STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 6

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Bt Dboveb.

Weekly Stock Sales : Invercargill, Tuesdays. Burnside, Wednesdays Monthly: Ashburton, Tuesdays pn nn + nn Palmpratnn Addington.Wedneadays Clmt °£ d W ££ n c . ' Fortnightly: Periodically : Balclutha, Fridays Heriot, Kelso, and KyeGore, Tuesdays | bum. Oaniaru, Tuesdays. | ordlally invited. All jomrauuic&tioui to rcnoh Wttnesa office 80l later than UoDdnj nicht.l The yarding of cattle at Burnside was 163, mostly,of indifferenfquality. Only a few pei sof prime bullocks seemed of the leapt interest to buyers, and these brought from £9 10s to £10. The rest of the cattle mostly failed to find buyers, and went home again. The market was as dull a one as has been seen for some time. Butchers were, I think, full with late sales. About 2400 sheep were yarded, the aged female being again prominent. Good freezing wether* were in small supply, and were brifkly competed for at prices ranging from 11s to 13s. Some good maiden ewes brought up to 11s. Sheep outside freezing quality brought good priots, as they were good butcherb' sheep — Wethers, 9s to 10s ; ewes, 8s to ds 6d.

There wts a large yarding of lambs, nearly * 2000 being penned. Owing, I think, to a block in the works, prices were lower than one would have expected, as the quality of the lambs was, as a rule, decidedly good. There was a drop in the prices lately ruling of about Is per head. I have again to say that a little regulation of the yardings, were it poEsible, would ba much in the interests of sellers.

It was expected that a reduction in freights would be made at the c-nd of this month. I believe the shipping companies have tft'ertd a reduction to the freezing companies, but they want a quid pro quo in the shape of an agreement to ship only by the usual ring of shipping companies that serve the New Zealtnd trade — in fact, ssmething en the lines cf the present contract, which prevents shipments in outside lines. As yet the matter is not settled, and no doubt the freezing companies must know the public feeling among farmers and sheepbreeders is against any agreement which will lie their hand?. In & matttr of this kind much depends on what the redaction of freights is, and provided it were really substantial there seems nothing unfair in such a bargain. But if the trade is to be confined, the ratf s should be such as not to h&rnper New Zealand producers in competition with Australia.

I congratulate f aimers on the generally firm itacd they have made with their grain. O&ts, as I predicted, will now bring good prices, and some say 2s 6d will be reached. There seems to me no reason for giviug way on wheat, as millers' stock* are smaller than usual, aud there will shortly, 1 think, be a fair market in Australia, as stocks are not heavy there, and the drought in New South Wales looks serious. Butter is worth 9ii, f .0.b. ; best factory cheese, Id to 4£d, f.0.b., and I think both may improve, Especially butter.

As tuberculosis is certainly prevalent among our cattle in this colony, and potsibly on the increase, it is interesting to know, on such high authority as that of Dr R. Cowan Lees, that in bis opinion the diseased could be stamped out under a properly authorised and organised sj6tera. Our Agricultural department are, I believe, anxious to do something in this line. On one or two occasions farmers have, in what I consider a short-sighted manner, resented Government interference in this direction. Under such a scheme as sketched by Dr Cowan Lees any grievance or hardship felt by individuals would be lessened, if not altogether removed. A summary of' Dr Lees's remarks frill therefore, I think, be interesting to readers. He s»id that he still adhered to his previously expressed opinion that milk from a tuberculous cow was a source of infection to man, but not always so, as much depended on the stage of the disease in the infected animal, and it was difficult to know when that stage was reached, and the milk might be 'effected at any time. He argued that they should nofc wait nntil they had proof that the milk was infected before they clewed ont the animal, perhaps when it had infected other* and become useless and Valueless itself. His idea was. that the tuber*

culm tsst should be applied to all cattle, and he suggested such bodies as county councils bb the proper ones to be the authorities on the subject and to have the working and control of operations. Infected anima'.s should be destroyed, and the cowkeeper should receive ampl'i and fair remuneration from the authorities. He believed if such a plan were adopted of clearing byres and herds of infected animals they would before very Jong arrive at a stags when tuberculosis would be almost unknown amongst cattle. He cited example", especially on the Continent cf Europe, where herds had been cleared of all infected anima's with great advantage to owners in the loug run. From a commercial point of view; it would be advantageous to all owners of cattle were such a drain upon their stocks a* that caused by tuberculosis removed, and that it was possible to do this, all that was required being cooperation and a determination by everyone owning cattle to face the difficulty and deal with it. The disease might, he said, be lessened if owners paid proper attention to the environment of cows and their feeding, watering, and care, aud the authoritieg should call the attention of farmers to the fact that wantof attention to these matters weakened the cows and made them more liable to the attacks of this disease. He argued that as the general public would be greatly benefited by the removal of this dangerous disease they could and should pay for it. He was distinctly opposed to confiscation of a man's propeity, and he regarded it as confiscation to tell a dairyman that he must destroy an animal without proper remuneration, no matter-on whose authority the order might be given. If this system of testing and separation were adopted and gradually but efficiently carried through, " piners " would be unknown and losses would be prevented, and at the same time they could have the great satisfaction of selling milk guaranteed to be free from tubercular iufection. With regard to the efficiency of the tuberculin test, ib was stated at this meeting that at the experimental stations in Canada about 200 animals wera tested to ascertain whether the test was reliable or not. The result was that in only one or two cases did the te^t fail to give a correct indication of the animal's true condition. It was also mentioned that experiments had, proved that the disease is not hereditary, that calves from nearly 200 cows that reacted to the ttsb were brought up perfectly healthy by taking them from their dams as soon as calved and feeding them on sterilised milk or milk from healthy cows. If, then, the disease is not hereditary we onght all the more to bo encouraged to stamp it out, as it it much more easy to deal with a non-hereditary disease than with one that is hereditary. The article in the North British Agriculturist dealing with our frozen meat and headed " A Gigantic Fraud " shows that the writer has only now wakened up to the fact that a very large portion of our best meat is being sold to the confiding British public as home grown, whereas most colonists have rightly held the opinion that this has been the case for years. In this column and elsewhere our belief as to that condition of affairs has been stated again and again, and the opinion expressed that it was highly detrimental to the best interests of the trade. It is somewhat amusing to note the position now taken up by the North British Agriculturist in deliberately charging us and our Government arid'other countries interested in the frozen meat trade with conniving at thia so-called "gigantic fraud." As a matter of fact, our Government have always done what was possible to have our produce sold for what it really is, and as New Zealand produce. On the other hand, however, I think it quite possible that some meat exporters have done otherwise. There has been possibly come fraud in this matter, bub it has not been perpetrated by our Government or by colonists. Whatever our produce h&3 been, we have not been I ashamed of it. Where fraud has been perpetrated it will be found that the ring of London meat salesmen and the Smithfield crowd have been the guiJAy parties, and the trouble really is Jhat we nave all along been quite frightened of the Smithfield salesmen, j and had a fixed idea that they could 1 not be done without. Their chief aim I has been to make money as fast as j they could, and they have never had the ! slightest interest in the reputation or development of the trade. I hope soon to see some 1 scheme brought forward that will enable us to do

