AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2520, 2 July 1902, Page 28

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

At the recent Winter show Mr A. H. Chapman, of Knrow. gave an exhibition of his dry-thawing prows "for defrosting frozen meat. Three quarters of bee/ and a couple of carcases of mutton were hung in the machinery annexe, covered with waterproof sheeting. These were uncovered on Friday afternoon m the presence of a number ( f gentlemen, at the invitation of the president of the A. and P.' Society, and one and aJI expressed a favourable opinion on the appearance of the meat, which opened" but bright and clean and quite dry on the surface, instead of presenting tho moist discolouration generally seen on meat thawed in contact w ith the atmosphere. Many of those who witnessed the success of the method employed by Mr Chapjnan expressed wonder that it had not been adopted in London, but Mr Chapman says there are other reasons than the practical utility of the process that prevented its universal adoption, and he hopes yet to overcome the unreasonable oijposition he has met with.

Our Clyde correspondent writes •— " A trappins; competition for a wager of £5, between Kehher and Watson, two trappers on Earnscleugh Run, was won by Watson with a tally of 426 rabbits for one night's catch. Keliher's tally was 3U rabbits Watson thus beats his previous record of 360 rabbits for one night.

The following is an extract from a private letter which was received by the last mail by a. resident of Timaru from a friend who is a storekeeper at Peel, Isle of Man. — " I am sel'ing New Zealand butter in my place at present, and it gn es the best of satisfaction. You mu't have very good dair'es in your country; your farmers are very good hands at making up butter. It co=ts me 112s per cwt m London, 6O you must have it pretty cheap at home." — Herald.

The price received for the output of the co-opor.itne butter factories of Ireland for last season varied from 10.98 dto 11.45 d per ib.

At a recent stock sale at Hasting?, 24 cmvs -were offered by auction. They averaged £8 Is, tho top price being £16. Bi\-weekf=-old caJve-s sold for 18s.

A Ruffian Imperial decree has been issued forbidding, until further notice, the expert of hoi =cs from the provinces of Bessarabia nnd Southern Russia.

The Melbourne Herald f-ays that Warrnan'boo! lias a State school head master who has formed eu agricultural class amongst the boys, and instructs them in both theory and practice-.

There is ( s ays the Australasian) a mo ; t remarkable cw in Eb~<?ncion. She has been milking continuously for live and a half years, and now giws about six quarts per day. She. is onnetl hy Mr Deuar, a gentleman who has long- bec-n a prominent breeder of Ayrshire 3, and «ho, despite his long experience with •Tiilkinp cows, is at a loss to explain tto remarkable continuation of productiveness of the cow under notice. The animal is a croz-lT^d, having Ayrshire and Jersey b!'>od. and hei age is 15 yeais. Once before she o Jimmied in milk for tvto yczr~. her bupplu*. ou tl'at occasion being teinarkably ge-nerou*. thoug-h the present daily results, e\en after the lapse of time mentioned, are raid tc be better than in the second year before. The milk does not possess any ?nlty or other unpleasant flavour, nor has it failed in richness. It is normal in every respect, and of first-class quality Tha cow is not fed in nny special way, brail and chaff being given as an addition to Hk> spare gra^s supplies a-. ailable, and cue runs oul v. :tb other cattle. She has not bo'n oj crated upon by the spaver. though ie 1-. supposed that her long period of pioductiveness is due to some natural development of infertility tiniilar in its effects to those produced by the operation leferred to

A better example of the beneficial remitof artesian hore> (tho Goodooga corrospoa dent of the Sydney Daily Tolegraj>h write- 1 -) ""uld not be shown tilav tiie one here.

