NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 7

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The Witness of the 12th iust. contained a report of an interview with The Frozen Captain Pearse, -who freely Meat Trade. stated his views in regard

to the frozen meat trade in London. The tenor of his remarks is altogether too pessimistic-, in my opinion, and ne seems altogether too cocksure that he knows all about the ins and outs of the business, forming conclusions and making assertions about our most important industry in the most offhand and confident manner. He says that any interference by the Government with the colony's produce in London must ruin the trade, but docs not give any reasons for thinking so, nor upon what grounds he bases the assertion that the prosecution of fraudulent butchers has seriously injured the trade. His cool assertion that "Argentine meat is absolutely as good as New Zealand's best" is astounding in the face of the numerous statements to the contrary by men as well qualified to judge as Captain Pearse. If what he says is true, perhaps he will tell us why the butchers run the risk of prosecution and fines for trying to sell Argentine as New Zealand? If the former is absolutely as good as the best of the latter, why don't the butchers sell the Argentine upon its merits? It may be that they want to get a better price by labelling Argentine as New Zealand meat, if it is the case, as he says, that they always undersell us. Then, again, he says "there is always a big margin between profit' and loss for them," which statement I fail to understand, unless it means that there is a bigger margin between f.d.q. cost and the selling price than is the case with our meat, because we havt to pay freight on a longer distance from market. He, tells us that the Argentine lamb trade and the Argentine butter trade are going to be enormous, but says nothing about the droughts, flood?, and rot and scab to which the country is always liable. Twenty years ago a friend residing in the Argentine, and largely interested in the shipment of wheat, wrote saying that it would swamp the civilise;! world with wh^at in, a few years, and advised me to Bell out of New Zealand before the land became valueless. That prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, and the wheat exports have not become so enormous as he expected- Captain Pearse says that what farmei-3 have to look to is to sell their produce, but in the same sentence he airily informs us that branding and inspection ie all balderdash. Surely he must be aware that careful veterinary inspection of all stock slaughtered for shipment is a guarantee to British consumers that we send them nothing but sound and healthy meat, and that should assist farmers in selling their produce to the best advantage. The fact of him characterising skilled inspection as "balderdash" is sufficient to convince any sensible farmer that the cocksure captain cannot know much about the matter upon which he discourses so freely. I am more in accord with his pointers upon political matters, and should like to see some of his sweeping reforms carried' out. Here we are spending thousands of pounds putting in nearly 80 men to govern us, and paying (including Upper House) about £30,000 a year to them in honorariums for making laws which we could do very well without, and many of which have to be unmade or amended at the first opportunity. Mr Atkinson, a candidate for Wellington City, has recently expressed

limself in. much the same manner a« Captain Pearse with reference to the cost Of) administration, pointing out that this has been increased by £1,000,000 during the last Jjve years. This increase means more than £1 per head for every man, woman, end child in the colony. Mr Atkinson also said that a great deal of this was sheer waste and extravagance; farther, that salaries of Ministers and members have been increased by £15,000 per annum, and that the taxpayers would gain £30,000 per annum if Ministers and members had to ' prepay all their letters and telegrams. All this is in support of Captain Pearse's i pointers to farmers, and if some of the ex- | travagance and 1 waste in Wellington could be cut down, large concessions could be , made in railway rates for produce and in improving the bad roads which at present almost cut off many settlers from market. We have been told that the concessions made in railing produce, manure, and lime during the last year amount to £25,000, which is, on the average, £1 to each of the 25,000 farmers in the union — truly an enormous sop ; but at the same time every M.H.R. has been presented with an additional £40 per annum. Many sheep-farmers think that the more ' sheep they keep the more Orer stocking, money they will make ; but they do not consider that one sheep well kept ie more profitable than three half-starved sheep. The backward spring we have had has found out the overstocked farmers, and the ill results will be unmistakably shown in the wool and in the lambs. The cold weather and backward growth of the last month, has certainly been exceptional, and has caused a shortage of feed upon farms where under ordinary circumstances there would be no lack of keep. If a man arranges so Jhat he has* sufficient feed to keep his flock in good order through the winter and until he can r-easonably expect a fair growth of grass, he cannot -be blamed if his expectations are not fulfilled on account of extreme vagaries in the climate. ' But the bad season is very severely felt by those who are so overstocked that the season must be exceptionally favourable in order to enable them to bring their sheep through alive, to say nothing of being in strong condition. It is much the best policy to err on the side of too few rather than too many, head of stock at any season of the year. A farmer in the Riverton district writes to ask the best time to burn Barniig gorse, and adds that there Gone. seems to be a diversity of | opinion among farmers in , his district. He docs not state, however, ' for what purpose the gorse is burned. If he burns an over-grown gone hedge in order to save trimming, and wants to get a new hedge as soon as possible after the burning, the 'atter should be done early in the spring, and then the young growth will shoot up from the roots and make a new hedge in about two years, and then the old can be pulled out to allow of the new growth being trimmed before it gets out of hand. It is a difficult matter to trim the new hedge while full of old, dead sticks.' If the burning is put off until the autumn or winter, the season's seeds will have been ripened and cast -abroad. If the query . refers •to a thick crop of .gorse which has spread over the land from a neglected hedge, then, I should say that the burning should be done a few weeks .before *he farmer intends to grub out the too 1 -., and as the black char will have peeled off the burnt sticks, the grubbing can be done without making the clothes of the worker so dirty. If this kind of gorse is not going to be grubbed out, and the burning is to check tjie growth and let stock get among it, then I would advise burning at midsummer, while the seeds are green, and thus .prevent a season's seeding and stop fresh growth from the root until the following spring. In the poor, voJcamc soil in the far north large areas are sown with gorse in rows for sheep feed, as gorse is about {he only thing that will tucceed there In course of time the gorse gets too hard and stiff for the sheep, and it is then burned, and when the fresh growth has had a fair start the sheep commence nibbling at it again. I suppose the gorse is burnt in breaks, so that there is always a succession of young shoots for the sheep. I have no personal knowledge of the practice, but, in that case, I should cay the burning would be done in the spring. I do not suppose my Riverton friend req\iires any information upon that style of sheep-farming. If I have not given him the information he requires about the time for burning gorse, I hope he will write again and explain the circumstances and state the object aimed at in burning. The severe frosts of a few winters ago practically killed many of the gorse hedges in the high inland districts of Otago and Canterbury, and they ate not growing, or likely to grow, from the root again. Neither will the seed lying on the bank grow while smothered with the dead gorse, but I have seen, as the result of burning the dead hedge, the seed coming up on the banks as thick as hairs on a cat's back, and burning is the only means of renewing dead hedgos. If the fire burns all the dead sticker, it is necessary to make the fence good by putting iv some wire Jid stakes until the growth from the seed makei

another close hedge* If a man cannot afford to keep his hedges trimmed periodically, he should put in iron . standards wad 'wire, and then burning can ~be done when :the hedge gets too coarse, and the wire stops "the stock till the -gorso grows again. Gorse is useful for shelter, bat a neglected hedge affords too much cover for sparrows and rabbits. t AGRIOOLA.