AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2200, 30 April 1896, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

A letter has been addressed to the Collector Of Caßtomsat Wellington by Sydney chaff importers in connection with the duty imposed on hessian 'bags imported into New Zealand. It is pointed out that in the customs tariff hessian bags tire charged '20 per cent, duty, and in another part of the schedule all jute bags are entered as free of duty. Hesuan bags are manuEaotured entirely from jute, and the chaff sold in New South Wales from local oentres, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania is almost wholly packed in these bags. New Zealand, however, insists on the payment of 20 per cent.' duty, and will allow no rebate if the bags are Slled with New Zealand chaff and exported to New South Wales. The result of this adverse decision it is alleged is that buyers of large quantities of New Zealand produce arc precluded from getting their goods put in the packages most suitable for their trade, aid a serious embargo is put on what might develop into a large business. Firms in New Zealand who have been awaiting the rtsult of a decision have now no option but to return these bags to New Sonth Wales, as it will not pay to fill them with chuff aud pay an extra 2s 6d pec ton duty as nn export tax. ,

The advantages cf the cultivation of flax have been pointed out in these columns times without number, but the disposal cf the fibre has always presented difficulties which have militated against the plant getting a trial on anything like an extended scala. Mr William O'Neill, of Milton, has shown us a .sample of fibre grown this season by Mr Scotfc, of Lawrenof, from seed imported by Mr Johnstoue, chemi.it, Manse street. It is beautifqliy fine in texture, aud Mr O'Noill, who has 'had considerable experience in flax culture in the old country, informs nas that any qnantity of it shipped Home would find a ready market at a remunerative price. It teems that the flax lands in the old country have been overcropped, and hence the necessity of relying on imported fibre instead of having a sufficient quantity of looally grown. Mr O'Neill has had considerable experience in retting the flax to obtain the fibre, and will give any information in his .power to those willing to give flax a trial. He will also send a "small sample of Lawrence-grown flax to anyone interested on application to the care of Mr Johnstone, Manse street. A very successful trial of Messrs P. and D. Duncan's new patent spring-tooth cultivator and couch eradicator was held on Thursday in Mr- Margrie's paddock, Palmerstan. The' machine was tried on ground which vsried a jreat deal, bat no matter how matted the grass and ■£C? d » there was no tendency towards choking up. {?•&? construction and independent action of the tints o»"^ the machine to free itself readily, till the roots ans streets being brought to the surface. There was a good attendance of farmers, and i&afc they were satisfied with the machine was evidenced by the fact that Mr J. R. Duncan, the firm's representative, booked several orders on the ground. A trial will be held at Waikouaiti thisweek. The Melbourne Weahly Times states that at Morwell, in Gipps'land, an epidemic appears to be raging among the horses, and already a ■ number of valuable animals to&v.e died, and a great many others are very bad. Some of the horses died very suddenly, ' having fallen dead whilst at work. On examination being made .of the stomachs these many bot grubs were found, and it is thought death was caused by them. Other horses are affected differently — their necks are much swollen, they have a. bad cough., and from other symptoms developed local .residents consider the animals are suffering from influenza. ' Stringbalt is also very preva- ' lent. — The Romsey Examiner states that , several of the horses on tbe Glenbrick ' Park farm Tfhich were attached with the mysterious disease .recently described i m these columns are «howing signs of - Tecorering. Mr Ernest Kivett, the veterinary , •surgeon who was called in to examine the horses, informs us ithatttlhe immediate *aagehf death in those which succumbed to the disease was pericarditis and hydro-thorax, and that the disease itself is undoubtedly typtoid influenza. He ' adds that the horses continued to feed fairly ' well almost, or quite, up to the time of death*, bnt they had become so debilitated before they were noticed to be seriously ill that it was almost ' useless to treat them. Mr Riyett re of' opinion test "the reason of so many animals being ill is that they are all subject to tbe same cause." He hopes to 'hear good accounts of 'the oneß that were suffering from the disease at the time of I his visit, under proper medical treatment and I good nursing. We have -received 'from -file Commissioner of Crown Lands a pamphlet giving , particulars, terms, and conditions of 'disposal of the Ard1 gowan estate, which is open lor application on Tuesday, May 12. The estate, which comprised 4-234 -acres, -has been out up into -eebtionß >varying from 5 acres to .364 acres, and the rent per acre ranges from 5« 6d up to 16s. The number of imported horses suitable 'for army purposes which it is anticipated will be purchased by the Army Remount department in India during the year 1896-97 is increased to 2346. 