OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 9

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET

The HaTest.

{From Oor O*tn CopbkspovdeittO CHRISTCHURCH, March 21. The bulk of the harvest was secured in good order, but tin" late crops ripened very slowly, and tome of ihem have been wet and dry a good many tim^s, and are still in the fields. Taken altogether, farmers ha.\e not much to com-j-lani of, the worst damage being the bprouting of some cf the wheat "waiting for the machine" to be threshed from the Ftook. The further threshing has advanced the moro numerous are the complaints of disappointing 3'ields, and it sc-ems certai'i that the official estimates will fail to bo realised. "Wlval has -.tr.idily firmed, and now few farmers are asking 10-^ than 3-- 6d d'lne-red, and many are hclci.iiK fur that iirice on (uukr Thi> nn.Hi-. U.ai Au-traha. wn no\, compete v.itli t'anu rbury nhi al and flour j!l the Ncith Island m^rkctn. Oats. <"m weaker, owing to the loud heralding of tho jiur.ounctnicnt t'-'at War Oflke oidcrs aie filled, and no more forthcoming It is said that merchants 10-l money on the order-, executed lately — fanners certainly got bplcudid puce? for their oats, and these who did not accept them are lamenting The Farmers' Union impugned the accuracy of the newspaper reports of the grain market, and decided to suppU its members witn trustworthy mfoimation. I ha\e not seen the first bulletin, but am told that, after stating the pros and ions regarding the position, the advice 1- gi\en to farmers to hold their wheat for 3^ 6d, but a= to oats the executive "does not ad\ lse." Barley i^ quiet, Australian orders beinj; supplied and maltsters show ing no desire to add "to their stocks. Some neople think there will be a rush into grain-growing in the enduing sea«on ; but most farmeis ha\e the high priced ewes they bought last year, and ha\e abundance of feed, so are almost compelled to tru^t to fjt lambs for another season Others arc slocking up with cwo at the present moderate prices; and other-, again, who would sell their ewe? if the} could, cannot get them fat, and mu-t keep them or take " boiling " prices foi them. There will be an increased area in grain, but nothing of a rush into it. This is the big month of the year in the sheep market, and the numbers for =ale everywhere are greater than at any time for the last four years. Really good halfbreds, especially young ev.es and ewe lambs, meet ready sale, and very fcrward store wethers and lambs also sell well, but all these classes arc very scarce. There i^ quite 2; difference between halfbrcd and thr.->e- quarterbred ewe lamb.-., and moie between ewes of the respective grades. A station line of halfbred lambs is seldom seen, partly because fewer have been bred, runho!dtr= ha- ing reverted to tho merino, and par'.y bcau->e those that were bred are being kept on to fatten, whjch lias bc<~n a =lov\ procHC this year, though feed on most of the stations is abundant. Some of tho Amuri stations have not yet turned off one-fourth of their lambs, and the season i a now gettLi.j late for lambs under 421b. As was the tjisc last year, the lambs arc this season growing big without getting fat. Merino ewes are another scarce (jcmmodiJ^ this jreac*. a e<x>d

