AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 29 January 1902, Page 17

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The milking record for the Taranaki coast, or. in fact, for New Zealand, has <says the

Dairyman") been put up by a Plainb settler and his wife, who, without any help except what could be given by 3 twenty-month-old infant, milked 79 cows twice daily. It i* a fact, and can be "vouched for that he delivered on an average 2000 pounds of milk a day at the factory, and not a penftj was f-pent in wages last year. A paragraph is going the rounds of the papcis, couii'd from the Wairarapa Stai, to the effect that a swagger called at the hou.-e of a settler and a^ked foi a shakedown, the request being granted. In the morning the swagger, in return for the hospitality afforded him, cut iomp firewood. While he waa doing this, the a\e slipped and cut a nasty gash on his foot. The swagger, so the htory goes, at ouce a^seited his po->ition and made claim under the Workmen' ■> Compensation Act, and the settler, rather than go to law, paid the man £10.

Ranger Campbell reports that rhr> crops in the Wyndham, Toitois, and Otara districts, especially turnips, are well adianced, and that those distucts ne\er looked better. Theie in an abundanoe of grass everywhere, and indications of piogre->-) on all sides. One regrettable faot is that rabbits are numerous on various holdings, which he attributes to the neglect of the farmei.,. A larger area than usual is down in cereal*, and the yield promises to be heavy.—Southland News.

Weasels can be «ppii everywhere in the Oaina.ru district , indeed, in some places they are about as numerous as the labbits, and steps ha\n had to be takr-n foi their destruction, notwithstanding the law. North Otago Times. Canterbury grain and produce irpmt (Christchuroh Press, 25th inst) : Local business in wheat continues to be very quiet, the only sale reported beuig a line of 1000 bushels of Tuscan and Hunter's at 2s 9d at a country station, equal to 2s lid f.o.b. There have been a few sales of small lots of new oats at Is lOd to 2s at country stations, these purchases being made by merchants to fill immediate orders for retail purposes. These prices are above what is being offered for eipdrt lines. There is little speculative inquiry for barley on the part of merchants, and two sales are reported at 2s lid and 3s respectively at hand? stations. The mftltafeurs etill hold

large stocks, and brewers aie not kpen to buy, and, it is said, are only offering 2s 6d to 2s Bd.

Timaru market*, from last Saturday's Herald : The animation in the market continues, and the quotation for prime lines is now 3s f.0.b., showing an advance of Id on the week. This is an indication that buyers are inclined to meet holders' idea of values. A fair quantity of wheat is still in farmers' hands, and as new wheat will not be on the market for some weeks yet, prices are likely to still advance. The keen demand for fowl wheat continues. Of seconds the market ii now quite bare, and orders have to be met by placing very good wheat. This is quoted at 2s 6d to 2s 8d per bushel. In oats there is nothing doing, and no change m last week's quotations. Hand-rubbed samples have been shown to merchants, and are \ery fair. None of the new grain is yet offered for sale, and it is an open question whether farmers will take the risk and bear the expense of putting the new oats into small bags. In barley there is nothing at all moving.

The Evening Post says that the Government inspectors under the Rabbit Nuisance Prevention Act, as amended last session, had a field day in the Wellington S.M. Court last Monday, but with small success — in fact, all the rabbits slipped with ease through the meshes of the legal pet. The 1882 act made it an offence if steps were not taken for the destruction of rabbits to the satisfaction of the inspector. This was alleged by the opponents of the act to be a conferment upon the inspector of a judicial capacity. The act, as amended, provides in effect that the court itself must be satisfied that the defendants have not taken " reasonable or diligent measures to promote • the destruction of the pest." Mr Haselden, S.M., made the remark at an caily stage of the proceedings that the act in force before that of 1882 had been found" unworkable, and he believed the present amending act would also be unworkable.

Rams from flocks in the Oamaru district are meeting with a keen demand sn the North Island at present. During the past two w'Pekra 1196 have been taken by steamers from Oamaru for Wellington Ou Thursday last the Janet Nieoll shipped 310 rams from the flocks of Messrs Little Bros, and C. W. Reid. This consignment comprised 60 Border Leicepter two-tooth rams for Mr R. E. Beckitt ; 125 Leicester and 125 Shropshire rams for Levin and Co., of Wellington.

The following are the grain and produce shipments from Lyttelton for the week ended Friday last : — For Suva : 6 sacks sharps. For Australasia : 550 sacks bran. Coastwise: 6394 sacks wheat, 967 sacks and 640 bags oats, 189 sacks barley, 70 sacks bran, 1626 sacks and 2280 bags flour, 120 sacks sharps. Total shipments: 6394- sacks wheat, 967 sacks and 640 bags oats, 189 sacks barley, 620 sacks bran, 1626 sacks and 2280 bags flour, 126 Backs sharps. Total shipments for flour weeks : 24,690 sacks wheat, 4241 sacks and 1294 bags oats, 752 sacks barley, 1660 sacks bran, 3951 sacks and 5681 basis flour, 21 sacks and 7 bags potatoes, 753 sacks sharps.

A farmer inform" the- North Otago Times tltat a paddock of '•ix acres of his crop, nearly fit for the reaper, was so- ravaged by small birds that he had to hastily cut it for chaff The birds "nettled down on it in thousand"," and would not have left a pieWe for the threshing mill had it been left to be cut for grain.

A South Australian pastorali-t who has recently paid a vi->it to the Argentine wiites of that ooiinliy. On some of the country / saw it seemed ns though it were impossible at tinier to stock too heavily The sheep that I -aw were as fat as it is pos-ible to wink* 1 'o good was the feed. The-e camp- (in tho vicinity of Pergamine and Ar-recepha-O carry fhe sheep to the acre, bosif'es cattle and hor^Pd (probably a bea---t and a hor^p to p\ery acre, if not morp). In tin- statement I am well vithin the mark. Tnere are no \erniin in Argentine that cannot be successfully dealt with.

T'vpii if owner-, could bo found fW (I>a derelict farms of Knglnml fs.ty* a Hum" paper), tlje- farmerp would probably fail to secure labourers pxcept at wager, which cut down tho profits to vani-hing point. Hodge is dp^prtins the soil at the rate of from 12,000 to 15,000 annually, flic la~t rrn«u« •shows that the population of several agricultural districts is actually decreasing.

Stoats and wpa=pl= threaten to become a p«»st in some naitt* of North Canter - buiv In the Ohoka district, where they are pai ticu'aiiy plentiful, one peiion ha* had o\pr 200 chick'-n-, and ducklings kill* d by th°m this season.

Talking a short time back with Mr 8.-n-ber, accountant in the London Bank (writer the London correspondent of the Pastoralists' Review), I was told of the visit to him lately of a large Riverina squatter who ought to know the flavour of colonial mutton, as he shears 100,000 sheep He was anxious to try some undoubted Southdown mutton, and Mr Barber took him home to dinner for that purpose, but substituted a joint of frozen. Tales of English people being deceived in like circumstances are told without number, but this squatter was in the same box, for he ate his frozen meat with great gusto, finding in it flavours never befor* discovered.

A steam plough, weighing 36,0001b and owned in San Bernardino County, California! is supposed to be the lai-gest plough in the world.

It is said that the silver-grey rabbic is slowly but surely taking possession of the country between Rotorua and the Waikato River. A rabbit-poisoner official has -been sent by the Government to the district, and is now camped between Atiamuri and Orakei-Korako.