WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 21

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(Froii Our Own Cokeespoxdent.) As yet we have had no rain inside the drought-stricken zone I The d&Sncd in my last, and Weather things are beginning to

assume a very serious aspoet, as even farmers wh«. had provided a fair water supply are now seeing their dams dry, and stock are suffering very much, fOi.- even those who are within driving distance of. a river find that by ihe time stock are driven back along the dusty roads they are ready for another drink. Owners are anxiously watching for a little cloud to appear in the sky, and the first thinglooked for in the paper is Captain Edwin's forecast of the weather, but even when he does manage to report. '"Glass fall : rain probable," as ho has been doing this last day or two, we still appear to <he no nearer rain, and, a-s a weather prophet, I have small hopes of ram while the nights are cold, wiuh heavy dew, and warm sunshine in the daytime. However, we ought to be thankful the area affected is so small; and from all other districts report^ as to stook prospects are very gcod. I met a friend to-night who had just returned from A^&-:, who informs me that after passing Chwvnham, the country appears to get greener, and when the hills are reached the grass is green and very abundant, the settlers not having stock to keep it down. My friend also says he got a great surprise at the progress made. He had not been up there for sonic years, and at that time settlers were just be-ginning to fell the bush, and he had a very poor opinion of their prcspect=. Now all the bush is down, and th© countryside is dotted over with comfortable homes, with orchards and gardens bearing good crops of fruit and vegetables. Land that could have been bought at from £6 to £8 an acre is now selling at from £10 to £15. Blotter mu^t 7>e- given the credit of this advance in value on the small holdings. There is, however, a considerable, extent of country held m fairly large holdings, and that being- very broken, I hardly think it will ever be utilised for dairying. It is good pastoral country, and the advance in price of sheep and wool has lately been drawing the attention of speculators to its capabilities, and there have- been quite a number of sales along the foothills of the Ruahine Ranges. The only drawback to that country is that it is rather high, and sometimes they get a little snow, but on few of the farms as yet occupied does tho snow lie more than a day or two, and it is good healthy country fcr raising sheep. Another disadvantage it has is being so far from a raihray— from 30 to 40 mil*s. It is, consequently, considered by many as being out of the world, the trend all over the world being for people crowding together in towns or th&ir immediate neighbourhood, so that such country is neglected to a certain extent.

I see that a Wanganui =ettler was fined £10 and costs for^ neglecting to ■\oxions destroy blackberries. He Weeds. was a leaseholder. and

pleaded that according to his lease the landlord was liable, but the* B.M. said that by the act the occupier was liable to the State, so that he could not take any notice of any clause in a leate exempting hira fxora liability, but that he might have his remedy at civil law- to recover freni the landloicl. It will be well for lea=eholdeis ro make a note of this judgment, but I do not think there are many «uch leases, as in most that I ha\<* seen the lessee is liable for all breaches of the law, such as the piesenee of noxious weeds, rabbits, etc. lam sorry to say that the blackbeny is the least of our trouble a? legards weeds, for ragwort and the Californian thistle are in evidence all over the country, besides pennyroyal, which also comes under the act; while on agricultural land docks and sorvel are \ory prevalent. There was an alteration in the stock inspectors' districts some time ago, the Palmerston North district being- clivicWl inro two, and now Mr Duncan lvi« been v&^cvod. which he greasy needed by having a laige. slice of cour'-rv cut off f' om him an<l ,ntother district for"m d , with it* hesdmutriers and QjfEce at Fcildiug, undLi- ilac c.h?.r_&e of

_-Mr Miller, so that the inspectors have a little more time to give attention to weeds. "Mr Miller has been serving notices on a laro-e number of farmers to destroy ragwort and Californian thistles, more especially in ' the beds of the rivers, whers the thistle is most abundant; but tios© on the lower reaches of the rivers contend that the seed comes down from the hills, as in the old times they had none of it until the hill country was grassed, and that it is the. unclean se&d that was taken up there that has caused all the mischief. I believe there is a good deal of truth in the contention. To my 'own knowledge, I am sorry to say the thistle and ragwort are too plentiful all over the hills, and the country being so broken and still covered with logs, it is very hard to find them, and even then farmers who are doing their best to cope with the pest find that it is a difficult task to find out every one; and until the logs and rubbish are cleared off I fear it will be impossible to eradicate them. However, time and patient labour work wonders, and if everyone will only put their shoulders to the wheel it can be done. As regards weeds on agricultural land, now is the time to take measures to oombat them ; and the dry weather we are now having will have a good effect if farmers will only embrace the opportunity and help by all means in their power. If it is possible to burn the Btubble, do so by all means, after taking precautions to secure the fire from extending beyond limits, which is easily done by ploughing a few furrows round the boundary of the paddock to- be burned. If tnere is not enough atubble and dry rubbish to carry the fire, a good plan to assist ia to scatter a few loads of straw in forkfuls over the field, and yoke up a team to the -harrows, ■with, a bundle of straw under the harrows, to which put a match, and drive along the windward side of the field, -and it will b© found that the harrows will keep gathering enough stuff to keep up a L oontinuou3 fire under them, so that there will soon be a good face of fire right across the field. If it will not burn, however, the plough should be got to work, skimploughing; but the ploughing should be done whether it is burned or not, as when rain comes the seeds will spring, and so be got rid of before it is desired to plough for a crop. Another matter that I find farmers are not paying as much attention to as they should do— at least those with comparatively olean land — is to see that threshing-mill owners -comply with the clause in the Noxious Weeds Act that proTides that they must thoroughly clean out their mill before leaving one farm to go on to another. The idea might be extended fo as to get the mill cleaned out before leaving a dirty field to go on to another, even if it is on the same farm; in faot, in many instances it would pay farmers _to allow mill owners something extra for doing so. Threshing is proceeding apaoe, the dry weather inducing everyone The to thresh, even before the Hanrest. grain is fit, as after being put in stack I have always |ound that it takes at least six weeks to ret a sweat up and get it thoroughly dry, more especially wheat. I have seen one or • two mill owners this last week, and they ' t&ll me that most of the oats are going < about 40 to 45 bushels to the acre, and one frp of wheat of 16 acres threshed 65 bushels per acre — that xra.s down on the Lower ■ Rangitikei. This is a phenomenal yi&ld anywhere on the west coast of the North Island. I now believe the yield, on the whole will be an average one — tha^ is, reckoning only the area that has been reaped, as there were hundreds of acres thai perished outright or failed so much by vet iaj&e snriwt that owners turned stock i

j on them, so *,hat if the area sown is taken j the 3'ield would be considerably below the average. The falling off in the milk supply is affecting- the value of young pigs, Pigs. and weaners are only worth from 4s to 6s, and good stores are not in such demand as they were a month or two back. A large number of fats are being trucked daily from all stations for the Wellington and Woodville bacon factories. Pigs are now nearly all sent alive, and we seldom see any carcase porlc at a railway station nowadays. I sometimes think there are as many trucks of pigs as - of sheep passing down. The faotory price for good pork is now 3£d per Ib, which is a paying price ; bufc I think it is about time that the price of this commodity was of a more permanent nature. Farmers do not appear to have as yet come to any conclusion as to what price will pay to produce pork, and the fact of the supply being so erratic goes verj- much against the factories being able to work up an export trade. However, I suppose in rhne farmers will settle down to produce a certain number of pigs each year. j ANTIQUA OVIS.