AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2359, 11 May 1899, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

An important report was presented at last week's meeting of the City Council held on the 3rd. The report bears upon the operalions of the city abattoir during the past eleven months, and the information contained therein affords convincing testimony (if such were wanting) of the necessity for an inspection of the meat supply of the city. A striking feature of the figures which are given concerning the causes for which cattle were condemned is the number that ■were found to be suffering from tuberculosis. Of the 260 cattle condemned, ZO l were suffering from tuberculosis, while 17 out of the 19 pigs were infected with the same disease. A small clause in the report has an impor ; lanl bearing on the milk supply of the city, lite council being recommended to adopt the proposal of the Department of Agriculture to have the inspection of all dairies carried out by qualified Government inspectors, under the provisions of "The Dairy Industry Act, 1898."

Tlio following extract from a private letter received by last mail has been placed at our disposal. It may be mentioned tliat the gentleman spoken of as " George " is a well-known and experienced dealer in stock, and, therefore, his opinion should carry great weight: — "We eat no other than your New Zealand mutton, as Mi Beauchamp (Acton) certainly sells the best. They lately have been having' some prize" sheep and lambs as you will see by the enclosed cutting from a local paper, and splendid mutton it was, -one leg we had .being over' 111b and very fat. George' said neither he nor anyone else would ever have known it was not English. I don't know which man they came' from.' I know they" often have Grigg's, also Chapman's. George sells over 108' sheep and lambs a week." The following is the paragraph alluded to: — "A few days since Messrs W. and It. Fletcher had on view at their stall, No. 385 Central Markets, the second consignment of sheep and lambs exhibited at the Timaru (Canterbury, New Zealand) Agricultural and Pastoral Association's annual show held in November last, and entered for the special prize offered by the Christchurch Meat Company for the most suitable class of pheen

for the London markets. Every possible 1 care had been takin in the handling of the carcases, and they arrived at Smithfield in the pink of condition. The quality of the sheep and lambs was Al, and undeniably one of the finest parcels shown in the Central Markets. The sheep were the properties of Air John Grigg (20), Mr John Dean (10), Mr G. G. Stead .(10), Mr- G. E. Rhodes (10), and the lambs were sent by the Cashmere estate (10), Mr G. Eaglesome (10), Mr R. W. Chapman (10), and Mr P. C. Threlkeld (10). The consignment met a fair market, and was soon disposed of at good prices."

The demand for freights to Australia is just now far in excess of the supply. At Lyttelton some thousands of tons of produce is lying awaiting transport to' " the other side," at Timaru the Wanaka could take only 500 tons out of the 2000 tons proffered, and at this port muqfci more was fortlicoming than she could accept. — Oamaru Mail.

