AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2385, 23 November 1899, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Mr Jas. Stuckey, of Te Rangitumau, stated at tho meeting of the Now Zealand Hereford Cattle Breeders' Association at Palmerston North, on Tuesday, that he had the week previous sold six bulls, and he did not believe that there was now a bull to be purchased i i New Zealand, so strong had been the demand "for Herefords. Affairs amongst stockowners in the Mount Cornish district of Queensland are reported to be at ruination point. . . The - Wairarapa Daily Times suggests thai the various townships in the Waivarapa and Forty-mile Bush should combine and establish an agricultural farm. What promises to be an invention which will greatly facilitate the securing of grain crops, and obviate, to a great extent, the loss and' risk in securing the crop? incidental to a wet autumn, is the " Modern Stackyard," the invention of Mr M'Lean, of Perth, who has just completed an experimental stackyard at Balgedie Farm, Kinross. It consists of an open shed about 30ft broad and 17ft high, covered with a corrugated iron roof,- while there is a light skeleton division running through the centre along its length to separate the crops if desired. Every few yards a break or passage is made to admit of free storage. The crops are placed on battens slightly elevated from the ground, - across which wiro netting can be put to prevent destruction by vermin. As the sheaves are built up, wooden ventilators are placed at intervals across its breadth, with a small fun-nel-shaped ventilator through the centre to the top, which admits of free currents of air passing through tho stackyard, By this means, it is claimed that partially or' half-dried crops can bo secured .without risk. The number of ventilators need -caries with -the condition of the crop. Among its features are its trifling cost, which will be considerably less than £2 per acre for crop storage ; its great simplicity, while it cannot be put out of order by the mo&t careless farm hand ; and, what lias been practically tested, the little time required in stacking compared with the prevailing system.

During the last four or five years, writes a New South Wales correspondent of the Melbourne Leader, the drought has played more or" less havoc with mo3t parts of this colony. It has left vast sheep-runs almost destitute of Block, and what still remain would be but little use in stocking up again. New stock must be purchased, as an owner cannot afford to pay rent for thousands of acres of grass paddocks unless he is getting tome return from them. He will want but few rains j perhaps he. has been able to feed

a3 many as he wants during the bad seasons he has just passed through. A large nu»ber of stations, especially those that do their own breeding, will be certain to wane ewe". They must have them, and if they are uot on the place already, they must buy them. Even now, before the drought is over, ewes ara fetching a high price out back. With all this happening, and the brightest prospects fo:- high pr.ces ahead, it is surprising to find so many ewes being offered at the JTlemington market for sale as fats. It is hard to understand why a man will fatten off his ewe 3 and , hold the wether 3. The time is not far distant \ when they will see the error of their ways. t' Directly the drought properly breaks, a demand for breeding ewes will certainly set in, and prices promise to ba high. It is a pity to sea some of the ewes that come into the fat stock sales : they are well brad, carry a large amount of wool, and would be, in fact, valuable property on .any station that has feed enough to keep them. In proof that the value of ensilage is appreciated among leading dairy farmers in South Gippsland, the local Standard statea that there w a splendid paddock of rye, 60 acres in extent, at Calrossio (Mr D. T. M'Kenzie's), which intended for .ensilage in. view of securing feed for next winter. The crop is described as fully sft high, and very even.

A great demand has -set -in for small holdings in Great Britain. Amongst examples referred to by the incoming Esigl:sh papers, it is noted that in Lincolnshir3 those having small farms to let experience no difficulty whatever in securing a tenant ; on tho contrary, they ar3 frequently inuhd.-uad with applications. One estate agent, who advertised a farm of 20 acres, is reported as having received no fewer than 60 applications for the placi, which it is anticipated, will readily let at 42s an acre, and some of the applicants even offered to -pay half a year's rent in advance.

