AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 27

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

The weather of the past month (saya Saturday's Timaru Herald) has been anything but seasonable, and Tuesday's southeaster capped all with its wintry rudeness so near midsummer. Such a cold snap must have been severe on the newly-shorn, sheep. A spring so late as the present onemay not be beyond the memory of the oldest identity; but it is certainly exceptional. If, however, warm, 'sunny weather should now set in,, the lateness of everything iv the field' would soon be compensated for. There, are compensations,' of course. Feed is plentiful, .-though riot so as could be desired, and there is consequently a good demand for stock to euit those* who hare any to sell, but on that account there have been more buyers than sellers. Taken altogether, the outlook for the aurrent season tmxst be considered highly Most -of the crops are looking we 11,,, the late showery weather having kept the ground soft enough to allow rootlets to make 'their way about through soil packed close • by, the winter rains, that in a dry season would*have been like a brick. It is. reasonable to anticipate, however, that the average yield of the harvest will be reduced by the unfavourable condition of the soil, and by a proportion of seed in many places having been drowned altogether. Any deficiency in the harvest due to such causes, however, will be more than counterbalanced in die aggregate return" of the district by the important rise in the price of wool.

At the first anniversary of the South Canterbury Dairy Company's creamery at Hunter, celebrated on Friday last, Mr Bowie, one of the directors, gave some statistics of the company's progress since it was started two and a-half years ago. In the first six. months (the latter half of 1902) they paid: £1463 for milk: in 1903, £9076; in 1904' to November, £15,631. In the months of November of the last three years the payments for milk were £818, £1594-, and £1911. Last month 11,4441b of cheese were made at Temuka. They confidently expected to pay £20,000 for milk next year. The tow« milk sales, a profitable branch, liad increased from £102 for November, 1902, to £14-7. for November this' year ; and the local sales of butter had doubled since 1902, from £334 to £735 for the month of November in '02 and '04. This proved that their butter wa3 appreciated locally as well as in London, and it was also favourably known in Christchurch and Dunedin. Last j-eih: the whole of the output was sold at a higher price than was received by any factory in the colony except one. This year, owing to losses last year, buyers declined to give anything like the same pirces, and tha directors had refused to accept the- best price offered, believing it would way them better lo consign, and from the present prospects of the market, he believed this would be fully justified. At present they were making something like seven tons per week and to date had shipped about 35 tons ; and hoped by the end of the season to have shipped 150 tons, besides, of course, the local sales, which were always increasing ±ne dairy industry of the colony was the only one which last year held its own in th© export lists, and showed an increase, this being 5o 2 - per cent. a& compared with 190001—from £846,000 to £1,360",000. On Saturday morning at the Government grading stores Mr Kineella (Dairy Commissioner) held a conference with the staff of the dairy division for the purpose of grading several parcels of butter, with the object of ensuring uniformity in procedure at the. various shipping ports and by the butter and cheese instructors. In the afternoon the staff met a number of exporters, and heard their views relative to the grading system. The- opinion was general that the butter grading was sati -factory, but in regard to cheese it >vas ieit that the system required perfecting in order that the output from each vat should be separately tested.

The Land Compensation Court, encaged in hearing the Flaxbourr.e ca^e, hn<T succeeded in classifying the estate, and has also finished with the. question of the retained area, which , was settled by mutual agreement between the paruA The owners ret sin *' US acre-;, and the" Go\errmsnt takes the waianca o£ the es-t^f*.. 3ii>q

court adjourned till February 1 to take the valuation branch of the case. Judge Cooper, the assessors, and the visiting counsel left Blenheim on Saturday.

An extraordinary occiu-re-n.ee happened at Camerons (West Coast) the other day, when a valuable horse belonging to Mr O. Butler was stung to death by bees.