OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 15

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL LETTER.

(Fhom Ottb Own Coejiespondext.) CHRISTCHURCH, August 19. *?he weather this month has been fairly seasonable, but the land has The Farm. dried very slowly, and farming operations have been retarded more than is desirable in the interests Of the crops. Farmers seem to have made up their minds that they cannot dc better i than trust to wheat, p.nd a good breadth is going in, especially in South Canterbury. One consideration is that the crop can be put in for 5s or 6s an acre less than last year, counting the prices of seed and of horse feed. Horses are as dear as ever. A great deal of land is being prepared for turnips and rape, though the sheep, to eat them, are not ia sight. A lot of threshing and chaff-cutting remains to be done, and it is quite likely that the unusual sight will be seen on a good many farms of two years' wheat standing in the stacks after next harvest. Wheat is. offering freely, but there are few buyers, and prices are weak. Threshing machines are able to get into the fields now, but for months they have been unable to move. Most of the country roads are in a bad state, rendering carting very heavy work. Altogether, farAers have never had such a bad winter for .tvork, though old settlers tell of difficulties jLn the early days which make recent troubles seem trifling by comparison. i i Sheep have done very little good the last i two or three months, and Stock. many are now being offered at the country sales for no more than they coet in April and May. These are mostly breeding ewes, of indifferent or inferi >r quality, and which had a good acquair .ance with the roads of the colony during tie autumn. They were bought by the email ;r farmers, who now find their turnip 3 done and paddocks bare through the severe frosts and the sheep going back, and would rather make a loss now than risk keeping the ; ewes over lambing. This sort of thing occurs every winter and early spring, yet the " cockatoos '' never eaem to be wis6r foi the exvie lence. While inferici sheep are difficult of sale, any really good line, even though age<'. sells rexdilyat a profit, though prices, of fat sheep are much lower than they wwe two months ago. Some very Sne fat sheep, both crossbred and merino, are coming from the stations, and the freezing works are wonderfully busy for the time of year. Some good beef also is coming forward, but the price keeps low. Well-bred store cattle always finds buyers, but mongrels seldom realise more than boiling-down value. An enorraous number of old cows have been converted into Islington fertilisers tho last two years, besides those not much better which have : been tinned. Bacon pigs are rather lower ' again, but stores are very dear, and are already being bought up in anticipation of the dairy season's demand. The rise in merino wool is giving runholders confidence, and Mr Andrew Rutherford, Mendip Hills, who is in Australia, has been buying some Murray , rams for his flock ; it is said he paid £500 for one of them. The Murray merinos are in great favour in the Amuri. Mr Watson Shennan. Puketoi, and the N.Z, and A. Land Company have some rams from the Sydney sales in quarantine. The former paid 180gs for a Bellevue (.lames Gibson's) ram, which is one of the importations. ! The examiners' reports for the_ first term of _' this year at Lincoln College Agricultural were before the Board of GoCollege, vernors at the meeting this week. The oiate of nnfitoeßS shown by some of the nrp.t year's students' work which has been noted in previous examinations is again referred to.' Dr Dendy says that several of the first year's students would be better at sohool ; Dr Evans says that judging by their papers some of them were ,new to written work of any sort; Mr Giliuth says the grammar and spelling of some of them were hardly what could be expected from a Fourth Standard scholar, and the other examiners make excuses for the faults. It is suggested that there should be an entrance examination before a student is admitted. Under theße circumstances the manner in which the several years' students aquitted themselves is highly creditable to the College ataff. The number on the roll stands at 31, altogether too small a body for such a building and teaching staff, though, perhaps, quite as many as woik can be found for on the farm. The committee of the Canterbury A. and P. Association at its last meetCftiitcrbnry ing passed a resolution call- *. and P. ing tor legislative action for Association, the repression of the Californian thistle, and urging the passing of Mr E. G. Wright's bill. Mr Adams (of Greendale) explained his method of killing the thistle with arsenical sheep dip — a remedy which I have mentioned in this letter many times. Tho Californian thistle is not the only weed which requires legislation, and

