WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 28

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(Fnoii Our Own Coebespondent.) It continues dry and warm, but the heat 1 as liOt been to excea&ive as The it was a wcrk or two ago, Weather. and there ha\e been a lew

partial showers in some district*, whore the favoured ones had a welcome addition of a few more inches of water in their tank 1 . I remember reading many years ago a descnpt.oii of some island in the Atlantic where they have no rivers or any way of conserving water except in tanks, and there a person"? wealth was computed by the uumbei of inches of water 111 his tanks, an inch of water being estimated at so many dollars or shillings, while in a dry season it might even bt> worth pounds. In many of our small towns, where they have no regular water supply, things are beginning to resemble the condition of the inlanders alluded to, as nearly the first question a«ked as to one another's wellbeing is: '"How are you off for water?" I see it reported that in Foxton water was being retailed at a penny a bucket, and there are many othei places where the residen'.s are paying even more than that, while in many cases the quality of the water is for from wholesome. Many of the farmers are in the same predicament as th.3 townspeople in regard to water. In some instances it is the wealthier classes who are the most improvident, and. needless to say. I cannot express any pity for them in their present trouble: but I do pity their stock, and although I have been at variance with the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in that they interfere in matters that they do not understand. I must say they are capable of doing great good in this respect. While on the subject I may say that the society has been greatly improved of late by getting some stook owners on its committees ; and, as a consequence, in most of the- branches you do not see them trying to teach stock owners itheir business, as they used to do. If the inspectors would take a trip round the country at the present time^. they would soon *md cases of cruelty " indeed — such, for example, as seeing a lot of cattle standing over their knees in a liquid which can only be compared to a cesspool, trying to moisten their tongues with the horible stuff, for, needless tc say. it can never quench their thirst. Sheep also are in the same pitiableplight in spme places. The poor sheep has not the lons> legs of the cow. so it has to irnanerso half its body in the filthy me«s in its efforts to reach a drop of cold water to coo' its parched tongue. Many times thej- stand po long; that th<?s* sink deep into the sticky stuff. an 9 are unable- to extricate themselves, and sC many die a miserable death, as owners who are so careless as not to provide a proper water -supply are not very attentive in looking to their mud hqks, and thus miss the opportunity of pulling out ti-«ir stock when they get bogged. T have said that some of these men ace holders of large properties, and by their expensive style of living appear to -have plenty of means. There are also_a few small owners, who are. struggling to kefep their heads above water ;Jbut in my opinion even the poverty-stricken (there are not many in these times of high prices), should for his own financial advantage go without many things until he has secured a water supply. As regards dairymen, water is indispensable, os unless there is an abundance of pure watw. not mud holes, no one can oxpeeb to get milk. There U no reason why watei should be scarce, as there is abundA Water ance of it evervwbere on the Supply. Coast, and there are no farms, even if they have no running streams, but have some depression whe-re a dam could be made or a water hole sunk, or. which is a great deal better, the owner could sink a well. The general mistake in providing a water hole is that it is not made large enough, and after it is made in allowing the stock to have free access to it. It should be fenced in, and some means used of drawing the wate-r from it into troughs outside the fence, so that the stock can have- a clean drink of water, instead of having to wade I through three or more feet of filth to get an equally filthy drink. There are many I methods in which this can be done, and in" Australia any stock owner who al'owed his stock to puddle up his dams would be considered very far from being up to date. Away back, longer than I care to think of at times — about 30 years ago — in the backblocks of the River Darling. I first used hurdles for the purpose, and as we had shee-p only, they acted very well. In some kinds of clay the plan was to set the hurdles all round the dam or tank, as we termed our water hole. The dams were fairly large — come, even in those days, having a capaciay of from 10.000 to 15,000 cubic yards, with a depth of 12ft to 18ft: and there ar.? many larger ones now in Australia that have been given up to the rabbits. The hurdles were set round the tank, leaving only about 6in of water outside, at which the sheep could drink: but they could not get in so as to make it boggy or dirty. The boundary rider or shepherd had to see bis tank' every day. and would shift a certain portion of the hurdle — that is, he had to ■'we that there was sufficient water outsid-e the hurdles, but never more than 6in. In some kinds of clay this answered very well . but in the ca*e of some of thetanks there was a kind of clay which, when it wa« wet, became a regular glue _«£>£, W-© therefore devised another

