AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

A vast horde of the turnip fly passed over Southbridge on Friday morning. The air was full of them in myriads on myriads. They all seemed to be bent in going towards the sea.

The rabbit depots opened in earnest at Wyndham on the Ist inst., although some buyers have been receiving supplies during the past fortnight. The opening price — viz., s£dl per pair on carcases 21b and over, and halfprice under that weight — is surely substantial enough to satisfy the most exacting trapper. There is every indication that the supply will be quite as heavy as last year, as bunny has not taken avidly to phosphorus, where laid, owing to the amount of rain that has fallen since early spring. Mr Lambert, the wellknown rabbit buyer, had a large intake yesterday at his Wyndham depot, running into

— .Farmer

i our iigu. -...._ . Cornstalks continue to increase in value. ! They yield cellulose, worth 400dol a ton, for stopping holes in battleships, for fine cardboard, a patent cattle food, and a superior glue. But it is said that 250 million tons of coni3talks still go to waste every year in England, i

Tho Hcdgehope correspondent of the Southern Standard reports : Harvesting operations are about to commence in this cli&trict, and should the weather keep fine, the forthcoming week may see many binders at work. It is estimated that the crop will yield, on an average, from 40 to 60 bushels per acre. The settlers of Glencoe (Upper Hedgehope) applied

I to the Southland County Council for the leass of a small piece of ground (10 be übed as a gravel reserve) for tho construction oi t a sheep dip. The council stated that it had no power to lease the land for that purpose; but the settlers overcame that difficulty by leasing an aero of ground from Mr Arch. M'Kay. Tliis clip will be great help to farmers, as some of them have had to drive their sheep a clis- ) tance of about six miles. An important ca<e bearing on the condemnation, of diseased meat is mentionod_ in a recent issue of the London Live Stock Journal: — iir W. F. Taylor, Q. 0., the arbitrator in a claim made ]?/ Messrs Poels, BrewEter, j Ramsden, and Duekham, wholesale butchers, of Liverpool and London, against the corporaj tion of Birkenhead has issued his award. The j casa created great interest throughout the I ecnmfcry ; originated in the Borkenliead Police Court, tho firm above-mentioned having been summoned by the corporation for exposing for sale in the Woodside lairage^ a carcase of beef j which wad seized by the authorities and condemned as unfit for human food on the ground that it was F.aid to be affected by tuberculosis. The magistrates die-missed fie summons, and thereafter Messrs Poels, BvewFter. Ramsden, : and Duekham claimed damages and compensation from the corporation for the wrongful seizure of the carcase in rrucition. After a [ good deal of correspondence, the claim, by ' mutual arrangement, we>& referred to arbitration, and Mr Taylor, Q.C., sat for nearly a week at Birkenhead, and heard a large body of expert and practical evidence as to the clan- | ger or otherwise of people eating tuberculous I meat. The witnesses for the corporation ail declared that the officials were justified in seizing the carcase in dispute, while those called on behalf of the claimants were unanimous in stating- that it was a good, sound body of beef, and that the traces of tuberculosis which were found in some of the organs were so slight that it did not affect the meat or render it in the least degree dangerous as human food. MiTaylor decided in favour of Messrs Poels, I Brewster, Ramsden, and Duekham, on j all the findings, and awarded them ■ £98 5s 8d of damage*. He also I found the corporcalion liable for -the costs of the arbitration proceeding:! and of tho award. I Many men, writes '"Sylvan" in the Sydney I Mail, take naturally to professions and hvsinesses, and mpke more or less a srccei-s of J what they- undertake, but there is no branch ' of agriculture that a '-tracts more than clairyt ing. Why this is lam unable to say. Looking over one of the latest Canadian agrij cultural journal 0 I coma acro-s a well-written ! and interesting article on the dairy and the i s)lo by Mr Joseph Gould, who inlrodv.ccshim- | self a only a "neshlinc?" in diury matters, ! yel who wt-ile.s in a style that shows lie lia& gta^pecl the 'situation quicker than many men who have been engaged in dairying for throe times the period since he began to pick up his ! knowledge. Mr Gould started with 13 cowp. , and after testing them he ciilled several, and has continued this system since. By keeping a record he was able to cull out the poor milkers, and select and develop the better one.^. Whilst the average yield of the cows in "tli3 province of Ontario was about 2501b of butter, the average of'his herd was 3011b.

