STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2534, 8 October 1902, Page 9

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Br Dboteb.

WteUv Sfek Sales: „ Fortnightly: * m , Invercargill, Tuesdays aurnside, Wednesdays ir™,?,;,,. Ashburton, Tuesdays Monthly: Addineton, Wednesday! Clinton, Palmerston, Winton, and WaiFcrtniqhtly: kouaitl Balduth*. Fridays . *«*f *»«* j Gore, Tuesdays Henot,Kelso, aad KyeOamaru, Tuesdays burn. .About 140 head of cattle were yarded last irreek at JJuruside, none of which were very heavy, but prices were remarkably good — record ones, in fact. Prime beef was selling at fully 40s per hundred: best bullocks at £12 to nearly £14, and none of th.em were heavy weights; best cows and heifere from £11 to over £12; medium bullocks pnu cows, from £9 to £11. Even inferior bullocks and cows brought from £b to £8. .These are indeed boom prices. Very large drafts of cattle, up to 500 per ■week, have been gokig to both Bluff and Burnside freezing works for the Australian trade, and Dunedin butchers ,had to buy at these higk rates. Of course they have duiy taken care of themselves by raising the retail price of meat, which is now, I believe, quite as high as London retail prices. Not content with the good prices offering, some farmers have lately, I hear, consigned ' drafts of bullocks to the Sydney market. The results have been disappointing, and anyone who knows the Sydney market would have told them, as I have often done— never consign anything to Australia; take a fair f.o.b. price, and he content. These j consignments sola at £16 in Sydney, and the net result will be probably about £10, or very much less than could have been ob- i tamed anywhere in New Zealand. Very large shipments of frozen beef are on tee way and a large quantity is in the freezing store ready to go. I certainly anticipate a clump very soon, and am of opinion that the fjo.b. seller will be happier than the exporter, ©specially if the latter is consigning, %nd even if he, has sold he is by no means out of the wood yet. If tne market slumps the buyers there will find' some peculiarity about the meat and reject it. Surveys, etc., •will be held by experts, but, as we know from experience, they manage things as well for themselves in this line in Australia as they do in London also. Beef must be scarce for. a time, and prices will remain good for some time, but farmers may, I think, look for a falling market, as all must admit present prices are abnormal and cannot be relied on to last. What I h*ve said refers to the general trend of Australian business and the habit J df buyers there. There are doubtless many I good merchants there who hold to their bargains at all cost; but .experience has taught us that there are- very many who act otherwise invariably if the market is against them; Nearly IWO cheep -were yarded at BurnBide, and prices r»n high, as local butchers ■were quite bare of stocks. The yarding waa a poor lot, and the prices obtained were by no means the reward of merit. Tue prices •were fully 2s per head better than those of <6he previous week; best wethers brought 21s to 255, and «yen inferior up to 16s; very ordinary ewes, 18s to 20s; inferior, 12s to 13s 6d. Large quantities are going to all freezing works for the Australian trade at high prices. I would rathei be a seller at the rates now going than a buyer. I must say I laok faith in the Australian market for the near future at such high rates, but of course I may be wrong, as much yet depends on the weather conditions there. At Addington the price of cattle was not quite so good as at Burnside, but geod enough in all conscience—prime beef ruling at from 25s to 37s 6d, with about 30s per hundred lor inferior beef. Sheep were not on a pal? with the big prices at Burnside, freesers telling at 18s to 21s, a few heavy prime wethers arid ewes reaching 245. Shorn crossbred wethers brought up to 16s. About 50 early lambs brought an average of 13b to 14s. In store sheep the market was more lively than it has been lately, ewes and lambs especially selling freely. The yarding ■was only about 1700, being very much less than the usual yarding. Fair store wethers Sn the wool brought from 13s 6d to 15s 4d, •horn flour-tooth wethers from lls to 13s; shorn ioggets 8», ewes with lambs (all counted) from 7s 6d to 9s 2d. My favourite animal, the pig. is in good demand. Bacon pigs brought from 38s to 525, or equal to 4£d to 4|d; porkers, sd; good stores, 15s to 23b; small, 6s to 12s. 1 am glad to note that in Otago and Southland farmers seem more inclined to go into pigs, and I am confident they are quite justified in doing so. A good price is assured right through the season. Buyers will be plentiful, and the pigs can be taken away when ready, and farmers wiS not, as in -the poet, have to wait for cool weather till buyers take the pigs. This has been a heavy drawback to profitable pig farming, but refrigeration hns quite done away with this "bad feature of the business. I hope to be able to say more on this subject next week, especially as to prices for the coining season. "Writing re the dairying prospects for the Coming season in Victoria, the Farmer and Grazier has the following. It is, as can be Eeen, none too hopeful. It was ivritten in September, and I rather tlunk^sjkhat since then conditions have not improved greatly: The prospects at the present time are not nearly so gloomy as they wero a fortnight ayo. During the present week we have had a very 3iic3 fall of rain, amounting to 50 points, and this, added to 83 points which fell during 'soyal show -week, has created a much brighter outlook. Although thia has been very bvme'ficial, still -we require a great deal more to "assure us that vre are quite out -of danger. Tho growth that has taker placa during the ■past week is very marked, but, neverthless, grass is very short compared with previous ■eeasona. What is now required is a very -wet ■pring, continued -well into the summer; but "J[ fear that the chances are •rery much against ua. Under almost any conditions the harvest amist prove a very hgh* one. Numerous deaths in cattle have occurred, dairy herds in particular having suffered most seerelj. This must greatly affect the butter yield >f this State; seriouß falling off in the output is

