AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2258, 10 June 1897, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

I Mr Ritchie, secretary to the Department ot Agriculture, after conferring with the Gore Farmers' Club, intimated (writes the Goro correspondent of the Southland Times) that the stereotyped advertisement as to poisoning which usually appeared would not ba inserted this year, and if the settlers pro Ted by their method of operating fctub ifc wa3 an effective way of destroying the rabbits the department would not infcerfera-with them. On the other nan d, if the settlers failed to satisfy the department fchnt they were taking satisfactory step* to destroy the pest, the law would be enforced The department! had no desire fco harass tho settlers, but they must perform their duties. With regard to the employment given to ho many deserving people, he wished to say that he would have much preferred to have seen them employed in another industry, for both he and the Minister were firmly of opinion that canning or any other expedient which yielded a proflfc would always militate against the extinction of tho past. The department required eradication of the rabbits, and would ultimately insist upon it. This respite being practically what the cub wanted, votes of thanks were accorded to Mr Ritchie for coming, to tho Minister for sending him, and to tho mayor for presiding. Mr John Gibson, Aihley Downs, Waiwera, has presented the direotora of the Agricultural Hall Company with a cheque for £5, to show ■ his appreciation of their efforts in so success* I fully carrying out and erecting such a hand* some building. Mr Gibson thoroughly mii spected the premises, and felb so satiffied that I the undertaking would be such a benefit to farmers and materially assiat the committee oE tho Otago A. and P. Society to successfully provide accommodation for their annual winter show, and also greatly further the interest of • Ibe agricultural aud dairying industries of this | colony, that he handed hi« cheque to one of the I directors a; a donation. Practical support like this gives the directors confidence that their efforts are being appreciated by the farmers. We under.-tand that several gentlemen and business firms intend assisting in a similar I manner. In such a, large building. there are somany details that require to be attended to, | and it is proposed that cne of the large ' rooms | be specially set aside for a committee and library room, ao that a. considerable amount of money over and above the actual cost of tha building will be required to thoroughly equip tha premises as originally intended. We understand that Mr E. H. Smith resigns * his position on the staff of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company as frcm 30th June, and proceeds to London at an early date to act there | as representative ot the New Zealand Co-opera-j tive and Agency Company (Limited). The Department of Agriculture is much I pleased, with the degree of success which has attended its efforts to cultivate the wattle in New Zealand. About six years ago a reserve of 1000 acres at Wairangi, in the Waikato, was plactd under its control, and the whole of ifc was planted with wattles, which have thriven wonderfully. The process of stripping tha bark for gale to the tanneries has been commenced, and already several tons have been collected. The bark is said to be of good quality, and it is anticipated that no difficulty will be experienced in finding a ready sale for it at £6 per ton. The department has given instructions for the erection of a small crushing plant, and it is probable that at an early date arrangements will be made for extracting the tannin, so as to nvoid the necessity of sending the bark away to the tanyards. The Wellington Agricultural department is communicating with the acclimatisation societies ! with a view to importing toad*, bats, and | swallows to combat the inssct pest. ! At a meeting of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association on tha 3rd it was reported that the lots over the winter show ! amounted to £170 13s 6d. By the Waikato, which sailed from Lyttelton on Thursday, 20 shearling Lincoln rams, from the flock of Mr Henry Overton, were ihipped for the Argentine. O wirig to the rise in the price of bufatar, the Crown Dairy Factory Co. at Pahiataa, N.1., has announced to milk suppliers that it; wishes them to participate in its profits, and has therefore raised the prica of "butter fat" Id per lb over the contract price. This is at the rate of nearly *£d per gallon, the highest ever yet; paid in the district. At a meeting of the committee of tho Wellington Agricultural and Pastoral Association a discurslon took place upon the failure to hold the agricultural conference at Dunedin. Mr Matthews said the conference should have been held last year, but for three years it had been allowed to lapse. This year the Danedin Society had "a^ain blocked the conference on the ground that there were not sufficient societies willing to take part. Under the circumstances he was quite prepared to endorse the suggestion that the next conference should be called for Christchurch or, Wellington. He moved — " That ib is advisable that a conference should be held at Curistchurch or Wellington." After some discussion the motion was carried. It was decided that at the next show, in addition to £100 for point prizes for Liocolns, the following additional point prizes should be provided (subject to sufficient support) :—£so: — £50 for shorthorns, £30 for English Leicesters, £30 for dairy cattle, £50 for Romneys. It was decided to do away with point prizes for Ayrshires and also the beef breeds prize. The Buteshire, which sailed for London on Saturday, had on board over a quarter of a million carcases of rabbits. The Hampden correspondent of the North Ofcago Times makes the following remarks on the work being dons throughout Otago by the Peninsula aud Taieri Dairy Factory :^— "The Peninsula and Taieri Dairy Factory is still going ahead in this district, which is essentially a dairy diafcricb, owing to the smallness of the farms. There is now a considerable amount of cash circulating in this district owing to the advent of ths factory. During some oE the summer months as much as £400 was paid for milk, and even last pay-day about £200 was distributed to the various suppliers. The com-

paHy are now paying per gallon for a 3*B j teEt, and ag some of the tests are about 5, : the farmers supplying this test are getting ' about 6d per gallon for their milk. The ] milk suppliers of the district ought to con- ; gratulate themselves on getting the company to ' take over the creamery from the New Zealand • Dairy Factory Company, in which the latter lost ' so much money. It was with a great deal of \ trouble that they could be persuaded to take it over, but through the pu3h and energy of one of our residents they finally consented ; though there was a rival establishment started, but it had to give up. I believe the com- j pany cannot; supply the demand for their J butter, and have made arrangements for the | purchase of Bdendale and Stirling, and tha j directors contemplate spending more money in j the equipment of the factory in Dunedin, which will make it second to none in the colony. I would advise anyone who takes an interest in dairying to visit the factory when they are in Dunedin during the winter shov, and thsy will ' see for themselves the effects of good management, everything being utilised to the best advantage. The company has paid 8 per cent, on its capital since its commencement, and is on the co-operative system, and all the share- ' holders suppliers, and therefore they receive all ' the benefits. The directors intend holding a i meeting at Herbert this week at the desire of a number of Otepopo and surrounding district 1 residents, for the purpose of diicussing the ad- ; visability of erecting a creamery, and I am sure they will never regret the step if they agree to erect one." i The Shepparton Naws states that Mr Pye, principal of the Dookie Agricultural College, has hit upon a very inexpensive, bub, at thb same time, ver^ effective, method of erecting fowlhouses in Victoria in. the shape of mud- j brick houses. There are cow several of them , on the farm, and poultry farmers will do well ' to take the hint which is thus given them. The ' surface soil is taken and mixed up with some ' Btraw, and made up into bricks 18in long, 9iu . wide, and Gin desp. These arc allowed to dry in the run, and when this process is completed the bricks are fit for us®. A bark roof is used, and the floor is of cement, covered with sand a.nd iime, the inside walls being whitewashed, The beauty of these houses is that while they are ' warmer in winter than weatherboard structures, they are also cooler iv summer, and the start;. ling fact remains that last spring, while the hens sitting in nests in the brick houses hatched 95 per cent., those in the wooden bouses only hatched 40 per cent., or less than half. Mr Pye found that in every way the condition of the fowls was improved by the mud- • brick houses, which at the s&me time h&vo a , very neat and tidy appearance, and they can | easily be kept clean." '• The Cnristchurch Press of the 2nd s*y3 : — ' "The carcases of the two very fine Shropshira • wethers shown by Mr G. G. Stead for exhibi- ' tion only at the wintsr show last week, which ! were killed by the Christchurch Meat Company, | have been weighed, and were on view at the j Cashel street shop yesterday The live weights ' •were respectively 2861b end 2611b ; when dressed j the heavier sheep scaled 1751b. Nothwithstand- ' Ing that there nas 25'.b difference bstween the live weights of the two sheep, the lighter one • came within lib of the other when dressed, ifcs J weight being 1741b. The carcases were very j prime, and attracted a good deal of attention." j Mr F. Bradey, of Pnhautanui, has (according ! to an exchange) on view in Wellington two specimens of Romney Marsh wool raised on his farm. The first specimen was clipped from six i fleeces 32 years ago, and averaged from 61b to , 81b per fleece. Since then Mr Bradey has im- j proved his Romneya to such an extent that the ! specimens of this year's clip are almost double ' the length of those clipped in 1865, and j average from 141b to 171b weight perflacce. Me j Bradey argues that these two