AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2241, 11 February 1897, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The Perthshire will take in at Auckland v-.-.1, kauri gum, &?., for London, besides about I !,GOO carcases of mutton from the Auckland Freezing Co.'s works. A ppecial shipment of < ver 100 quarters of beef is being sent forward 1 rom the local works to Las Palmas. This is an initial shipment, supplies heretofore having been sent from Queensland. The meat is reported to be in splendid condition, and it is expected that the present order will lead to an expansion of trade. The success which has attended farming operations on the share principle throughout Biverina has led to an extraordinary demand for more land, and even as early as this it is predicted that there will be an immense increase in the area placed under wheat next season. In very many instances the products this year in wheat farming are far in excess of the value of the land, large areas having returned a clear profit of over £4 per acre, and this satisfactory return is expected to give a greatly enhanced value to all land suitable for wheat growing. On one large property, where upwards of 6000 acres were cropped, the proprietor is advertising that he will this year let an additional 10,000 acres, and all large holders state that they are inundated with applications from farmers, and are able to pick most suitable men. On many large stations thousands of acres will be cropped by the owners on their own account. On two properties near Albury 5000 acres are to be so treated. As a .esulb of the great impetus given to farming operations, »n extraordinary demand exists for draught

horses, and anything at all suitable for farming work recently brought the highest prices ever obtained in the district. Instances are given of men who came from Victoria with only their working plant who this year received £500, and even more, as their share of profits. The Taieri Advocate believes that the reason of the small number of entries tor t! ■. O:ago Agricultural and Pastoral Society's best i managed farm competitions is that it is the I opinion ot those who should know that both I competitions have narrowed down to the few I farms entered because taese are admittedly ! superior in being fitted with all the most ; approved modern aopliances. The Wairarapa Farmerß* Co-operative Association is extending its business to Wellington, ■ and making a new issue of shares at 2s 6d premium. Stock rearing is not alwayH the lucrative pursuit it is sometimes held out to be. During the past year many breeders are able to testify to the unprofitableness of sheep and cattle raising. As instances we (North Ota»o Times^ have heard of a farmer wbo bought 150 store" cattle l»6t May for £5 10s a head. He kept them all the winter, eating all his turnips and his spring and summer feed, and laat week he cold the lot to a local buyer at £5 ss. With ! regard to sheep, another case came under our ; notice. A farmer had- a fine lot of fat sheep & i couple of months before shearing. He was offered 16a 6d a head for them, and held out i for 18s, consoling himself with the thought ' that with the wool off they would be worlh 153. • He was offered 10- 2d for these sheep last week, bub this week he fears he would not get vfibhin Is of tbat price. ' It is said the yaung man's fancy in the spring tima turns to thoughts o? iov« ; but this autamn time -the farmer's fancy is turning to wheat fields for next spring, and ! no wonder, for it is to-day scarcely possible to I sell sheep except at a considerable Hacrifice. j The extent to which the camel is being used in West Australia as a beast of burden may be I gathered from a. statement made by the j Western Mail that the e.s. Siam brought to that colony 505 head of camels from India. The camels are of a type known as Khorassans, and i come from Beluchis^an. The voyage was a | most successful one, only three head dying en the way. Cocksfoot is (writes the Wyndham Farmer) promising a good sample all over the 5 district this seasou. and it seems likely that th* contractors for the right to cut it off the aides of the railway lines will do well with their bargains. But the boss sample we have sec-n is that grown by Mr .Tames M'lntoab, of Blg-n Park, Edendale. We have a stalk of it in our office, and ib is a veritable trophy, standing 6fb j 7£in in