the tsheep by the BAiiffsh're were sold at 4-3s each and the others at 33s would sdem to indicato that live sheep cm be sent to Loadon with more advantage than frt.z i n carcases. The 200 referred to in the cable were in all probability the 200 (pie large three-quarterbred wethirs from the Edentfale estate, estimated to weigh from 80' b to 85!b. The other 50 were a nice lot of halfbred (first-cross Romney) wethers averaging about 70'b, bred by Mr Nicho'sou, of Ida Valley. These were purchased by Mr Brydone m types of what halfbred sheep B'iould be. The average value of the sheep here when shipped was given as about 11s. The cost of freight, fodder, insurance, landing charges, &3 was estimated ab £1 3s 7d per head, bo that the cost landed in London, if the latter e*lim>»te proved correct, would be £1 14-s 7d. As the sheep would aopnar to have av.jragod £2 2-J in Londoa, the NewZe%land and Ans L . alian Laud Company and M<s*ra Turnbull, Martin, pih! Co., iv who?e j'jint interest the experiment wis made, will reap some advantage from their enterprise. Baron yon Mueller ha=? been vising Port Fairy (s*ys the M« lbourne Le id- r) to inspect the mirrnm grsss plantations. He was rtC-h'eJ by the miyor and councillors, and tte Baudhills on the east aud southern const} ware visited. Some 15 yeirs ago B iron yon Muelhr fist supplied the mcl ot the marram g a->s to the local council to experiment with, ai:d this was tVe first time he had witnessed thespU-ndid growth Over 150 acres of what were originally drifting swdhills have bteu reckimed, and large quantities of the grass supplied to New Z-fthnd, Tasmania, Africa, an<l ca'jh of the Aostrilian colonies. In each c*ee the method of pUntin^ adopted by Mr S A^ery, thf park ranger, lias been fucvhsFul in the highest degree. The season for tr*n«i>lanting ia between April and July, and »t prcunt applications from Queensland (where, the marram lias already proved a success) and WVst Australia, besides thixe from within Victoria, are now being supplied, 27 men being employed in the work of thinning out the gr.»«s in paces where its thick g.-owth will permit. Som< thing like 200 tons is to ba sent aw»y this season to various parts of the southern hemisphere. The cattle on the borough reserves are mainly kept on marram gras6 during the winter, and this feature mak^s it additionally valuable A big meeting of sheep farmers will be held on Friday next at Feilding to consider Mr Nathan's fr< zrn me\t scheme. The Chmtsburch Press mentions with pardonable pride that by the Aotea Messrs Andrews and Beaven are shipping to the order oF Mr Montgomery, of Kinross, ScotHnd, one of their travelling double- bagger steam power chiflfcuttpw. A Hawke'a Bay paper s\ys:— "Tho average expenditure by the settlers of the Whare»mi di'tict on rabbit destruction is £10,030 One stntionholdarV expenditure for s>rne years ha? i been between £700 and £800 a year, and another quire £1200." The Buenos Ayces correspondent of the Australian PastoralistV Review, writing on February 6, says :—": — " Mr Daniel Kiugnland has shipped for England daring tho Insb month 8800 wethers, 1180 steers, and 60 hoive*. The sheep all weighed well over 60 kilos up to 90, and tin eteer^ all well over 600 kilos. The horses were Clydesdale colb3, four-year-olds, handled but not broken, suitable for trams or 'buse?, and were bought here for £8. They were bred in the Pampa Central on hard camp. Others of fcho sanae class s^nt formerly have realised in England from £22 to £27." The f-xust text of the statement which was cabled to tke Times (L'mdou) in February last re-p^cting "adv>inres" offered by the Canadian Government to stimulata the export of freshmade cream°ry bu t?r to England is that the dairy coinmis<ioner at Ottawa has "been authorised to pay advances at the rate of 20c j per Ib (lOd per lb) on creamery butter of finest quality made between January 1, 1895, aud March 30, 1895 when put up in neat clexn ■ packages, and delivered to the or.Ter of the j dairy commissioner at Montreal. The freight charge* to Montreal will be paid by the dairy commissioner. It is recommended that the colour of this butter should be distinctly less yellow than Juue grass butter, and that it should be caltpd at the rate of ijozof Ens butter salt per lb of butter. " Th* oVjecb of the advauces is to enable managers of cream Ties "to make jm rnenifl " to farmers who supply the milk or cream. No'hing is intimate J as to the repayment of the advance?, and consequently an impression got abroad in England that the so-called advances are in effect identi"al with a bounty. It is surmised that it is a bounty, called by another nairn, and granted with a viewtoencouragewinter dairyingin C*mda. On the other hind, as the butter h to be delivered to the ordor of the dairy c )mmissioner, it <vould seem as if that official mu*t have the ontrol of its dispo<al, and therefore