AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2159, 11 July 1895, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Thursday's Lyttelton Times says:— "The :popular idea respecting the sale of New Zealind f i ozen mutton in Eng'and — revived this janorning by a telegram from Wellington— is /thf.t most of it is sold as 'prime Scotch,' •prime Welsh,' or, at the worst, 'prime Some-fed.' This is a delusion which has been "fostered by inquirers, generally colonial^ on a • visit tf om«», who have traced some of the best 4>r*J, lest grazed, and best dressed New Zealand mutton to retail shops, the proprietors of which repudiated any suggestion of dealing in ■snch an article as a frozen meat. Other co!o >ials, more expert and very largely Interested in the meat trade, have declared that very hltle of this fraudulent substitution of colonial for Home<grown meat goes on, and the latter view of the case is to a great extent borne out by etate- - inents made at the annual meeting of ' Eastman's, Limited,' a giganlic trading concern, which makes , the sale of frozen meat a specialty. This company handled in it-s English business in 1894- about oue-fonith of the refrigerated bhtt and one-eighth of the frozen ■ matfron imported to the United Kuigd-ini ; in i'act, in 1894 Eastman's Silej of imported ' vnieats smouuted to upwardi of a million and a'ialf sterling. The company has its retail shops . in every large town in the United • Kingdom, at which all the meat, sold is im- - ported. The beef is bought by the company in the United States, and the mutton is Australasian and South American produce. The prices at which the moat is sold are such ai to show that the exaction of English prices for fjreigu ins at) cannot be practised to any conBide abl-^ eiteot. Australian mutton was sold at as low a price as 3£d per lb for legs, and to a dissatisfied shareholder at the last annual meeting it was explained that the carcases from which these le^s were taken were bought at 2d per lb. Is it likely, it may well be a3ked, that while this firm and others retail Australasian mutton at snch a price any eubst&ntiai quantity can be £old at the price of the best English, Scotch, or Welsh mut'on ? " At a mee'ing of the Gore Farmers' Club on Saturday, reports the Soathern Standard, Mr D. Dun, sen., eaid he had recently heard from a gentleman in Hawke's Bay, engaged in the wool and mutton trads. He went in for wpol In particular, while a number of his acquaintances went in for mutton as well. He wrote with reference to the movement there : " Nelson Bros, are very fine fellows, but for God's Mke don't let them get a monopoly, or they will be the reverse." The Gear Company, of Wellington, had started to buy freezers there, and gave a belter price than the others. Still it was a tow up between the writer of the Utter and his brother ■whether they would sell to the boiling-down or to the fietz ; ng works, and the 'boiling down had the preference. That waß . Hawke's Bay up to date. .- .- The Lyttelton Times of the 3rd says^— " The - steamer Queen of the South, which left - . Jjjttelton last night for Foxton, was chartered . .by a family of Canterbury residents, who are . * seeking fresh fields for their enterprise. Messrs ■ 'Blardon and Sons, who have for someyeaTS . 'carried on business as flax dressers, together • with their " sisters, ceusins, and aunts "to the cumber of 25, have leased some 450 or 500 acres \tf flu land close to the Oroua bridge, in the

Foxton didtriot. The party took their horses, d? ays, furniture, and the necessary machinery to carry on a large flax-dressing business with them in the steamer, and intend to try their fortune in the new locality." The Agent-general h»-s forwarded to the 'Government copies of correspondence that his taken place beWcea himself and several prominent English breeders on the subjesb of the breed of pigs best suited for imporbation to Now Zealand. The information supplied by the breeders shows that pedigree Berkshire boars from prize stock, seven to eight months old, m»y be obtained from sgs to 7gs each, while large and middle Yorkshires, three to twelve months old, f .o.b. at London, are valued at from 3gs to 7gs. For best Berkshire sows in pig, one breeder asks llgs and 12gs. Those interested in the matter will doubtless obtain fuller information on application to the Department of Agriculture. In relation to the comparative scarcity of fat beatts in the United Sb&tei, and the consequent advance in prices, the National Provisioner, New York and Chicago, April 27, report* the receipts of Texas cattle at Chicago for March 1895 were 22,000 head, against 28 000 head in March 1891. The receipts since January 1 for the first three months ef the current year aggregated to 58, 874 head, as ag&insb 70,000 for the same period a year ago. Thus the shortage in Texas cattle alone at tba*; market for three months was abaut 11,000 head. Oar contemporary expresses the opinion that the scare in beef prices will ba well worth the money to the average American citizens . if it results in the production of a finer' and better bred quality of mutton for the meat markets. It is pointed oat that American people have not yet seen " full-bred and well- grown mutton brought forward generally for sale in their meat msrkete," Jbut when that is done, and the consumer is accustomed to usa mutton as regularly »_s beef, he will not bs 6ubj»ct to such a eudden rite as has lately been experienced in the case of beef cattle. "He will learn that good mutton is as nutritious, wholesome, and palatable as the fksh of the at er, and once thoroughly established in retail shops, it will command a better price and more appreciation of it j real value than is at pr< sent the case.", Mr D. J. Nathan, of Wellington, has received a letter from Mr Farmer, an English butcher, who says that he knows for a fact that imported meat is continually -sold as EugHsh by nearly all the butchers at Home. They dry it, dust flour over and off again, and none but experts can .tell the difference.. The writer adds that

the meat should be properly dressed, and strongly supports the idea of a retail company opening shops at Home. He says that fully 50 per cent, more could be got for the meat. It is understood that negotiations for regular shipments of live cattle and sheep to England are at present in progress between one of the direct shipping companies aud eomo of the leading stcck brokers of Christchurch. The Flora tnkes 200 sheep, principally Lincolns, from Auckland for Sydnsy. At a meeting of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association and others interested, held on Friday to consider the scheme formulated by Mr Divid J. Nathan with the object of extendiog the Ne,w Zealand frozan mutton trade, it was resolved — "That the association is in sympathy with-tbe movement to put the frozen meat industry on a better basis, and is of opiuioH it Conference of fluckowners should be held to ducuss the whole question."