without any of these parties, for I am convinced that they could be done without to advantage.

The article under notice also strongly recommends meat marking, and I am quite certain this will be acceptable to vi, as leading colonists in England have trie d for some time to g<-t a bill passed in the English Parliament to attain this object. The article points oub that the British farmer should insist on this bill being passed, and says they have much to gain and nothing to fear from it. For my part, lam sure that colonists will welcome such a measure, and that they will be gainers by it, and the reputation of our meat will nob suffer. The confiding British hcu-eholder will also benefit, for iv many cases h9 will awake to the fact that the "dear Home meat, fed on the rich pastures or on the juicy roots grown on the arable lands of Great Britain " (I quote the high-flown language of the article) has after all been New Zealand mutton grown on equally rich New Zealand pastures and equally juicy New Zealand roots. He -will then in most cases, unlesß be be very proud, be glad to buy his meat for what it is, and will probably get it cheaper, whilst the New Zealand producer will without doubt get somewhere nearer proper value, and the salesman or butcher will have to defer getting " beastly rich " in a hurry and be content to take a fair and honest profit, getting decently well off by the time he is 50 or 60.

I notice that Mr A. C. Begg has addressed the Secretary for Agriculture advocating rabbit extermination by " the chicken cholera process." Pasteur's proposed remedy now finds much favour in Queensland and in many parts of New South Wales. I have said before that I believe our Agricultural department have had the matter under consideration, and that Mr Gilruth, our leading Government vet., has studied the subject at -the Pasteur Institute when at Home, and ie anxious to have it properly tried here, being, I believe, sanguine as to its success. It is isaid that this chicken cholera only affec's poultry, bub even that is a serious matter. I think the proper way would ba for the Government to try this method of rabbib destruction on an island, say the Snares, or some such place ; then they would be able to see its effects, and would see what other features were developed beaides rabbib destruction, so thab they might bf> in a p:sition to advi*e its use on the mainland or otherwise. In Queensland it seems to be gaining in favour, but the districts in which this is the case are possibly nob closely settled.

I have still great faith in pollard poisoning and its effect?, and I think Mr J. C. Buckland's receipt for its use is well worth publishing again. Ib will be noted that Mr Buckland advocates mixing with cold water, and this I consider an improvement. I quote from Mr Buckland's letter :—: —

Pollard poisoning should be started in January, and followed up in all dry weather at intervals until the end of April.

Where stock can be taken away for three or four days the poison should bs laid systematically over the whole area, but particularly on all dry ridg-s and sunny faces. It is best placed on a very chin chip cut with a sharp spade ; if too deep in the ground it becomes moist, and the rabbits do not care for ib. Where stock cannot be removed the pollard should be put in a narrow deep cut made with a sharp spade, but only in the driest places.

The only satisfactory way of mixing the pollard is by dissolving the phosphorus with bisulphide of carbon and mixiug entirely with cold water. The old boiling process spoils everything, and the heated phosphorus sends off dangerous fumes. To make the poison, place V 2V 2 sticks of phosphorous, a good tablespoonful of bisulphide of carbon, and half a pint of cold water in a jug or bottle. The phosphorous will be dissolved in a few minutes, and may then ba poured into a bucket or other vessel, with 31b of .sugar, dissolved in 3£ pints of cold water. Stir iv pollard to make a stiff dough, roll, and cut into squares about -£in each way. Rolling with flour improves the appearanca. The cut pollard should be thinly spread until dry.

The poison should be carried in a box or bucket, so as to preserve its appearance and shape ; carrying it in a bag rolls iteinto lumps of dough and spoils its texture. Two small pieces are enough for one chip ; bunny does not care for a large helping.

Nimmo and Blair's "Standard" Seeds for present sowing. We will b3 pleaded to send samples of al! agricultural seeds to any address in the colonies. "Standard" Seeds are always reliable, Duuedin. — Advfe,