AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 18

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

It is stated in the Hawke's Bay Herald that the gales at the end of last week did great damage to the grain crops all o\er the Ruataniwha Plains, and farmers are now employing all the a\ailable hands in harvesting. It is very difficult to obtain labourers at present while the rush of work is on. Rust has taken a large portion of the oat straw on the plains, and here, as in other parts of the island, the luxuriant crops are pioving rather disappointing as far as chaff-cutting is concerned. The wheat crops on the southern part of the plains are. snlendid.

The Victorian Wholesale Milk Producers' Association has decided to reduce the wholesale price of milk to 6d per gallon. Cattle-stealing i 3i 3 said to be- rife in several districts in Taianaki.

Mr John Donald-on, an old pioneer, lately of Spec Gully, died at his biothei's home in Invercaigiil on the 29th ult., aged 74 years.

In stating the case for the prosecution in the Californian thistle case at the Timaru Magistrate's Court on Monday last (says Saturday's Herald), Mr J. W. White alluded to the fact that the Government was offering a reward of £500 for the di covery of a cheap and effective method of dcGtros'ing noxious weeds in this colony. The reward might be. increased by 50G times £500, and then it would be cheap to the colony, if the method discovered be reallycheap and effective to the individual farmer. It is endless work fighting all the weeds by hand, though a great deal could be done in this way if ©very farmer lent a band, determined to put them down and keep them down. The reports of the officers of the department show that it is very difficult to get landowners to do much in the way of eradieat'tng the most noxious weeds, and anyone who travel^ much by road or rail has ocular demonstration on every sido that weed* of the unprohibited cla c i 3 are tolerated far too easily. One sees Jocks, Scotch thistles, bulL-daisiee tipright, flowering, seeding, everywhere ; very seldom indeed are they to be seen lyin-g dead or harmless, cut down, before their mischief-breeding age arrived. The crusade against the worst weeds will not be heartily taken up unfcil a public opinion is engendered among farmers against all weeds.

Sinoe the booklet descriptive of the Rosewill Settlement, or a 6it is better known, the Levels Estate, were received at the Climfclmrch office of the. Lands Depait-

meoit there has been an almost constant stream of seekers after information about the settlement. The supply of pamphlets has been almost exhausted, and another parcel has been sent for.

Mr O. A. Lees, who has just returned from an extensive tour through Otago and Southland, in conveisation with a reporter of the Lyttelton Times on Friday last, gave a very encouraging account of the harvest prospects in the south. In Otago Mr Lees found the crops quite six weeks ahe^ad of what they were last year is. regards harvesting. Everywhere the wheat crops were looking excellent, and very satisfactory yields were generally anticipated, and the quality promised to be good. Many millers expressed the opinion that it would not bo neces r ary to import wheat from Canterbury, as in previous years. The oat crops, except on light soils, looked all that one could wish, and with a conuaiuanee of the present fine weather the sample should be fit for any purpose, or to send anywhere. The Oamaru district had been favoured with fine weather, and a few h,mall parcels of this year's wheat had changed hands at 3s on trucks. The price had only been paid for prompt delivery, and was looked upcm as slightly above the market price. Comparatively few of the oat crops in this district had yet been threshed, but the few samples submitted to Mr Lees were of excellent quality. In South Canterbury most of the its were in stook, and $he cutting of the wheat was in full swing. The few rubbed-out =amples of oats seen by Mr Lees convinced him that this year's grain would be much brighter than that of last season. The summer in the south had been the hottest known there since the country was first inhabited by Europeans. At the Bluff Mr Lees paw large quantities of last year's grain still in store, and at Oamaru and Timaru the merchants and farmers had considerable quantities on hand. In Southland merchants expected the oat market to open, when threshing became general, on. a basis of Is per bushel on trucks at sidings.

Following the Home market (writes the Australasian) a decline has taken place locall} 1 -. Supplies offering from the country have showm a steady increase, as the farmers have brought in wheat more freely to the railway stations, and, in face of the discouraging news from London, shippers have been obliged to reduce their buying limits. The situation of the freight market has also to be taken into accoumt. It is understood that the wheat required to fill the vessels already chartered is practically all secured, and the future course of the local market must, therefore, depend upon the London market, and tipon the rate of freights recently asked by shipowners when the Home wheat market was firmer was not established, the rates of freight now quoted are dearer than the lowest rates at which early chartering was done. Altogether the outlook for wheat is an uncertain one, and at present the leading shippers are not disposed to offer more than 2s 103, though some of their recent purchases, when allowance is made for the expense of buying, have cost about gd more. Medium and blanched samples are dull of sale at various lower prices, and the supply of these on the town market is increasing im consequence of the numerous rejections that have taken place.