WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

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

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wind and rain still predominate, only the thermometer stands a little The higher, and we have had IVeatker. no return of the blizzards

of a fortnight ago, so vegetation is making a littlo progress. However, everything is very backward), and looking out to-day one wouldi imagine we have mad>e some mistake in the seasons, as it looks more like September than the end of Deoemiber. In ordinary seasons haymaking would, be in full swing 1 , but there is little if any cut as yet, and with the weather we are having it is a blessing the grass is none too ripe. But everyone is looking forward! and hoping that we may get a change for the better after the New Year. Agriculturists are busy getting in their turnips, and they are gaining by the prevailing showery weather 4 as it keepa

the soil in good friable condition, which would not be the case if we had a continuous drying wind, as after the heavy rains \v& have had for so long the mest of the land hereabouts would be in the form of bricks. So, under the circumstances, turnips should , be got in favoured witlh a good seedbed, and if we only gj&£ a spell of good growing weather to .rush them up into the mroad-leaf stage, 'all will be well. She.&D men are worrying away, trying to get their sheep shorn, but there will bo many left to be shorn next year ; so that things pastoral do not look anything too blight, as sheep will not put on flesh while carrying their fleece, and if we get a hard summer", they will have nothing to fall back on.

In fat sheep or lambs there is little or nothirug doing, and from preStock sent appearances it will be Market. some time before there will

be any rush for export, j Store sheep are still selling at outrageous j prices, I consider. Ewes, woolly, with ' lambs at foot, no particular breeding about them, sold at 28s pea- head. Of course, lambs given in — bhat is generally the way ewes and lambs are sold on this jpoast. Woolly hoggets brought up to 18s. There is little doubt that the high price of wool is answerable to a great extent for the excitement theo>e is in the store-" 1 sheep market; but I would- like to again caution, farmers against placing too much confidence^ in the wool market. There is no- stability in the wool market, and never has been : at least that is my experience, and that now extends to upwards of 49 years. The best-informed' men in the trade cannot give any sufficient reason for- the high prices nowruling, and more especially ( for crossbred wool. I do not think I ever saw meriDO and " crossbred wool so near togethei in j price ,as. now ; yet from a statistical point j of view they should be wider apart thanj ever before. I suppose one reason for ' the present "all the same priea" market is t tho great improvement in machinery, ,so j that the manufacturer can produce from the : coarse wool a piece of cloth or fabric with' so much better an appearance than could be done formerly with the old machines. A' further reason is, no doubt, that the pre- : sent-day merchants can, in this keen age, foist on the public, and a&aolutely compel , I them to take it, a much inferior article if | they can only afford to' sell it at a very i i much less cost than another article that is I I worth 50 per cent, more to the purchaser, \ taking into consideration the extra durability but, still, that does not altogether account for the high price of coarse wools. Fashion, ! I stippose, has really more to do with it ' than anything else, and we all J fashion is as unstable as water : ' no -one can foretell what ■it may- be six months hence. Then comes the' report from the Argentine that they have got an insect that is playing havoc with the , wool on the sheep's baciks^ , It. is a curious thing, but I have noticed for ""years that when $here is any material alteration' in v the wool or meat market, Argentina; always 1 has to say-- in,-, the 'matter. • "I 1 .should very much like to .-know, the -true." staMre of affairs in that part of ,tKe i world. ''Tne^ 'accounts"!" have' read and. the chats j I- have had wifch men whb^' have been \there- , are" "so" conflicting ="that I -at, least cannot come ito any- conclusion ■ as^. to what" the country -is "capable ,of ,producing,^>r';is .-likely/ to. ■-. Some . tellr-us / tfiej^ are, "likely - -to' v WusK 'New -"Zealand A '"withVth_eir '. mutton, and lamb"; -I can .only -say,', .lite the poet, "It ' might .- be, ' just so; I dunno ; - just so, it might be. agin " But one/ thing I do know is j that New Zealand has every reason to f e«ar [ Australian oompetitionljn lamb,- as I haVe tried to,, impress on farmers here. So that there is great risk in buying stoire sheep at present prices, jaa a? slump is almost, sure J to come sooner or later.

