STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2523, 23 July 1902, Page 8

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Bt Dkotm.

Weekly Sttck Sales : Fort nigh tly ! c-mride, Wedoeadayt InTerca * u . Tueriay. •Yiurton, Tuesdayi Monthly: d inpton.Wedneidayi Clinton, Falmemten Wlntnn, and "Wai. Fcrtniqhtly: kouaiti B llclutha, Fridays Periodically : Gjre, Tuesdays Heriot.Kelso, and Kje* Oamaiu, Tuesdays burn.

The yarding of cattle at Burnside was bufc little over 100, with the usual result of a small yarding — viz , that prices were good. Besfc bullocks (not heavy) brought £10 to £11 17b 6d, medium £8 to £9 10s, some good cows £8 to £9 15s, medium £5 10s to £?. Prices showed an advance of fully 15s per head on previous week's ratee.

Nearly 2000 sheep were yarded, and as export buyers were not operating, the supply was far in excess of requirements, and butchers had a nice yarding of good sheep to pick and choose from at \ery moderate I'l'in*^— fully Is 6d below previous week's rates. Host crossbred wether-, brought 14s bd to 16>, a f f w extra hfwy up to 17f 6d, best ewes lls to 13--, medium wetkois and ewes 8s to 1(K

Both here and in Canterbury export buyers seem lo be -very shy. The frozen mutton market seems depressed, but 'no doubt the astute men there, will come out on the right; si'lc. Tl'© oiganisation, oi, rather, want of organisation, of our meat export trade suits thorn ali right. Prices will always be arranged so as to leave them a good profit. HoiV long producers hero will put up^ with tlus much-muddled part of our export" trade I don't know. In the North Island thera seems to be a waking-up among sheep-far-mers, who are trying to arrange for new freezing work 3of their own. In Gisborno the. local company has been a succces, notwithstanding great disadvantages in connection with the shipping at that port. I have great hopes of reform if farmers will only give their attention and loyal support to such measures for reform. I consider thai; grading 'by Government and the regulation of shipments, with proper arrangements afc Home for distributing in provincial towns, are c.-.ential. As long as we dump all our meat in London, and leave it m the present hand.-., we can look for no improvement. We should leally make a new departure on hotter hues, even if ou a small scale at first. Success will follow, and I venture the opinion that ere long London would cease to be the sole distributing centre of New Zealand meat.

At present thero is a demand for good prime heavy sheep. This is mainly for the Sydney market Aboiit 600 sheep in all went by the Talune, 200 of which were from Dnnedin. and the balance from Lyttelton. and Wellington, and about the same amounts have been coing by the weekly steamers for three weeks past. Hhe Wliangapo i<s filing at the end of the month with about 6000. Space has been applied for up to this, her carrying capacity. As yet; I don't know whether these are bought f.o.b. or are to be con 9 igned as a speculation. Freight is 4s por head, and there, is no duty, strpnge to hay. I wonder Sydney people d;cl not protect thru ->c\\'(-^ m thi.-> line as in othprs — turnips, for instance: these cosfc f.o b. here 14s per ton. and t!ie duty is £2 4s, and they are selling at £2 15s ex Sydney •wharf. The speculator who sent those evidently did not r< ckon on the beneficent duty le\hd there-, ;nid (lie results must be painful. T hor>e the sheep trade with Sydney will flourirh. It fprtninly 1001-s as if for a month or two the-v will need more. At the tame timp I ad we farmers to <H1 f.0.b., and consider tho nsk of consignment even afc temptingly high pr' c es much too great. Prime heavy sheep are wanted for this market

Tho fiPfzmcr works at Burn^ide are doing little oi nothing ] . t »- 1 tit present. Beo-f is too il^ai foi oxnorl lust Burn*ido sale rates o<|Ucilhn(r 28« per hundred. In pheep tho pic -ent state, of the London market does not cix-miiage high nnee«. and holders of fat .sheep srem unwilling to accept the low rat<?a that present I^ndon prices allow. This a.lwavs-ipr-urnn«r glut, owing to our want of f.y-,'»»m*iti shipping, is a most damaging thing to our trade. Not only have we to face the lowering of prices, but our mutton and lamb come before the consumer nearly always under the most imfavourable conditions — viz . stale and off colour by long storage. We ought to copy the Argentine management in selling on arrival steadily and keep the market clear of stale meat. A better average prio could bo maintained. The facilities for prompt delivery in Liverpool are a sreat help to the Argentine people. In London at present nothing approaching this nrompt disehaige and deliverytan be maintained. The total -lnpments of frozen merit for tli© year ending 30Hi June, 1902, were. — ilutlon. Lamb. Beef. Ib. lb. lb. 1902 .. 122,135.878 68 8-12 800 31,562,175 1901 .. 97.194,054 51,257,&U Q9,728-.02S Increase 24,941,824 17,584,959 1,834,147 I regret to say that Otago and Southland! figure but poorly in our frozen meat export trade as against Canterbury. Whilgfc admitting that Canterbury has more sheep, I consider that the tremendous discrepancy between our export of frozen meat is anything but creditable to the well-known enter- ; prioe aud uush of the Southern oommuniiT*