many having been taken up prhately to restock Oiaeo countrj', which suffered in ISS3 it ml 1855, and .country v.'hieh has been iouud unsuitable for crossbreds. There is, in fact, a decided trend towards the merino, and those who have kept up their merino flocks are reaping their reward. Merino wethers, fat, sold up to 16s at Addington last we^k (more the previous week, when some extra lines were sold), and the wool also sells well. The markets are flooded with secondary and inferior cross- J breds, both wethers and ewes, which are [ driven from gale to sale without finding pur- : chaser?. Farmers are, as J ha^.e already said, either sufficiently stocked or prefer Canterbury bred sheep to these longtiaveiled, badly-bred sorts. It looks at present as if manj of the la.tter will ha\e to go to the "pot": the dealers who own them are not to be envied. Exporters are buying fat lambs for a fall this season, as can be seen by comparing the 4d per 1b which they are paying — skin and fat. worth, say, 2s 6d a head, given m — with tl.e sad which first-grade Canterbury^ arc fetching in London. There is a largo discount here on second-cla^s and o\erwoight lambs. — quite as much as in London. Freezing wethers, on the other hand, are very firm, ar.d as far as the public markets show, are extremely scarce. The buyers' price is nominally 2|d, but where skin and fat are given in, well over 3d is paid. Ewes arc bpuisy "bought in sjood numbers for freezing at 2gd to 2id, skin and fat in. As the freezing works' price for fpt is 29s 8d per : cwt, ewes command a good price this ye«r, despite the nominal value of the skins. The freezing works are all busy, chiefly with lambs, and if it had been a good instead of a bad fattening season the export of frozen lamb would ha\e been enormous. j Tiis was a very slow affair this season. There was no suggestion Caatcrbnrj that the supply was tco llaui Fair. large, but simply the buyers did not roll up, though last year should have shown them that this js the cheapest place to buy r*ams, and of course the choice is the greatest. Everything was in favour of the Shropshires — they came first in tho eale, the skin of a Shron cross lamb is wcrth as rnrch as any. and there were less than a hundred Shropshires in the ' catalogue — yet prices slumped from the start, and a good many of the sheep wero taken home unsold. Some of the Border Leicce- j tcrs sold fairly well, and a guinea and a-half | apparently satisfied the Southland Lincoln breeders, seeing that one of them sold more rams at the price than he had entered — and I came into conflict with the committee over the fees. Lincoln College supplied all the Rcinneys, and they sold fairly well. Southdowns had the only really satisfactory sale, and those who are founding stud flocks of this breed have a good -prospect before them. One enterprising beginner, however, made a false step by buying an unregistered ram ] for his registered ewes, which will keep his i sheep out of the Flock Book, good though they may be English Leicester began . badly, and never recovered, and though the j best fetched fair prices, any that were not _ first class made low values. Ths Corrie- J dales and crossbreds sold fairly well. A line ' by English Leicester rams from English Lei- t center-merino ewes brought 2^gs and 3gs; j they were nice sheep, but many breeders would have been glad to get the price for , pure-bred rams from stock which cosi. Hun- j dreds. The stud sheep sale was a ye ry ( sick affair. end there was a strong suspicion j that some of the big prices at which sheep were knocked down were fictitious. The , fixture will have to be reorganised, or breeders will cease to patronise it. It ' seems s+range that most of the North Island ram fairs are successful, while not one of the South Island fixtures has been satisfactory lately. j The annual meeting of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, last ' week, pa-seel off very , quietly, none of the many members who are dissatis- i fied with the abandoning of ' the winter show and other shortcomings of the executive raising a \oie.i cf protest at | the meeting. It can bo taken that efforts ( will be made to make the summer chow a | more lively affair, but the fir~t thing to do j i-, to gel the members of the committee lo J work. T'io old presidents ai c the \< or°t ob f stint u\e- lo progn--^, and few of tiioin C.n ( anything foi the ■-how or the a-.=oc iptma. ; It -(cms to br undei stood th it it i> again : to be a "three da>s" thow" (-a\e the- uiaik!) ne\t November. The export of beef has ceased here, as stork | cannot be obiaiaed at the ■ Rtef. price On visiting Adding- j ton I find that th" quota- ! tion of a guinea per hundred for prime beef | is far wrong. As a matter of fact, a : would-be exporter was offering 2 a «, arrd could not gci cattle, «j gave up the attempt, (iooj butchers' beef is fetching 24«, mid scarcely anything fit to sell can be bought [ under £1. There has been a strong dc- i mand almost all the summer for well-bred stores, and it is evident that many farmers, as well a» the ruuhokler-, are going back to , keeping a few cattle I Some important clearing sales h&\c been held lately, and oti.cr-. arc j pending. That of tin lat? . Mr S. OarforthN stock and i plant was the mn-t inteif-t j ing. ilie Southdown flock, the hot, I suppose, m the colony, was sold last vet-k. and realised rlo o e on £3000 U<r 860 oi 870 ewes and lambs. ilo^t of the ewes ueni to the North Island, though some young flock- j masters in this ncighbourho id -erurod the | foundation for good flocks. Tho cattle, . horses, etc., were soVl yesterday, the halo, j which was conducted by Me«-«r= Pyne and , Co., attracting an attendarc^ of nearh or quite 1000. There was active rornpf tition for the daily cows, mostly thorthorn?, and, though mobt of them were aged, they a\craged closo on £8 for the 60 head, the top price* boinp £13. The fat rattle, light weights, fetched £7 7s 6d for steer- and £7 9s for h<--ifer«. Fat pig-, a nice line, sold at 48s Gd, and some pure white sows 65.-. Working draught horses brought up to £51. unbroken three-year-olds to £41 ICK, and hacks to £30. The Farmers' Union has takc-n up Mi David Thomas's manifesto on the I need for re-form in the frozen i meat trade, and that gentleman is to address a public mef'ing ai Af.hburton to-morrow on the subject Mr Tliomru/s scheme is very muc!i like that which Mr David J. Nathan propounded a few ye-ars ago, with the differ- , er.ee that Mr Thomas's company, insto&d of I taliias over tho i^ceziuK comjpanicflj Viould k

I'anterimry A. and P. Association.

taio over the T.holo of their output, and control the sale in London and elsewhere. This it may be remembered "was the suggestion erf the -special commissioner of tfee Sydney Morning Herald, after investigating the trade thoroughly a few years- ago. Mr Thomas Mackenzie may also be asked to address the Ashbprton fanners on the subject Recent exposures make it appear that the indelible branding of New Zealand meat must be enforced.