AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2744, 17 October 1906, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

A timely instance of the class of wool that is sometimes sent down to Wellington, was brought under the notice of the Wool Fires Commissioners on the 9th. A message was received on the previous evening by the president (Dr A. M'Arthur, S.M.) from the railway traffic superintendent to the effect that two heated bales of wool had arrived at the Go\erninent station from up-country. The three commissionets inspected the wool on Tuesday morning. It was not new, but evidently the recoveries after cleaning up a shed preparatory to shearing. The bales (part of a consignment of five) consisted of lock 9, with & quantity of dags. They were piping hot, smoking very bad'.y, and et-eaming. One> bale was very much worse than the other. Both r.ere purchased by the commissioners, who had them dumped and sent- out to Petone to be utili&ed in the experiments being made there. It is fair (says the NewZealand Times) to State that this wool would not have been put aboard ship. Ifc was stuff that would be unpacked, recondi* tioned, and re-baled before being shipped. It is understood that the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. R. M'Nab) has determined to make the information possessed by his department more generally and promptly available to farmers and other* than has hitherto been possible with the limited staff and the enormous volume o£ work which now devohos upon them. Th© is-ue of bulletins and leaflets will be increased, and the establishment of a monthly journal is contemplated. As editor of tb.3 various publications. Mr George Bkeet, of Chrktchurch, has been appointed, and hai entered upon his duties. Mr Bisset is weil known in agricultural and journalistic cire'es throughout New Zealand, having been for about 14 years agricultural editor of the Canterbury Times. He has been for upwfcrds of 20 years Canterbury agricultural correspondent of the 0ta 3 o Witness, a, portion which also he has now to vacate. \ very fine buil-Bope, of the Aberdeen \n«ui, breed-was shipped on Friday by the « s.Taiawcra from the not?d herd at Gladbrook, Middlemarch, to the order of Mr John Chanibera, Motopeka. Trns is an exceptionally well-bred animal: ho is out of the Erica cow Abbess and by the unbeaten Sabina bull Engineer. Abbess is out of the imported cow Eclypta, and w «irrd by the champion bull Lancer pi Advie, whose dam was a Highland Society champion/ Engineer "has been stud bull at Gladbrook for two years, and has l«tfc many prize-winnors. Last year at the. Otago A. and P. Society's show his progeny won first and second prizes in yearlin" bulls, and also first and second m yearling heifers. He has won many prizes himself : was first at Dunedin in 1902, fir-t in 1903, first in 1904, and first ami champion in 1905. Hope is a bull of very nice quality. He was shown in Dunedin la<-t year as a yearling and was placed second. He is the real type of a bleeders bull and with a fair chance will make a name for himself m the north, and wi 1 also maintain tho reputation of the wellknown Gladbrook polled Angus herd. We learn (says the North British Agriculturist) that Mr Ross, of Kartigi, Otago, New Zealand, who is at present on a tour through his native land in search of the best Border Leicester sheep obtainable, has already completed s-eyeral important purchases. At Mortoun Mr Ross had his pick of Lord Pulwarth/s sneafling rams, and he purchased the two which he conBidered the best ones. At the same tim« Mr Gemmell, Oamaru, New Zealand who accompanied Mr Ross on his visit to Mertoun, bouaht from Lord Polwarth another very superior shearling ram. Mr Ross has also purchased two beautiful jriznmers from Iho Leaston flock of Messrs J. and J. R. C Smith. One of the two Galalaw gim-

The special Gabdkic Feuttlisir made vp by Kimmo akd Blai» will be found to give ex. cellent results when used for Flowers and Vegetables; also tor Pot Plants, in and out of preenhtrose. It i« put up in 71b bag*, *t li 44 • cacfc, Ask tout ftezekceptr for it.

mers purchased by Mr Ross was one of the Messrs Smith's -first prize group at the Northumberland show, and was champion of the breed at the Border Union show.

As offering' an indication of the desire of English firms to handle New Zealand cheese, the PahiaEua Herald states that the Nireaha. Co-operative Cheese Company lias been apprised that if ite output this season exceeds 100 tons the Home firm handling it will refund exchange and other similar charges, practically a bonus of over £30.