height. Aud on the same farm Mr M'lutosh can show a 16-acre paddock of alsike clover the liko of which in all probability rannot be surpassed in Sou^hlaiid. Ie is an txc^ptionally line crop, and is now being hari vested. Visitors to the Kakanui district are struck with the appearance cf a fine field of turnips near the residence of Mr Alexauder Thomson. ' Capab'e judges affirm that Mr Thomson has ! the beßt paddocks in North Otago. Mr Thomson, by way of an experiment, has sown a few acres of field cabbage of the drumhead variety, and avers that as a crop they are not nearly so risky as the turnip, while the profitableness of the cabbage crop is said to be superior to the turnip. — North Otago Times. Two stacks of wheat, the property of Mr A. M'lnues, Kurow, part of the produce of 100 acres which had just been harvested, have been destroyed by fire. The origin of the fir« is a mystery. The men had just finished building the stacks. There was a line of £300 -in the South British office over the whole crop. I The crops at Taapeka Went are such as should gladden the hearts cf the fortunate farmers there, takiDg into consideration the unseasonableness of the season. The wheat crops are remarkably good, those on the sunny sides of the ridgeß being very even and well headed. The oats, though not so good, are yet far from b.ing bad crop.", while the turnips are looking simply splendid. The late rains have freshened np the whole country, making the turnips come on in a most wonderful manner. Mr M 'Roberts bai some grand crops of wheat and oats, and Mr Cameron's wheat fields are promising more than an average yield, while we hear of other crops in the district looking as well as their.. On the Lawrence-Tuapska Mouth road, however, the crops are not as good, and are ripening in patches. The birds are also doing a great deal of harm. At the West, some of the crops are beginning to turn, and harvesting operationsVill goon be in full swin^.— Tuapeka Times. A statement is going the rounds of the Australian press to the effect that a shearer named 1 J. Howe, who for eomo time past has held the record for fast shearing, has this season, whilst shearing at the Alice Downs station, Queensland, eclipsed hi» own record and that of all others by shearing 338 ewes in eight hours. The danger which arises to the community from the presence of tuberculosis in dairy herds is, says an exchange, well exemplified by the result of an examination of the cows at the Leongatha labour settlement. Recently, at the ; request of Colonel Goldstein, the honorary j snperintendent of the colony, Mr S. S. Cameron, 1 the veterinary inspector of the Health departnfcnt, assisted by Mr S. G. Wood, honorary veterinarian to the Leongatha labour settlement, applied the tuberculin test to the 51 cows comprising the herd, and the temperature of five of them rose to such an extent as to justify the belief that they were infected. On being killed all were discovered to contain nodules of tuber- , culosis iv different parts. The cows were prime, healthy-looking beasts, and were one of the beab

herds in the dis rice, yet 10 pt-r c-enc. v»f>re tonnd | to be diseased. Au object lesson is thus presented I whichshowstheabsolute necessity of a systematic ' examina'iou of the dairy herds of 'he colony if ibe p ogre e s of consumption '.v beast aud man is ti be combated. Experience bas shown that while tuberculosis is not h-redit_ry, ib is often acquired by calves from their mothers. la Denmark, when cows with c-ilvas are found to be diseased, the latter are taken away and supplied with milk from healthy cows, or with pasteurised milk, ho that in this manner healthy stock is raised from even tuberculous cows. The action taken with regard to tuberculosis of dairy cattle by the Board of Public Health shnuld serve as a roe.ns for assuring cooßUi_ers of Victoria 1 ! butter in England tbat do sto_e_ is being leit unturned bere to supply them with a thoroughly wholesome article ot diet. In the course of a conversation between the representative of a London newspaper ojnd Mr William Hay, the member in the Cape Parliament of Victoria E*st, that gentleman made some important statements. He believed that so Boon as ib was discovered that the germs of the rinderpest were dead there would bs a large importation into South Africa of Australian cattle. He continued :—": — " We shall be short of beef, and will prob-bly