I commend the following to the careful consideration of farmers. Perhaps there is nothing new in this statement of the facts in favour of dairy farming, but they are none the less true: THE ADVANTAGES OF DAIRYING. Recently Mr H. W. Potts, principal of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, delivered a very interesting lecture at Richmond, New South Wales, on " Dairying: Its Relation to General Farming-." At the end of his lecture Mr Potts tabulated the advantages of dairying as follows: — 1. That it takes less fertility out of the soil than any other form of agriculture, and hence it is useful in following a well-regulated system of rotation. 2. That it can be combined readily with other forms of agriculture or horticulture. 3. The dairy provides in winter a quantity of stable manure in which the straw from the farm is profitably utilised. 4. The by-products from the cow—skimmilk, whey, and butter-milk —are a source of income in raising pig 3 and calves. 5. Dairying gives constant and regular employment of a light character to every member of a farmer's family. i 6. Dairying inculcates habits of punctuality, industry, cleanliness-, and thrift on. the farm. 7. Cheese and butter are condensed products, and the cost of carriage, in comparison with their value, is less than that of any other farm product. 8. That the demand for good butiSr and cheese on the world's markets is unlimited, and so long as the quality is maintained an all-round, even, and profitable pries can always be secured. ; 9. The existing system of preparing our dairy products for export enables the farmer to rely on a constant and certain income. The monthly cheque from the factory or other sources provides "the mainstay in tne household ■&s egainst the precarious returns from, i yearly crops. j 10. In mixed farming the income from the dairy is the most reliable. ] 11. The farmer's household^ as a result of j dairy work, is always supplied with fresh milk i and cream, butter, cheese, pork, bacon, and veal. 12. Storekeepers, traders, bankers, and financial men. and politicians all fully realise, after years of experience, that wherever dairy farming is conducted farmers are most prosperous, mortgages are rarely found, and the value of landed property becomes considerably enhanced, i 13. That the labour and difficulty in milking cows is now practically solved by the introduction of a cheap, effective, and easy-work-ing milking machine. I don't take quite such a hopeful view as Mr "Potts does re the milking machine for general use, but I maintain that such j machines can be most profitably used even ! now by farmers- who can find a careful man to supervise the machine, I would : strongly advise gome of the larger fanners ' to give this matter their attention. An in- i stalment for 20 or 30 cows has been worked profitably in many places from aB far .back as four years ago, and since then the milking machine has been much improved. With care and attention it would prove profitable, ! I am sure, to many farmers to whom the i labour problem is the main difficulty. 11 don't expect ever to see a milking machine j that will work "without intelligent and per- j severing supervision, but I am quite .certain j that it has reached such a stage of perfec- j tion that with care and attention it can be ! safely and profitably used by a very large body c# farmers who now pas 3 dairying as j impracticable for them, and lose heavily thereby. My readers will see by the Witness that great efforts are being made to put our , Otago University on a good basis finan- j daily. Farmers are, of course, deeply in- I terested, as their son 3 aud daughters, to a very large extent, benefit by the success of the- University. I think the time is opportune for advocating the establishment of a chair and school for veterinary surgery aud medicine. The Otago University is par excellence the medical school of the colony, as Christchurch is the engineering school. It will possibly bo well for all the universities to go in for "special" schools or> these lines. t Otago, being already fairly equipped as a medical and surgical school, is naturally the most fitted to carry out the scheme for a veterinary school. I therefore suggest that fanners should at once, through their unions and through their members of Parliament, J agitate for the establishment of such a school in connection with the Otago. University. I suggest, as the best means of at- I taining this object, the circulation of a subscription list among the farming com- ' munity, to be subsidised £ for £ at least by I Government. Of course there is here a ] capital chance for a patriotic fanner who has done well to show his gratitude by giving a handsome "sub.," and thus benefit the rising generation of the country which has done so well for him.. I really believe that many such will bo found, and I know of no better way in which a man cau benefit his fellow fanners and the great country which has blessed us all with happiness and I plenty for many years. I maintain that the | time is ripe for the establishment of a veterinary and agricultural college -in this colony. The great colleges at home have done well for us, no doubt, and oiir young m«i could study there, but experience has already shown tVafe we need to study many things from a purely colonial standpoint, and from the conditions prevailing here. The ramifications and conditions of veterinary science are not tlie same in the colony as in the Homeland. General principles are the same, but conditions an<? surroundings are not on all fours. It would be a great benefit if such a school were established, and undoubtedly very many young farmers would attend, and could learn enough to make them very useful in the treatment of animals. Others ■would purbue the course of study, and then finish at Home, as many attending our Medical School are doing and have done, to their own bentfi and the credit of the colony also, I am proud to say.