it seems ill-advised that the committee should advocate piecemeal legislation rather than urge the passing of a general Noxious Weeds Bill, as resolved by the Agricultural Conference. Some changes are to be made in the arrangements for this yearVshow, in the direction of providing visitors on the first day with some variety. It is also proposed that ' jxidging rings for the sheep be provided, as at the principal North Island .shows. A good list of special prizes has been issued, j and is worth the attention of southern far- ; mers. I The two inspectors continue to find an occa- ' sional diseased beast, geneMeat and Milk rally one which looked '\\arInspecliou. ticularly well before slaughter, but on examination afterwards is found to be tuberculous. In sheep hydatids are the most prevalent trouble, and Mr Charlton, M.R.C.V.S., the Islington inspector, calls attention to the need of legislation dealing v/ith this disease. The abattoir question i\j at a standstill, and a large number of the butchers still kill without inspection. Tlieir business must be falling off, for the Christohurch Meat Company, who were first in the field with an inspector, are said to have doubled their retail business. The Hampstead (Ashburton) Town Board has personally inspected the slaughterhouses in its district (which supply Ashburton and surrounding locality), and has reported upon them (one excepted) quite as strongly as Mr Reakes could have done. The butchers have been told that other arrangements must be made at onee — which will probably have the effeot of causing arrangements to be made to kill at the Fairfield Freezing Works. There is as yet no inspector at these works, nor at Belfast. The Christchurch City Council wants to know when the Government is going to begin the inspection of dairies, which was entrusted to the Stock department months ago. Dr Irving read a paper on Tuberculosis at the last meetings of the committees of the ' A. and P. Association and of the Medical Association, and this haa directed renewed attention to the danger of spreading disease through the medium of milk. , The Medical Association has called attention to the evil of the present four-Four-bushel bushel sacks of wheat. In Sacks. a letter to the Chamber of Commerce ca the subject it is stated that two members of a deputation of Lyttelton lumpers which waited on the local board of tho association are suffering from heart disease caused by carrying these heavy-weight sacks, and the association is of opinion that 2401b Js too great a weight for men to handle for any length of time with impunity. It is suggested that the sack should be 2001b, and the Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the suggestion and forwarded it to the Premier. j AGRICULTURAL 4ND PASTORAL i NEWS. ! Regulations will shortly be issued under I the Dairy Industry Act of last session providing for the registration of butter and cheese factories, creamories, and packing houses. A certificate will be issued to each on compliance with the sanitation requirements, ; which will be specially insisted upon. \ ' It is reported that borses are being shot in j Nelson, whether accidentally or maliciously I is not known. The latest case has been reported to the Colonist by Mr F. N. Jones, who is offering a £10 reward for information. A filly, winch is a valuable one, was discovered , with a bullet wound right through the hock j joint, on the Maori pa run, and although 1 every effort is being made to save the animal, it is very doubtful whether the attempt will be successful. A little time ago Mr John Gray lost a fine colt in thifi way, and only recently a settler in the same neighbourhood, on returning home, found chat a rifle bal] had gone right through two walls of his house. It seems high time that the police took tlie matter in hand and made an example of these persons, who rre too dangerous to be at large. A number of produce merchants and brokers interested in ti.e disposal in Sydney of our produce have written lo the manager of the New Zealand Press Association, railing attention to what they allege are very irregular and unreliable reports corning through the agency, and appearing weekly in the New Zealand papers. They pay that this state of things has pxieted for some timt, the quotations generally ranging from 10 per cent, to 15 per cent, over current values. For instance, they draw attention to the fact that the quotation cabled on July 26 for early rose potatoes was £4- 10d. as against a current pale of £5 10b to £3 12p 6d. Der•\vent potatoes, 35s to 40s. as against 30s to 32s 6d ; onions, £6 prime, as against £4- to £5 108 ; loaf cheese, s£d, as against sd ; and bacon 6d to Bd, as against sjd to 6id. It is asked that steps be taken to have this evil remedied. The makers of the Dux plough advise that dnring the past season they have secured a

large number of first prizes in the chief ploughing contests in Great Britain, and that at fourteen matches in Ontario within the last few months they have won 56 first prizes and 50 other, prizes and awards. They..claim that this supports their record in a very practical way. A mob of 900 ewes in lamb passed through Carterton on Tuesday evening last, en route for the South Island.