The results of milking six cows at Levin j State Farm have been published. Taking i butter-fat at 10£ d per lb and skim-milk at ; id per gallon, two Holsteins come easily ' first with returns of £21 16s lid and £19 48 7d. The other four cows were shorthorn- ' cross, one of which produced £18 17s 6d, t *nd the other three from £16 6s to £16 19s. . Tho best cows gave 4501b butter-fat, and the worst 3371b. The ordinary farmer's cow gives about 1801b during the season. i The growers of — early potatoes in the ' . Eltham district have had the mortification of seeing their most promising crops badly damaged by the sharp frosts. j The blight is in the potatoes at Otaki. The destruction of the locusts in South Africa seems to be an impossible task, owing to the ignorance of the small Dutch ■ farmer, who refuses to destroy the pest, believing it is an " act of God," and mat, therefore, he has no right to interfere,—further than driving :he locusts off his small patch of oats. The Steward Settlement does not appear , to be flourishing under the prevailing -weather conditions, for feed wears a burnt- . up appearance such as one would hardly expect to meet with in the spring. If the present 'dry weather continues (says the Oanuuru Mail) -the .settlers' first season op the estate will be an anxious one. It is confidently anticipated-that the present season. will see a lambing record established ! throughout the colony, and many of the • returns to hand are quite phenomenal. - In ( North Otago and South Canterbirry such . yields as 175 per cent, for small flocks are . considered not extravagant. Mr W. Nieoison, chairman of directors of the Taieri and Peninsula ililk Supply i Company, informs the Palmerston Time«s ] that the company's turnovf- 'm- the financial year iust closed* was £2^,574 — an in- ; crease of £40.000 on the turnover recorded , in the previous year. The discovery of a pipless apple tree by a Maori in the Maungaharuru Range is reported. A correspondent of the Lancet has come to the conclusicn that, however savoury •well-cooked foreign meat may be, its nutritional value is very low in proportion to the price charged for it. He has seen i in different parts of Now Zealand the whole ' process of preparation of mutton and lamb for tho English market, and has nothing T>ut admiration for the care with which theprocess is carried oat. There ie no question of suspicion as to cleanliness or purity ' or careless inspection. It is a ouestion of comparative nutritive value of the meat ■When placod on the table, and he doubts whether the quality of the lnut.ton when fresh is equal to that of home-fed mutton. Much of the gra^-s is grown from English , sesd. but it has not the tame appearance as English gras=. It looks ranker and ccarser. as if it had grown to quantity rather than quality, and to be deficient in chlorophyll, whatever that may imply. ; Then, he argue 3, the freezing proc-ss greatly diminishes tl.e nutritive value of tho meat, and renders its fibre less digestible. Whether this process acts in this way continuously during the long period cf transit to this country he is unable to say. but. he thinks it is quite possible. He believes tibe further diminution in nutritive value , during tho process of thawing to lie encr- j mons, and that this process is not properly understood and seldom propeily cairied out. liastly. it is well known that e\cn tho bc=t Jiome-bred and fed mutton lc-.es considerably and inevitably in nutritional value in oooking. He thinks that in the case of meat which has been frozen, perhaps for months, and thawed in a few hour*, the nutritional loss sustained in tho cooking process is likely to Ye proportionately much greater. He therefore beleve=, that by the time the meat loaches the table its value as nutriment is low compared with that of fresh English mutton, and dc>« not repi*'sent the value at which it is sold. I may point cut (writes the London correspondent of the Daily Time*) that tlm question of the nutritiousnos^ of New Zealand re- , frigerated meat was definitely settled eomo Vfars ago by special experiments at a London liospita!, w r hen it wj*> conclusively shown thfct the meat lost none of its nutritivequalities by undergoing the freezing proccs-.™ and that, pound for pound, it was actually ; more nutritive than the best British fresh j meat. I Flic following are t!i2 returns for tho Asbburton abattoir for September -.—Cattle slaughtered, 9*; .partially condemned, 1: pigs slaughtered, 61; partially condemned, 1; sheep slaughtered, 672; wholly condemned, 2. The annual horse parade at Waimato took pla^e at the Waimate A. «nd P. Asociation Ground on the 6th inst.. and th« att2ndance was good, over £5 beiny taken at the gates under a new rule of charging Is for admieeion to all not being members of the association. Mr .T. W. Hayjs, t.ho president of the a-.=ceiation, Messrs Mitch?ll and Freeman (marshal-). and Messrs Orbell and Hunter (stewards) supervised the proceedings. Twelve draught

