WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 21

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Taken on the whole, the weather could hardly have been better on the lower coast, but further north heavy gales have been 'experienced, that are reported to have done some damage to orchards. It seems to have been even; •worse on the north-east coast. Wo have bad some good rains, but their beneficial effect has been minimised by the strong drying winds that have intervened. Strange to say, the hill country seemed to be more in want of moisture than the downs country before the rain fell at Christmas, but as a rule the country is looking very well.

Tlie Wflathpr.

On looking round it is evident that the harvest is going to be a long one, as on the same farm stocks can bs seen, and in some oases stacks built, while in the next field the grain is not yet in the shot-blade. I notice estimates have been, published of the area •under grain in some districts. How they have been arrived' at is not stated, so that little reliance can be placed cn them, unless someone has beer patriotic enough to go to some expanse or labour in going round the country. One method of coming •to a conclusion would be- to get from the merchants the difference in orders for twine between the present year and last year. Unless done properly, talcing statistics, like anything else, is futile, and better left alone. "The same remarks apply to what the yield may be. Personally, 1 think there" will be little diffcnce between the present and previous years—at least, nothing to affect prices, as the South Island does that for us.

The Crops.

No mto able and willing to work need look far for employment, and even what may be termed the incapable can find a 'job if prepared to take fair wages for whiafc they air© able to do. One consideration in favour of the farmer is the extension of harvest, as he will be able to get through with his permanent hands and exchanging labour with his neighbour. ■ If - harvests were curtailed to what they were a few years ago, when the whole of the grain _in the district required to be cut within a, month or six weeks, the farmer would be in a queer position, as the kind, of labour necessary is not to be had, and if anyone wanted half a dozen stookers I would not like to undertake the job of getting them. There is also plenty of work for piek-anid-shiovel men. With regard to the timber trade, if we may judge from long trains of timber coming down the North Trunk line the stacks that wore waiting transport must be now getting email. Reports, however, are most conflicting. Say® a news item from Olhiakuine; —“Most of the sawmills have now closed down for the Christmas. Against this optimistic paragraph it already left, the district. Messrs Gammon and Co. are so busy that they have decided to work on short-handed with those men who do not care to go away.” Even in the palmiest days of sawmilding I do not remember hearing of a mill working at Christmas, the custom having been, to work on all other holidays during the year and have a fortnight’s closing down at Christmas. Against this optimistic paragraph it is fair to quote from the Daninevirke News: “Chatting to a News reporter regarding the present state of the sawmiilling industry, Mr George Bartholomew, the well-known eawmidler, was inclin'd to take a pessimist io view of matters, believing that there would be no improvement until about 12 months hence. The timber market was considerably over-supplied; in fact, to such an extent that there appeared to be little prospect of the demand reducing the quantity available for some time to come. The importation of Oregon pine also assisted to glut the market, and another contributing factor was the purchase of bush Land for sawmiilling purposes along the . Main Trunk line, the prices given having been based on the former rates ruling for timber. Mr Bartholomew stated that he had gome to Mat a man Last week prepared to pay off the mill hands there indefinitely, but an order received from Hastings had caused him to deter doing eo.” The reason for quoting eo fully is that the timber trade is intimately connected with the opening and enlarging of the pastoral lands on the Coast.

Labour.

So long as our State farms are at the whim of the Minister of Agriculture of the day we can never expect to receive any benefit from them educationally—at least, nothing like what we have a right to expect. It has to he admitted that isome lessons have been learned from the experiments made at Momahaki, but only the ABC, and we could expect nothing more in the short time the farm has been in existence and the various changes that have taken place in the management. No two men are alike in their ideas as to stock-breeding or management of a farm, although both may have the same object in view, and reach their goal after having travelled different roads. But if they had changed places halfway probably neither would obtain this object; therefore if farmers are to gain any education from State farms or experimental stations the sooner we adopt the American methods of conducting such educational insitutions the better —that is', put them under the conditions as the appoint-

State Farms

merit of our justiciary, independent of the Government of the day. Fa.rmers in the district, like their compeers elsewhere, took some years to recognise that they could learn anything from visiting the State farm, but this last year or two many hundreds have made it a rule to do so periodically to see how the experiments at Momahaki were progressing-, and some were conducting experiments on the same lines on their own farms. When it was reported, therefore, tihait Mt Gillanders had resigned a general feeling of regret and disgust was expressed at the causes that have led to his resignation. Farmers who know Mr Gillanders, and have seen the work he has done, recognise his ability and knowledge, and what is infinitely of more value in the position he occupied, the ability to impart that knowledge to others, wihich is a rare gift. Even what we formerly considered the most benighted countries in the world have inaugurated some means of agricultural education, and there is scarcely a State now that has not colleges a:nd farms thoroughly equipped and established on a firm financial basis for that purpose. It therefore behoves the farmers of New Zealand to awaken to the necessity of doing likewise. Although they have land and climate of the best, without they keep up to date they' will be beaten by other landsnob nearly so favourably endowed by Nature.

