AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 14

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Dunback 'items in Palmerston Times, March 29: The harvest may be said to be over; and the thresher is at wprk, but the returns, especially in wheat, are disappointing. Oats give a better yield. Turnips are backward a3 compared with last season. Grass is yet, however, plentiful. The largest sale of sheep that ever took place in this district was held in Mr M'Kellar's yards on the 19th inst. A few lots were turned out unsold ; and prices were in favour of buyer?. The importations from the North Island seems to have checked the upward tendency. r Trapping rabbits for export commenced on ( Monday, the 24th inst. During the past ' week Feveral meetings of rabbiters have been held. They are dissatisfied with the price offered^-viz., 4d per pair, and have invited a third buyer into the district, Me?=rs Black and Co., who offer 6d per pair for full-sized rabbits. The cause of the reduction is that the past season has not"been a profitable one for exporters: and also the custom that has grown up of exporters paying a consideration to the large landowners for liberty to Iran, which ultimately has to come out of the pockets of the trapper, who really deser\ es all that he can get for the very rough life he has to lead. The farm of Oykal has lately been in the market to let. There seems to have been quite a rush for it, tenders ranging from £100 to £140. At the latter figure Messrs G. and J. Phillips were the successful tenderers. An exhibition of a sheep-shearing machine was ghen in Wellington recently. The result of the test was (says the Times) a revelation to those who witnessed it. The . machine, weighing just about 41b, and reeembling Eomewhat the business end of the power-driven machines, is practically autoi matic. A simple mechanism is enclosed in , the handle, and is connected by a cord to a fixture in a wall or post. When not in u*e. j ; the end of the cord—held by a spring around | a roller inside the handle—just projects, and t immediately the implement is held down its own weight hanging on the cord unwinds the latter, and sets the simple mechanism in motion. When the implement is carried out to the full length of the cord, the spring rolls the latter up again, ready for another sweep, and thus the simple movement goes on. The implement, so it is claimed, can shear quite as rapidly as the power-driven machines. The "Maori" hand [ machine will come as< a great boon to the small sheep farmer, for instead of haviner to wait to get his sheep shorn by experienced men, he can now—provided with this automatio clipper, and some knowledge of holding a sheep^—simply drive a stake in the field, and proceed to do the work himself. The machine was exhibited by the patentee, >and it is understood that the patent rights ha.ye been purchased by a Wellington gentleman. Writing from Block XV, Rimu (Catlins), the correspondent of the Balclutha Free Press reports: Many of the farmers about Ratanui and Tahakopa are getting in their oats. In tome cases, especially on tho Rosevale farm, the wind and hail have been rather destructive, and the result is the farmers have lost a great deal of grain. The wheat crops are looking pplendid, too. The heads are quite yellow. The grass is. bepinnino- to die off acain, and does not look so mordant as it did two months ago. Consequently the cattle are takiner to the bush. Milk has not been so plentiful this season, and therefore the quantity of butter has not been too great. The crops of potatoes appear to be j very good this year; but the only varieties that yield an abundant crop aie the White I Elephant and Derwent. j The flourmillers of Now Zealand (or a majorit" of them) have filtered into compact to work together—for the common good of | the miller^. A contemporary understands j that 34 of the millers of the colony are inclued in this arrangement, and that only two of the larger mills and a few of the smaller ones are not in the compact. The ' millers in question have formed themselves into a joint stock comnanv. under the title of the "New Zealand Millers' Industrial Union of Employers." The headquarters aro at Oamaru, and Mr T. Meek ia manag-