entire?, four thoroughbreds, and cne trotting stallion were paraded. The entries were not so full as on some previous occasions, but there were come good horses among them, particularly Mr Dalgleish'j Dalmuir Prince, Mr Mitchell's Allandalc, Crown Tenant, Seafield Prince, etc. Of the four entries in the thoroughbreds, Mr TJ. Thynne's Castashore attracted most attention, and Mr J. O'Brien's beautiful trotting stallion Lieuj tenant J., whose action and style was so much admired, is Mr O'Brien's no longer, for he was admired by Mr J. W. Freeman (of Waiinate) to the purchasing point of 250 guineas and was bought at that figure. The weather was gloriously fine. Perfect weather yesterday (says last Thursday's Christchurch Press) drew a large attendance to the sixth annual show cf the Amberley Breeders' Association. The gate takings exceeded last year's amount, and the arrangements were excellent. In I draught stock the championship for stal- ' Jions was tak?n by Mr WollciW lan M'Beth, for Glenzier, who has held .he pride of place at previous shows, was net jon the ground. The new champion is a .horse of good parts and free action. Mr Earl's Grand Champion cams second in. a. good class of four. The latter exhibitor tcok the prizes for three and tw 0-5-ear-old entires with very fine stock. There was a remarkable show of mares and young stock. The championship mare of Mr J. Wyllie was a good example of the Clydesdale. The light horse stud stock were few in numbers. Gler.app was on exhibition only. Good-bye— alone in his class— received a second prize. Bridegroom was placed first in hackney stallions ancl Young Prince, with no competition, was placed fiist m carriage stallions. The brood mare Nell was the only exhibit in her class. The hackney fillies and geldings were a vety good lot, the stcck of Native Chief, Bna-:-groom, and Gocd-bye taking prizes. Among 12 mares or geldings, which formed a fine class, Mr W. Nicholl's Bessie was first and Mr Cattermore's Baron second. Theie were 15 exhibited in hackneys carrying up to 12st 71b, the prize being won by Miss Isabel Rutherford's Jack Snipe, Mr 1 rf. Courage's Don't being much admired. The ladies' driving competition was won by Miss M. Rutherford, the nomination of Mrs T Dampier-Croesley being second, and that of Miss D. Wells was highly commended. The General Committee of the Canterbury A. and P. Association mot on Wednesday last, Mr D. D. Macfarlane (president) in the chair. The Horse Committee recommended that Mr J. G. Clayton, M R C.V.S., should be appointed to act with Mr J. R. Charltcn, M.R.C.V.S., as honorary veterinary surgeon at the coming show. Agreed to.— The chairman of Stock Committees recommended that the following definition of the term brecci<>r should be accepted — "That tin owner of the dam of in animal at its birth should be re gaided as ths breeder for the purposes of exhibition and entry in records; but that when he has not been the owner of the clam at tbe date of mating, such owner (being the real breeder) must, if known, have his name recorded in evesy case. Tho recommendation was approved, af ter several ' amendments had been rejected.— The Experimental Committee reported having received the free use of a piecs of land one chain wide and four chains long within the Exhibition Grounds, and that it had teen trenched ju s t deep enough to ' cover all the grais, which had left it in excellent condition. Already about half it the ground had been planted with mo-t ..f the Isst \a.:i»tics of potatoes, with whicn different manures had been u-."d. and in several case-, solutions «i'ppc=ed lo prc\ent tho potato blight were being tested. A few more rows of Up-to-Date potatoes ■ would be planted, tihcrc only, lccaliy tokl i manures were osed. and the remaining portion of tho ground would be given o\er to the growth of swedes and orae of thu latent impacted turnips. It was hoped fiat the committee would subsidise the work, and ako devote the £25 promised by the Government to the work; also that a p'a'i of the experiments should be forwarJ«d to the department, asking appioval of it. Tho report was adopted.— Tho sub-com-niutoe set up to confer in regard to a propo<="d monthly show of fat .sheep at the Exhibition submitted tha proposed conditions. They nrovided for a on the third Wednesday of each month. f>om De- '■ cember to April, to c-on*,i-,t of one class ■ only, pens cf five fat cros-bn d v. oth«r-> or • maiden ewe:, of any ago or breed, suitable . for the export trade, with orizes of £5 5s 1 foi the first pen each month, ana where 1 th-ro were more than five eniries a second prize of £2 ?.s. The •onditions were ap- _ proved. ;tnd it was decided that tho as*o- " cum ion should give a silver cup, valued at ; £10 10s to the exhibitor srainii'nf most point,i at the five shows — Ccrro^pondenca was I road from Mr J. E. Clayton, regarding : some silver cups received by the association • from England, stating the conditions attached to each. It was decided to accept a silver cup. valued at 10 guineas (given • hv Mr W. F. BarneTiy). for tho boat pen of fat lambs by Rveland rai.i^,, and :iho a ■ silver rose bowl valued a.t 10 guinea* (^i\-en by lord Rothschild) for the best Shire or I Clydesdale itallion hr- an i^oorted she. r The question of accenting- a cup for the ; best Southdown ram by an imported ram ; was held over, owing to the conditions attached to its acceptance. A Taranaki farmer, who ha- v C< ently returned from Australia, sav-s that "Sydney I i« the place to sell horses." Ho «aw a pair : of ponies sold for £180— cie fo- £100 and