That the Canterbury export is largely swelled by our southern sheep is no sufficient answer to this. The fact that we do not, or cannot, freeze and export our own meat from our own works shows that something is wrong. Sending these sheep and lambs some hundreds of miles past our own works is not economy, and in the long run is a direct loss to us, though it may not always appear so at the time. The figures for the six months ending 30th June, 1902, show that .from the freezing works at Burnside, Oamaru, Mataura, and Bluff 3,270,8761b of mutton and 5,682,9291b of lamb were exported, whereas 23,923,9231b of mutton and 33,621,4061b of lamb were exported from Timaru and Christchureh — that is, Canterbury exports over seven times more of frozen srtitton and lamb than Otago and Southland. I - gret to say that this ratio is increasing, ana surely it is time for farmers to consider the matter. It seems to me that without better support, our freezing works must all close down, and leave the Canterbury works the whole field. Perhaps such a contingency might wake farmers up, for bad times would then be before them. I should advise a fair consideration of this important matter a litle ■before that time arrives, and I really don't think ft can be long delayed. The only one line we do excel in is frozen beef. In the Bix months we exported 1,885,0741b against Canterbury's 96.3771b. At Burnside the beef export exceeded the frozen mutton export by some 300,0001b. Perhaps some of my friends will take comfort in the fact that we export some two million of frozen rabbits and perhaps three million rabbits skins. T?<iY my part, I should prefer that another million sheep took the place of these five million rabbits, and thi* could be the aase if only settlers were of one mind on the subject, for the rabbits could be exterminated or kept down so as to leave room for the million sheep. The Nelson Province, the Wairarapa, and Canterbury have proved this long ago. They are not blessed with a rabbit export trade, but they have plenty of sheep, and prefer them. So do I.

The Canterbury sheep markets are dull. Heavy stocks at the local works, heavy shipments afloat, and heavy stocks in London keep export buyers in a low key. Extra prime wethers sell well. It is understood they are wanted for the Australian trade. This trade, however, will not help us much whilst the London market continues dull. Our trade with South Africa in frozen meat, 8o long delayed, is, I am afraid, not in a promising state. Argentina has fairly supplanted us in that market. It may be, however, that they will like the old ewrg we are sending them ; perhaps they are not very discrminating, and meat of any kind is meat there. It will be fortunate if this is found tp be the case. The nebulous Blue Star line is still dim and distant. Two year 3 •go, or even a year ago, New Zealand had a great opportunity. We have bungled the business badly, and I am afraid our Cape trade will not become what I had hoped. Wo are now rather late in the field ; still, we may pick up some crumbs y&t. Tfce cheese exported by the Department of Agriculture lias landed in good order, and met with approval; but I rather fear that the Cape trade in cheese will run more on the cheap (iouda and Edam cho-e-se from Holland, as in the past, and before tho war. It is a firm, hard cheese, skim or partly skim, and suits the hot climate and inland carriage. Our rich cheese, packed in the ordinary way, lands, I hear, with the fat exuding. The department's package in boxes with salt and sawdust prevents this. It cost, however, id per pound to pack in this niauner. Our butter I am more hopeful atyout, and with a direct service, good business could be done in this line, as also in hams and bacon. At the present time there is a good demand for the latter from the Cape, and also from Australia ; but pigs are not to be got. • If farmers would accept 3d per pound for pigs at country stations, a practically unlimited quantity could bo taken all the year round, and I maintain that such a price would pay small farmers at anyrate infinitely better than they can c\er hope, to do with sheep and lambs under the most favourable circumstances.

In the North Island I hear that exporters and agents are already visiting factories with a view to securing their outputs of butter for the coming season. Their proposals seem to be about ou the same basis as those of last year. I hear of no business being done yet : the early bird does not take on always.

Latest reports from London, dated June *), speak of an expected large production of THiik in Jvne, as the weather had been very mild. The only butter from the colonies then on the market was Canadian, about 3000cwt of which was landing weekly anel selling at from 93s it) 102s. Russian continues to come forward at the rate of about 13,000cwt per week, of which lO.OOOcwt us Siberian, and sells at 88s to 945. The total import for April and May from all sources was 37,000cwt, mainly owing to the new comer, Siberia. New Zealand cheese was selling at 54s to 56s for choicest, with a downward tendency. New Canadians were selling at 50s to 535. The demand seemed to run on the newer cheese in preference to the old. For May Canada sent m 55,914cwt, being a little less than that of the previous year's same period. The total imports for March-April-May were less than for the same period of the previous year by 48,729. It is too early yet to say how the market will shape, but up to date figures point to prices being better than at thii> time last year.

In another column appears an extract from a letter written by the Mayor of Capetown, pointing out that the Imperial Cold Storage Company have chartered tho Maori King to lie in Table Bay as a cold storage hulk for the distribution of produce. I have, as readers know, advocated tins course all along. The Mayor of Capetown also advises New Zealand to ct<» the same thins. It is not yet too late, perhaps, but the whole bu'-ine.-.s has been baelly bungled. Anionc* many mistakes the initial one was Mr (lira's advice to the Government not to t cold '-toraije. worst of all the Government accepting such advice.

Advice ao Mothers —Are you broken m your rest by a sick clul'l suffering with the pain of cutting teeth f Go at one* to a chemist and get a bottle of Mas Wisslqw's Soothixg Syeup. It will relieve tho poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless and pleasant to taste, it produces natural, quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub awakes " a# bright as a button." It soothes the child, it softens th» gums, allays all pain, relieves wind, regulated the bowels, and is the befit-knofm remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea, -rrh-ther arising from teething or other causes. Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup :s sold by iiediciat deal«i