Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 7

disastrous one. Fully 75 per cent, of all grain crops in the Ladder, Matakanui, and portion of Maniototo districts ir discoloured. There- will not be more than 25 per cent, of. first quality grain available. Fanners go in more for oat cropping, and. only a small percentage of the cereal product embraces wheat or barley. About 10 per cent, of the wheat yield is totally unfit for milling, and barley generally is in a bad condition. Only about a quarter of the total oat yield will be of first quality; the remainder being badly discoloured, although not all unfit for. milling. The grasses on lie other hand look well, and apparently undamaged, and the potato crop is generally m good condition. Now, this, on the whole, is not good reading, but it will be found '• hat the estimate is a fairly accurate one. In the Clyde and Cromwell districts, without encroaching too much into the Lakes environs, things are not so bad, as there 5s not much discolouration, and the averages work out fair. Wheat averages about 25 bushels . and oats about 34 bushels to the acre ; barley it very little grown ; potatoes are fair, averaging 10 ions to the acre. It will, therefore, be understood that the men who reclaim, our wilderness (have a lot to fight against in the struggle for existence.

Notes from Heriot, in the Southern Standard: — Ploughing has been commenced on a number of farms, principally breaking up the lea. Turniping was commenced a few iays ago, and it is unfortunate that the weather is so wintry, as the turnips get so quicHy buried in the water and mud. I notice that several farmers are removing 1 stock td the stubble until the weather improves. — The Heriot railway station is a busy place with the jarting of grain, coal, timber, etc. The grain store is full up "with grain, as also is the- loading bank, and when all the_ grain is threshed the carting ■will be considerable increased.

•Mr W. Wood, president of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce, is not in favour of Government inspection, as will be seen by the following extract from the address delivered by him at the quarterly meeting of the chamber last week. He said : The Government have now made the grading of hemp, by Government inspectors, compulsory, and if the grading of hemp can be taken as a guide to what goes on in oats, then there can be no fear of the outside buyers suffering, as the standard has been raised to the temporary inconvenience of millers and shippers. I regret that all matters of grading cannot be arranged for by the Chambers of Commerce in the different districts. In Canterbury here, we make a standard grade of our wheat, and in Southland and Otago the standard ia well known for their oats. Some foreign Governments certify to the quality of their exports. This is noticeable, especially with regard to tanning materials. To my mind, the matter of Government inspection is un-Briti«h, if I might use the expression. Certainly the inspection of butter has nad an excellent result, and dei Serves the best acknowledgments. I can see no good to be gained by the inspection of hemp. The inspection of meat had no effect. Foreign buyers will not accept it as a standard basis. Tha purchaser, instead c'f relying on a Government inspection, should rely on the good name and standing of the shipper.

Vn interesting case .vas heard in the Macis rate's Court, Christchurch, last week, before Mr It. Beetham, S.M., in which John '.'. N. Grijjg and James Cow sued William 1 'arsons and Frank Rickman for the sum of yT 10s. JThe following are the facts of ie case r—lnr — In February last Mr Grigg ought about 1600 oi 1700 sheep at the Oulverden sheep sales, and arranged with itiakman to drive them to Longbeach. Cow bought about 950 sheep, and arranged with Grigg that Parsons and Rie'^man should box the lot and drive them- south together. Then ike defendants arranged, without the knowledge of their employers, to include in the mob another thousand sheep belonging to •one Broughton. At Homebush, the sheep •were drafted and Broughton's were taken away. Some of Cow's sheep were sold at Methven. When the sheep were delivered Cow paid a cheque foi £37 5s 6d to Parsons. JLater on the plaintiffs found out that the boxing of Broughton's mob ■with theirs had occurred, and they then took action for damages. After hearing evidence his Worship, in giving judgment, said that he found considerable in coming to a satisfactory decision. Apart from any question of harm to the sheep, the drovers should not have boxed the plaintiffs' sheep with others. The crpert evidence had gone to show that there •was a- chance of the sheep being damaged. He thought that nominal damages should be awarded, and would therefore give judgment for the plaintiff, at the rate of Id per bead for the 2687 sheep. To this amount aiusfc be added tfie 15s which the defendants qfeceived for paddocking at Methven, and did not disburse. Judgment would be for ihe- plaintiffs for £11 18s lid, with costs.