specimens of wool j are in distinct classes ; no reasonable person i would put the two samples together to judge i them as one c!as3. Therefore, he contends, as ! ths wool cannot be fairly judged in oue class, ] fche same applies to the sheep thenm-lves. j Hecca his suggestion that the improved Romneys should be jadged as a distinct class from the original Romney. I In New South Wales the Sydney Mail j states that lambing has commenced under con- ; ditions of a most disheartening kind, and is | likely to be classed among the worst lambings j known in Australia. In mauy parts of the west the lambs are being killed out of a merciful consideration for the ewes. Where it is possible < stock are being removed to better districts, and the boiling-down establishments are kept busily at work. The coast districts are the onlj onas which do not show very bad effects of the dryness. AU the tableland, the western slopes, and the far - out western division are drought stricken, and more or less badly affected. The only redeeming feature of the sad outlook is that rabbits are dying by millions. Otherwise considered the year 1897 promises to leave a very bad record. The price of butter, although cot very high, is 25 per cast, above what it vras a few weeks ago, and plainly indicates the effect a cold winter sad a scarcity of feed is baring upon dairying. If it were not for importations from Victoria, Sydney would be on the eve of a butter famine. The frosts have done much damage to the sugar fields of the northern livers, and around Casino the farmers are ploughing the cane out ta feed dairy cattle and pigs. Some startling evidence has, according to & ■ northern exchange, recently come to light as to the attacks made by weasels on sheep in the "Waikato district. A native named Ponal Tangibaere, who occupies land adjoining Fencourt estate, upon which he runs shaep, states that wben be was out eel-fishing lately he noticed

j a sheep running wildly about, apparently trying to shake something off. He caught the sheep, and saw a weszei faaagiug oa to the sheep's belly. It let go its hold and escaped. He examined the sheßp, and saw the marks of | the animal's taeth on the part of the belly : where there is no wool, and tbera was blood j running from the puncture. Subsequently the ' native found a nest of weasels in a hole near a j tree, and by smoking them out succeeded in j capturing and killing sis of them. I The Australasian says': — "Through a misinterpretation of a telegram from Mr Gordon, j the cbief inspeobor of stock, to Mr Archer, a j squatter, at Roskhatnpton, Mr Pound's experi- j meats in inoculation were described a few days | ago as a failure. It is now <-xplained that , they are of a most hopeful character. The j experiment conclusively proved that blood from cattle which survived the tick fever (iv case of ( a calf produced secondarily) can giva the tick fever without tho agsney of ticks. 'I am con- ' vincsd,' cays Mr Pound, 'that among the , grazing farms of the Upper Huntar Rivev there are hundreds of cattle which have bssn tak«u from the tick-infested districts of Queansland, the blood of which would produce tick fever in healthy cattle by inoculation in the same manner as it was produced at Mundoolan. The germ has a permanent home in the blood of cattle which have recovered from the tick fever, and is protective against fever in the progeny of such animals or in animals inoculated when young. Calves ara, in my opinion, absolutely immunp. New South Wales may, by the inoculation of young stock, be protected from fever and its deadly consequence, rad water.' " j The Sydney Mail says that the O/oya took a ] ton of turkeys from Sydney for London. The I shipment is an experimental one by Mr Law, j but baa been conducted by the expert of the > Export Board, Mr Bradsbaw, who considers the birds too light and the time unseasonable.. What London wants is birds from 141b to 181b ; what have baen shipped are from 101b to 121b. The unseasonable shipment is explained by Mr Bradahaw, and is to the effect that the exporter, Mr Law, impressed with the idea that two million extra people in London during the summer nhould create a demand much in excess of the Home and foreign supply, with fche consequent rise iv market values, determined on sending several large shipments in the hope of a speculative success. The expert s further aays that although we eat turkeys in Australia all the year rouud, such is nob the case in England, they being in little demand except in the winter months. Mr W. Hope has sent a small parcel of turkeys by the same vessel. | The Darling pea and its effect on sheep is bhe j subject of a report to the New South Wales ' Minister for Agriculture. The Leader says ! that the report states that there is a fair j amount of nourishment in the pea, and that | onimils can retain their condition for some ! weeks before the poisonous constituents take effect. When sufferiog from the poison animals gradually grow stupid, tremble and stagger, bscomethin, and finally die. Thereare no prospects of a direct remedy for the poison, the condition j being similar to that produced in the human nerves by slow poisoning by alcoholic and some mineral