'But this estimate is subject to alteration hereafter. The nurohasßa will be 'made in

Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay [by remounU agents, under toe orders of the director. Army Remount department. The remounb depots will be open for the reception of horses from the Ist November 1896 to w the end 08 the purchasing" season. Horses and mares 0! all breeds will be received, bat they matt ba within the prescribed age (four to six years) and, in the oase of Australian horses, 15 hands lia to 16 hands high. Greys will not be purchases for horse and field artillery. The average prico for an Australian or Cape remount has been fixed at £45 sterling, which will ba paid in rupees at the Indian port of .purchase at the exchange rate for demand bills on London. Every horse presented for purchase will be valued separately, and higher or lower prices may be given uuder such rules as may be made by the director, Army Remount department, but the averages fixed above are nob to be exceeded on the whole number purchased in any class.

The Tapanui Conner Bays .•—••Threshing is well forward, and a lot »f grain has found its way to store. Eatmers in this district! are soakinc; Is 6d foe oats on track, but buyers are only offering Is 2d to Is 4d for choica seed samples', so that no business can be reported. Good wheat is selling from 3s 2d to 3s 4-d for beafc i white velvet. A few patches of late oats still remain in the field, but some of the farmers in the earlier portions of the diatiiet are already ploughing stubble for next year's crop." v The Nelson Colonist. is informed by a Nel«on fruit-grower that he - estimates -thai 150,000,. cases of frait have been shipped from Nelson this season, end notwithstanding the duty now charged on imported fruit; the local growtereceived less on the whole than he did las& year. Mr J. M 'Oat thy, of Htwea, hat threshed out 80 bushels to the aero of his wheat'erop thig , year. — Cromwell Argus. At Clarendon on the' 22nd a -very success • ful pnblio field trial of the Deering all-steel pony Under, of Reid and -Gray's grain drill and grafs and turnip sower; and of the new pollard! distributor and rabbit erterminator took place." The Australasian says :— " Already the visit of Mr James M Sutolak to Great Britain (who ' was despatched by the Minister for Agriculture to find markets for oar producers) is bearing ; good frait. When Sir Sinclair last wrote from London he stated that he was urging the Man* Chester Co-operative Wholesale Society, which dues an extetsive business in butter, bacon and ham, leather, flour, wines, fruit, &c, to send repres- ntativeo to Victoria in order to establish a direct trade with the local producers, and io— save the middleman's charges. Last week tha , Minister received a farther letter on the subject: from Me Sicclair, in which he recounts his interview with the committee of the society, afe which there were aho present representatives of the Sootthh Co-operativs Society, another large trading concern. Mi' Si»cl&ir gave them full information concerning Yicborian batter, cheese, frozen meat, poultry, rabbits, fruit, wines, honey, grain, tallow, and It-abhor. Tha point which he impressed on the committee was that both the producers of the colony and the Government were exercising tlie utmost care < to see that none bat the best products was ! exported, and the fact that there was" 1 Government inspection of all food .supplies exported gave the B iti'h consumer « . guarantee that he w»s xeceivii g a wholesome article free from adulteration. The > committee subsequently decided to send . out to Yiotoria three members of the ManChester society and one of the Scottish to buy direct from the butter factories and p-odacero, "• in the same way as they are <?o;ng in Denmark, Holland, Uui'ed Stales and elsewhere, and so "' dispense with iu'ertnodiuro agents or brokers, Mr Sinclair t.ta(>s in his leUnr to the Minister that the delegates from the Manchester and Scottish co-operative wholesale societies will leave London in June, so a» to arrive in Victoria