The volume of grain passed over the railtrays (say.i the Southland Times) continues to be large, and every effort is being ma'u to reduce the stacks lwaiting carriage #.s <piickly a? possible. For the week cr # nd May 24-, 80,296 sacks were railed. Dr /ng the corresponding week of last yeai the • number was 45.084- sacks, but to make the comparison fair, it should be stated that fbii zear the total include* 25.414 eaUcs oi

, 801b weight. The total date this season j: runs up to 473,823 sacks, as compared with 34-7,052 sacks up to the same date last year.

Otiake notes, in the Oamaru Mail : — The threshing part of thie late harvest is now about half way through. There is only one farmer's crop as yet that has yielded 3fr bushels to the acre. I think the yield so- far has been between 20 and 30 bushels per acre. One man had about 300 bags in sack before the rain came. I saw a sample of it, and it is good. With that exception all the rest threshed and to thresh has been out in the rain, wheat more or less in it all. Some is dry and in good condition, but there r_ a good deal of it 'damp. However, the weather we have had for the last three weeks ought to dry it in the stack, as it has often been blowing at hurricane pitch, and with the exception of the tail of a hill shower there has been no rain, although the wind has nut a stop to threshing operations meantime. Snow has fallen on the ranges, and even comes down to the top of the settlement, but it is very light, and not likely to lie longer than the first warm day. Everyone 's pushing Kard to get in the wheat crop. A good many acres have already been sown. There will be double the crop put in this year than was put in last year, and with a better prospect of a crop, as the subsoil is thoroughly wetted. The potato crop is poor, I believe, not sufficient to serve the place. Grass is getting rough now, but is still plentiful. Stock are also looking well.

Items from last Wednesday's Tapanui Courier: — The tendency of the store stock market is distinctly downward, as the continued wet is wasting turnips; Fats, however, are rising, and both beef and. mutton aro likely to be dear during the winter. — Bac weather last week interfered with grain, .-arting, and enabled some of the stocks at sidings to clear.. Ploughing will now be much behind this winter. Lajbe threshing is also much" retarded, and i' is now almost impossibl' for the mills to move about, the clay roads being in a deplorable state. Very little ploughing is done, and it appears as if most of the farm work will be kept behind until spring.

Some comment has lately been made upon the quality of the oats now being shipped from the colony to South Africa. The experience in Oamaru in connection with the shipment made by the Port Victoria lertahilj does not justify the adverse comments that have been made. We (Oamaru Mail) have seen some samples of oais that were rejected by the Government examiner, and most people, even those who have a knowledge of the subject, agree that these are of a quality that might have been expected to pass.

At the Magistrate's Court, Ashburton. last week, Messrs Nicoll Bros, were fined Is and costs for exposing for sale at the Tinwald yards sheep affected with lice. The defence was that the sheep bad been purchased and sent into the yards, the firm not knowing the condition they were in.

In the House of Commons on Thursday, April 17, Mr O'Mara asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he proposed to place a countervailing duty on foreign beef and porb to enable the British farmer tc compete with beef and pork fed .on trataxed grain. Sir Michael Hicks^Beach replied in the negative, adding that the British farmer an easily feed his stock with home-grown grain if he jirefers it.