Here is something that will interest our shearers. It is from tho American Sheepbreeder. — "R. M. Marquis Ibetter known a3 "Dick'), tho champion sheep-shearer of Montana country, and probably of the world, has shorn more sheep this yaiv than ever \>efore. He has bean smashing all his former records at Billing*, Mont. In seven days he sheared 1493 full-woolled sheep, working les3 than 10 hours each day. Thirty sheep an hour is an ordinary run for him. His work is evenly done. He handles the machines with remarkable skill. At Pondera he sheared 250 sheen a day. Last year he sheared 17,000 sheep. Perhaps the most remarkable feature in connection with the present important advance in wool values, writes the Wool Markets and Sheep, is the fact that it took placa without any assistance from the United ■States. The Americans admittedly now occupy a very commanding position in tho trade and the demand from that quarter uEually does much to uphold prices for good wools, and-- indirectly other- sorts as well-; but this year not only have these buyers taken nothing to speak of in the way of wool, but out of the numerous stocks laid up prior to the last tariff tho_a.rticle has been freely sold by them for re-export to Europe.

Things in the Argentine Republic, writes "Lans," in the Sydney Mail, have not gone quite bo smoothly as stockbreeders there anticipated. From reading of the great trade done in meat with nearly the whole of Europe, and to some extent with the Cape, also the heavy imports or high-class stock, to say nothing of the cereal trade, one would think that the lot of the pastoralist and the agriculturist was an enviable one in that South American Republic. But from latest advices there are fceveral drawbacks to contend with. The locust plague is nc doubt the worst. Next to it comes the stock-dealing trade, and aftev these the unsettled stale of the currency. The first is an enemy that is as almost as hard to beat as the rabbit in Australia. The second is a decided blot on the country, owing to the lukewarmness of the authorities, who wink at the maladministration of justice. Thus it is not all " beer and Fkittles" with the foreign pettier in that country. Much of tho stock in the north have been suffering from the hip disease, causing considerable lo&s. Locusts are as bad, i£ not worFe, this ceason .a» in any previous ones, notwithstanding «'tha thousands of pounds sterling spent in combating this pest. The steamship owners have for a long time sought to obtain reforms in tho new law regarding the export of live slock, but the Government have refused any concession. The result is that the Republic is losing a great deal of her foreign cattle trade. I note that tho shipment of wool is close on 20,000 bales behind this reason, although there is an increase in the export to Dunkirk, Hamburg, and Marseilles. More than half of tlio clip ih shipped to Belgium, Germany taking a little over a quarter of the total export. The phipments to Great Britain have been only 13,000 bales for this season, which ended on October 1. But Great Britain takes most of hei live stock and dead meal, the value for tho 10£ months being £2,252,868. In addition she took £1,862,200 worth of wheat from the Republic. The Minister for Agriculture intends to get a bill passed through Congress for the construction and working of grain elevators iftjUis various .pprlm aleo ju tho

_ railway stations in ' the agricultural settle*. ,-' ments. He proposes to pay a" bounty of a dollar, "per ton,- which ho iptepds.to recoup to~ " the Treasury by placing a similar amount oriT the export of grain. Thisivould save growers about 9,000,000d0l in tho purchase of bags. Messrs T. and J. T. Carswell have in£roduce3 to tho Pino Bush herd this season the stud shorthorn bull Peer's Eloristj 43101, bred by Bir John Deans, Riccarton, Christchurch. This was th' 6 champion bull in his section at Christchurch show in 1896, and will be an acquisition to this district. — Southland Times. Rain is much wanted in South Canterbury. A few showers fell early this week, but no sign of them now remains. The young grain crops, however, look very healthy, the chief sign of the lack of rain being the shortness of the pastures. The secretary of the Kaiapoi Farmers' Clubiintends to call a meeting of the farmers at an early date to obtain an expression of opin^ ion as to the weight of sSclcs of grain being reduced from 2401b to 2001b. ■ '

There were 17,000 people at the Palmerston North show on Thursday last.

One of the judges at the Taieri show, held last week, remarked on the prevalence of ticks in the sheep. Ej thinks th 9 dips used are not sufficiently poisonous. Stoats are plentiful in the Mayfield district (Askßurton County). Several sections of the Pomahaka Downs - estate will he thrown open for selection on December 12. N At SJeacliff .there is being milked a five- J year-old cow which last year" gave,. 1 ,550 gal of~milk. These figures- are vouched for. as at the Seaclifit -farm -tlio quantity of milk taken' from- each cow is recorded- daily^-and-also the ■percentage of butter fat in the milk. We believe the New Zealand record to be 340 gal for a season. — Exchange.