AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2164, 15 August 1895, Page 15

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The Oamaru Mail of Saturday last says : — "We understand that the sbeep that was exhibit-id in Mr Lane's shop to-day was kept in a frozen t-tate sufficiently long for a voyage Home, and that it was thawed by a special process, the exact nature of which is beiog reserved for the present. We inspected the sheep and heard the opinions of many persons conversant with dead meat, and invariably, in pointing out the sheep from among others, they hit upon the wrong one It is a pity that there was a little difference in the dressing, however, which afforded a clua to others who were more successful. It is evident that there is no possibility of even experts being able to tell sheep treated in such a way from freshly-killed sheep, except perhaps by the appearance of the shanks ; in fact, ths bloom on lha sheep in question was much brighter than that on some of those freshly billed. The sheep will be cut up this afternoon, and we hope that the result will augur well for the discoverer. Mr Scott has been labouring with the thawing process for years, and what he is endeavouring to obtain, we understand, is a neutral atmosphere (neither moist nor dry) and means for keeping the pores of the meat tissue closed at the surface until the meat has regained its normal state, and if such a process be required to attain the retention of (he bloom, then Mr Scott has succeeded." Complaints are made of cattle-duffing and sheep-stealiDg in the Wellington and Taranaki districts. Out of 150 head of oattle at Stratford 60' mysteriously disappeared. 1? During the past week Robert Hosie and Thomas Healy each took up 100 acres of land ia block VI, Naseby district, for occupation lease, under the Mining Act. In the case of ■Ir Hosie the rental was 7£d per acre per fcnnuaa, and in that of Mr Healy 9d per acre per annum.