could deduct from the market returns the amounts advanced. In any ca c e <he advance is equivalent to quite twothirds of the current price of Home-made butter. In 1894 the United Kingdom imported from abroad live f-tock and dead miat valued at somathing in tx^esi of £23,000,000. To the items which made up this Urge totti, according to statistics published in the L°nlon Tinaes, the Argentine Rnpublic contributed 1.675,000 fivwn eh'ep, 90.000 live «h«ep, 29,000 quarter* of fivzpn beef, and 28,000 live bullock 3, figures which thow that the Argentine is already a great facto- in the sources of British meat supply. Up to 1880 the Argentine produced no bullocks good enouafh to ship to England, the j native cattle, called criollo, being rough, light, j animals, wild aod unmanageable. During the last 15 years, however, the best English pedigree cattle hava been introduced, thousands of shorthorn and Hereford bulls have been used, and a great proportion of the criollo cattle have . been transformed into grand exossbreds. As an illustration of the progress made, the Times mentions the sale in England last year of some four-year-old crossbred shorthorn steers, bred by the late Mr John Na*h, Santa Fe. Raised on the natural prairie grasses aud fattened on alfalfa (lucerne), they received no grain of any descript'on, and yet realised in England £25 per head. Til recently citble wore nob fattened in the Argentine up to an Englishman's idea of a fdt boast, as almost all the m'phu ww sent to Brazil and C.ibx, femi-tropical countries whose j inhabitants do not eat fat meat,m c at, and, supposing they did care for ir, could not afford to pay for it, the conspquences being that Argentine ranchmen gave no attention to the fattening of cattle. This state of affairs created a middleman — the invernador as he is called — who does net breed cattle, but buys store beasts and fattens them until they are flt for export, when they are sent to different markets. The heaviett of the native criollo catble are kept on alfalfa for some time and are then driven across tie Andes into Chili. A better class of

[ animal, crossbred, weighing on an average about 11501b live weight, is sent to R o de Janwiro and other Braz ; lian port*, whilst the b-ist, h a avU i ßt| and f-ttkst animals ara shipped to E gland. The expoit of live s ook hat become of groat importance, the ofliinl v.-hio of live cattle and sh(Op exported 'from AwnHne pirts in 1891- b -ing over £1,000,000. The English butche-s found fault with th I Argeu'ine b if.s'.s, for though the meat Wiis good it was not «s bright in colour as the North America 1 * cira-fed beef, and consequently sold at h'f>m !j'l to Id per lb lower than its gre&t rival. The sheep were batter, and th'i butchers classified thorn the same as the C^nadian^, and paid the satnepric^ for them — S.I psr lb, Binking the off'il. In the Times, March 11, it is notad that, "The arrival in England ot Mr Derenzy E. Brett, a R'verPJa^e breeder, who repre«<nts a f-yndicate of British invernadora and cattle and" sheep brooders, marks a new departure in the trade. Mr Brett and his friends are making arrangements to supply the Uuited Kingdom with livg3 quantities of c&ttle and sheep, carefully prepared and sent over in catt'e ships." Tbe proposal is to deliver stears in eve-y way equal to the b^st American or Canadian cittle, bu'i costing much lees, and ia pro^f of the syndicates ability to do so, it if mentioned that at the dite above Mr Brett was about closing a o.ntracb to deliver cattle giving 7001b carcase at, Liverpool aud Deptford for £12 per head. " The N irth American beisb," thn Tinvs says, ! " of this clas« aud weight coat? £18, or 50 psr cent, ir.orc Ihau Use lliver Plate ox guarantied to give, as gojd beef." Ie is represented that these British graziers or invenudors in the provinces of Baenos Ayroa, Santa Fe, and Cordoba, owning thoisMids of acres of nlfa'i'a, , growing their own corn and limesd, and owing to the mild clim»te nevtr havi. g to house th a ir cattle, ran put a fat shorthorn or Hereford bullock on bmrd a ship at Bieui/S Ayres or La Pkta for £6 Th-j feeding of the animals with Corn in small padd cks makes them as time as the No:th Americui cittle, aud they do not suffer on board as have the wild "rinch" c-ittle up to the present. With sheep th-re is less difficulty, the shoap being an excellent sailor, and actually increasing ia weight on board if well treated and properly supplied with ■water. A recent report on French agriculture notices the grent demand in Franca for potato^ fecula for mixing with blondei flours for b*kerie3 aud the preparation of glucose for distilleries, and ccns( qurn'.ly the material importance of the potato crop to farmers in that country. Profissor Girard, an eminent couiinontal authority on potato culture and a grower on an extensive scale, never cuts s ed, aud draw* the attention of