The Press reports that Messrs Best and Tien with, the Victorian delegates, paid a. \ visit of inspection to the Cheviot estate, and were highly pleased with what they saw. Mr Best says he recognises that the great factors in the success have been the high quality of the land, the moderate ateas granted, and the reasonable terms' offered. The visitors foijbd all tlie settlers whom they met contented and hopeful. They were accompanied through the -estate by Mr John Briggs, who has threshed most of the crop's, and he was able to supply theexact figures as to the yields, many of which astonished the party, accustomed to the much smaller returns of Victoria./ The averages of the crops he' has threshed are 45 bushels of wheat to the acre, and 35 bushels of oats. This was surprising to the visitors, who expected to hear that the oat yields were much larger than those of wheat, as the climate appeared specially suitable, but were infoimed that the falling off was due to the ravages of a caterpillar which attacks the oats, but not the wheat. The amount of grain, threshed on the settlement this season ' is 115.000 bushels, and Mr Briggs estimates that 12,000 bushels are still unthreshed. Some of the crops of wheat yielded as much as 69 bushels to the acre, and one area of 12 acres 1012 bushels. It was found that according to the statements made by the settlers, the land is rising very much in value. One instances given was of a lessee who sold a lease of 120 acres, and received a, premium, of £175 above the valuation for improvements. Another case was quoted of the lessee of 350 acres, who was offered £2 per acre premium for the adjoining 350 acres, provided the Government will- approve the transfer. Nearly the whole place bears an appearance of good cultivation and cleanliness. The Mandeville and Rangiora Road Board purchased last season 12,557£ dozen eggs and heads of small birds at a cost of £151, and consider that the saving to farmers was about tenfold at least. The Wanaka took away 236 sacks potatoes from Oamaru, for Australia. A specimen of the Bathurst burr, the terror of New South Wales sheep farmers, was found growing on the Havelock main road the other day. . . Rabbiters are making a good thing of it hi the Upper Sholover district. They average from- £i to £6 per week by trapping. The ! price now being paid is 5d per pair delivered on the roadside. — Lake pounty Press. At last week'^s meeting of the Gore Farmers' Club, Mr Dynes gave some interesting information as to the effects of wire netting* his farm in order to enable him to cope with the rabbit pest. Four years ago, the rabbits on the property were so bad that the then owner had to sell out at the low price of 7s 6d per acre. "When he bought the placo the rabbits were so numerous that he did not know what to do. After considering the matter carefully he decided to erect a. rabbit-proof fence round the farm, which comprised 800 acres. Enclosing that area, entailed a cash outlay of £220. That done, lie proceeded to get the rabbits inside killed, and rabbit ers went on fdrs.jyhat they could [ make out of the skins. In June. 1696, the ! two rabbiters told him they could do no more good. lie offered them 17s 6d a week each and what they could make out of the skins to stay on, and after seven weeks the men, found they could not make it pay, so they left. After the rabbilers had gone he (the speaker), with the rabbit inspector, went over the ground, and after tt a veiling for three hours they failed to Gee~>a single rabbit. Later on he (Mr Dynes) got Mr Gilruth to introduce chicken cholera among the few rabbits left. The chicken cholera cure had been spoken of as a farce, but it was nol so. Fifty per cent, of the full-sized rabbita caught on the placo now were under weight, allowing that they were affected by the chicken cholera. Mr Duncan Rutherford, of Leslie Hills, in order to further improve his stud of purebred merinos, instructed Mr W. A. Murray, of South Australia, to send him a couple of his best rams. Mr Murray has sent what he describes as being the pick_ d£ his clean-faced merinos. They are rising one year old, and nre by Cappeedoe's Gliost, by No. 163, by> Cappeedee, with a strong strain of the same blood on the dam's side. The sheep have just undergone the usual period of quarantine, and were forwarded to Leslie Hills last week. The Lyttelton Times says :— " A good many crops of rough-skinned kidney potatoes have gone bad this season. The potatoes when dug appeared to be all right, but on being cut revealed brown spots which led to the rapid decomposition of the tuber. One heavy crop that came under notice had to be sold as pig-feed." " Tussock," in last week's Canterbury Times, endeavours to explain his position in reference to the " prime Canterbury " question by staling that he " always asserted, with the strictest truth and full knowledge, that ' comparatively few 'Otago sheep are exported from Canterbury freezing works as 'prime Canterbury.' " He must have been consistently expressing himself in a very clumsy way if this is what he meant, as his readers down south have always marvelled at his disclaimers that Otago sheep were ever labelled '-prime Canterbury." " Comparatively few " is a somewhat indefinite term, and may mean anything. It seems to us that Otago would have hasl good cause for complaint if even only half a dozen Otagari sheep had been sent as prime Canterbury." The Weekly Press in its last issue deals with this question from a Cantor? bury point of view in a somewhat exhaustive manner, and we quote some extracts our contemporary !s article elsewhere in thiFvssne; It will be seen that the writer in the Press also admit? that the term "prime Canterbury lias not been confined to sheep bred in that district, for he says that " it is the want of recognition of this fact [that Otago and North Island pheep improve when topped off in Canterbury] that causes bo much feeling in other provinces against the use of the term prim* Canterbury,' applied to the "best sheep that go through our works, irrespective of where they were bred." We wonder what would be said about the importers of Argentine or Canadian cattle if after they had been fats'

tened in England for a few weeks they were pasped off as "prime English" cattle. It having been said that Ihe Christchurch 'Meat Company intend starting meat freezing operations in the North Island, I made a point (says " Straggler," in the Weekly Press) of asking Mr Gilbert Anderson, the managing director of tbe company, if the information was correct. Mr Anderson says they only intend to cure bacon at the works the company have taken at Woodville, as they find that the Canterbury farmers, in giving so much attention to sheep, are not able to keep up the supply of pigs that the local curers are able to deal with. Pig breeding and feeding follow the dairy factory^, and therefore the North Island offers a splendid field for the operations of the jmodern bacon curer. Buyers and sellers in the Goole cattle market have, says the Field, decided to follow the lead of Edinburgh, Perth, and Grimsby, and institute a scheme of insurance against loss arising from the confiscation of carcases which may be found to be tuberculous. The rate of insurance, to be shared equally by the two contracting parties, is 13 per head for all classes, except cows, for which the rate is 2s. No compensation will be paid for animals worth less than £10. It seems highly probable also that, tlie scheme will shortly be put in operation at Hull. • The Christchurch Press of the 4th says : — Freezing sheep were in great demand at the Addiugton yards yesterday, and the export buyers had something unusually good to compete for in the large prime lines sent in by several well-known^ graziers who received highly satisfactory prices for their wethers, ranging from 17s 6d to 18s Bd. Fat lambs also participated in the rise, and 15s 7d was the top price recordted. In comieclion with the advance in the price of wool referred to in our "cable message this morning, it is said that 6ome Canterbury woolfrowers had signified their intention to demand a rebate on the freight charges, owing to the vessels of a certain' shipping company having arrived 100 late for the last series of wool sales. In view of the increased "price they will poa'sibly obtain, it is not likely that more will be heard of their demands for rebate on their freights, 'and perhaps when their account sales come to hand the company may receive a bonus.