Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 20

. It is" expected" that harvest ..operations m the Templetbn district (Canterbury) will commence this' week. At least a fortnight, however, will elapse before , the harvest, iviU^ heebnie- general. -" The— early crops, are beginning to .suffer severely from the, depredations of the " email - birds. Large areaswill be cut for grass seed^and hay, and ooth, crops promise to be unusually- prolific^ Oat crops are at present being- harvested in the Kyle _ and Doric dis*ricts of Ashburton County, threshing in some metances, at about 30 bushels to the acre. • The early crops iri the Ellesmere district tre looking remarkably/ well. . .. , Six" thousand four hundred bbxes of butter, weighing, '3200cwt, and 253 boxes of cheese, weighing 305£ewt; were shipped by 'the Shaw, Savill,, and Albion Company/s b.s." Gothic, at Lyttelton, for London. -_JThe shipment was made up as follows: — 3089 boxes' butter and -38 cases cheese from Otago, 430 boxes butter from Southland, and 2881 boxes butter" and 215 cases' cheese from Canterbury. The whole was' passed by the Government dairy produce grader in the Harbour Board's cool stores. Mr G. JSVitty,' M.T.K., recently wrote to, the Minister of . Railways asking Hot, information in* regard to the" grain-sack " regulations. He v has received the following - reply* *'Sir,— WitlCreference to your- letter of the - 15th inst., addressed to the general manager, _in- -regard to "tlie/By-law- regulating" the* weight ofgraah in any one saek-io. be conveyed" by - railway, I have the _>honour to inform tyou that the by-law was iniide purpcsely to" apply only to wheat, oats, arid barley, so as to allow, any "surplus stock Df the larger size of sack to* be", utilised. It is ultimately intended, . however, that the weight of all produce should be restricted, »nd as soon as the trade generally becomes tccustomed ,to the altered., "conditions, the Jby-law will be extended in that direction. A margin of 51b per sack will be allowed so that consignors will be able to put 2001b of grain in every sacfe. The operation the by-law will be closely watched, and although there may^be some little- difficulties In the initial stages, I feel-sure than it will, after a fair trial, be found to work in the Interests of all concerned. I -have the honour, etc., J. G. Ward, Minister of Railways." ■> The Crown tenants in the Auckland district appear to be as prosperous as in other parts of tne colony. In a> report to the Auckland .Crown Lands Board the other day, concerning a ..recent inspection he had made of 207 holdings, comprising 47,004 icres, the rangier, Mr Shannon, stated thatke had found improvements effected to the ralup of £14,432, whilst those required by law would hr/ve cost, only £9587. g A curious and interesting- scene was witnessed a. few weeks ago in the Insuzi River Valley, Nkandhla district, Zululand (writes i, correspondent of a Natal paper). -Large swarmV of locusts "were arriving to perform their usual havoc on the crops, but their numbers were considerably thinned by the advent of "a large flock of storks, to the extent of several hundreds, which, according to native reports, had been following up the locust? from far and near. So soon as the locusts commenced to settle, $hey were pounced ""upon by the storks, who simply gorged themselves on the insects. The birds are known to the natives as Nogolantete, or Amangababa, and while it is known that they get their main supply of