the other for £30. A fin-e pair of buggy horses brought £120. Sheep also were at a high value upwards of £b being obtainable for good ewes. The following it-ems are taken from the Australian Meafc- Trades Journal of the 2nd inst. : — There has been a spurt lately in the London market ;n; n colonial frozen lx?ef, owing to chilled Argentine falling off. To depend upon the vagaries of this South American refrigerated beef, that is what the oiice great Australian frozen beef trade has come to 1 Speaking of Argentine chilled beef, it improves all the time, and when the bullocks are. still of a better grade the Yankee chilled trads will b& affected more seriously. — The high cost of beef lately has precluded exportation from NewZealand and Australia, and with the extremely low London prices to face, nothing •has been heard of progress in chilled beef shipment. In conversation with Mr S. Lowe, of Messrs W. Wcddel and Co., London, on the subject, the confident opinion was elicited that the difficulties ha\e been overcome, and thai Argentina beef carried in London by the Leslie process had arrived in splendid order. a:id had been 6o!d at the top price after 72 clays in the chilled state. — It has been suggested in the New South Wales Parliament that there is a '"ring" amongst retailers i > keep up the prices of mtat on consumer-. To tho=e who know anything about the meat business the suggestion is ridiculous, the different interests being altogether too antagonistic for any agreement or "ring"' to be possible, while no one would be foolish enough to deny that recent prices at Homebush .have been abnormally .high. The carcase and retail butchers will not set very fat ou their present transactions. On the contrary, they complain bitterly that there is absolutely no profit to them while present high prices at Homebush continue. Cattle at last market were a cry dear, fetching up to equal to 35s to 40s per 1001b, though we think ws have now seen quite the highest market, and a steady decline is all the more likely owing to probably large supplies of cattle coming for- \\ ard from Queensland. A London paper of August 18 '"respectfully protests" against the sale at srcoJ butchers of "Canterbury lamb."' "The buyer, we submit, takes the meal io come from the famous salt meadow « between Cantcrbuiy and Sandwich in K-ent, and not, a? is the ca=e, in a ■•hilled ■ondition. from Canterbury, New Zealand." Prices en the previous day per 81b, the common unit in London, were: — Best Scotch be-ef, £ s 61; best English. 3* 8d ; best American, 3s 6d ; bc^t Aigeiuine, 3s 2d. MuUon — Best £cots, 5s 4d ; be*t English. 4s lOd : bo-t Dutch, 4s 8d; best New Zealand, 2s 6d ; best Argentine, 2s 2d Rest Sussex larr.b was fetching 5s 8d : or-linarv good English. o=: go id Dutch, 4-, lCd ; best New Zral.inn, 3^ 4d. Referring to the Jersey potato crop, the Field of August 25 fays: —A fair yield, and vcrv low pric«3. This is the \erdict of Mr Philip Barbier, '•hipping agent and notary public, of St. Hciiers, on the chief harvest of J<?r"»\ The total weight of potato, s exported in the season recently ended wat, 51.932 tons, and the money return was £303,229. In 1905, a «uroc-ful season in respect of pi ices. 48,170 toni brought "n £405,650. Tlia weight has been exceeded in 17 out of 23 preceding years. The maximum was 66,810 tons in 1891, and in reven other years of the 23 the amount has been over 60,000 tons, while it has been lower than that of the present season only fhe time-. The highest mon^y return vas £487,642 for lE9I, and m 1903 tho gocd return of £475,888 was ret e:\cd. Only fhe time= in the past 23 joars ua» the money icturn ps low as it has been this season, and only o:k2 since 1890. Mr Barbier !<■ garda the results, en the whole, as ui'Hmuneraiivo to Jersey potato growets, who go to a .remendous expense in tin- proil.i.tion of the crop. The nii-cli:.-f «a= the early a'ld great fall in the pri<-.\ Ihe shipping reason began in the mi' 1 lie of April, when mc^t of iho produce «ai out of gins-houses. For 30 tons - -iv up to April 28 the return, was £27 1<- Sd p.-r tou, and up to May 5 the price v.^« HJ'3 7*-. while ir wae o\or £15 up to May 26 The'i however, «ucco~>ivo weekly drojito £11 1-,. £8 Sis, and £4 15s 4d tcok pl.ire. and tho finishing prior- in the week ondi:i,' August 11 was only £2 3s 4c 1 . Cons-doiably mou than two-thuds of tho i iop sold at -,n average of barely £4 per ton. and th i: price docs not pay t!i<- Jcisey u;ro.\or Mi- J. C. N. Ori^g states that the lambing has been attended with very good lcsults on the Longbeac-h Fstnte, th? a\erajre among the -ix-tooih e.ve* bom? o\er l? 0 por cent., while the two-tooths show SO per c,-;it.

