OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET

Otago Witness, Issue 2206, 11 June 1896, Page 14

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET

TURAL_BUD (Froh Our Own Cobbi'sfondent.) •, , . CrftisTCHUßCif, June 8. We have had a mouth's very One weather, but yesterday rain came, nod seems The Season. likely to continue for a. day or ,two. Very good progress has been made with all farm work. Potato lifting is nearly finished. The crop is good oa light alluvial soils, but on stiff land nnd where water h*d stood during the early autumn the potatoes are totally destroyed. A good deal of wheat has been sown under the most favourable conditions at>d a large area of laud is being prepared for spring sowing. Some of the early sown crops, as well as o»tf>, barley, &c. for fodder, are coming on well. Turnips, as a rule, are better than umal, the less!; satisfactory crop being on the Peninsula, where they are generally the best. • i Cfrasa is still growing, and self-sown stubbles are affording abundant feed, so Lire Stock, ttaat sheep are in excellent condition ; indeed, I cannot rememoer seeing before such a supply of extra prime iheep as have been exhibited in the butchers' shops during the paft fortnight. The winter ahow and the splendid display made there by the Christchurch Meat Company evidently stirred up the trade' to emulation, and the most has been made of the grand sheep coming forward. The rivalry in buying and exhibiting the best meat hag not been without lecsong, first amongst wh'ch is the value of the Soutbdown in the production of heavy mutton. Both pure and in various crosses the Southdown, even when up to 1201b dressed weight, had & good proportion of lean. Some Hampshire-merino crosses are also prime, though on the fat side. "Corriedales"—the inbred "half bred breed —on the other hand, were simply mountains of fat, audit is evident that they should be got away as two-tooths at latest, which their undoubted early maturity ebonld make - quite possible. One of these sheep measured 2|in through the loin. The beef has been splendid. The shorthorns CMne out best from the butchers' point of view, the Hereford crosfteg'cutting up rather rough. The latter, however, had not the advantage of stall feeding. It should be considered by the association whether the prizes should not be swarded on the dressed instead of the live appearance of the fat si ock. Block tests are both popular and instructive at Home, and should be equally so here. Some improvement in the feeding of pigs has been noticeable lately, bnt though the supply of prime pork is nofc equal to the best curers' requirements, the price has nob gone above 3£<i, except for very choice lobs. Freezing crossbred wethers stil! fetch 2d, thanks to the.old contracts for shipment and "the good •kins which the sheep now carry. Forward turnip wethers fetch 11s to 12s, and occasionally more. __ Beyond these two classes, however, and the primest butchers' sheep prices are bo higher than they were a month ago, "which is equivalent to a fall in the value of the mutton. Beef fetches from 21s for prime down to 15s or less for cow. Useful farm horses continue to sell well, and mere are wanted than come forHorses. ward. Good sorts, four to »ei'*:n or eight years old, commaud £"2 to £25, and a superior animal would fttch £28 to £30. The few farmers who have br< d t'.eir mares regularly h*ve done well, but al'o 0'- Uec very few young stock *re in the country, a-jd, worse still, very few of these are up to n.uch — farmers will not^ feed their mares aud foals even afterpaying (or owing) the fee for a good sire. Everybody nowadays is trying to breed trotters, bu'. the standard necessary to success on the track has risen so much of late that ordinary young stock—that is, from trap and back mares—is already unsaleable ' unlees a Stage at which 'a good trial can be shown is reached. ■ JThe supply of milk is ge't'ng very shoit, more from the bad condition of the Dairying. cows in the spring than from scarcity of fetd bow. Yet no better provision is being made for the coming winter, and it will take a great deal to couvert some of our alleged farmers to a belief in the profit of winter feeding. In his address at the winter show Mr MacEwtn said that the reports of the inspectors showed tVmt 75 per cent, of the( cows in Canterbury are unfit for dairyiog. This is a very serious state of affairs, and quite accounts ior the cry that dairying is unprofitable. The present time is a proof that it would pay to keep good cows and .treat them properly so *s to prolong the milking season.' Here we have a demand from Australia for butter which must go unsatisfied because there is no reserve stcck, and production is barely sufficient for current requirements. Yet 300 miles south, st Wyndham, Edend*le, and perhaps elsewhere, butter is being made Ihrongh the winter, and will probably be seen in this market before tho winter is out It mutt not be thought, however, that nobody in Canterbury has good cows and knows how to treat them. I was at a dairy farm a few d*ys ago where thtre aro about 120 cows, aud I do not think that £10 a head all round would buy the'herd. Thsy are *horthorns or shorthornAyreshire crosses. Most of them are bought, very few being reared by the owner, though he has now a sjs k tm of saving the heifer calves From good r»>i k-rs and sending th^m away where thpy e-ii. lekvpt cheaply till about two years old, whei. tiit-y are brought back and fed and trained for the dairy. The bull used is an Ayrshire-shorthorn, showing much of the Ayr~ ebire quality.^ He, of course, is from good milking familiei. There are bails for 62 cows, and both the, sheds and the yards ar<> fl >ored with brick and are cleaned daily, and flushed ont with water two or three times * week. Mangels and hay are used for fodder, fed to the tows in the paddocks; and better-oouditioiieril