From last Thursday's Oamaru Mail: — This morning we were deputationised by three sturdy settlers from the colder regions of Otago — Central Otago and Taieri. They had come to Oamaru to try their lucto at the ballot for Windsor sections, but were on the eve of returning to their homes without carrying out this iutention because of the unsatigfactoriness of the system of ballot to be observed, and they told us that quite 40 had, for the same reason, already returned whence they came. W^© asked them to put their case from their own point of view, and one of them replied: "Suppose that I apply for section 16 in a certain group which ia of an acreage suitable to my circumstances — say 250 acres — and I pay my deposit for that section, a much smaller and less suitable one might fall to my lot; but I am either compelled to take it or forfeit my deposit, which is considerable ; ■whilst on© of my companions who desired the smaller section in question might be compelled to take the larger one for which I applied." The re-groupiu-g of the sections more in accordance with their area and character will not abolish the objection of which these applicants complained. The applicar.es say that they would not mind being not successful in securing the sections for * Inch they applied, provided the law did • ot impose upon them the very possible adr' .tional penalty of forfeiture if they objp< 'ed to take any section that ill-luck might f.row in their wa3*. It is true that the authorities have promised to deal liberally ■with an applicant who, ha\ing paid a large deposit in applying for a section of considerable area, might draw a small one so useless to him that it would pay him better to forfeit his deposit than to take it ; or with the applicant who, wanting a small section, might draw a large one the responsibilities connected with wliicli he could not undertake with any degree of safety. But the administrators of the law must be guided by the law; and rather than run the risks we have indicated, aa jye bare already uid.

large numbers of applicants liave returned home. Probably those wiio remain will not object to this, as their chances of getting sections will be increased ; but it is nevertheless highly regrettable that men who are anxious for land should have to make so much sacrifice of time and money to reap nothing but failure. The wretched faultiness of the act is due to the unsatisfactory system under which legislation is carried on. The probabilities were pointed out to the Government last session, when the bill was going through, but they thought more of passing the measure than of securing a satisfactory law. At the Addington aaleyards last week two purebred Berkshire pigs, about six months old, sent by Mr C. E. Davis, of Tasmania, were sold by Mr F. C. Tabart. They were not equal in quality to the best locally-bred pigs of the same breed. A sow was sold at 3igs to Mr T. Quaife and a boar at 2|g<3 to Messrs Flack Bros. Among the amounts paid by the Government during 1901-2 for the purchase of estates for closer settlement are the following: — Manga-atoro (Assets Realisation Board), £88,118; Forest Gate (Colonel Herrick), £4-8,521 ; Lyndon No. 2 (Duncan and M'Farlane, £43,326; Glenham (Otago and Southland Investment Company), £37,100; Toka-ora (J. Livingstone). £31,616; Langdale (A. A. Elder), £30,669; Kumeroa, £28,685; Kohika (T. Teschmater), £28,093; Mangawhata (M. Morrison), £16.129. The Port Victoria (says the North Otago Times) took about 73,000 small bags of oats from Oamaru last week. The steamer can hold 97,000 small bags, so that the bulk of her cargo was taken in hei-e. This, with, the shipment by the steamer Agapanthus, totals about 55,000 'large sacks of oats, a quantity that will largely reduce this season's oats crop of the district. Mr M. Berglj interviewed lately in Buenos Ayres, stated: — "I don't know whether the South African Company made more than £2,000,000 or not. I know that if I had supplied all that they did, on the same terms, I should have made a clear profit for the period of £6,000,000. The facts are simple. For a year and a-half the company had the contract at lOd to lid per lb. while for the last 12 months they had it at 7d. Now I myself supplied them with a lot of meat at 3d to 3 l-Bd, and 3id to 3|d was the full price. At the very most 2d a lb extra would pay for the carriage, giving sfd as the top figure. It ia clear that there is a good wide margin here between this figure and 7d in the one case and lOd and lid in the other, and in the supplies that were required a profit of a lb meant £300,000 in the aggregate. I hear also that they got 2d a lb profit on the captured cattle, and they had Lh© hide, fat, and everything else thrown in for themselves — excellent sources of profit. Against the lOd and lid in the first instance and 7d later on, my tender has been .ccepted at s^d, and on that we shall make a fair comme~cial profit. I have had to sign an undertaking that I would not amalgate with any existing firms supplying South Africa with meat. There were about a hundred tenders for thit contract — 40 ~>t 50 of them from Australia, many from New Zealand, some from Argentina, and if they were all published I am confident that ours would be shown to be the most honest tender of the lot. The Rhodes interest wa» opposed to me. Of course, the responsibility for such a huge contract as that was too much for one man who had another business to attend to, and therefore I formed the Imperial Supply and Cold Storage Company, Limited, for the purpose, composed of influential gentlemen who could, if necessary, put up a capital of £10,000,000. Actually the capital is £650,000." At a well attended meeting of settlers held at Eastern Bush, Southland, on the 26th tilt., the following were elected directors of the Waiau Dairy Factory Company : Messrs W. Darley, W. Scobie, sen., D. M'Laren, E. Davis, P Allen, D. Torpy, "W. Moir, G. Morton, and W. Scobie, jun. The articles of association were approved with a little modification. The meeting concluded with a hearty vote of thanks to the chairman (Mr Torpy), who in return thanked the meeting for the business-like manner in which the work was put through. Not within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of Upper Hillend (says last Friday's Clutha Free Press) has such severe weather been experienced as during the past 6even days. Dreadful snow and sleet storms have prevailed, and the temperature has been akin to thai popularly identified with the arctic regions. Stock have Buffered much, and thre-shing operations have been at a- standstill. This is all the more unfortunate, as the previous wet weather had caused such delay that only about four settlers had 1 had their grain threshed. The majority are still wailing for a favourable opportunity, including Metsrs Bej?g Bros., of Hillend station. Snow was lying fairly thick on the ground on Wednesday, but a thaw set in on Thursday, and the indications are that Upper Hillend. in common with the rest of the district, is going to enjoy a much-needed spell of fine weather. The Wellington correspondent of the Christchurch Press reports that one of the Crown tenants at Rangitikei has forwarded a formidablf letter to the Commissioner of Crown Land* protesting vigorously against the regulations under the Land for Settlemaati Act thai, prohibit tenants from tak-