farmers to the advantage resulting from the selection of whole tubers, many experiments conducted by him showing an inferior ' yield from cut seed, varying from 20 to 25 per cant. The whole tubers selected, especially _of the heavy cropping varieties, sbould weigh about 3^. Pig fattening is wholly limited to cooked potatoos and so-ue mtal. Mnogel was at oae time a favourite root for the purpose, but ib ia no longer in repute. Formerly j mangels were seldom given to horses, now they form part of the winter rations. About 331b of mangels, with 9lb to 14lb of oats, 2lb of be ins, 241b of hay, aad 13lb of straw, ara the proportions for the rationing of horsa?, bedding included. For cattle *nd sheep the root 3 are sliced, dusted with m;al and cake, mixed with chaffed foddsr, and allowad to ferment 24 hou's, the animals lihiug the spirit fUvour. In Bretagne quite a revolution is taking place in the culture of mangels, the bo having superseded cabbage, rutabaga and parsnips. By careful tillage and the judicious use of fertilisers crops of threa tons per acre of nnngals are quite oommm, but the growing of largesized roots is ia disfavour, a« experiments attest, that small roots are more profitable for feeding than those of gigantic siz \ the former containing a higher percentage of dry matter. Dried in an oven at 265deg, a root weighing 151b yielded 86 grammes per cent, of dry matter, as in the case of the " M-wnn-joth," while the variaty "Northern Rose," weighing l^lb, gave 1485 of dry matter. It has been ascertained that large mangels are exoeptionally rich in saltpetre. The " Globe " variety, which can y'eld 35 tons of roots per acre, represents a total of 1701b of nitrate of | soda —hence the diuretic effect on the animal j 0 30'iomy. The plan adopted for raU ing richer aud smaller roots is to lessen the width between the rows from 24-in to 16in, and that between the plants from 16in to lOin. The roots patronised as being richest in dry matter to their volume are the " Northern " and the 11 German " long rosa. In a recent number of the Veterinary Journal Mr Walter Perryman, M R C.V.S., tills the following story of a milky barroner :—" Recently having been attending a cob at a dairy where cows tire kept on the promises, I was naturally desirous of seeing the anima'sp aud was rewarded by finding what I think svaa a wonder of the bDvine species, so much so that 1 doubb many of my readers will question the veracity of my statements. The facts were told me by the ownpr, who was qnita willing to substantiate them by producing the rec-ipb, the man win brought the cow to the dairy, aud one or two other witnesses. I myself fully believe his statement. The cow in question was Dutch, had been bought at Smithfield market in December three yeirs previously, being newly calved (she had had about four calves). At first she gave 18 quarts of milk daily, aud coutinuel doing so for abont 18 months. She then gradually dropped to 11 quarts a day, which quantity she had been giving for some months past. During the whole of that time she had not had a calf. She will be kepb, I am informed, until she is reduced to eight quarts, then she will be quickly dried aud sold to the butshar. I may aid she is quite fit for killing purposes now. The cow is generally termed a milking machine Could a more appropriat9 name be given this animal?" ! In grain sowing two of the most serious risks which the farmer runs are that of his seed being destroyed by birds or other pests before growing, and of the grain being attacked by smut after it has grown. Where birds are plentiful much of the seed is often destroyed, thus robbing the farmer not ouly of the seed, but, what is more serioas, of the year's crop »s well. Hitherto farmers have provided against this by sowing their ssed extra heavy, and so discounting the loss, a very unsatisfactory method. Against smut the only protection is to previously dress the seed with somß solution that will kill the fungoid germs. To remedy both these evils there has been placed on the market this season "Clarke's Ca-b.>lised Wheat Protector," a well-known English specific. It is claimed for this remedy that it protects seed grain from birds, slug, grub, aad wireworm in its early stages, and fiorn smut in the Uter stagea of its growth. We refer our farming friends to the advertisements and testimonials on another page. The local agents are Messrs Donald Roid and Co., of this city. ! When the Victorian Department of Agriculture entared upon the business of shipping frozen poultry and rabbits, says the Au3tra,laeian, the methods to be employed were to a largo extent undetermined, and the first steps