have to rely on Australian and New Zealand mutton. Then the question of duty comes iv. Owing to the influence of the farmers in Parliament a duty of 2d per Ib has beeu imposed. Now, if you take a sheep as weighing 701b, that amounts to 11s 8d per carcase. In the Transvaal they only pay 5 per cent, ad -valorem, the value being that given at the port of shipment. Say a sheep co«t«s3, and you have to pay 5 por cont.. whica is 3d, you willeeethat the people of Johannesburg will be able to live much, cfcw _,p.r than the people .at Capetown, although the moat, has to U8 carried 1000 miles up-country." Referring to butter, he said they were receiving large quantities from Australia aud also frevn Denmark and Norway. The Canterbury Times sayß:--"Mr W. F. W. Buckley, of Dunsaodel, has purchased the champion two-7ear-old draught filly of the colony, and *be came up to his farm tuia week. The filly, which hos already taVen four first prizes, was bred by Mr Allan Jones in the western district of Southland, and is said by all the good judges that have seen her to be the beat two-year-old filly ever bred in the colony. She is by Mr Rog<-r»'s fashionably-bred horse Cavalier out of an Extinguisher mate, and will no doubii ba see,n at many of our fhows nex 1 ; spring. Mr Buckley, who has already made a n<»me for himself as a most buccessf ul exhibitor of light hocses, and ia now goiag into draughts, is to ba congratulated upon having obtained such a grand filly. — Mr J. Dobie, of Dumfriesshire, left for Home by the Tekapo, via Australia. He was more than pleased with what he saw of farming iv New Zealand. The cattle in southern Otngo especially are far superior to what would be seen on similar farms at Home, aud the beef cattle on some of the Taieri farms even surpassed those seen on the estates of some of the leading breeders and graziers in Scotland. T_e farming, too, is far in advance of what he expected to see in the colonies." In a lecture on the breeding of Ayrshire cattle recuntly delivered at Muirkirk, Scotland, | by Mr Hamilton, of Wcolford*. an excellent I illustration is given of the way iv which showi yard fancies prevail over useful qualities. Mr H&milton said that at the commencement of I bis career as an exhibitor of Ayrshires nearly 40 years ago thare was a perfect rage for cows carrying their vessels tight. " Unless she was | what whs called a ' real yerker ' she was of no ; use. Competition at that time w&s «o keen 'that the question was not what could be done to improve the breed, but what could win a first prize. It was soon fouud that the tightest vessels could be got with the small teats. That was one cf the reasons small teats got such a bold of the breed. Not tbat showers actually wanted thorn ; it was entirely to get the firm vessel." These small teats were regarded by dairymen all over the world as a very great defect, and the breed did not come into general favour until the cows were bred with teats sufficiently large to be easily milked. The Wyndham Farmer saya :—": — " Back-breed-ing in live stock is no new thing, but we have seldom heard of a more striking instance of what it may lead to than has recently been furnished us. Three years ago Mr Thomas Ayson, of Meadow Bank, purchased from Mr James Walker, Wytidhaxn, a pure white shorthorn bull, 4yrs old, of guaranteed pure strain. Mr Ayson, by the way, is one of the best judges of a shorthorn in the province, and he was satisfied that his purchase, which had all the recognised shorthorn characteristics in prominence, was of blue blood and the very thing he required for his dairy harem. The bul> was of good shorthorn repute, teo, and had taken several prizae at the Wyndham and Gore shows, and was never beaten in the ring. The animal has now been mated with Mr Ayson'n cows for the past three seasons — and what is the result P That fully 80 per cent, of his progeny have the distinct white face of the Hereford ! Here is au interesting .instance of the tenacity of the old strain, and making itself felt after several generations. There can be no question that the bull came of pare stock as far back as its granddara and grandsire, but; it is evident a Hereford strain was introduced at some previous time." According to the Wyndham Herald Mr A. Noble had three valuable draught horses poisoned on the 2nd inst., one dying and two recovering. Sheep dip had been rubbed under i their jaws to ward off bot flies, the result being blood poisoning. Mr R. Kidd's services were [ called in, and he bled the animals. People cannot ba <^o careful in the use o£ poUoaoui