His best cow, a Jersey, gave him 4131b of , butter in the year. Looking through, the , table of yields of his cows, I notice that tho greatest was 85571b of milk, with a percentage of 4.4 of butter fat, giving 41,3721b butter. ' This was for lOg months. The highest per- , csntage of butter fat was 5.2 from a pure Jerdsy stud cow, the lowest 3.6 from a grade j Durham. The average cost of feeding his ■ herd was about 38dol, £5 12s. In connection ! with the above he gave a description of a ! silo he had constructed, 9|ft x 20ft, at a cost , of £5. He feeds his cows to ensilage all ' the year round, and the cows cat it with j avidity. In the summer he allows them 101b 1 a da}'. The frost affected the ensilage, but after it was thawed the cattle ate it greedily. I Mr Gould is a. great believer in the Jersey I strain, but purity of blood is not so much in the cow's favour as yield of butter. I£e thus builds his herd up on a ( basis, and he has found the result come up < to his expectations. Neither the Ayrshire nor the Durham crosses have yielded him returns like the Jersey. On the question of the recent rabbit }'rosecutions — or should it be written persecutions? — the Wyndham Herald says : It is pertinent to inquire why action has been deferred to such an unseasonable time. It is a self-evi-

dent fact that, if tlte rabbits are at this moment as numerous as alleged by the autho- ' ritie'3, the inspectors, not alone of this district, but generally, are fairly chargeable with a persistent and prolonged neglect of duty, j They represent certain properties as being disgracefully overrun with rabbits. Well, what have the inspectors been doing in the interval since the lart trapping season to prevent the increase of the rabbits? And why, when they have allowed the act to remain a dead letter up to this point, could they not hsue allowed the trapping to take its course? Tke answer is that to have done so would have

supplied an admission that their office has become a sinecure in settled districts. ,-Th© practice of singling out one or two farmers is -very objectionable, and it shows that the Rabbit Act dare not be enforced excepting; in a feeble manner. We boldly affirm that if a few may be summoned under this precious Rabbit Act, scarcely one landholder could 1 escane prosecution if it were carried out with, blind impartiality. Therefore, we say, lefe us have the Rabbit Act and a consequent fair — the settlers against the Minister — or let it Jbe confessed that the act has outlived itsusefulness. If the farmers were summoned on a, face, the long-suffering class would afc last turn, and no Minister could resist their force. Hence the pre&ent temporising policy ! The Minister has got a wrong-headec l . view of the matter, and with characteristic stubbornness adheres to it. Nothing will shake his determination until the farmers rise in their might and let him see with unmistakable plainness that they will stand no more nonsense.

"Lsna," in the Sydney Mail, has a note on Aberdeen-Angus cattle,, in which he says: Six or seven years ago there was no handsomer 1 beast exhibited on the Royal Agricultural Society's show ground at Moore Park than the champion polled Angus, or rather Aberdeen - Angus cow, as she rightly should have been styled. She was sent over for exhibition from Victoria, and was bred in New Zealand. Her lines were perfect. Whilst over in New Zealind Rrt year I saw a number of these handsome cattle on the New Zealand and Australian Land Company's estate, the illustration, of some groups on that place having appeared in this journal. But I never met the equal of the cow I spoke about. In the "Live B'-oek Journal Almanac for 1900," facing an arlicio on this breed by G. H., there appears an illustration of the Aberdeen-Angus cow Kiev a of Naught on TI, 21647, first at R.A.S.E. bliow last year. Fine cow as she looke, she does not come up to the cow mentioned, above. G. H. says in his article: "Of all the British breeds of cattle whose primary purrose is beef production, there is none that at the present time is making such on advance in this country as the Aberdeen-Angus- They are being taken up by new breeders in every part of the United Kingdom, but especially in Knzland and Ireland." As a rule, the homo breeders do not make many mistakes in cattle-breeding. Taus this information should command the attention of our own caitle men. Beyond Mr George Loder, of Ahb:-y Green, and Mr Philip Charley, of Balmont, onl3' a few others have gone in for tho polled breeds in this colony. It is admitted in Great Britain that the AberdeenAngus has lest a great deal of ground the la3fc 20 years owing to the slackening off of the for.i<?n demand, but vithin the last two years the success of the Aberdeen- Angus crosses in the mcii. markets of America have again, drawn tho attention of the outside trade, and a freah impetus has been given to this breed. A rise of fully 20 per cent, in values has taken placo during the last 32 months. Another paragr ph of G. H.s arfe'.e is worth quoting: "In addition to a wider appreciation of the valuable properties of the breed at home, there are other influences from which this breed has derived advantage — viz.", the freedom it has enjoyed from infectious diseases affecting farm stock." As far as I can find out. no complete, experiments have yet been made by crossing it with either the Ayrshire or Holslein breeds for dairying purposes. If it were possible to produce a good milking cross from the above, it would revolutionise part of the dairy industry, certainly to the advantage of the farmer and to the health of the public.