As regards cattle, every one appears to have lost all faith in the market, Cattle. ajid beef is very plentiful;

and' has dropped- three or four shillings 'per cwt the last few weeks, and is now onjy worth about J.6s to 17s per 1001b on the farm. Store cattle are falling just as much,. if not more, in sympathy with fats. But the usual- rulo ifl being followed: when one article 5s dear everyone wante -it, and so rushes it up past its legitimate value. Thus, everyone wants sheep, and store cattle" are hard to- quit at almost any price. ' One farmer said 'to me at a recent sale that ' he x felt inclined to sell his sheep and stock up with " cattle ; but as -he has about* one of .the best in the district, I not to. Fo.r any cue. having a- suitable farm for.- calf le,"-andr j having only an •inferior flook of nondescript' owes, I don't know but -what it w.ould ; be> advisable tosell,\as probably in a short time' he will be' able" to' stock up again "with- a"better flock, and at very considerably less j cost. Another advantage "would be that he wouldi improve his. pasture. -as there is little doubt thit muoh _of our best grazing land does get sheep sick, and .also cattle and ' horse sick, although many farmers laugh at the idea. Of course, lam now waiting of permanent pasture^ — that is, land that it is not possible to plough or renew the grass in a-ny way. ' I remember many y€<ars ago that I had what I considered j absolute proof of land getting horse sick. I In the old days in Australia the horse paddock was by many kept sacred from the hoofs of sheep, but after a time I found that our horses did) better out in the sheep paddocks, although the feed! was apparently tar better in c^e horse paddock; "so we fenced in another paddock for Jhe horses, and used the old horse paddock as a mustering paddock v/hen doing anything with sheep about the home station. After a, oouple of years the old paddock recovered itself, ajnd was as good as, if not better than, when we first took it up. Of course in new country the soil is very loose, and after "being stocked with sheep it improves — if not too heavily stocked — a fact which may have accounted for the sheep improving the horse paddock. I remember reading some years ago an article in the Field on land getting horse sick in some part of England, which substantiated the theory of land getting horse sick. Thus anyone with an inferior flock of sheep might do worse than sell tliem off and stock up wibh cattle, as under present market conditions they can hardly stand to lose much, and may gain very considerably, both directly aoid indirectly.

The local health officer at Feilding seized , some imported new potatoes, Potatoes. presumably from Auckland, 30 per cent, of which were diseased, and we must; give the Government credit for once " having acted with promptitude in thf iuterests of the farmers. |

It is to be hoped that inspectors up nortK will thoroughly inspect every parcel of potatoes offered for shipment. The safest plan wotild be to stop all potatoes leaving; Auckland for this season; and if it ran be proved that any growers have suffered, allow them some compensation. We can never pay "too high a price -to secure freedom from any disease, whatever .form, ifc may take. • :~": ~"