before the butter factories make their selling arrangements for next season. He expresses ■ the hope that their "visit will result beneficially - to «U oar producer?, and that the various societies in the colony formed for promoting the interests of the producers will arrange to ag to give tbe representatives every facility for doing business on a basis which is likely to give ' them encouragement to proceed on extensive lines. He points out that Victorian producers could obtain no better medium by which to reach the great masses of population in Great . Britain without having to submit to a proportion of the profits on their produce being ~ absorbed by intermediate agents than by doing business direct through great organisations like these societies. The Manchester society alone employs 6,400 men, and its annual sales amootafc to nearly £10,000,000, including butter £2 070,690,- cheese £272,500, bacon and ham £586 300, and dried fruit £157 ,'9OO. It employs 254? men in its bo »t factories; and 1895 made 1,372,37.9 pairs of boots [ and .snoCJ.—^The^ leather, he says, was - i chiefly purdhaseu i^-Anierica, not, he adds, ' the-e is no reason why Vio£oK*a tanners should' not ba able to oompete for the *ali?iT. Tha . society's flour mills at Darufcon turned outrkife . year flour and bran to the value df over £500,000. and it was evident from the questions asked < thai the delegates on reaching Victoria will - attempt to purchase wheat direct from tha . growers if the farmers plscs themselves in com.-* orauication with them." Tbe correspondent of a -contemporary has the ' following to say with reference to pig-rearing in Canterbury :—": — " It may interest your readers ' to know that Ellcsmere is the greatest pigrearing ' district in -Cantei bury — if not in the -colony — and when I tell them that the d'siricfc produces about 20,000 annually, they will have ' some idea of the quantity always on hand. Only last Monday a Dunedin buyer in two days „ seleoted 500 for the bacon-lovers of the south ; which (the pigs, not the bacon-lovera) were all trucked and tailed from Leeston. Everyone wno knows the district, and ib in want of real well-fed bacon, come* to Leeston for his sup« plies. The feeding here is milk, ground seconds ' wheat and peas. Just fancy 1 one jjig'flrm alone — I won 1 * name it — cecently bad 1400 pigs on hand ; and the Board of Health gave them notice to oleax every pig off the place in three days, otherwise action "woula be taken. What a squealing of pigs for those three days 1 Well . it cost the company £300 to get them placedi It would, however, t>e good for all the community if more rigid steps were enforced in this direc* tion in some localities. I know 009 pig man outside Christchurch who gets .all the dead horses brought to him for his pigs. What; sweet baoon! How much direaae might noV this flesh-fed bacon create? Well, there is, nothing of that sort in the BUesmere district!, and therefore 'Bllesmere bacon may be bought ' and eaten with entire confidence?' I According to the Australasian of -the IKb ; insL, .several tons of cabbages have been treated, [ at the Camper down Evaporating Works during tbe past week. The price- paid for tbe rait' material is £2 10s per ton, »nd one farmer mi the -vicinity in this way realised £30 fromhalß an acre of cabbages. The Press says that T«r S. Gitforth 1 has left *t the 100 ms of iihe CV. t .Wry A. and S\ Association a piece of gor^t * i< k, In the jpith ox wfcioh was embedded « grub which ie evideaHj a borer. The grab is an inch long, Nritfc »- black head, and it resembles the larva of tha

ffhoramui Wak*fieldi, one of the New Zealand wood borers. - The Canterbury Times thus comment's on tho decision not to hold an agricultural conference . this year :— " The dechion come to by the Ofc*go*nd* Cautt-rbury agricultural and pasto»l associations, that it is unnecessary to carry put the arrangement to held Uio agriouitural conference in Dunedin this* year,, is scarcely understandable. Surely the state of agricultural matter* in New Zealand is not so perfect but that the collective wisdom of such a confer* ence as that which met at Wellington time years ago could suggest some means of improvement. The rabbit question, for instance: it may be said thia i* a local affair, bat when we see a pretence of coping with itr by setting a few traps in the midst of hundreds of thousands of the pests, which are thu» permitted to first eat tsbeir native diVricir. bare, and then spread over the. surrounding country^ it becomes- a national dusger, for those who may be one yeec a- hondced miles- from the nearest rabbit msy the n«xtr year, find themselves invaded 1 , and put to the coat of a-* second rent to- prevent