Harvesting operations are now general in the Tuapeka West district, and with a continuance of the present fine weather we are experiencing the work should go on uninterruptedly to a finish. Several farmers have just finished threshing some of the last season's wheat stocks.

The clearing sale of sheep rendered 1 necessary owing to the dispose"! of 11,500 acres ot the Elderslie. estate to the Government for close settlement, was held at Clifton saleyards, Oamaru, on Friday last, when there was a large attendance of buyei-3, including a number i'vom North and South Canterbury. About 20,000 sheep were offered, and they were not 01113- of splendid quality, but were in fir^t-class condition. They were mostij- either Lincoln and Leicester crosses or Vermont merino come- hacks, being by Vermont merino rams out of crossbred ewes, while the bulk of the lambs were by Shropshire Down rams out of crossbred ewes. The local formers bought the bulk of the sheep, i)O that they will remain in the district. A few went to Waimate district, and the chief outside buyers were Messrs J. Barr (Iticcorton), Vv. Grant (Timaru). and R. Taylor (C-icraldine), the two former taking nearly allthe fat and forward wethers and lambs. The pi'ices realised for sheep were considered most •satisfactory, but in a lvumber of ca&es were hardly on a par with values ruling in Canterbury markets. — Lyttelton Timed.

Tiie Crown -Terrace :orrespondent of the Lake Wakatipu Mail writes: — Cutting has just started on Mr AKrcd Millar's farm, but the harvest will not become general for at least two weeks. The crops are a fair average, but not nearly so heavy as last year's. Wheatgrowing is not in favcrar just now ; it is confined to four small patches. The farmers appear to be giving their attention more to barley, which is looking verj well, but tho mill will test its yielding qualities. The acreage of oats is not nearly so large as last year. Tiie yield per acre will be about 50 bushels.

From tables of prices of farm produce in Ireland frop 1898 to 1899, given in "' Purdon's Irish Farmers' and Gardeners' Almanac," it appears that butter, beef, mutton, milch cows, and hay were dearer last year than in 1&98, while all kinds of corn, pork, eggs, potatoes, wool, straw, and store cattle were cheaper. It was only towards the end of the year that Irish wool rose substantially in price.

A Winchester correspondent writes to the Timaru Herald : — It is somewhat sad to see a daily parade of swaggers, sometimes numbering 20, passing along the road seeking harvest work, which, however, they seem unable to find, as farmers in this neighbourhood certainly seem to have their complement of hands. These men are not of the old sundowner type, but generally are youngish, respectably-dressed, and well behaved. Some stale that they were attracted south by information that there was a dearth of men, and 2s an hour obtainable The Government Labour Bureau should waken up a bit, and post at centres reliable information as to the wants of country districts, and so, perhaps, prevent long unproductive journeys tcj a class of men deserving of better things.

At the monthly meeting of the Tuapeka Agricultural Society, held on the 2nd inst.j attention was directed (o tho fact that the Canadian thistle was =<pi?ading in the district. It was resolved — '" That tlio attention of the Minister for Agriculture be called to the spread of the Canadian this-tle on the Government reserves, particularly on the Clutha River bank ; and also that it he a recommendation to the farmers to check the spread afl

the thistle." The rabbit question was subsequently referred to. After a long discussion—in "the course of which some members •expressed themselves in favour of poison being used, and others were of opinion that trapping had proved the best means of keeping down the pest— it was decided that as it ■would be difficult to get a meeting together during the present busy season, it -was useless to further consider the matter. At a meeting of the committee of tae Northern Agricultural and Pastoral Association, held at Rangiora, it was decided not to hold a ram and ewe fair this year.