poison. Sheep should not ba allowed to remain more than four or six weeks in pea- ' infested paddocks at one time. But the eradi- | cation of tha psa is regarded as financially im- ! practicable. ' Mr Crowe, the Victorian expert, ia his recent ' address to the Associated Dairyman, said :—: — \ "A noticeable defect in last season's butter was ] sourness, sometimes callsd • weedy ' butter, ■ but arising in all cases, he was convinced, from , unclean churns. He knew of cases in whica '. after complete failure to remedy this fault by ordinary methods a change of churn secured I instant effect, raising the standard of tha butter ' from poor aeoond-rata to first-rate, and increas- I ing its selling price by-^d per lb. Sourness was i i not always occasioned by neglei-t. It oftea ; happened that a churn, after being in use all ! day, was thoroughly washed, but had no chaucn ' j to dry before it was again in use, the form of ; box churn with a man hole baiag in this respect disadvantageous. There was no better way of i remedying this fault than occasionally filling | the churn overnight with lima water. As a i matter of fact, however, about halE the j churns now in use in Victoria should bo used for firewood and proper onßs obtained. Another j good thiusj introduced during tha year was tha ' occasional analysis of samples by Mr Fearsou to ! j ascertain the quantity of moisture. It was : found to vary from 7 to 15 per cent., and his ! opinion was that, however views differed as to ! the desirable percentage, it should never exceed \ 12 per cent. With excess of water th9ro was j always a proportion of vegetable matter, which in decay would lead to deterioration. It was worth while, too, maintaiuißg the reputation Hr Jones, the Manchester delegate, had given them — that when a housewife purchased Australian butter she knew she was* getting butter and nat largely water. He thought there was nothing likely to hare better educational effects than the marking of the boxes, so as to identify particular dates, though it could be done by any secret code, the meaning of which was known only to the manager. To individual managers it would be invaluable." The clanger of ticks being transmitted on horses that are conveyed from northern ports to Brisbane by steamer, and in some cases to Sydney and more southern porti, is drawn attention to by a correspondent in the Queenslander. The writer declares that despite smsaring and greasing, horses will atill carry live ticks ; iv fact, live ticks have been found on horses for which permits to leave the Queensland districts hare been granted. Ia writing of dairying matters ia the Herbert

district the local correspondent of the North *l O:ago Times says :—": — " North Otago is gener- I ally spoken of as a poor dairying district, but I Mr Lang mentions as a curious fact that the i butter trom north of Danedin is drier and 1 firmer and altogether free from that excess of moisture which characterises the south butter. In faci he classes it as a superior butter every way, and gives it as his opiniou that this is owing to the drier and firmer nature of the pastures. North Otago, he considers, should be devoted to buttsr-tnaking as producing the most superior export butter, and the south entirely to cheese-making. Mr Lang also mentioned the Awamoko factory as an illustration of this fact." The Southern Standard says:— "Mr J. D. Ritchie, Secretary for Agriculture and Chief Inspector of Stock, arrived in (Sore by yesterday's express from Dunedin. The object of hia visit is to inquire into the fctrongly-urged request that rabbit-poisoning in the district be delayed until September 1, and to make au : inquiry into the whole question. In an interview with a representative of this paper Mr Ritchie said that his own views are entirelyin acoord with those of the Minister — that the rabbit-freez'ng business militates ag&inst the suppression of the pest. He does not believe that the past will ever be appreciably lessened by the systsm of trapping now being carried on. He points out th&t the department cannot compel poisoning, and is satisfied so long as, in its opinion, the rabbits are being kept down. The statement by Mr M'Queen at a public meeting in Gore that the inspectors could practically compel poisoning, by adopting the view that no other system could ba efficacious, was putting an extreme case. Experience has taught Mr Ritchie that in those districts where trapping had been stopped, the factories closed down, and poisoning exbeasively and systematically carried on, the rabbits have been greatly reduced. This result ( has been obtained in a marked degree in tho i Marlborough province, where poisoning is done { both winter and summer. In that district { poisoning, and no other system, is now adopted, i Mr Ritchie said that ib was probable that there - would be introduced in the coming geßsion a ; bill empowering the formation of rabbit dis- . triots and the advancing of money (to a boara ! to be appointed) for the erection of wire-netting J f e»ces. Mr Bilchiß is firmly of opinion that a > system of netting fences, in conjunction with I systematic destruction all the year round, would ! very soon solve the problem."