STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES. By Drover.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 5

STOCK AN D GRAZING NOTES. By Drover.

Weekly Stock Sales : J Fortnightly: Bunißide. Wednesdays I Tuesdays^ Aflhburton, Tuesdays } Monthly • Addington,Wediie*Jas-B ; oifaton, FblnUnton Fcrtuightly: and Winton. • Balclutha, Fridays I Periodically: Gore, Tuesdays | Heriot.Kelso, and Kye Oamaru, Tuesdays burn. I ComniuaScfttioni of Interest te stockbreeders tnd dealeri »r cordial It invited. All .tommuaications to rcaoh \V:tue«s ollta not later than Monday night. 1 The yarding of cattle at Burnside last v/eek was over 200 head, mostly medium and stores. For the few pens of good bullocks bidding was fairly brisk and prices not much lower .than previous rates, — from £8 to nearly £9, smaller weights from £6 10s to £7 10s. The store cattle sold badly, as might be expected, for at present stock don't do well on sodden turnip land. Over 3000 sheep ware yarded, and the sale was duller than has been the case for some time. A. few prime heavy wethers brought up to 17s, prime freezei'3 14s t< 15s 6d, medium ewes and wethers from 12s to 13s 6d. Prices generally show a decline of about Is 6d per head. ' Many of the sheep sent in are far from finished, but no doubt they cannot be impioved on turnips at present. Cantcrbuiy buyers appear to have been active lately in buying up fat stock, and I am inclined to think the results of these transactions will be more satisfactory to sellera than to purchasers. At present the Canterbury works are about blocked. It is said the Timaru works have 60,000 sheep ready to go out when freight offers, and that there are nearly 60,000 sheep ready to go into the works when a clearance is made. The delay of the Perthshire and the non-arrival of the long overdue Waikato is the cause of the block, no doubt, as each of these steamers has a capacity of about 90,000 carcases. I think we are just about at the end of our teg-muttoD trade for this season. Only about 200 of these were yarded last week, bringing from 8s 6d to 10s 6d. At Addington the fat sheep supply at pre- ' sent comes mainly from Otago, Southland, and the North Island. Best freezers bring from 16s 6d to >os, and lighter weights from 15s to 16s. A large number of unfinished sheep are offered, but only sell as stoves, and probably speculators are making a considerable loss on these lines. Breeding ewes sell well, but all store sheep, even forward wethers, are dull, as improving them on turnips now is about hopeless. Among the sales recorded I notice Shropshire Down ewes from Messrs J. lieid and Sons' Monte Christ o estate, 15s 6cl to 17s, maiden ewes (J. S. Holme 3, Oamaru) 16s Bd, ewes (Gilchrist, Oamaru) 14s 6d. Many other lots of Olago and Southland bred sheep were bold, but these after a taste of the Canterbury pastures are now converted into "Prime Canterbury" mutton, and sell as Canterbury sheep. Canterbury speculators have purchased sheep at good prices all along this season, and everyone should wish them well, and hope that they will make a fair profit on the season's work. Still, there is something amiss when our local works cannot deal with out local supplies of fat stock. Oamaru sheep have j all along gone in largo number. 0 to the Canterbury works, and this notwithstanding that I the very efficient works at Oamaru have been but poorly supplied with sheep. It appears as if, one at least af the large Canterbury

