AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The potato disease (says a contemporary) has taker, a, firm hold of the crops now j growing in South Canterbury from ihe ! Ra-ngitata to Timaru and further south. At Timaru practically all the crops are ' severely affected. At Waimato they are i only beginning to show the black spot on the leaf, and it is hoped that spraying may j save the potatoes. It now appear^, that I the disease was in the Tiinsru district lc.se year, but was not recognised, some persons saying that they lost their crops m the same way lasb 3'ear, and put it down to i "blight" in a general way. Others found ! that potatoes kept very badly m the pit. ! One man tell=s of purchasing and pitting i tlfrce tons, and \\as not able to u^-o ai.y of them, they retted so quickly and so completely, and he now suspects thai the Iri-h i blight was at the bottom of tho minchicf. Mr Huddlestone, of the Stock Department, i who has been round urging 1 the principal ' growers to spray, suggests that a few •warm, muggy dayo about February 16 and 17 supplied the favourable conditions for tho I rapid development of the germs. The average city man is not "up" in the matter of manual labour, and has crude ideas regarding the amount of sweat in-

volved in agricultural pursuits. The other day (says Truth s Wellington correspondent) a citizen advertised for tenders for grubbing 20 acres of gorse, and received a shoal of replies, the prices asked for ranging- from £485 to £8! iie accepted the £8 tender, and the two young men who sent it in called on him,, armed themselves with g-rubbers. and set" out to slay the gorse in short order. The owner of the land said £3 was an absurd price, and that he would give them £20. Accordingly they set to work one morning, and in tho afternoon called on the owner and annouced that they had blisters on their bands, and that they would not grub the goree for £100,000. They are not hankering after agricultural pursuits any longer. The s.s. Hawea brought 3100 sheep from Napier, and landed them at Lyttelton on Saturday afternoon. The Government has decided to send Mr Laurie, the bone steriliser, lo Syduey to supervise the shipping of bonedust to this colony from that port. The proposed shipment of apples to England under the Government guarantee of Id per 1b net will probably take place next month by the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Rakaia. The Auckland arrangements are in the hands of the pomologist, Mr W. A. Boucher, who anticipates that possibly half a chamber load of apples may be collected in the noith, leaving the rest of the- chamber to be filled by southern growers. It is nor yet eoitain if the vessel will call at Lyttelton, where the southern consignment is to be collected, and until that is known arrangements cauuot be regarded as definitely settled. A Wanganui dairyman has been severely fined Tor failing to remove a manure heap from the vicinity of his milking-shed after receiving notice to do so. The Bluecliffs Run. of 17.0C0 acres, -.\as to have been again submitted to auction at Timaru on Tuesday, but no buyers attended, and consequently the run was iiot put up. This ru.i was held by Mr R. H. Rhodes up to two years ago, and the Government has been unable to re-let it since, though it has reduced tho ups&t rental in the meantime from £400 to £250. and the valuation for improvements from £356 to x.324-. While ploughing a paddock Mr G. Lawcook, a Walton settler (Auckland), had an exciting experience. He and his team of five horses were attacked by a swarm of bees, having evidently turned over a thistle which the swarm had taken possession of. The driver and his horses were badly stung. The Palmerston branch of the Farmers' Union had under consideration at its meeting on Saturday last the question of the insurance of mill hands. Mr Maeleod said that since last meeting he had interviewed the Dunedin manager of one of the leading accident insurance companies, and had been informed that the scheme, wherein it was proposed that the mill-owner should take out a policy covering- hie mill hands for the sea-son, was impracticable. Under the Employers' Liability Act the farmer was directly liable for any accidents that might occur to his workmen, and a general policy issued to a mill-owner would not indemnify a farmer against a claim made by his employee. The Chairman pointed out that under the Employee' Liability Act the farmer was liable in the event of the miilowner or his assistant meeting with an accident. He had been legally advised on that point, and he Avould advise every farmer to see that the mill-owner and his " feeder " were insured before allowing the mill into the farm. After further discussion the matter dropped, the mill-owners present undertaking to inquire into the matter of insuring themselv-es and the assistants actually employed by them. JThe Timaru Herald states that growers of potatoes in tho Scadown district are busily engaged spraying their potato crop 5 " in order to destroy the Irish potato disease. "Very large numbers of sheep have be-^n arriving at Lyttelton durinpr the past few weoks, over 1000 being landed there from Nelson on Tuesday last. Similarly large consignments are reported as arriving from Wellington and other places. According to a paragraph appearing in a recent issue of the Nelson Colonist Mr -7. E. Bartlett, of Apploby, sold the whole of his barley crop at 4s per buUicl. Other crops have been sold at similar prices. At Mr Stead's farm. Coringa, Canterbury, 87 bushels of oats have been threshed to the aero, the vheat yield being 55 bushels per acre. Spraying, says Mr Eirk, must henceforth be a regular item ;n the- cultivation of potatoes in New Zealand, as it is in a great part of Ireland and in part.-, of America. Tho lonic took from Wellington for London, 4-4,031 boves of butter and 5594 ot -ohpe-e. There, arc two steamers yet to sail — the Rimutaka and Athcnic — before the season'-^ shipments close. Reports from the dairying- districts show that ths weather continues very dry, and supplies of milJ» aie clocirawns-. At ihe lot a' yards on Tuesday (says the Ashburton "Maw) much interest centred in a line of fchorn lambs from North Canterbury. Some few vcars ago several farmers in this county experimented in shearing their lambs, but in the majority of cas<™3 the weather conditions were not favourable, and as a result the practice is seldom if ever adopted. Tho lino of lambs in question were sold at 14s 7d, and with a few week's good feeding should amply reway the purchaser. Lambs are extensively shorn in the north of this island and throughout the North Island, and it is asserted that the