ing several crops of .grain off their, land h successive years. The "Wellington Lan< Board has decided that there was no powe to relieve tenants from compliance with th regulations. £t is only natural (remarks the Pastoral ists' Review) that after so many years o bad seasons, and with competition becom ing keener in every direction, pastoralist should be on the lookout for fresh source of revenue besides the stay«!e industries- o wool-growing- and meat-raising. Horse breeding is now experiencing a revival, an< Angora goats are being tried in several parts But, so far, very little attention has beei paid to mule-breeding, which, judging b] the experience of our shrewd Americai cousins, should become a big industry ii time in both Australia and New Zealand. The Lake County Council offers a bonui of 4d per dozen for birds' heads during th< months of June and July. The Chaslands settlers- who appeared ai the Assessment Court held at Balclutha 01: Wednesday last to object to the valuations placed upon their holdings were eminentlj successful. The court felt incapable oi assessing the true value of "bungey" houses and "wattle and daub" hute, so the objectors were practically allowed to do their own assessing. In one case nearly £200 was knocked off the gross value of a holding. What a commentary on the work of the valuer ! — Free Press. The Belfast works of the Canterbury Frozen. Meat Company are now closed, down for the annual overhaul and boiler inspection. They will reopen, on June 7r7 r when the winter rates for freezing will come intc operation as follows: — Mutton (including tegs) 3d per lb, lamb 9-10 d, and beef £d per Ib. The price- of fat at present is 28s 4d per cwt. TheFairfield works of the Canterbury Frozen. Meat Company are again open, and aie now in full swing. The excitement caused in America by the victories of the CYdesdales against all other breeds at the first two International Expositions has not' yet died down. The Percheron stud owners are sore over their defeat, and in answer to their letters Mr Alex. Galbraith, secretary of the American Clydesdale Association, says: — "One of Chicago's largest ironfoundera recently told me that he once put sis. Percheron geldings into his trucks, and 18 months afterwards only one was left fit for work. He replaced them with Clydesdales, every one of which lasted 10 year?. I can furnish this founder's name and address, if necessary. The great Clydesdale gelding Sensation, exhibited at the International a year ago, had worked steadily on the streets of Liverpool for six years, hauling every day loads that would sicken any Percheron >hat over lived, and yet he appeared as sound and jaunty as any fouv-year-old, with a marvellous freshness, and that immpdiately after experiencing an extremelyrough voyage. At the Columbian Exposition the first prize for long service on the streets of Chicago was awarded to a Clydesdale shire team. The Clydesdales are in the field to stay. That many converts to the Clydesdale cause were made at the last show is evident from the fact that buyers are scouring the country in search of Clydesdale geldings to supply orders placed by packers and other large users of draught stock." "Various plans for compressing bran have been tried fronC time to time, and, en the whole, without much success. There is a. manufacturer in Cologne, Germany, however, who is putting fn a machine for making bran into briquets, for which ho claims many advantages. The briquets take only one-sixth the room of the bulk bran ; they can. it is claimed, be shipped without any sacking, will last for years, and can readily be brought back to the original bulk by a sort of disintegrator mill. The increase in the number of Holateins at the Sydney and other shows this season seems to indicate (says "Sylvan," in the Sydney Mail) that the breed is becoming popular in the Slate. Probably the coming jf the Holstein has depended to some extent upon the specimens of the breed that were seen and used before the best cattle were imported. Many breeds of cattle and sheep have been undervalued in Australia simply because they have not been properly representedr- The cattle imported by the Governmpnt of the State, Dr John Hay, Mr Pritchard of Numba, and others have helped to present the best points of the breed to hhe public. The East Friesland cattle Drought out by Weber, Lohmann, and Co. ire practically Danish-bred Holsteins, and ;hese with the Holateins (including those of Bales Bros, and Mr Angus) made a great mpres?ion at the last Sydney show, and r heard a number of men remark that they ■vere very much struck with the great blacks md whites. By the way. I was told that EWber. Lohmann, and Co. intend bringing >ut Borne of the red cattle of Denmark, rhese are the irreat butter cows of the Danes, and the arrival of some of th* breed should cause a flutter among breeders in Australia. Th*> deep-milking capacity of the Hn'.gfein is well known, though it'is doubt'ul if we have sepn the breed at its best in his resDect. In the Dutch lowlands, where he land is partly of a marshy nature and he growth of herbasre is very great, the :ows are milked throe timos daily in order o relieve the vessels and help the animals o keep up their enormous XThder he present system of dairy-farming in Australia the breed is likely to prove more aJuafale for crossing to produce butter cows

