AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

In the month of Jane next & conference of fruitgrowers is to be held at A Frnit- Brisbane, and very elaborate Growers preparatiorn setm to have bcea Conference, made for the function and the attendant competitive fruit; show. Delegates fVom all the.other coloriee have been invited, and these will be supplied ■with free railway passes on all Government lines during their visit. The subjects for discufision bave been divided into five sections — namely, orchard work, fruife distribution, storage of frnifc, insect friends and foes, and miecellanecus, —and each colony will have allotted to it certain subjects. For example, the New Zealand delegates will be expected to contribute papers on nut culture, co-operation in tho fruit industry, end fighting insect and fungus pests. The conference will be held at the same time as the Intercolonial Exhibition, and the show will be held iv the exhibition buildings. It is intended tbe Department of Agriculture in each colony shall be supplied with 100 copies of the proceedings f reo of charge, and thereafter as many copies as may be desired at actual cost. The result of this conference ought to be the dissemination of most valuable information, for Queensland fruitgrowers work under tub-tropical conditions not found in all the colonies, aud their experience should be worthy of note. It would appear from tbe Sydney Mail that Mr Twopouy's trip to England has Mr not been over fmeceest'ul. He Tiropennj's went to organise the Londoners, Mission. and was in efft. cb told to return and organise the Australians, Our contemporary says :—": —" Mr Twopeny went with the hope or doing something which men who had gained experience on the British market regarded as impossible, and therefore j his failure does act come as a surprise. If he had left here as the j authorised agent of a majority of tho Australian producers, with plenty of capital at his btck, to establish depots for the sale ot Australian frozen meat in Britain, he might have effected the desired reform in the trade. The Australian frozen meat trade is at present in a tangled condition. Few people are better aware of this than the London firms to whom Mr Twopeny appealed. There is not a meat-seller in Smithfield who does not know that there is no organisation or co-operation to assist the trade in Australia. Australian meat is a kind of shuttlecock which affords recreation ts a few wielders of battledores in England. The players are Joud in their announcements that the game doesn't pay. Yet, as the London Meat Trades JournqJ caustically observes, they are perfectly willingll, to keep on playing it and are willing to extend the playgrounds. Mr Twopeny may have seen daring his trip how the Ameiicnns conduct their trade —that; they have depots for their moat in several parts oi Britain, and do not depend so much upon agents as Australians do, cor is it likely that the bad effects of ship- ; ping inferior carcases of merino inntton escaped ; his notice." The more conversant we become with the trade the more firmly is tbe conviction raised that the only way of amending its conditions is for the producer and the consumer to come closer together. I

Certainly one of the most interesting of the events on the annual programme Farm of the Otago A. and P. Society Competi- is the "Best Macaged Farm tioiis. Competition." It will be re-

membered that the prize* in i these competitions are intrinsically valuable ( and consist of two bandsome shields presented , by Sir John Beunet Lawes. By the conditions imposed these trophies must ba won three times, though nob necessarily in succession. Mr G. H. Qilroy, 'of Inveresk farm, Stirling, has now become the envied owner of the shield for the " small farm" competition — that ia, for farms of from 100 to 400 acres. Mr Gilroy's farm is 345 acres in extent, and is divided into 18 paddocks, and he has for " runnprup" Mr Walter Blackie, of Glasgow farm, East Taieri. Mr Blackie has achieved more than local fame by the number and variety of the exhibits ehown by him at the local winter show, as on one occasion he displayed upwards of 90 exhibits, all produced on his farm. For the large farm o£ between 400 and 1000 acres Messrs John Red and Sons, of Monte Christo, were successful in the first year of the competition, but in the following year the executors ot the late Wiiliara ■ ScouUr were successful, as they were in the subsequent year. Mr W. Patrick has this year emerged as the winner. Ifc is somewhat to be regretted that the competition this year has been confined to only eight competitors, but we would suggest to the society that the contest is too valuable from' an educational point of view to allow to fall into disuse. Perhaps a worthy imitator of the example of Sir John Beanet I Lxwes will step forward and make provision for ! a second prize, or for some special feature in the farm arrangement of the unsuccessful competitors.