Mu'ns, as we (Herald) have heard of other cases ; of animals oeiug ooi-ouod by the outward application of undiluted poisonous sheep dip. The vVyndham Farmer s.ys :—": — " Ensilage has never received much notice at the hands of Southland farmers, but; a beginning has been made in that; direction oi providing winter fodiler. Mr Thomas Ayaon _hr a stack of silage on his Meadow Bank farco. He built it in the last week of December, and it. contains grass and clovi»r The dimensions of the silo are — width' 15ft, length 28ft, height 12ft. He pressed the stuff down by m*aus of 12 pairs of Reid's triplex strainers. He got this idea for compressing some years ago lrom a Danodin medico. Mr Ayson s*ys that his trial with silage so far points to success, as the constituents are keeping sweet, and he intends to start on a larger one shortly, which he will fill principally with clover, with some young g-trse cuttings thrown in by way oF experiment. We will watch the ultimate result of these experiments with interest, and hope Mr Ayson is keeping all necessirj data to furnish evidence as tv the economical parb of the business. At M>ado<v Bank is also to be seen a fine crop of 150 acres rape, which is to be used for fattening lambs." The Manawatu Times learns that Mr J. Donald, of Featberatone, who has a private factory, recently had the whole of his herd of milking cows, comprising o~er 4-00 head, distributed over four farms, dehorned, with most satisfactory results. The outpot of milk was reduced a few gallons for a day cr two after the operation. The experiment was attended with every success, &b it is found the cattle are quieter, require les< room iv the yards, and feed closer in th_ paddocks. Mr Donald is thoroughly convince* of the value of dehorning, and his r example has been followed by sevoral neighbours. The weights of wool gob from the Lincoln sheep owned by Mr James M'lnto*h, of Elgin Park, Bdendale, have been furnished us (Farmer). His 10 Lincoln hoggets, which were exhibited at Wyndh&m show, shore 23 1b wool apiece for rams, and 201b for ewes. The name owner's Lincoln cro.sbreds, that won the Grsb prize a:. Wyndham show, gave 17ib wool for each fleece. The Winton corre«po_dent of the Southlaud News writes on the 4th :—": — " Mr Kirk. F.L S., delivered a lecture on weeds to a limited but interested audience in Moore's Hall. Wiutou, oq Wednesday evening. Mr Duncan King, president of the A. and P. Association, occupied the chair and introduced the lecturer. Those listening would be thorough'y convinced of the immense importance ol (inly sowing clean seed on their farms instead of always seeking out the cheapest obtainable Regarding the so-called tansy weed so abundant in the neighbourhood, fend supposed by many to be th« cause of so much death ana eng the horses, he (Mr Kirk) was most emphatic in saying that, after careful examination of eereral .amples of ib, no poison had been discovered, nor had he found any other weed of a poisonous nature in the locality, so that the cause of the mortality must ba seught in tome other direction. Specimens of hawthorn, holly, cabbage, turnip, apple?, &c, affected by disease were submitted to Mr Kirk, who stated the nature of the trouble and the care. The lecture was illustrated by lantern view*." On the subject of milk ferer a writer in the Wyndhftm Farmer says :— "*• Mr A. Cranstoun, of Edendale, knows something about milk fever by bibber experience. In six seasons he lost no less than 23 valuable dairy oowi from milk fever. He tried all sorts of medicinal remedies, bit without avail. Then he read what Mr Neil Marquii, a Timaru V.S., had to say on the natter, and followed his advioo. It was : Leave the cow alone with its calf for 24 to 30 hours after birth, and don't trouble about it in any way until that time has expired. It * is three seasons ago since Mr Cranstoun adopted that advice, and he has never lost a cow by milk fever since. This is a fact well worth digestion. — We also have the experience of Mr John Chi-holm on this matter. La*t year one of his cows developed bad symptomß I of milk fever, which manifested themselves for 1 four days. During that time Mr Chiiholtn i treated the animal to a prescription taken from ' Marshall's Pharmacopoeia,' consisting of 10 drops aconite and 10 drops belladonna alternately every hour. The cow then became costive, and he gave it 10 drops nux vomica as i a counteract. The cow, which was lying in a state of coma during her illness, pulled through. This year another of his cows ihowed milk fever three days after calving, and in all his experience he never saw one worse troubled with first symptoms — it staggered all over the yard. Mr Chisholm determined to try a remedy he had ready for nse and at hand — the same as he read in t'ae course of a paper contributed to a meeting of the Wyndham A. and P. Society on June 27, 1895 — and ho at once gave the animal the first part of the following dose : — 2£oz each of chloral hydrate and bromide of potassium mixed in 250z water ; give half along with 31b treacle fi<-sfc dose ; in 2hr give half of what is left, with lib treacle ; latter dose to be repeated every four hours, if necessary ; the medicine should be stopped bo soon as the cow can rise, or even hold her head up steadily ; an injection of warm water and oil is often beneficial ; ■hoald the cow* be unable to rise within 2hr after laat ! doae, give moderate doses of sulphate of ether I and carbonate ammonia mixed in water, and apply a mustard bliitsr along lower part of spine and nape of neck. The effect of this remedy wag magical. In less th_n a quarter of an hour after receiving the first dose the cow arose virtually cured, and he has had no further trouble with ib. We would like to ask, Hbs any «t_ei iasmer tried tbi_ core, wed with,

what success? Is is Mr (Jhishtilns's practice to l_t the calf suckle the cow sor three days after birth, and since ha adopted tbat practice, his herd, like Mr Cranstouu's, has experienced a remarkable immunity from fever." The Southland Times of Saturday last says :—": — " Ytjetardiy the first consignment of 10 tons of Wool from the Tarras station reached Oamaru by bullook waggoa. Tarraa fltation, near Cromwell, is 125 caileß from Oamatu, aud tbe waggonß are fully a week on the road. Tarras station ie under the management of Mr Thomn« M'Whirter, who some yeirs ago farmed in the vicinity of Island Cliff. To send wool by bullock waggon 125 miles seems an inordinate distance. As, however, the carriage by bullocks is cheaper than by rail, and a back-load of ooal and station sundries can be obtained, this method of conveyance, which had been deemed extinct since the advent of the railways, finds favour with the station managers of the interior." Accounts of wetselfi attacking shf ep crop up every now and again, and are almost always shown to have little if any foundation. The latest ib from the Waikato, aud the New Zealand Farmer baa the following abontifc:-~-"Ever since weasels were introduced into the colony prophecies have been freely indulged in to the effect that as their numbers increased and their •legitimate' d«6t — rabbits — decreased, necessity would compel the veroiia to enlarge their field of operations, and after raiding hen-roost's, barnyards, and such like, lambs in the field .would probably be attacked. I very much regret to report that the latter stage has been reached in the W-ikato, several authentic reports having recently come to hand respecting rather mysterious deaths among sheep upou the Thames Valley Company* Liohfield estate, and alvo iv Mr Morgan*! flock at Hantapu, the particulars given leaving, unfortunately, very little room for doubt that the mortality was caused by weasels. In the first-mentioned case rach of the dead sheep was found to have a email punctured hole betuud the ear, and, suspecting weasels as the cause, the manager moved th<i sheep to another portion of the estate, when -he deaths immediately ceased. A few days later the sheep were returned to their former graziDg grciod, and the first night four sheep fell victims. The Government rabbit; inspector is now on the estate, aud acting uud»r instructions from his department is makinp full inquiries into the matter. In Mr BSorgaa'ti ca<ie two l»mb.i and a fat wether were killed, but in a somewhat different manner, the punchiro being made behind the forearm so as to strike the artery, aud the blood sucked. In this c_,'e none of the sheep were dead when found, bat died during the day." During his visit to England (says the Pastoralists' Review), Mr John Oooke acquired the patent' rights tor the whole