operation has only a, very small deteriorating effect on the iollowin.g year's clip. The .innual draft of cull and aged ewes from Mr Charles Lewis's Shropshire flock v>ab solj at Addington Yards, the buyer of the whole being Mr D. Cant, JSotuhbridge. The pricss were — 23 two-tooths at 355, five four-tooths at 375, 14 six-tooths at 30s, six ei<rht-boo- L hs at 265, and 19 full and failing mouth at 27?.

The Pastoralists' Review of February 15 writes: — The Xew South Wales stock ieturns, showing an ircrease of sheep during1934 from 28.600,000 to 32,400,000, give an idea of what is happening all round The advrrce in. 1903 was from 26.600,000 to 28.600,000, or just two millions, against 3,800,000 in 1904, so that with fair luck we may expect 38 millions o? sheep in New Scuth Wales by the end of this year. Attention is being turned to the profitableness of the lamb export trade, and a considerable development in that dneetion may be expected throughout Australia, whilst the use of fertilisers has made an immense difference in the prospects of the wheat grower Tho'igh there are few or no outward signs of prosperity visible. Australia has made a good step forward in 1904, increasing her exports by se-\en and threequarter millions sterling, and there is every reason to belies e that 1905 will show onsiderahle further progress.

Lord Rothschild (says the- Rural World for January) has issued some exceedingly interesting- tables and other details concerning the milk yields of his Jersaj-, redpoll, and shorthorn herds for the y<-ar tTiding September 24, 1904. The Jersey, of course, is mainly a butter-maker, and might be much more extensively used for that purpose than it is. The red-poll is an East Anglian breed of cattle, which is a splendid r-eof-maker, and which, iv these animals of the breed bred for milking purpoces, gives aJso a. splendid yield of milk. The shorthorn, however, is the breed most generally kept by farmers in our part of the country, and. indeed, by far the- greater number of districts of England ; and we therefore note that of the 4-0 cows of which particulars are given, the amount of milk obtained during the year was 254,4811b, or, on the average, 63611b. To put it in plain English, the yield is, reckoning 101b of milk tj the gallon (the u&ua] figure), 636gaJ of milk per cow for the year. We observe that the lowest yield; of any cow was 405ga1 : the cow in this case having calved thrico, whilst a cow which gave the largest yield gave no less than 1060 gal of milk during the year, and this after her sixth calf. Lord Rothschild, it will be seen, from the splendid average- yield, has a magnificent shorthorn herd ; and he is to be congratulated upon the evident interest which h.5 disp'ays in keeping it up to such a high standard.

At a recent meeting of tho English Oxford Down Sheep Breeders' Association the council *aid it was gratifying to note that n-ore shpop were being sent to America, Russ a, France, South Africa. Germany, Holland. Spain, and Xew Zealand than in the pa»t and also that the breed is fas* ii'cr^asing m popularity in the north of England and in Scotland.

