AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 7 June 1900, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The Agricultural department has received from the Agent-general a copy of the report of the trade of Havre and district for last year. The report states that Australian hides are in good demand at Havre, but as they have to be brought from London they are practically excluded by their liability to pay the surtaxe. It also says: — "There has been a remarkable rise in the price of raw wool (merinos) amounting in May, 1899, to 30 per cent., advancing in October to 60 per cent. The great increase in value is attributable to the scarcity of this particular kind of wool at a time when, owing to a strong demand for fine wool, the woollen industry is in a flourishing condition. The production of merino wool now only amounts to about a-guarter of the total quantity raised, as the sheep farmers of the Argentine Republic, Chili, and Peru, from which countries it is principally imported into Havre, find it more profitable to breed large animals giving a quantity of meat and fat rather than the smaller merino sheep. The present demand for fine wool, which seems likely to last for the next few years, may give an opening at Havre for a larger importation of Australian wool, more especially as wool from Australia, India, and Cape Colony is admitted into France from other European markets without being liable to the surtaxe d' entrepot."

The success of the Agricultural Conference, which takes place in Wellington, is assured, so far at lea&t as representation is concerned, and from the agenda paper the subjects to be discussed should result in benefit to the important industries interested. Twenty-six associations will be represented by 40 delegates, and as at the last conference a number of experts in agricultural and pastoral matters, who have been invited to attend will no doubt be present. Amongst the long list of subjects to be considered may be mentioned: The offering of premiums for stallions, opening up a trade with South Africa for New Zealand produce, the urgent necessity for a Noxious Weed Bill, freights and insurance in produce (frozen), the insufficiency of grain trucks, agricultural education, and a large variety of important questions affecting the agricultural and pastoral interests. The conference opens in the lecture room of the Wellington Museum about the 26th inst.

Our Waikouaiti correspondent writes : — Farmers here are to be congratulated on the success of the "Waikouaiti chees© factory, which has put through about 110 tons of cheese this season. All the output has been Bold at a fair and payable price. The largest supplier of milk was Mr J. A. Townsend, who received over £50 a month.

The Timaru Herald has been shown a fine specimen of the potato Beauty of Hebron (red), grown by Mr J. Crozier, on the Opihi river bank. He got 281b from one shaw, three of the tubers weighing 4-Jlb, 4-lb, and 3|lb respectively.

The Rotorua poundkeeper has been fined £8 and £10 for selling horses out of the pound without giving notice to owners or advertising the sale in a newspaper. The Victorian Railway Commissioner recommends that £200,000 be placed on the Estimates to provide for the handling of grain in bulk.

In various parts of New South Wales the dingoes are multiplying so rapidly and doing such extensive damage to stock that the Pastures and Stock Board has raised the price per scalp from. 5s to 20s.

The monthly meeting of the Waitahuna Fanners' Club was held on the 28th ult. ; Mr J. H. Bateman {president) in the chair. A circular was received from the Secretary of the New Zealand Agricultural Conference giving the names of the Agricultural Associations which have signified their intention of being represented at the forthcoming conference, and the matters x>ropo.sed for discussion were fully debated, and the following were approved of: — That the Government be requested to frame a noxioiis weeds bill having reference only to the Californian thistle ; the difficulty in getting trucks and sheets for the convqyaace of produce, j>articularly straw, chaff, grain, timber, etc. ; that in the horse classes at agricultural and pastoral shows it is undesirable to award prizes to breeding animals which are hereditarily unsound ; trotting at auction sales; miniiflum weight of sacks of wheat ; fixing show dates ; the necessity of a Government analyst being employed in the principal centres for the purpose of analysing manures and soils* ; that it be a recommendation to the Educational Department to institute the use of some text book oa elonien-

tary agricultural science in the State schools | of the colony. The last matter considered — J that this conference is of opinion that the time has arrived for the holding of an agricultural and pastoral show in New Zealand on the lines of the Royal show in England — was considered i^remature. The suggestions which were handed in by Mr Livingston at last meeting dealing with the rabbit pest, and which were left over for further consideration, were dealt with, and on the motion of Mr Craig, the part that wire netting be supplied by the Government on the some , terms as advances to settlers — to be a first j charge on the property, so as to protect the j Government — was approved of, and the secre- j tary was instructed to write to Mr James AI- : len, M.H.R., requesting him to support it I