The town has an unlimited supply of splendid water, two large market gardens are irrigated with it, a large station in the ■ticinity has a drain leading irom the pipe, and two paddocks belonging to the local owners are also t'apphed. Other bores throughout the district are taxed to their utmost capacity, and stations owning them, with the feed at present available, are to a gTeat extent masters of the situation. The back country, with its precarious rainfall, will never make the squatting or pa<s-to-ralist industry a permanent and prosperous adjunct to the resources of tiie State unless a co-operation of station-holders, with assistance from the Government, is formed with the object of obtaining a permanent water supply through the means of artesian bores, distributed efficiently over the woncerfully fertile, but now, alas! sun-baked plains.

Notes from last Saturday's Palmerston Times: — Much disappointment was expressed in, Palmer3ton on Wednesday afternoon when the news came through that the Waihemo County exhibit had only been awarded second prize in the Shield Competition. We con console ourselves, however, with the fact that individual exhibits from the Waihemo County carried off more than their usu?l share of the prizes. — Present indications are that a larger area than usual will be under crop in the Shag Valley district this season. No doubt the present high prioes ruling for wheat and oats account for ibis, and the farmers have reasonable grounds for surmising that both, the cereals mentioned will command good prices next year. The quantity of grain at present held in the colony is limited, and by the time next harvest is due we shall, no doubt, find that our stocks have run very low, consequently -there is every ixason to believe that next season's crop will find a ready market at rate 3 satisfactory to the growers.

The Kyeburn correspondent of the Mount Ida Chionicle writes: — Matters pastoral ore in a fairly good way for this season of the year, stock, on the whole, being in good condition, and unless we have a very severe finish up of the winter, or a cold and hackward spring, like last year, we should get through the most trying three months with very little loss. Several farmers were, up to a few days ago, busy ploughing, but the recent hard frosts have stopped the teams for some time at least. Threshing is well forward in this district, though the softness of the ground hns rendered shifting a very difficult matter.

The State Forest de&artment are at present making considerable preparations for this year's planting operations, both at Whakarewarewa and Waiotapu plartstions At the former place, says the Hot Lakes Chronicle, over 130,000 holes have been dug ready for planting tree 3 during July, August, and September. At Waiotapu plantation (which is worked entirely by prison labour) about 330,000 holes have been prepared, and at the present time some 5000 trees are being planted daily. It is anticipated that fully half a million trees will be transferred from the" nursery to the various plantations before October next.

Writing from Eltham on June 23, Mr Carncro=3, M.H.R., addresses the following letter to the editor of the Taieri Advocate : — "In your issue of the 18th inst. I read a report of a meeting of the East Taieri branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. In that report Mr John Graham is reported to have stated that ' the Government had .-ut valuers on with instructions to vslua to the highest. Th^=e increased the valuations all round, and (hen the Government took credit to themselves for the increased land values.' The charge that the. Government have instructed thpir valuers to value highly has been frequently mada and frequently disproved. I have never known the charge to be made in connection with Taieri valuations. If Mr Graham's accusation has any reference to Taieri valuations, I would be much obliged to him if he would place 6ome definite evidence in my hands, so that I may, as member for the district, investigate the matter. If no definite evidence is forthcoming. I must conclude that the charge is groundless."

Great preparations are being made throughout the Xorth Inland gc-iierplly for the next dairying season. Usually work is in full swing from November, and the Dairy Commissioner (Mr J. A. Kinsella) anticipates the busiest <=cason farmers have known There are also indication? that there will be a big increase of output in the South Island during next season The United States Department of Agriculture has lived down the half humorous tolerance with which its operations were received for a generation by a people and a press always willing to laugh at a public department. It has at the present moment some 50 experts in foreign countries searching for grasses, fruits, and field and farm products likely to add "to the wealth of the country. It gives freely to all inquirers ad\jce and Reeds It inspects food exports, and analyses imports: discovering the other day, by the way, that them was so little goose liver in pate de foi gras that people need not hesitate to eat what wa< supposed to be the product of p cruel procese. Its busiest official is urobably that energetic lepr^sentative who inspects pedigree cattle in London before their shipment to American buyer?, for even a meat trust mint still come to Britain for fine bred animals, and tJio slun-m-ent" are many and prices condoling to farmers.