ware in somo respecto of a experimental oharao« ter. Graat progress has since boon nude, both in deciding oa the exact treatment necessary to land the produce in good order iv London, and in reducing the incidental expenses. A not uninjo-tant item is the erst of the crates, ia which a great rtduotion has boon made. A rabbit cr*to which formerly cost 6s oan now ba purchased for Is Bd, and is butter finished, the ends being better adapted to withstand the tough usage insepar*blo from transport. In packing poultry eac'i bird usad to be pickfd separate^ in boxes costing 2d each, and then four dozon of theee boxes were placed in a crat'j, which cosh 9j, sd that the cost of pack* ing 48 birds waa 17ft. Now it has bsen found thit tho small boxes cm be dispoused with, while the c?st of the crate has been reduced, and 80 birds can be put into ths game total spac? at a cos!; of 2s lid, thus giving a saving ! of 14s Id. Under the heading "Was It Necessary?" Thursday's Christchurch Presi cays : — "A short time back a Christchurch resident, who has a sta'ion up country, purchased a couple of rams — one a Lincoln, the other a Romney Marsh. The Bheep had to be forwarded tj the station by tha vendor. 'Bo careful,' said tha purchaser, • to mark tho rams so that my manager will know which is the Lincoln and which ia the Romuey ftJarnh.' " A correspondent in Soulh Australia sends us (Au*tralft«ian) tho following record of a crossbred cow in his dairy herd. The first season after sho came into his possession, from August, 1692 to July, 1893 (291 days), her yield of milk war 8 6921b. The second season, from July, 1893 to July, 189+ (371 days), her yield of milk was 79521b, nnd for a portion of the third season, from July, 1894, to January, 1895 (183 day), the yield was 45841b of milk. Heraverage per day f<?r 848 daya was 21 2281b, or nearly 2^galof milk perday. Shohfts calved two heifers, both of which are now in milk, and the cow has been dry only 14 days during tho whole period over which the record extends. Tho owner of this valuable animal says, " Tier food ia the natural pasture for the greater part of the year, and she is nlways in first-ckss condition." The record of this dairy cow is worthy the serious consideration of Australian dairymen, the mnj >rity of whose covra would make a sorcy exhibition bejide the one whose record we have given. No animal, says an American writer, Mr Hudson, can surpass the Lorsa in the keenness of its scent. He speaks of it as a common occurrence for the horses of a district, in seasins of drought, to migrate 6uldenly to some dis'ant placa— so miles away, perhaps — where rain Ins fallou. A slight broeze from that quarter will start them iff. A still more striking phenomenon is, he say?, familiar to every frontiersman. The gaucho horse has the greatest terror of an Indian invasion, and long bafore the marauders reach the settlement — often when they are still a full day's journey from it— all the horses take the alarm and come fljing wildly in. The horned cattle quickly feel the contagion, and a general stampede ecsues. The gaucbos d-clare that the horses sm<-ll the luditns, and Mr Hudson believes they aro right. When passing a distant ludian camp, from which the wind blew, all the horses driven before him have taken fright and ran away. This is how "Bruni," in the Australasian, describes a lucerne field he recently saw in R ; verin* :— " The munst&y of the husbandman in this neighbourhood will always bo the Income, which has bo superior in making fairly good stock prime iv a chort time. As a proof of this I will give the record of one paddock for tbe last year. It is situated on a small sandhill a few miles back from the river. The arsa. of this paddock is 289 acres, and it was laid down with lucerne and sheep's paraley under very favourable circumstances in 1892. The first season the lucerne was cut for hay. Last year it was stocked in the following manner. On January 9, 1894, 1095 fullmouthed merino ewes were put on aud kept till Fnbruiry I. From February 2 till February 26 the paddock carried 1120 twotooth crosibreds. It was then given a spell from February 26 to March 24, when 746 fonrtooth crossbred wethers were put in. From July 30 to September 12 tha paddook got another spell, and thoa 1084 merino ewes with 893 crossbred lambs were put in and kept until November 10. On November 12, 2287 fix-tooth crossbred wtthers were put in and kept till February 6, 1895, whan 1000 of them were drafted off and sent to the Newport Freezing Works, where, dres«ed for freezing, they averaged 721b. Another draft of 500 head was sent away on February 19, and the remainder are still in the paddock. I had a good look at these sheep while driviving through the paddock, aud was surprised at the splendid conditiou of the greater number of them. I feel satisfied that several of the sheep I aaw, dressed for the butcher, would go close on 1001b. Besides the sheep mentioned there wore in the paddock for the greater part of the year a number of mares and foals, aud about 20 other horses. This is a splendid record, and fully bears out my contention that