Air Carl A. Andor-son. the Lead expert for Au--trala»ia of the Crown Cream Separator Company. Limited, is on a visit to Christchurch (-ays Friday's Lyttelton limes), and proposes to remain here t:li licit week. The company which Air Ander*.pon represents belongs to Stockholm, in Sweden, where it i^, famous among tl c dairy farmeis of a country v.ho^c butler industry '= as^uiri'ii; lavge dimension?. Yesteiday morning Mr Andersson visited the Central Dairy Factory at Addington, and, after inspecting it thoroughly, expressed his great pleasure with what ho had seen. He is of opinion ihat New Zealand butter iei c as good as any imported into Great Britain, and he believes that it will soon ho recognised as at lea»t on an equality with that, of any other country. Tho Waimatc correspondent of the Oamaru Alail wrifc<-s : — It having been reported that the potato blight "or disease had appeared in the neighbourhood of Wai-mat-e, Air Kirk visited the district on the 2nd in<.t. with the object of inspecting the growing crops of potatoes, on different farms near Waimato.— The weather during the last £\o dnyr, has been unfavourable for harvest work, showers occurring frequently, the intervals between being calm, with a damp atmosphere, making stooks and standing crops too wet for work. On Thursday afternoon the weather appeared to make that improvement so desirable, as the grain crops are ready for cutting over a largo area of country.

Farmers are somewhat disconcerted ro*!i ecting- the oontimianco of th-o rain, and aro confident lhat, if the weather doe=> not soon take up, the wheat m stook muot be necessarily mu:li damaged (says the Ashburton (Juardian). It is fortunate, under tho (ircjiii-tanc I',1 ', that a cold wind i^ accompanying tho ram, as otherwise- the grain ovpe-^r 1 to tho wet in tho stook would have yhovrn c\ ldenoe of sprouting before now. Hai\esting and threshing 1 operations will be suspended for fully a week after tho weather takes up.

The finances of the Highland and Agricultural Society are in a very satisfactory si ate. Its invested funds amount to £99,135 10s Bd, and when valuation of property and books is added to this, the total amount is £105,14-4- 2s 6d The revenue for 19031904 was £14-, 333 19s 3d', and the expenditure £12,689 18s lid, showing a balance of

receipts of £1644 0s 4d. The outlay fof salaries and wages was £1472, and for property charge*, feu duty, taxes, etc., £279 5s Bd— or a total for establishment of £1751 5s Bd.

The ree-ont unfavourable weather lias much retarded the grass-seeding operations on Banks Peninsula. Hundreds of lags of seed, i f , :s: s stated, will neVer be got in. One grower, who estimated lhat his seed would run-at least 7 3ilb, v.aj disappointed at finding that, owing to the weather, ifa culy ra.n about 101b.

An English journa' on Iri^h creameries: "The remarkable thins, is that Irish dairy farmers kor-p those establishments (creameries) going much better than we English, end that. I assume, is partly owing to the more lightly-rented land and cheaper labour." Commenting on these remarks, the Dublin Farmers' Gazette says: This is not an extract from the ' Arabian Nights," but from a prominent English conteniporxry—ramely, 'The Profitable Farm and Garden.' It is to be feared lhat the solution lies somewhere else than in the 'cheap land.' and 'cheap labour.' The writer, it is to be feared, has not been thoroughly acquainted with the history of the dairying industry iv Ireland and the conditions applying to the different provinces. It would scarcely be within the knowledge of the correspondent in question that while England's rural population was Socking to the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and! Yorkshire, the Irish peasant farmer was being educated as to the best means o£ helping- himself, -which proved to be the application of modern dairy science to the production oi milk, and the manufacture of butter, a matter which our friends across the channel would seem to have neglected, judging from the following extract from. the same writer: — 'If machinery could be made- to more- and more supersede handwork it would be a step in the right direction. . . . then perhaps a good step would be to comert more lands into dairy, grounds, so that more cows could be kept, even enough to keep more creameries going.' After such an admission it seems ridiculous to draw a comparison si all between, Irish and English dairying '" With reference to tho respecri-. c merits of sulphate and nitratf, in tho January i=sue of the Agricultural Students' Gazette (edited by tho students at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, England), Mr Edward Kmch, professor of agricultural chemistry at that college, gives a- report of the hay crop yields on the different plots which have been continuously treated with the same manures for the last 15 years. The highest yield (40ewt) was obtained frojn, the plot treated with farmyard manure. The next highest j-iekl (38£cwt) was obtained from the. plot continuously treated with a mixture of kainifr, superphosphate, and sulphate of ammonia, the yield on this plot being closely followed by "that on the plot which had got the same amount of kainit and superphosphate, but which got its nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda, ihe yield on tho Jatter plot being 38cwt. On this point the professor says: "The grass on tho plot receiving einercals [kainifc and superphosphate] and ammonium salts was of better quality than that receiving cinereal* and nitrate of soda. This year, ammonium =ulphate in conjunction with other mineral manure? gave generally rather higher results than sodium nitrate under like condition?, and when these nitrogenous manures were used alone the ammonia salt gave much better results than the nitrate."