The Victorian Goiornmont fftati'-t ha* is-ued a letuin, ■showing th a number of sheep m that .State, classified accoiding to mzos of ficek->. It is the fiisc ictura of tlio kind which ha* been prepared in Victona, aud it is -pccially in to res? ting, as if di— closes lo what a large extent sheep-farming is ta-rnod on in conjunction wirh agriculture upon small holdings. Out of a totnl of 16,076 flocks, no lower than 11.647 contain lesj than 500 theop each, 2407 •la^e between 500 and 1000, a.xl the re-l, 2013, aio flocks of \arious sizos r»xr reding 1000. Thenare 56 flocks of over 20,000 each, contam.i;^ 1.687.478 -hcep. and 33 of these arc in the Western 'im'-'.r, with 1,149,324 -li". >> Lntwocn them. This disti.ct has 1)\ i«n" the largest number of -h^ep— 4.449.9*2 in 3563 Hot L- — Wimmo'-a di^tnet com;ng nc-xi. with 2.061.682 >n 3267 flock-. The total muubex of sheep in the ."state is 11,455,115.

In the- Malice there are 36X65. which i-= nearly double the number held there in ISOS.

An awkward conflict of opinion X being exhibited in New South Wales upon the milking machine. Mr Peteisen. one of the dairy insiruc-to--5 of the department, is going roimd condemning the u-j of the machines on the ground that they injured the cow. On tho other hand. Mr Pott«, Principal of the Hawkesbury College, who hao thoi i in actual u«e ai tiie college dairy, ? peaks m exactly the opposite strain, and quotes Mr M'Kinncy's Nangus dairies, win re II machines are in use, milking 250 cow?. Mr M'Kinney stoutly defends the ni3ch : ies, saying h° is satisfied with their efficiency afr^r a practical test, and thar they are imalrable in solving th© labour problem.