i with a good flow than for any other pur- [ poae. For the general class of dairying : country here the pure Holstein is .not '. adapted, the breed having been developed -in a country where a great production of milk ■ for cheese-making is the primary object. E Probably the best breed with which to cross - the Holsteiu is the Ayrshire. There can bo i no- doubt that when purebred cattle are [ used on both sides the cross produces very • high class milch cattle. Mr A. C. Lamond's ■ Beauty (Holstein - Ayrshire crosa), twice l champion of Sydney Royal and many times champion in the country, may perhaps be regarded as a phenomenal cow. But it is certain that she was not "fluked," for we have seen many excellent milk and' butter cows of the same cross. The cross" should indeed be an ideal one. The Ayrshire — a very hardy breed, with constitution suitable for all climates — is somewhere about third in the breeds for milk-production and second for percentage of butter-fat. The Holstein, not so hardy and best suited for riph deepsoiled flats, is about the greatest milkprodticer, but low down in the butter-fat records of the dairy breeds. The Ayrshire weighs from about 10001b to 12001b; the Holstein is somewhat heavier. In face of these characteristics no breeder should be surprised if the cross from pure on both sides produces remarkable dairy cow 3. It seoms to me that the quality of the erode cattle both from Holstein-Ayrshire and from othor breeds tried with the Holstein is somewhat uncertain, but there are not enough of such grades about to give a line to a correct opinion.