food -from *< the, -ordinary' grasshopper, they.' 1 haye^riot thitherto T^en'.Job'sefved- to' 'attack? a." swarm of. locusts:* -■- ~ ' '. ■ • 4 - - l Mr Jonathan Middletdn "and Professor" Stanfield ' "have,- .iisued • their- report' < on — > 4 the trials/ ,of <' motors- " and ' *ma-■nure-spreading machine's v , •■«ajb'v Pictonhill•'l "in, '.'September I ."'-last./""- These . T reports-. \- are '"favourable to the machines.",' ' Both" the' 1 - IveL and i the Scott motors have been awarded gold medals, and the ,r&- i porters r .are of opinion that^ the progress^! made during -the past eighs years warrants the hope that - a - greater. . advance will beJ made in the immediate future." "The points" in the official report, on which emphasis is* laid are familiar -to the reader, nothing new- that is- practical emerging. The technical .parts will 'be read with interest v by ( engineers when % the whole is published. The supplementary trials of manurespreaders; are' also dealt with in the report, J and" the" opinion is -expressed that both the Dunkeld and the Worcester-Kemp machines are "likely jto—-~-prove important la-bour-savers. ; ~The ' ' broad/ lesson to bej learned from this report (says the Scottish . Farmer)" isfthat the Highland and Agricultural Society will be well-advised- to continue the work which it has thus resumed of having field trials' of new machinery. The weight of individual potatoes will bear some -comparison. As far as" -we (Dublin' Farmers' Gazette) have seen this season the TTp-to-Date seems to have a good look in. Some of those recorded weights are quite prodigious. Mr T. 0. Mawby^ "-a Spaldingv. Marsh .-farmer, , dug . an -'XJp*-to, : , Date potato recently "which turned - , tlie , scales at-4lb Boz. Mr T. Wright, of.Con- - ingsby, 'another. English farmer, found one' .^weighing. 41b ' 7oz. These, "we're : grown ■" under ordinary conditions of cropping. --Mr; Best,.. Sutton County, Dublin, has grown -a, lot -of -JJp-to-Dat.es. which are quite remarkable for equality in si2e. He cut up -and planted ;,three tubers .in his garden, placing the, sets 30in apart, .the drills being. 36in, length; the soil was of a sandy character, and "the r manuring farm-yard dung of good i quality. From the three tubers weighing ; under 31b he dug up 561b of wholesome potatoes. The weight of the three largest tubers .was 51b 2oz, and of the half-dozen largest 81:b. The TTp-to-Date, given plenty t of room, good loose soil, and good treat- - merit, can be grown to a great size. But, -^bf course, no one requires tubers of such , growth for the market. They may do all right for stock-feeding, but as a table potato such sizes are out of the running. Increase ia size is often obtained at the expense of quantity and quality. Mr E. F. Jordan, of Eastburn, Driffield, . Yorkshire, has sold two pure-bred Leicester shearling Tarns to Mr J. E. Davenport, for "exportation to New Zealand. One of the rams won first prize at Driffield, and was ■ reserve at the" Royal show this year. Owing to excess of moisture, the northern costal districts of Queensland are eaid to be ill-adapted to successful Angora goac raising, but in the drier climates of the State they thrive well and are used in large ' numbers for meat. A breeder, writing of their value' and their management in that country, says: "I note they eat nearly all the bushes, even sprouts of eucalyptus and coolibah. When we first came here there was a scrub of sandalwood adjacent, there is no scrub now, and the goats cleaned it. If yarded! at night herding is not necessary unless wild dogs are numerous. In th^ ! case protection may be afforded by rearing a dog of suitable breed in the goat yard, suckled from the birth on goats. It would accompany the goat* all day and return with them at night, and defend them if attacked. The skins are a valuable asset, as prices realised ranged from Is 6d to 5s 6d each. | 'Although little attention has hitherto been

given to the production of mohair, several owners express the intention of shearing this year. The only reply received in this point states that 6ilb per pound was obtained in Sydney, and this from pure-bred goats; the wethers'sold for tilling averaged 401b each, and that at barely two years old. The Government, of the colony is determined to encourage this industry, and the Agent-general is now making inquiries as to the London values for mohair."