meat works has been a heavy purchaser of i sheep on its own account all along, and it is said that a very large number of these remain | in the works at present unsold. I notice that Mr John Roberts, at the special meeting of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company (Burnside and Oamaru works), held to deal with tho matter of the increase of capital by the issue of preference shares, seemed to indicate that the company would then be able to push business on similar lines, and so compete with the Canterbury works. Such a policy is not what I would advocate, although it may be necessary occasionally. Refrigerating works should confine their operations to freezing sheep and to dealing with the by-products in the moat advantageous manner. If the freezing works are to become large buyers and speculators in sheep the result may be disastrous to themselves,, and if not may in the long run be disastrous to farmers by the creation of a powerful monopoly. It is a pity that the freezing works cannot be run on co-operative lines by farmers themselves, as a co-operative refrigerating company seems a far more legitimate field for ■ co-operation than a co-operative farmers' j agency — the co-operative refrigerating com- , pany being, I think, a much less complicated j and safer line for co-operation than a co- j operative farmers' agency, the latter business ' being far less simple than the former. As • a matter of fact, however, co-operative far 1 - ' mers' agencies apparently are successful, ' whilst, owing to the general apathy of sheep ' farmers in. Otago and Southland, any attempt to organise a co-operative refrigerating company would not meet with support. It remains to be seen whether tho farming community will take up these preference shares now to be issued. I hope they will, and further, I hope they will support the works by sending their sheep to be frozen. Supplying capital is, aftei all, a minor matter to supporting the local works with supplies. And, however well farmers may in the past have done by selling to Canterbury buyers, the neglect to supply our local works and keep them prosperous and up-to-date is a policy that if pursued much longer will result in the lowering of prices, and will be disastrous to sheep farming generally in this district. ■ The following extract from the London ' Time 3 should be of interest to horsebreeders in this colony : — Of the various breeds of- horses adopted as British cavalry remounts in different parts of the world, the Australian horses, as supplied to the cavalry in garrison, in India, give the least satisfactory results. They are difficult to acclimatise, and iri- India become constitutionally weak, and, though working well in cantonments, they rapidly go to pieces during the rough and irregular treatment met with in a campaign. Tn fact, heavy manoeuvres of a month's duration during the cold weather, as a rule, are sufficient to bring out their weak points, and instead! of improving the appearance of a cavalry regiment, a month of work under active service conditions, will find a very large percentage of the horses in poor condition. , The experiment which was tried a few years ' back of mounting a British cavalry regiment from the Bombay command on Arabs was thought to have turnished British cavalry in India with animals most suited to support the wear and tear of Asiatic campaigning. But the chief argument against the Arabs was that they were too light to carry the 18st which is the approximate burden of a British cavalry charger. This theory, however, has recently been disproved, since the 21st Lancers- were practically mounted on Arabs in the Soudan, their Syrians being much the same class of animal that finds its way to India ; and in spite of 18st on their backs and no green food at all, these little Syrians did well at Omdurman. When compared with the smaller Arab as a cavalry remount the Australian in India has little to recommend him but his size and appearance, the ordinary light-boned countrybred horse of the native cavalry being in reality a more serviceable animal for the work which would be required of cavalry horses in India in the event of war. . ! Of the foreign horses bred more recently t from English stock and used as remounts for our cavalry abroad the South American horse i which is supplied to the British cavalry in. I South Africa seems to give the most satisfaction. Corning from a grass country where the breeders think nothing of working a horse hard 30 to 40 miles a day with 16st on his back, a class of animal has grown up which, while it has the constitution and stamina which are wanting in the Australian, has also the weight and bone which are lacking in the Arab as a cavalry remount, and which would be essential if our cavalry on foreign service were called upon to meet on equal terms , cavalry mounted on European-bred animals. This wholesale condemnation of the Australian horse evoked the following reply: — | Sir, — I vras considerably surprised to read in The Time? af. 20th May a condemnation of

Australian horses as remounts for the Britist cavalry in India. In, March, .1880, I took a number of these horses to my regiment at Kabul, and thej Btood what your correspondent calls " th« rough and irregular treatment, met with in a campaign'" for a period of nine months, including the march from Kabul to Kandahar, extremely well. It seemsj therefore, inconceivable that '" heavy manoeuvres of a inonth'i duration during the cold weather " in India should have such disastrous results as those described by your correspondent, and that "the ordinary light-boned country-bred horse" should be "a more serviceable animal." Jt certainly was not so 20 years ago. — "SToura faithfully, HENEAGE LEGGE Colonel, late 9th Lancers. Carlton Club, 25th May. We in New Zealand ought to be able, if we try, to produce the proper sort of horse for all branches" of cavalry. There seems an everinoroasing demand for such horses, and I see plenty about town very suitable, but I don't think horse breeding catches on with the New Zealand farmer. Perhaps it is too slow foi him. 1 hope, however, this will not alwayg be so. '