cattle one need not wish to Bee. All the milk is used for the town trade. One would wish to see ensilage tested against hay in an establishment like this, which includes some of the best grass paddocks in the district. An experimental farm is needed to demonstrate the practicability and economy of modern methods ; the farmers should have clearly shown to them what it ccsts to produce a gallon of milk by the different systems of feeding. lam quite certain that shelter is necessary in Canterbury. We say we have a short winter, but when we geb fro ts on the plains as early as April and as late as December, the shortnees of the winter is not so real as the warm d&ys would make one think. In the height of summer' shelter is also needed, to protect the cows from the heat.

I notice that in Victoria, as in New South Wa'e«, importance is attached Poultry. to. the Bjstematic keeping of ponl'ry-sad bees and fruit-grow-ing in conjunc'ion with dairying. How well aud how cheaply ducklings and chickens could be reared at a creamery, whore skim milk could be obtained for next to nothing. One of our freezing companies, the Islington, being willing to take up the export trade, suitable poultry could be bought in when at their b( sb condition and kept in the cold storage until the best time for shipment csme round. The old stores are fast making producers independent of the seasons so far as the marketing «f produce is conoerned. I see Mr Sydney James advocates a live-and-dead poultry class at the Dunedin Championship Show," bat it is too mach to ask exhibitors to have the whole of their two dozen birds killed without guaranteeing a price for them. The judges should be content with selecting, cay, two pairs as a fair sample of the lob to be killed and trussed. Care also should be taken to have the trussing done in the London style; this would be a useful object lesson to intending shippers. I thipk two or three exhibits would be sent from Canterbury were the conditions modified as I have suggested. When the winter show is held in the j new Agricultural Hall, such poultry classes as suggested should be included. At present^there is no prospect of exporting large birds — "oargo " birds it was mi-printed in the report of Mr Valentine's lecture —as neither geese nor turkeys are produced in quantity or quality for looal demands, far less for export. I am told turkeys do well in some parts of the North Islaud, but, so far as tbis island goes, during a recent visit I saw more turkeys in Cditt>'al Otago in one week than in all the rest of my travels put together. Yet they are not difficult to rear on any farm where there are evergreen plantations—such as pinus^insignis or macrocarps—for shelter and the birds can have plenty of liberty. I am sure poultry can be reared better ia New Zealand than in most parts of Australia, yet Victoria ships poultry by the tens of thousands, and New Zealand exports ■ little or none, and a table fowl or duckling worthy the description is as rare as veniioa. When Mr Campbell, secretary of the New South ; Wales Agricultural department, was here he expressed astonishment that poultry-keeping %was not made a prominent subject of instruction at Lincoln College. A beginning has been made there, but quite inadequate to the needs- i sity of the case. j It is also an extraordinary faeb that Canterbury, which is popularly, but Frait. erroneously, supposed to be I nowhere in fruit-growing, is the j only district to export apples. The Styx Apple | Company is exporting, I understand, fotne 3000 to 4000 cases this season, all to Rio, but there iv no reason why shipments should not be made to London also. Owing to the dull autuma our apple 3 are not so well coloured as usual, but the quality is all right. The difference in colour between apples of the ssme kind, grows ia the North and South Islands respectively, and shown in Mr BlacVmore's collection in the Onristchurch' winter show, was very mprkftd. Some kinds wilt not colour properly in the South I-land, even in Central Otago. The Ward case was in everj body's month on Saturday. Verily, farmers' ooI1 Farmers' operativeasgociationsdownsouth Co-oporatlon. have been great di l appointments. Those who have been dissatisfied with the Canterbury concerns—at Chri3tohurch and Timaru —are inclined to think better of them now. Mr George Jameson, formerly a merchant and stock, wool, aud gcam agent at Ashburton, from which business ha retired to statt farming—selling oub to the ill-fated firm or company of Miles and Co.—becoming fhortly afterwards a director of the "Co-0p.," and then appointed London repre-j sentative, has been appointed manager here. | Hi< successor in London was to be appointed on t Saturday. Mr Turnbull, the present manager here, starts in business for himself—in the meat and produce export trade, it is said. He has joined the board, of the Christohurch Meat Compfcuy. A large operator in frozen meat is said to have j left for England a few days ago j Miscellaneous, without having proclaimed his intention of doing so. | Messrs Wood, Sband, and Co., who became bankrupt last week, were at one time large exporters of frozen meat, but I do. nob know whether they have done much in that line lately. It is said they lost heavily by advances on Now Zealand fUx, The business of the firm ii expocted to be resumed in a few daya. Nothing is known here of the progress of the liquidation of JMileß and Co. The full in wool is a d'sappointtnenfc to shippers, the bulk of the New Zealand clip being yet to sell in London. I do not know of a single sheep going from CWerbury to the Sydnftv show ard sale* , There is no sign of N-Is-mi B olVri beginning the erection of ttie;r woik-i at Hornby.