AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 21

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

There arrived at Welhngion from Home on the- lOih by the Mnmari a consignment I of black-face (Highland) sheep, praoticaily the first importation of the famous Scots mutton sheep to this country (says the New Zealand Times). It is said one or two specimens oi t!jr> i:reed were brought out man> years ago, bur hey have disappeared. The consignment consists of hoggets, two Tarn->, and four euo* They are from the famoti« flock of Adam Archibald, of Overshiel-, Scotland, and have been impoited by Mrs Townend (nee Miss Moore), of Glenmark, Canterbury. Tho Mamari al<=o brought a young Jersey bull, from the great Engh-h herd of Lo-d Roth-child, for jlr Vavasour, of Marlborough. The bull i& a eood specimen of the English type— an-.tooratic all over. He has an almost perfect head, and it is the be 3t3 t part of him. His body is on the fin-p side, and he could have stronger indications of constitution. Howeier, the young aiistocrot >'« a fine ->pecniien of tho breed and should repay Mr Vavasour for Jus enterprise.

The following statement^ as _o the actual rost of production during two seasons on a large farm in a New South Wales district with less than 20in average rainfall will be more than ordinarily- interesting-. Xh-ey hare been prepared by Mr G. L. Sutton , (New South Wales Government wheat ex-

perimentalists). Mr Sutton indicates fairly clearly the conditions on which he baeed his estimate. The wages paid are: — Ploughmen, £1 per week and boa.rd and lodging. Harvest hands — Machine men, 7s to 8s per day; bag-sewers, 6s to 7s plus board and lodging. Carting is put down as Is per bag for a distance of 20 miles ; and. assigning market prices to the material used, the cost of feeding farm horses is calculated at Is 4d per day. Two oonsecu- - tive seasons, 1904- and 1905, are dealt with in detail. In the first year . the a-rea planted was 1914 acres, and in the second 1339 acres. The total cost of putting in and taking off the crop from 1914 acres in 1904 was, therefore, £2114 15s 3d, or £1 Os Hid per acre— los 7|d for putting in and 10s 3^ for harvesting. T.he total cost in 1905 for 1339 acres works out at £1494 11s 6d. or £1 2a 3|d per acre — putting in 13s 4d. ; and. harvesting 8s ll|d. In 1904 the yield averaged 12 bushels pel acre, which at 3s per bushel left a profit per acre of 15s OJd. In 1905 the average was 10 bushels per acre and the urice the same, leaving the profit per acre 7s B^d. ,

In Austria only 38 per cent of the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture, while in the sister country Hungary, no fewer than 64 in each 100 are engaged in tilling the land.

Mr R. B. Coward, a Tinwald (Canterbury) farmer, who has just returned from a trip to Queensland, expresses disappointment at what he has seen. He says that the land at Darling Downs undoubtedly cheap, but h? has come to the conclusion that those who have any intention of purchasing land will be wise to invest their money in New Zealand, in s.pite of the high values ruling in the Dominion. The best of the land on the Downs has been already taken up, and that now on the market is of poor quality and lemotely situated. The country was just recovering from four months' drought, and feed was scarce and stock in exceedingly poor condition. Past droughts have been disastrous, and Mr Coward prefers the more equable climate of New Zealand.

For July month, the Eltham (Taranaki) Dairy Company made 11,2761b of butter, and for the same month in 1907 the total was 92;51b. The company pays out £565 Bs. 6d for July. A Native nt Rata is showing his white brothers what he can do in tho way of fruit-growing. He has planted 300 trees, i 'ost of them three years old, and ha 6 decided to plant 100 acres moro this season.