lucerne will do mora for the hußbandmen of Southern Riverina and a part of Victoria than the turnip does for the stock farcaera of New Zealand." Of the Canterbury clover crop this season the Christchuroh Press aay-i :—" Judging from the reports sent in to Messrs Andrews and Beaven a? to the work done by their machines, the clover crop this season appears to be an exceedingly good one. At Tai Tapu, on Mr Schaffer'u fnrm, one of their machines threshed 5£ bags from three acres ; at Ashburton Mr H»yman's machine threshed 11 sacks of perfectly cleaned seed in eight hours, returning about a bag an acre to tha owner, Mr Doherty ; and at Temuka Mr Scanuell, with one of Andrews and Beaven's No. 2 Saellerg, threshed 11 bags of olean seed, the produce of 14 acres, in eight hours for Mr Goodeve, of Waitohi. The clover in Siuth Canterbury appears to be turning out on tho whole Viry well, many yields of a bag an acre being reported, and the average is at lea*t 2cwb per acre. A fine yield of red clover seed was obtained from Mr N. Sellar'a bee farm, Lakeside. Frem two acres and a-half 12601b of seed w-s threshed, the iheller leaving a good marketable sted. The machine used was Mr Job Osborne's, the sheller being made by Hunt. II is worth noting that this small paddock i»»s in cloae proximity to Mr Sellar's bees, and Mf Sallar, who is an authority on bee 3, contends that the domestic beei continue tho fertilisation commenced by the humble bee." The North Queensland Register reports that a mob of 750 heifera sent from Lsmmermoor station last December to the Ross River Works has returned £3 10s per head net from the London market. This is regarded as highly satisfactory. On the rabbit question the Livingstone correspondent of the Oamaru Mail writes ;—"; — " I have long held the opinion that no Government or person was, or is, justified in turning adrift these ferocious vermin. They will presently become a far greater nuisance than the rodent; it was intended to destroy. I believe they have utterly failed to accomplish tho purpose for which they were introduced, and in tha almost total destruction of our wiDgless bi'.ds 1 have done a mischief that can never bereD»ire<j,

In trapping for rabbits they ore often caught. I know of one who on three consecutive mornings found one of his traps — tho fame one a forret. They wcr<>, jou may bo sure, not suffered to eacape. Numerous aB these incident* prove them to be, rabbits are not decreased by them ; never so far as I can learn are tbe remains of carcases found that have been killed by them. Now, about rabbits i Those in this locality arc subject to two diseases. Not being a. medico I cannot give the name of either, but will endeavour to describe both, •when perhaps someone may bo able to say if the troublesome liitla beast is likely to be exterminated thereby. Oneis a diseaee of the liver. This organ i? frequently foundmoreorlcssfullof cysts. I am not Euro that this ia the propor term, but (he appearance may be described as liko that of hard-skinned bhdders, which appear to form part of the liver, as they make little, if any, change in its form or a ; ze. They are filled at fust with a vratcry fluid, which presently becomes thick like pus, and at a later stage, I presume, the bladders are filled •with small white worms. The other disease is like an abscess, and is not confined to any part cf the body. It is found at times on the legs and neck, and obtains such dimentions as quite to deform the part affected. It seems to be contagious. I heard of a dog similarly afftcted, presumably through eating a diseased rabbit." The Christchurch Press 6ays : — " Some little time ago a record was put up by the Belfast Factory in the matter of killing. Thia, however, has been beaten by the April record of tho factory. During the 24 working days o? the month the following was the record : — 3444 laoihs for freeziog, 33,558 sheep for freezing, 19,368 sheep for preserving and boiling down, making a total of 86,970. In addition to these 1108 pigs and 28 head of cattle were also slaughtered during the month. The nearest approach to the total given above was duriDg the March montb, when tbe total was 80,343 " Our (Queensland er) London correspondent, mitiog on the 15th March, s»ys :— " Mr Bamu'il Lowe, who recently joined Messrs W. 'Weddel and Co. to start and carry on their dairy produce department, is making a voyage to Queensland by the British-India steamer India. Mr Weddel was to have gone, bub he finds that he owmot get away, so Mr Lowe is to go in his place, making a tour through Australia and New Zealand in the interest of his firm's dairy produce acd meat department. Mr Lowe has for many years had a close acquaintance with the features of the imported butter naerket, and tbera is nob much to know iv tbe business that be is ignorant; of. He was for a year the London expert for New Zealand in this trade.