It is general*- understood (says the Mark Lane Express of January 9) that there must naturally be a rise after one has fairly touched the bottom, and the one dismal wail for some years past amongst farmers has been the ruinous price of corn. With) wheat at 25* a quarter and less how couki oorn-gi-owiiig pay? How could it. indeed! It would need the subtle- ingenuity of a magician to supply a satisfactory answer. But now Yi hat do we hear? Ever since the autumn who.it has =old steadily at an average prior, of o^er 30$ a quarter-, and the acivsnee for the rear is roughly estimated at 4s a quarte*. Surely this looks brighter, end if you add to it tho optimistic view*? of those who are qualified to f poak of tho genera! outlook, there arc* oood rea>on-» to tl.ink Ih.it farming has had a turn for the. Letter. Tho effect of the improvement i=s alreadr bring felt, for we am told that more land vas sown drwn with wheat in tho autumn of 1904 than for many years pat>t. There i- a r:ng of chcei fulness about these statements, becai -,c if more corn i? giown it will have to be gicund. and the milling- trade, which has suffered vn account of tho I©\t prices of giain, will surely l^ok up .igam. Pessimists have shaken their heads ajid caul 1 tl.afc oorn-arowingj would never again ho any good in this country, but we should not like to think that ; for, after all, it is one of our main agricultural indu-.trio«, and it is heartrending to men -who reali-,0 this tr> rpo acres of fine corn-growing lane? lad down 1o gra-s or teino- utilised) for crops which hardly paid better than, corn, c-i -n at jt* lowest price. Let us hora

Raters of Poultry should use Xiuiro ans. i>LAXR s Game anb Potjltet Meal, which composed of the best ground bones and shellsi specially prepared to meet the requirements o~> the fast-increasing poultry industry. It is made up jn Mlb bags, at Is 9d each, /^k your storekeeper Jor it.

ihe improvement will not only he mainlined, but increase, and this being so, (British agriculture will enjoy a brighter jera. The local paper states that harvesting is mow pretty well in full swing in the Tokojnairiro district. The Free Press contradicts the statement 'that the local Chinese market gardener has ihad his entire potato crop destroyed by the /■lrish potato disease. All that has occurred as that the shaws of the tubers have .withered, just as. they do when the tubei-s are dead ripe, but the tubers themselves Shave not been affected. The withering of the shaws is attributed to the changeable Beason.

The crons on Mataura Island and on to the Fortrose district are looking well and are forward. Round about Fortrose cutting has t:oinmeneed, and will be general in a few "days. The recent showers have had a beneficial effect on the turnip ciops, though more rain is required for tlieuu

JJK. Si B. U. L. S H. U. 'o vakie of live and dead stock and growing crops at June 30 Sheep bought diiring the year 150 10 0 Rams bought .... 20 0 0 Pigs bought 12 15 6 Seeds bought .. .. 15 0 0 Manures bought.. .. 32 12 0 1000 0 0 2?.0 17 6 Grain grown and used' on farm 103 6 0 Mutton grown and used on farm . . . . 10 0 0 113 6 0 Blacksmith's acount 11 0 0 Saddler's account .. 9 o'o Implements bought . 19 10 0 Rent (50 acres) . . 2^l 0 0 Rates and .taxes .... 11 0 O Labour „ .. .. 120 0 0 Sundries 25 12 6 Balance to profit .. 28S 14 0 755 16 6 2100 0 0 > Cr. >y cattle sold .... 30 0 0 Sheep sold 200 10 0 Pigs sold .. .. .. 20 0 0 Poultry sold .. .. 6 2 3 Wool sold .» .. .. 90 0 0 Wheat sold 200 0 0 Oats and barley sold.. 50 0 0 596 12 3 Grain and mutton used on f arm Straw and hay on hand Goodwill of lease Value of live and dead stock and growing 113 0 0 50 0 0 75 10 0 crops ,t, t .. 1264 17 9 £2100 0 0