■ ing director. Operations began on the Ist -March, and the compact is to be cmding tor two years Hitherto combinations of j millers ha%e been of brief duration, and the present action is something of a more formal and binding character than has hitherto been ; attempted The new company will be represented by one agent at each centre. The j movement is said to have already put 10s per ton on the price of flour to bakers. | The Waikaka Valley correspondent of the ! Southland Standard writes: Harvest work I is progressing favourably, and on one or j two farms this work is finished. There is j still a little crop on most farms to be stacked, but the majority of farmers will be finished this week, although one fanner re- , marked the other day that he had still three ( weeks of harvest work to do. The threshing mills are busy at work; and, as there are two new traction engines in the district, there, will te no need of the portables, as was the case last year. At the beginning of the harvest, it was thought that harvest hands would be scarce, and a mill-owner remarked that the mills were plentiful, but it, , might be a different matter to get workmen. A number of men, however, have been wanting work during the la&t two or i three weeks. A number of vehicles are to ■ be seen on the roads, carting the grain to ' the market ; The following are the shipments of grain j and produce from Lyttelton for the week ' ended last Fiiday:— For the United Kingdom, 1426 sacks wheat, 13,580 sacks oats; j for Suva, 70 Eacks potatoes, 150 sacks ; sharps; for Australia, 14,-. a T sacks o«.ts, 222 , sacks barley, 266 sacks potatoes ; coastwise, 1 1949 sacks wheat, 3415 sacks oats, 50 sacks , barley. 440 sacks bran, 1252 sacks 3920 bags ( and six boxes flour, 827 sacks potatoes, 547 sacks sharps; total shipments: 3375 sacks ' wheat, 31.399 sacks oats, 302 sacks barley. | 440 sacks bran, 1282 sacks 3920 bags and pix boxes flour, 1163 sacks potatoes, 697 sacks t sharps Total shipments for the four weeks - 12,515 sacks wheat, 88,050 sacks and 3288 bags oats, 2960 sacks berley, 4320 racks ' bran, 5423 sacks 11.167 sacks and six boxes flour, 3Z93 sacks 471 bags 22 gunnies and one coso potatoes, 2020 sacks sharps. Th.3 Cliitha Leader is informed that, notwithstanding public warning having been given, the practice is ptill persisted in of depositing rubbish within the banks of the rher, and that some persons who ought to know better Jiave carted weeds and seeds of noxious weeds, and tipped them into the river The conbequence" is that the seed* take root along the river banks below, and speedily spread over the adjoining land■Wo understand informations will be laid ' against anyone found indulging in this practice in the future. I A well-known buyer and exporter of pure- , bred stock (Mr Joseph Parker, of Tokomairiro) was in the district last week (says the Tuapeka Times) and secured two first- , e'iasc representatives of the Ajo-shire breed , of cattle for export to the Sydney market. These were a two-year-old bull and a three-year-old heifer, purchased from Mr James Robertson. Both animals were first prizetakers in the Tuapeka and Witahuna show rincra. The question whether ferrets were of much life in stores to keep down rats was briefly discussed at the Lyttelton Harbour Board meeting last week, and, in reply to tho ] sceptics, it was pointed out that rats will not live in the vicinity of these animals. Mr Buddo referred to an instance where 1000 sacks of wheat, which had been in a, store where ferrets were kept for ten months, had only lost 301b in weight, and required no stitching up. Speaking at the reception at Che-wot, given to the visitors to the show by the Settlers' Association, Mr F. A. Cook stated that the Cheviot Dairy Factory had made ercat progress during the la«t" four voarr. In the^ first year of its existence 100,000^al of milk* were put through, w hile last year no less than 160.0C0gal were put through. Ho also mentioned that the dairy factory was the means of starting the waggon between Cheviot and Waipara, which has been running ever since, to the great benefit of the district. Revere fro=ts were <--\perienced at Temuka, last v. oek Much damage is reported to have been cnu=pd to the potato crops. The following report on the local produce rcarket<! appears in last Saturday'^ Timam Herald : Business, f-o far as buying and selling arp concerned, has been very quiet in the local grain market during tha week. Sellers will not give way, and buyers aro noC inclined to give more than the prices quoted There is every likelihood of a grent orantilv of wheat and oats being shipped Homo ; in fact, a start has already been made, for the Kumara took a quantity away yesterday, and thp barque Inverssk i* in port ready to load for Home, and is said to b" the pioneer of a fleet that ia to load at Tirnaru. In the present state of the market quotations remain unchanged—namely, 2s 4d to 2s 4^d for wheat and Is 3d to 1^ 3jd for oat°. n A meeting of the committee of the Ashliurton A and P Apsocintim was held on Thursday U»tj Ms G. AY. Dudley in the

chair. A letter was read from the Otago Association, asking the committee to reconsider itß decision not to send a delegate to the conference to be held in Dunedin for the purpose of arranging show dates throughout the South Island. It was resolved to reply that the Ashburton dates having been jfixed, the committee could not reopen the question. Some remarkably good yields of oats have been recorded this season, and the Oamaru Mail adds another to the list. Mr R. Morrison, of All-day Bay. has just threshed out the product of a small paddock of 12 acres which gave a return of an average of 10a bushels to the acre. In the same neighbourhood, however, others have obtained comparatively small yields, and it must not be concluded that the high figures are evidence of a good harvest all round. , j , j i |