The editor has asked me to deal with thia method of preserving fodEnsilage. der, and as the weather is so unfavourable for haymaking, I shall deal shortly with the subject this week, but wilt go more into the matter next week. There are two ways of making ensilage — the stack system and the pit ; and there are also variations of the two systems, but for, those who are now being driven to try en-silage-making by the weather, and therefore have made no preparation by way of erecting silos, the only way to get to | work at once is to try the stack system. And, after all, I believe it is the best, and! certainly the cheapest. There are novr many thousands of tons being made all ,oy&r Australia, and more especially in thei Riverina country of -New South Wales, by the stack system. There is nothing wanted! to make stack ensilage but what can bo found on any farm. The greatest difficulty is for the old-time farmer \to get rid of his conservativ-eness, as it looks more like as if it were intended to make a heap, of manur. than to mate fodder. The stuff -intended for making ensilage should not be' too ripe ; whether it- is grass, z grain, or ev&n thistles, the seeds should be in the milky, stage. The way stacks are made in; Australia is to form a bottom for the stack in the ordinary way done for a hay stack, placing it on a piece of high ground, 'and • j digging a trenoh round the stack when finished, so as fo" take all surface water I away. The stuff is cut and then carted }in at once- in the green state. The best^ I plan ' is to use carts without' frames, or at | least with such that oafn be- tipped up to ' 6ave the labour of forking __it off. -*The carts leave the ends of s'tac^' sloping, so thafc v a team might be driven right on to the stack, as the more treading it gets the better. So keep carting- on to the stack until it gets about Bft or 10ft high. It is better then to leave it far a few N days j until it begins, to heat, and go down, then | cart, more stuff on. always watching that 1 the - heat dees not increase to too great' an extent. A rough and ready way to test ' it is' to put a fork handle 1 ' in, and by pulling , it out, you can -guess near enough what the ! heat is. From 90d©g to lOOdeg is oon- ; sidered about as high as it , should *be ali lowed to register. A better plan, and a sure -is to stand a length of piping-* up in the centre of- the" stack, and then a th&rmoritetef may be lowered down hv a piece of string, and thus it can be told exactly what the heat is.' ''On small farms, where the -stack is necessarily small, to save waste, after the stack has settled a bit," go. round and either 1 pull ' the ' walls " until they^aTO >hard,~_6r cut a foot or, two of, ihe-' loose stuff off, J and fort "it up 'oa t0p.., : ■> By so there will be^ very'flitrlef Tyaste:.- -The .maker may keep adding.' on to I the "height of the "stack indefinitely. " Inj t . Australia, when they make laige quantities, • they ' hay* two or more stacks going, up,, -so ' +hat ;\vhile- one dispraising _'the necessary -heat' -andijsettling^.down', -.they, are'; workings at the*-, otheiv" and"^as' -grass is 'njqre 1 ' plentiful- there Iffiiain" anything else, , they do. nbjj. itrouble tb -weight 'the. tops of the-6taet,"Jbut jugfc . let the top go to waste. _"Vfery often the waste is not much-^-only a. foot or two on the top ; , but where it is desired to save every bit of ,foddejr it is necessary to place eon]>9 boards or rough dunnage on the- top, and weight either with stones or bags of, j earth or sand. If boards "are used lay » them across the stack so' thaf'when it is, necessary to use the fodder it will be only . necessary to remove" one or , two at a timej. j just enough to cut a small truss out, the ' same as out of a. hay stack. .

The remarks I have made are more suited for the urgency o£_.the season, bufe one, ,of our oldest -dairymen — and -I ,may add also; the . most . progressive — has beep using ensilage, in preference to hay for his cows for some years. "He has everything as near perfection -as it is possible on a dairy farm, and his opinion on^ matters agri-^ cultural or, dairying is taken as .an .aiitho-* rity by\ farmers all along' the Coast from Palmerston to New Plymouth. He hassm, silo -erected in connection with his milking shed: . The milking shed is a model of utility and convenience, and, let me add, cleanliness. -The cows are all fed in the shed,', sic - that the 'silo 'is really' part' of -the^shed, and* rday^be" described ''as 'a large, .room or box. He mostly grows maize for, the purpose of "■making' ensilage, as'he/odn-, siders a larger bulk is obtainable, from thai; . than from any other grain', and tWt t ifc is also better for the- -production-^ of , ; ,milk. • He also uses a large quantity of mangels as fodder. His method of mating "his ensilage_ is to cut the maize just when ~th9 corn is in the milky stage. .By so 'doings the value of the fodder is at its test, the' nutriment being evenly distributed all through the stalk or cane; for «if the corn is allowed to ripen the stalks are only so much woody fibre. He carts the stuff j direct from ihe # mowing machine to the silo, where he has a chaff-cutter with ele- ' vator attached, which raises the cut maize or chaff right over the wall of the silo. There is a man in the silo spreading th» chaff evenly all over as it comes in, and! keeping it trodden down and level. 1 hope to be aible to give the exact dimensions! and quantity of fodder ;hat it holds, so that I can give an exact estimate to any one thinking_of erecting one. At time of writing I have not got them by me, and cannot trust my memory when it comes to figures. I hope these hurried remrks may be of some use in the meantime, as it is mail time" for next week's Witness. I " ANTIQUA OVIS.