'clicine — piH up a pormanent fence, and piiiiip- tho Bati'i 1 out into troughs. Wo u-td horse po.wr, uthois v.'iucl pow &i ; but the latti r cannot be uopendccl en without a large, lais.cl rc;><_r\c.r ti> a supply against ralms. There ;ue \ai:ou- other methoc's in a o^ue nowaday?, but it is deemed anecessity that th' -hoop should be kept out of the tanks. c%en if they are not boggy. The mnri 10 13 a social animal, not like the long-woolled breeds of .--hoop. ilerino always keep together m large mobs. so when they come into the water they push hai'd after one another, the leading cheep very often having to swim right across to the other side of the tank", and being unable to get back owing to the pre«~ behind him, so that in a very short time the waior would become so much impregnated with yolk that it would be like cream, and uudrinkable. On this coast there is, fortunately, no necessity to resort to water holes, a* nearly everywhere water ig to be got by sinking, and at a reasonable depth— -?y, 20ft or 30ft. However, even if you have to go 70ft, it is not a big undertaking, and as well water is pure, it is far preferable to that of tho dam, which is really simply a breeding place for all the microbes that infobt aheep ; and while stock drink the srngnaiit water, we can never expect to be fiop irom disease. s=-o I contend that it is to tho of farmeis to get rid of all stagnant water.

Dairymen arc feeling this diy weather very much, and t'.io sup-ply to the Dairying. factories is falling off pon<!K' 1 ?ral:ly. A deal of this is due to insufficient water for bhe cows. No doubt the grass is getting very dry, and tLat has some effect on the shovtness of milk. It has hern dry. a= Mr Fty. who has kept a rain-gauge for many years, reports tlie past February as ha\ ing the lowest rainfall for that month that has been ex perienced for 17 years.

Gi-ain growers should now have the bulk of their stuff in stack, and it The should be a good sample. Harvest. At all events they cannot

blame the weather if there is anything amiss with it. Of^eourse, there are a few very late patches-still to out, Ltit I do not think here will be much sbaniing after this week. Turnips must be badly .n want of a -shower, but I havo not heard i ny complaint to speak of about them so i; r.

Sheep are still booming. When we sec grood breeders' cast-for-age Sheep or cull two-tooth ewes fetohSaleK. ing from 20s to 30s, it show£

that others are waking up to the fact that it pays to breed up to some standard. There is therefore a hope that ! <h& farmers of Xcw Zealand will work out ' their destiny by producing a sufficient numjber of ewes of a definite breed from which lamb breeders can draw to supply the fat lamb trade, as the fat lamb is of no i«e as a breeder. Of course, (fat lambs can be got from purebred stock, but that is not the lamb that is' going to xiphoid the reputation of th© colony in the markets of the world. The Premier, vhen speaking at thr opening of the Feilding show, committed an error of judgment in scoldin 1 ? the farmers Jor not taking his advice and keeping back their ewe lambs. I heard one man say, "Who that knows anything of breeding would think of keeping the first prize pen of lambs to breed from?" And that is what most farmers are beginning to realise — that the crossbred is not the sheep froir which to expect the best results, except as a fat lamb ; and although Mr Seddon knows a. good deal about many things, sheep-breed-ing is not one of them. As an object lessor..as to how sheep are paying their owners. I may mention that a farmer botnaht 50C Rnmnev ewes last year at 14s- per head. After 11 months they had reared him 57C lambs, and clipped lO^lb of wool. He the ewes a month ago at 13s privately, but if they were in the saleyards to-day they would "ifetch 18s. so the wav I estimate this transaction is that h-e just got about £3 a he-ad for their ke^o : so there is nov.onder that slvesp are bringing such phenomena! r>rices. From all accounts prices in the South Island are even higher than they a?e here. I see it "reported to-day that Abrahams and Williams have received an order for 10.00 C breedinsr ewes to fto to the South Island, which tbev are endeavouring to supply. T fancy it vill take «ome trouble to ere* ;h*-. t number of eood sheen, and they will cost I the southern buyer a lot of o*>sh.

ANTIQUA OVIS.