From the Ohrislehurch Press of the 2nd inst. : A few evenings ago' Messrs Howell 8r03., of Lincoln, sel a small gin to catch mice in a building in which they have a quantity of chaff, etc., stored. The next morning they fcamd a live stoat fast by the fore leg in the trap. The stoat was put down in front of the bed, cat in the village, but after a momentary glance at the other animal, the cat turned and tied. It is reported that stoats are becoming numerous in the Lincoln district. — Despite a bleak, cold day, with intermittent rain, the winter show at ICirwee of the C'ourlenay Agricultural and Pastoral Association was well attended on the Ist, though the attendance was not quite equal to that of the previous season. The show, as a whole, v/as a good illustration of the capabilities of the district, even in .such a dry season as that which it has gone through, and, if the exhibits were a little short in quantity, there could be no complaint as to their qtiality generally. The display of roots was especially good, and the opinion was ventured that the sheep exhibited would take a lot of beating anywhere. The Belfast Freezing Company and the Chri&tchurch Meat Company had attractive displays for exhibition only. — At a meeting of the Bllesmere Agricultural Association on Thursday, Messrs fiowson, Osborne (Watson), M'llwraith, and Gebbie cited personal cases of discrepancies in the railway weights through the weighing of x Drocl - uee * n tiuck/3 by the Railway department. Mr Gebbie &aid'he had lost 40 bushels on the weight of 2500 bushels of wheat. Mr Watson had had his weights reduced to the extent of a quarter of a bushel per sack. Mr M'JLhvraith had weighed the contents of one truck, vhich showed a difference of scwt, while several other definite losses were quoted. Mr Osborne stated that during a nor' -wester the weight of a truck would be reduced scwt, and they must agitate until the Railway department weighed the trucks loaded and _ then unloaded. The farmers were quite willing to pay for weighing, but the consignors must demand the weights as well as the merchant or buyer. At the same meeting, while discussing the size of cornsacks, Mr Job Osborne proposed a size for a smaller sack that should meet the approval of everybody concerned. Mr Osborne made a sack 23 inches wide (which is 3in narrower than the present width) and 44-in long (which is the present length), and this sized pack held three bushels of wheat, going 13 sacks to the ton; 3£ bushels of barley, going 14 sacks to the ton; three and a-half bushels of oats, going 16 sacks to the ton; and l^cwt of potatoes. This sack was easy to handle, and he was able to lift the sack as described on to his shoulder from off the ground. The majority of the members strongly opposed any alteration in the size j from the present one in use, and thought that i the present generation was degenerating when j they were unable to handle the 2cwt sack. | Mr Howson objected to this reason, and j pointed out that all implements, tools, etc., ! on a farm were lighter, and so adapted that ( their boys and youths could use them without ! hurting themselves, and the corn sackG must -! give way with the obsolete implements. X)r j Withers made a strong- appeal on behalf of j the men employed at the seaports, who, after handling the heavy sacksj:i%» say, three years, were physically wrecked. Farmers practically knew nothing about the weight and injuries received thereby, as they had only to handle the sacks a few days in the year, whereas the lumpers" were doing it for lengthy periods.

A matter of vital importance to the ag- j ricultural industry, says the Dunstan Times, { is being urged on the Government by Mr Kirk (of the biological staff of the Department of Agriculture) re the passing of an act which should do much to facilitate the work- ; ing of agriralturk'ts in this colony, through ; the medium of the department. Unfortunately, as the law now stands, the department are not allowed, when publishing the results of their tests, to give publicity to the names of > the vendors from whom the samples were obtained. At present those who are selling bad or dirty seeds go scathless. % Mr Kirk (in > his annual report) to a certain extent excuses | Ihe action of the seedsmen in celling inferior stuff. It appears, he says, that they keep good seed for those who will pay or it, but in many instances customers want cheapness, and they get it— likewise enough noxious weeds to give them work for a lifetime in securing its elimination from their pastures. This, Mr Kirk remarks, is the keynote of the trouble. The only way to prevent the distribution of these ''cheap seeds is to make laws to allow the department to give publicity to the results of their experiments as to germinating quality, jmrity, etc., and ijhe game of the

seedsman from whom the samples were obtained.