In the Mark Lane Express of November 14, the contributor of "Agricultural Politics writes: — Horaham is an agricultural constiluency. All its interests are purely agrarian. It does not, however, matter one whit to the rural interest who has been returned — not one whit ! I am aware that it will bs urged that Lord Tumour is a Chambevlainite and Mr Erskine is not. What matters it? Neither Lord Tumour nor Mr Erskine gave an hour's consideration to aught but the lip-professions of Chamberlainisni ? Would the preferencedCanadian competition be a danger to the English farmer? Would the preferencedAustralasian competition mean a danger? Aught "the British farmer to be compensated by the utilisation of the Customs' fund on his behoof? What mattered any of these problems to either candidate? Hedid not care one tuppenny-rap about eithei*. "I am," he said, "either for Chamberlain or against". - A4l the rest is either leather or prunella." And both , re.la.psed into their platitudes, their boarse,-shoubing parfcisanism, their stupid fealty. ' The Horsham farmers may be glad that tfcey^are pawns in the game of ,. mere party-mongera. 'Tis a, pretty part to play, when- men's' own prosperity is actually, at stake. > ■■V According to >' George Allfrey,' 'a Sussex flookmaster, who 1 wrote the Southdown in the Annals of Agriculture in . 1804; that famous breed of sheep was anything but the sheep it is to-day.^ He said : "We , have in all our flocks every year, notwithstanding all the e'are we take to prevent it, great numbers of black and white lambs, some with large black sj)ots, some half black, and some' entirely black. I have had 12 "or 14 of the latter in a year, though I never kept a black ram or ewe, whence I infer that their original colour was black, and that nothing but art and care has produced the white wool."

.The- representative of the .British Australian at St. Louis writes that paper as follows anent the New South Wales exhibit at St.-Louis: "In the Palac^ of Agriculture ie an exhibit that purports .to represent the colony of New South- Wales, but ft rs merely a private display, and extremely ineffective at that. The most prominent ob--jects ai'e a few, .score ears of maize, a small stand, of bottled beer, and'a single fleece in * glass" ease. The whole thing would be a screaming farce .for any one who knows the resources of ' Australia if it were not an exasperating , and 'humiliating wrong to the Mother. Colony. There, should be no name; 'New Souths, Scales' -on such a booth. It should bear the names simply of the individual exhibitors,, wliqm , alone it , repre,-' ''A joint conference -of --representatives of the" Agricultural Organisation Society of jGfeafc Britain, "thej' Agricultural Organisa-, tion* Society of Ireland, and tlie-Jrish Agricultural \WhoJesale Society, was . held at -Westminster Palace Hotel*, London, on Monday and Tuesdays November ;14-^ancJ -15. TKe' object f oSf'the- conference* was -to "promotejoint, action^ betweere^the/tlrish "arid- -English-; movements.- "A r resolution a jw-as unanimously passed recording the opinion of the conference that" it is most desirable 'to promote in every way "possible joint action between English and Irish agricultural co-operative movemeats.- *_A committee -was appointed to draft a scheme for a trade federation on behalf of the societies affiliated to the Agricultural Organisation Society. The^ American Sheen Breeder for November says: — TJie way eastern wool buyers are corraling western clips on the sheep's backs, half a year ahead of shearing time, leaves something more than an inference that we are close- on to exciting wool markets, and 1 high as are the prices being paid for these it may dawn xvpon the sellers- about about next May or June that their "sure thing" handsome advance over last season's prices, was not a "sure enough" good thing for them after all. The jjEorld is short of wool and likely to be for some 'time, and 20 to 25 cent fleeces in the best of •range flocks next summer will not surprise 'us. -

The executive of the "New Zealand Farmers' Union, in a, circular to the "various branches of the organisation, says: "The Labour party all over,*.- the - Commonwealth has. made^ a" distinct attack tipon-producers, and -here> in> f our^ colonyv,-k party 'has "been :fornve.d and, a platform put forward whiclT is - a menace to the .farming community and opposed to our ■ union. r , The platform declares, -other ' things, for - nationalisation , of the Industries of the colony. " Tile proposal to establish a State bank, etc., implies a ,belief in the efficiency of papermoney to add 'to the wealth of the State. It is -opposed to' the freehold tenure of the soil, and in favour of harassing the State peasantry by 'periodical revaluation.' In the election and constitution of local bodies it advocates .'the dangerous principle ol representation without taxation. It favours the referendum, which would remove all responsibility from our representatives ; advocates the abolition of th© Upper House j .and demands statutory preference to unionists, which strikes at freedom of contract and personal liberty. It is the fear that some of these planks of their platform- may be passed which has caused suoh an unrest amongst the Crown tenants 1 and the desire of many of them to convert their holding into freeholds."