themselves from being- in turn; eaten out. Then noxious, weeds, which are- becoming s peat second only to rabbits' : is nothing to< bs done torepair the flaico of the hst. conferencs-?' Why tiie cause of the cross-purposes butw^en the- conference and the- Department of Agriculture was never inquired' iuto is another thi^g; we cannot understand.. The quarantine of stock is another question, which one- would; think is- of some importance. We are past; the days when animals had to be kept for month* under the eyeof a farrier or cow doctor before it could be said whether they were diseassd or cot, and. no intelligent, man will gay that the present long period of isolation in quarantine is necessary. The prop' sal to ' hold a national agricultural show annually is also one on wh/ch the opinions of delegates of societies should be heard, as also is the suggestion tS establish a national agricultural museum — an idea regarding- which nothing but approval has been heard siuceit'was first mooted by Mr Kirk and discussed ia these columns trvo years, ago. It is quite certain that the conference would have found plenty of useful work to do, and we regret that it has been postponed indefinitely." The heseiui fly parasite, introduced by the Government, is, says the Brucs Herald, already making its mark ia this district. About two years ago Mr. Etui!, stock inspector,, f or the. purpose of experimenting with the parasite, took over a paddock on Mr Lindsay's farm at Milhum. Previous to the introduction of the parasite the padricck was infested with the hessian fly, bub this year Mr Lindsay has grown a crop of velvet wheat on the L&udi and not a vestige of the fly has been seen either in the paddock or on his farm. The Wyndham Farmtr say* :— "The directort of the Wyndham Dairy Factory have taken an fmijortaut forward step. They have decided bo erect & cvmplt-te butter-making plant in their premises. Mr James Sawers, the company's manager, left for Dunedin recently with a view to securiogthe best pcwsible' machinery available for the purpose. The factory will probably be able to start making butter some- time during next month. May a rich reward be the result of finis enterprise. It will at lsast mean, among other tbingp, that the factory will now be openmott of the year; that dairyman will have a stronger inducement to go in for winter feeding' of their c.\tt!e, and th*t the fictovy will have its output of but tor at a season when that commodity command^ the highest price in th» market." We (B uce Herald) notice that Ms Waters, the energetic manager of the Glenkdi estate, is pulling down bis sod walls, and p itting, up thoroughly permanent fences. All along the road to tha coast wo see poisoned pollard has been laid for bunny, and when the sod fences are- all down there should bo a great reduction of the pest. Mr Waters is a recent convert to the ttse of this person, but he baa this season given it a thorough trial, and is confident that it is greatly in consequence of the use- at poisone i pollard, now bo well known, that the scarcity of rabbits 1 is due. Writing of th&Mkraura Freezing Wotks, the Ensign says': — "Business still continues to be very brisk at the Maraura Freezing Works— Boo carcases of mutton and 20C0' rabbits are now being treated daily, showing a considerable increase ovrr the daily totals for a few weeks back. On May 2 the company despatched per the s.s. Banffabire 17,000 carcsies of lamb and' mutton and 40,000 rabbits for the Home markets. It will be observed that rabbits occupy s position of importance in the shipment, and it might be interesting to note that this branch of the refrigerating industry is now productive of a considerable amount of- the company's revenue. When fceirig treated they are packed in orates, each having- a capacity for 30 carcases. Owing- to the non-conducting nature of bunny'a overcoat it requires two days longer to •freeze him stiff' than it docs fork carcase of nratton. Were it not for the fact that no coal or other fuel 1 is required to provide the motive power for the Mataura Works, rabbit freezing as- compared with mutton refrigerating would cot pay, owing simply tc the fact of the longer time required for the treatment of the rabbits in the> freezing chambers. As it ia, the only additional expense incurred is from wear and tear upon machinery, but taken wftb the increase in- revenue this is a comparatively insignificant item. The company hope to pursue •the joyous path of rabbit and mutton freezing for afi least another three months, and thence on- to November' mutton freezing only."

An. investigation into several charges of alleged" dummyiem will probably be made ia New Plymouth about tbe besianinse of next