For some yeais past (remarks the Sydney Maii) there has been a prejudice against Ayr-hire cows on account of the shortne-3 of their t< ats. Mjny animals of the breed haic had p<=j icrtly-Ahapcd udders of goocj capacity, )>v.t it ha- s been hnot im"[X)*siblo to miik them. This was not always so, nor is 't a. feature of some Ayrshire" herds to-day Ft- o number of years there was a falhug-oft in th© quality of the Scotch cati'e as i'aicy animr.ls. Thi« was brought about .n -nmo nica«uro by the leaning of show nidges towaixJs fancy points rather tha- utility. The craze foi certain colours, cocked ho"is, etc.. in preference to milking quahtits wa? i.et confined to Australia anu New Zealand. In Scotland and America bieedors foil into the error of pajing little atte::ticn t;> he size of the rca**. pro\ided they were ali set en to an e\erily-balanced udder. There has. howevv. J,een a general to the fact that an Ay shire is essentially a dairy cow, anJ to the necessity of 'producing animals that emboclv the best milking qualities of the breed. Australian Ayrshires of 25 years ago had good-sized teats and well-baliiicr-d •uckkrs. The jrood old type was ■riven prized Ly many dairymen in these days, aiul cows of that class would be eHt;er!v nought after if procurable to-day. At ihe rpcpnt Melbourne Royal show the old typ-o of Ayrshire was more in c\ideuc^than »:sual Annuals -how ing only fancy point, v. ore pai-od over with a gIAn«D. \\hu»l those i^Miig true dairy characteristics were f fivouraJi!y cum nented on. The dairy Cuw of tho future mu.-t br a heavy and con i-ient milker. Ayrshnea are hard}-, and rca-.ilv adapt thonnelvjs to all kinds of pa.-tin-f aiKl \anaticn- in climate. E\eiy endoa\our sLoul 1 tho'-ofore bo made to improve ths milking qualities of tl.e breed. Tli' re aro -onie '. cry c-lioicc herds of *i l ii a description on the North Coast. and brecdiia are making new impoilatioii-5 from Scotl-ind.

The Queensland stock returns for 1905 how that there aro 430.565 hor-5-s, 2,936,695 h-r.d of i attic, and 12.555,231 sheep in (Juecn-l.nid, an inc.'oa&e of 17.0G0 hordes. 241,355 vaitle, and 1.691,791 sheep during liic .war. The icco\ciy from the hia; decught has not lecn as rapid as was iiiHKipatiid. and ii will be some yrars vtt l^lore the number o! cr-ttlp r^aelifs 7,000,000. the figures of 1C94. e\e.i if go-ud ti», oxpenonct'l. During ,J IC \^i-: 80,759 htad of cattle and 257.499 .-Iko.j were preserved, frozen, or boiled down.

On S*eptembe- 29 t-ays th? -Au--:rdla«.iaii) tike Victorian Director oi Agiicukure, when spoken to respecting the qu<'^ un of dry farming. c aid tnai ih« matter wa- receiving fh<» attention cf the department, and among iltj varu h< -> of wh at t-';t-. i :l lu s t sea-son, an 1 b?ii:ir fsted thi- *-oa c 3ii. w"re sevoial «jf -ho-e wh'oh a c u^d la .he dry f*.rmmg distiiit* of America. In the ex.prniiu I'tal plot~ ii, tha Maloo. Wimn.cra. Xc.Ui. and Nonh-ea^ioru districts tc-,.s wore mado a; different farmf. One cf tlic nia-aroni \siieiie= — the Kubanka— did l.ot ,4i l c 'i ry -ati-faclory results compared with othe- \aricti.F, yir-i.Jiii^ 10 bushe!-* in th_> Mali i. 15 bn»hei- in the Wimmfi-?. aiul 13-. bn-lioU m tl>o No.-tli<in and North-

<t. 'em di>iiict». t'^j gc.ieral a.iraf 1 bb p nii< 12 o ..-i»h< compai-td wiih which jade wh..: f had n> the -amc exriJ: 1 ! imenta! plots an a\'-ra?c of 19.2 bu c he!*, and a grpat miniiif i - of other \am-ti"- had an average of 13 up to 19 bu-hoU. Tho results of o;iu \|j(>riments «er". he admitted, no! to b»- taLf>;i r- co:ic-i<i*i\ p m any ••?-!» anJ ho ->a:ci chii'u^ the p' - c-"nt -ra=on tiie-r> j.i i fuithiT < \p.-'i''m o :H-, bomg made 1 , m whuh othri ruaiaro'u v. hea:^, of tho tjrts i.:cd in Ariwiiii, Aie beiiii,' ti-tfl.