of the colonies of a remarkable invention, whereby the canning of meats, fruit, fish, butter, jams, milk, vegetables, &0., will be greatly cheapened and simplified. The p&tenb machinery makes hermetically sealed solderleas joints, and in addition to saving the cost of solder, one boy can do the work of eight or nine men, while the very serious loss arising from uusound tins will, it is claimed, virtually disappear. The process has been introduced this season iv America for fruit and fish, and a factory at Folkestone is successfully working the patent, whilst various large English and French packers are making preparations to avail themselves of it. In the course of a few month, the plant will be set up in Australia, and an opportunity of testing it will be afforded in all the colonies. The Assistant Government Statist of Victoria, Mr James J. Fonton, has distinguished himself by taking the most minute pains to ascertain the wheat harvests of the last two or three years, and we are inclined to think (says the Argus) with a considerable amount of succesa. He id not responsible for the frailties of human nature in the matter of making returns, but only for doing his best to secure accurate returns. Mr Fenton has this season issued no fewer than 17,396 cards to _ultivatorß for the season 1896-97, and of these 12,588 have been returned with partionlars, 22G have been returned by the Dead Letter Office, and 4590 have still to be accounted for. That there are some 17,000 cultivators of wheat in the colony may come upon the public as a surprise. It is a great surprise when ib is reflected th_t the most valuable wheat harvest ever garnered in Victoria was worth not more than £3,000.000. The average return for wheat per holding may therefore b_ put at something like £200 Another deduction is that if there are 17,000 cultivators of wheat in Victoria, # it must be a very difficult mattei at any time to calculate what is the invisible supply. For if the 17,000 cultivators hold on the average only 20 bags apiece, there art> 3*0,000 bag 3, or, say, 1,500,000 bushels. If they hold 50 bags, then the " invisible, supply" is 3,750,000 bushels. With so great a sea of conjecture before u», we have always declined to accept estimates of invisible supplies based on the results of flying visits or baseless calculations. The invisible supply of any country must always be a doubtful quantity, although there can be no question that in Victoria it is much less than it was a year ago. The 12,856 cultivators who have already sent in their returns state that they had in crop 1,179,87+ acres, the neb production from which actually harvested was 1,075,0+8 bags, the average being rather less than a bag pec acre, the bag being taken at 4.16 bushels, the average production thus being 4.12 bushels. When the rest of the returns are re ceived Mr Fenton expects that the gross yield! from 1,644,616 acres will be 6,775,800 bnshels, but we ate wl* 1-"*1 -"* to think that he oves-ea_i»

mates the area. This, however, will appear later on. In any case the quantity will barely enffice, except with the aid of the very meagre Btocks brought forward from the previous season, to fill the n quirementa of the colony, and the present position of the market ia fully justified. The corn tiade Sectional Committee of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce has fixed the Btmndard weigh* of w>-eat for the present season"at 61!b to the busbe . Mr S. Stinden. of Fitzberbert, near Palmer- ( BU>n iNorth, has (aays. a northern exchange) on ingenious contrivance for proteciog a stac< in permanence. The stark is a lo»g one, and ab either end, and c.-ut a'ly at the end, is a ems'; with a pulley ab top and at bottom. A ropf th&t can be raised or lowered as desired is suspended by ropes at the ends ; the rcpea to ,over the top pullpyF, descend ai l pass ,under the lower pulley.*, and then ro hori-j zantslly to a winch roller, which in turn- ; insr lifts or lowers the roof at; the same rate for j each end. Thus, in carrying the new-made hay, ] the roof can be lifted well aoove t'-.e head* o? i the stackers, who are at the same time shaded from the sun, and lowered fairly on to the stack : when finished. When the stack needs to be j drawn on for the use of stock or for sale ib » is easy to lift the roof, throw off what is re- I quired, and then lower the roof to the covering height again. |