The wool sales this week have proved a good New Year's gift to

Wool.

all who had wool there, as

there is no doubt that there was an advance in price all round. For one thing, the extra weight in grease must have averaged fully 5 per cent, over what the wools offered at the previous sales did, so any one working amongst wool during the hot spell in December can easily understand by the state of their clothes. This in itself would amount to a halfpenny a pound. The bulk of the 'wool now grown in this district may be classed from pure Romney to halfbred Romnsy-Lincoln (in the hill country there is considerably more Lincoln), so that wehave no fine wool of any consequence. When, prices have ranged from lOd to over Is, as they did in Wellington, it will be understood that those who elected to sell instead of sending Home should be well satisfied’. At the same time, in the interests of the Dominion, it is to be hoped that wool sent to London will meet as good a market, if not better. ■ Oneadvantage of local selling is that our faults, by way of packing, are pointed out by buyers. It seems as if with all the greater care that vve have been led to believe has been the case in packing, there are. still a number that go beyond ■carelessness and are nefarious in their practices. It is lamentable, that there should be cause for what. Mr H. T. Milne (vice-president of the Buyers’ Assosiation) told a reporter for the Post. He said: —“The fanners know far too much for us. If you take 80 per cent, of the wool offered in Wellington this sale, I will guarantee that the wool inside will not correspond with that outside. Time and again I have seen' .some nice lots of wool and when I 'have examined The inside of the bale I have found it a penny a pound loss in value. There was‘.a lot sold today at Bid. Now, I valued that on the outside at 9.1 d, until I had pulled out two or three lots of cotted. and bushstained wool. There was good sound commercial wool outside and inside the wool was of an altogether inferior type.” Of course we may discount Mr Milne as a buyer, as it stands to h’m to make the worst of any commodity. -Personally, I cannot believe that 80 per cent, of the wool-growers that offered their wool for sale this week in Wellington are both rogues and fools, as Mr Milne asserts. Such a satement should not be allowed to pass, and at the next Wellington sales Mr Milne should be asked to prove his assertion to a committee appointed by the sel.’lrs. Wo may have some men who think themselves smart enough to outwit wool-buyers by adopting such methods as described, but that there are even 5 per cent. I decline to believe, and it is to be hoped that farmers will take sortie action.' to defend their good name. This is a question that tho Farmers’ Union should take up, and it is to be hoped it will and that at once. If a slander gets a start it is hard to overtake’. From the interest that has been taken in the wool-classing classes, we were led to believe that this year’s clip would be put on the market in better form than previously, and that that is the case I am fully convinced. At the same time, there is, a fear that the wool-classing disciples, like other disci nies. may have gone further than their lord, the instructor, intended, when teaching them how to roll the flee.ee he impressed on them the advantage of always presenting the best part, the shoulders, to the buver. That was the way I was taught, and have followed for more vears than I care to remember at the New Year. At the same time I could never see much utility in. so doing, except that it presents a better appearance in the “bin,” and simplifies classing when that is done. Buyers are not satisfied with looking at the outside of the bale, unless it is a clip they know and have confidence in. However, as has been said before, the buyers have the remedy in their own hands —when they find wool has been false!v nacked, boycott He clip. But they should not make general assertions, implying that the majority of farmers are dishonest. Again the “ Reaper ” has been in the. district and removed one of its oldest, most widely known, and highly respected pioneers in the person of Lieut.colonel Edward Gorton, who passed away at his residence, Rangiatea, Bulls, at the age of 72 years, after many months of suffering, borne with the fortitude which was so characteristic of his combative spirit. Colonel Gorton’s actions during the Maori wars are so well known that there is no need to rehearse them, only to say that every iold (set tier of the sixties has every reason to be thankful that such a strong man should have come to their assistance in the time of their trouble in 1861. But it is more particularly what the colonel had to do with helping the farmer that this column has to do. In a word, it is impossible to form any estimate of what hTs business acumen had to do in forwarding the interest of the farmers of Rang!tikei bv helpinsr them over many a “stiff style.” In 1878 he gave up the army, and in. conjunction with Mr J. Stevens, the late member for Manawatu, started a stock and station auctioneering business under the stvle of Stevens and Gorton, at Bulls. In ’92 Mr Stevens retired, Mr R. B.

Obituary.

Abraham purchasing his interest in the firm. By this date the business had expanded, so that sales were held at all the townships between the Manawatu and Turakina. About 1900 Mr Abraham took over the Palnierston end, under the title of Abraham and Williams,"and the Bulls and Feilding firm became "Gorton and Son," Mr Norman Gorton haying been taken into partnership with his father. Feilding taking the lead as a stock centre the head office was removed there from Bulls. -For some years the colonel had taken no active part in the business, yet continued to take a lively interest in public matters and companies in which he was financially concerned. I cannot better describe-the esteem in which the colonel was held than quote the tribute in the local press by his late partner when he eavs: —" The colonel was always a man < exceptionally virile character. _ He was well known, as one of the 'strai.shtest' of men, and was highly thought of by everyone who knew him." The colonel was a good churchman, and active for many years as lay reader of the Anglican Church at Great ford, which he and the late Major Willis practically built. Besides all his othfT good realities, he was an enthusiastic devotee o"* 'soU. tt _ 1 ANPIQUA OVIS.